how to play war wagons?

[Maerk]

I have been playing minature wargames (started with DBA, then switched to Triumph) for many years now, but never had an army with war wagons. Recently I finished a Hussite army for Triumph and fielded them against medieval german princes and got thoroughly beaten. I didn't manage to eliminate one single enemy stand, while I lost five or six stands AND my camp! Honestly, I had no clue how to play the Hussites against this knight heavy Germans: There wasn't too much terrain on the field, so I tried to cover my flanks with WWG and Art, mixing heavy and elite foot in the centre and using my Kn Gen as a mobile reserve. But the Germans avoided my WWg and Art and quickly shattered my foot with their knights, breaking through my line and taking my camp ..


How would you play the Hussite army against the Germans? I had 3x WWg, 3x Elite Foot, 4x Heavy Foot, 1x Kn Gen, 1x Art (13 stands, 47 pts.). The Germans had 5x Kn, 1x Art, 2x Hd, 3x Bw Levy, 1x WWg, 2x Sk if I remember correctly.

Maerk

[David Kuijt]

I had some medium success at Historicon (won two, lost one or two) with War Wagons; I had a mixed formation with alternating Heavy Foot and WWg. The idea is that the WWg would stiffen the formation against enemy Knights. I kept my Knight General and my Bad Horse in reserve to plug holes.

[Maerk]

I see. Knights attacking a formation of alternating heavy foot and WWg will probably shatter one or more heavy foot. Having done so they have to pursuit and find themselves between two WWg, i.e. flank attacked (-1) and overlapped (-1) and no possibility to fall back .. clever. Thank you, David!

Maerk

[David Kuijt]

I see. Knights attacking a formation of alternating heavy foot and WWg will probably shatter one or more heavy foot. Having done so they have to pursuit and find themselves between two WWg, i.e. flank attacked (-1) and overlapped (-1) and no possibility to fall back .. clever. Thank you, David!

It's not a perfect solution -- a WWg can only fight one opponent, so if it has an opponent in frontal combat it doesn't get to treat it's side edge as front. But you only need to kill one such knight to scare the rest. And you can help your odds on avoiding losing a heavy foot in the first place by doing some distant shooting and breaking up the German line a bit. So it gives you a chance.

[Rod]

The other issue I see with the Warwagons is that it is nearly impossibe to go offensive if your opponent decides to hold back.

I have used the alternating wagon setup in the past, will see how it works this week and report back. I Have a lot of Hussite Warwagons (a lot), planning to do a test run of this battle again Wednesday evening if Larry W and I can get together. Will report back if we manage to play.

[David Kuijt]

The other issue I see with the Warwagons is that it is nearly impossibe to go offensive if your opponent decides to hold back.

Right. Not easy to force your enemy to attack, and even harder to press the enemy yourself. That's why I usually take the Artillery, even though it has its own critical vulnerabilities -- it's the only way to put some pressure on the enemy at a real distance.

[Brian Caskey]

I have a Hussite Army started

[Brian Caskey]

Played some Triumph this past weekend
Need to finish my Hussites