Cavalry Charge: Heroic Combats and the Battle of Lewes

Good morning gamers,

Last month, we looked at a useful tactic for using Heroic Combats with cavalry models (the wag) - today, we're digging deeper into some principles for using Heroic Combats with cavalry models. Cavalry models gain a lot from the increased movement they get from their mount (and the greater damage output they get when fighting infantry), but to capitalize on this movement, there are a few principles we should keep in mind. We'll be deriving these based on a battle fought in 1264 in England: the Battle of Lewes.

The Battle of Lewes: When Hot-Heads Run Off

The Battle of Lewes was part of a larger war between several prominent English barons who sought a greater role in running the English government and King Henry III. You can read about it here or can watch one of the excellent battle reports on YouTube from BazBattles. Henry III and his son Edward Plantagenet (later known as Edward "Longshanks") led the royalist forces, while Simon de Montfort (a hero of the crusades and dubbed "the wisest and stoutest warrior in England") was the most prominent of the barons opposing him.

As both armies chased each other, laying siege to various towns, the barons finally caught up to Henry's force at the town of Lewes. The baronial army had a numerical disadvantage against the royalists (estimates put them outnumbered 2:1) and one of the baronial flanks was composed of militia - poorly-trained men from London led by Simon de Montfort's son, Sir Henry de Montfort. When the Royalist forces finally arrayed and engaged, Prince Edward led his cavalry into the undisciplined right flank of the baronial army and broke them quickly. As the Londoners fled, the fury of Prince Edward burned hot and he led his horsemen to pursue and kill as many of the scattering soldiers as he could. They eventually found the baronial baggage train and began looting, assuming the battle was well in hand.

Meanwhile, the rest of the lines clashed with the baronial forces pressing the attack hard to gain an advantage. The barons' army fought well and put the royalists to route, capturing King Henry's brother and later capturing Prince Edward when he returned to find the battlefield held by the enemy. A foolhardy pursuit and looting certainly played an important factor in the success of the royalist forces on that day.

Now all of this is a nice story and all, but what can we learn about this incident and apply it to how we use mounted heroes in MESBG (including those famous monster heroes, as we were asked recently in a comment)? I think there are four things we can learn - and some of them are quite positive.

Principle #1: Crash The Weak Flank

I think Edward had it right - there was a weak flank presented to him and by pressing his advantage there early in the battle, Edward was able to route and kill a good chunk of the numerically-smaller foe's numbers. All-cavalry armies are usually fighting at a disadvantage, but a few good Heroic Combats from your heroes from the outset against average/weak warriors can see you bring the numerical difference closer to a balance - and when THAT happens, the quality of your cavalry can really shine.

Perhaps the best examples of this strategy are the Riders of Eomer and Riders of Theoden Legendary Legions. Both Legions have a once-per-game ability to make their cavalry truly terrifying (applying a -1 penalty to all enemy dueling rolls battlefield wide or calling free Heroic Combats with every hero, respectively) - and if you use these rules to clear out enemy warriors, it's not impossible to go from being down-handed to being nearly-matched in model counts when the dust clears (especially if the points levels are fairly low).

But there are other examples of this too - a flying monster like Gwaihir, Gulavhar, or a Nazgul of some kind on a Fell Beast can charge a single model and Heroic Combat off that model to threaten the flank of a formation, unleashing a powerful Hurl to knock a portion of the line over (especially if that Hurl is lined up to pass diagonally through both the front and back ranks). Infantry who have packed themselves in to keep from being torn apart in small batches might find themselves in a worse position by sticking close together . . .

Principle #2: Know Your Cavalry's Objective

Cavalry are useful for different things in different scenarios. In some scenarios (like the ones with 4-5 objectives or the ones where you need to get models across the board), their additional speed can make them dangerous threats to what were assumed to be safe objectives - and Heroic Combats can double their effective range and cause MASSIVE problems for whatever skeleton crew was left behind to hold important ground.

But in other scenarios, their job is to actually kill things (like the scenarios where you're counting kills or get rewarded heavily for breaking the enemy without being broken). When this happens, you want your cavalry to find an isolated pocket of troops and round them up quickly - perhaps having a single hero sweep in to clear out 4 models in a single Heroic Combat or having him and two helpers clear out 6-7 models. Knowing which of these things you need your cavalry to do is important - lose sight of what you're trying to do and you could find your cavalry out of position.

Principle #3: Support Your Hero

It's tempting to have a flying monster "jump the lines" or a mounted hero "race around the flank" to attack vulnerable units in the enemy's rear. By all means, use this strategy - if you have support for the hero doing it. The last thing you want is for a hero like Gulavhar or Theodred burning 1 Might to jump around the enemy flanks, you lose priority the following turn, and then have to burn a second Might point (or perhaps that hero's last Might point) calling a Heroic Move in an attempt to get that hero moving some more. By having bodyguards or another hero alongside them, you can better control their match-ups and keep them from being overwhelmed (or at least, manage it better).

Heroes are great in MESBG, but they can be taken down by weight of numbers - I don't know how many heroes I've had that have been killed by copious hordes of Hunter Orcs or Uruk-Hai over the years (mostly under Centaur's control) - sometimes your heroes just don't roll well and if they're surrounded when that happens, chances are good they're going down. Being a bit less aggressive with some solid reserves in place nearby can help your heroes keep up their killing sprees longer (even if on one turn they get charged instead of charging first).

This leads us to our last point, which is kind of the flip side to this point . . .

Principle #4: Don't Abandon Your Infantry

It's very tempting to have your cavalry race to a different place than your infantry - they're faster for one thing and that usually means if everyone is moving at full speed that they'll leave the infantry in the dust. But you don't want to do that with your cavalry - mixed arms factions need their cavalry to support their infantry lines, providing hitting power where needed and turning off cavalry bonuses where possible. Cavalry WITH infantry are far more dangerous than cavalry AWAY FROM infantry - and infantry can stand up to a lot more punishment if they're not being bowled over.

Edward Longshank's biggest error in the battle was leaving the infantry to fight on their own - and while King Henry acquitted himself well, his forces just couldn't stand against the quick rush of the baronial force (despite their numerical advantage). If they had had help, the tide would probably have turned very quickly in favor of the numerically superior royalists.

Conclusion

I hope this gave you some ideas about what to think about when calling Heroic Combats with your mounted heroes - perhaps some of this is a bit elementary (we kind of went "back to basics" in this article), but I constantly find myself forgetting these things. As such, I thought sharing them might be helpful to some of you too.

Next month, we'll be focusing on heavy cavalry, which are usually expensive units that have to deal damage in melee to start making up their points. What are some of the dos and don'ts for these kinds of cavalry that the skirmisher sort of cavalry don't have to worry about? Find out next time - and until then, happy hobbying!