The Teutonic Knights provide an army that can be used with both the Medieval Warfare and Renaissance Warfare rules. This dual-role is attractive. Perhaps even more attractive is the history and fairly well documented saga of the Teutonic Order. From humble beginnings as a simple protective order during the early Crusading period, to holders of a powerful and feared medieval empire, the Order brought a fearsome reputation for war and 'conversion' of their pagan neighbors to northern Europe.

The Teutonic Knights managed to lose two major battles, at Lake Piepus in 1242 to the Russians under the famed Alexander Nevski, and later at Tannenburg/Grunwald in 1410 to the combined forces of Poland and Lithuania under Jagiello and Witold. These battles were disasters for the order, although they did recover from the former, but not from the latter. Yet, even in defeat, the Teutonic Knights have a fascination, being written of by none other than Henryk Sienkewicz (author of Quo Vadis, With Fire and Sword and The Deluge, among others). The Eisenstein film of the late 1930's, Alexander Nevsky, also captures the pageantry, cruelty and battlefield tactics of the Teutonic Order.

When the opportunity arose to obtain an army of figures to use for a Teutonic Order army, I jumped at the chance. I had plenty of figures, I found, so could design an army of any kind. The following army is what I finally decided upon. It is a basic 525 point MW tournament army, with supply and a priest. I also elected to build the army circa 1350, which gives me armored cavalry, not quite as powerful as the later full plate horse, but also not as expensive as the later armies. Besides, the later army lost at Grunwald and I didn't want this added stigma on my new army!

The first units to decide on are the backbone of any Teutonic Order army, the knights. These troops are very expensive, costing six to seven times what a stand of unarmored loose-ordered foot cost. This means that the army will by necessity be small, not a particularly bad thing, they will most likely be badly outnumbered in most conflicts, however. Teutonic Knights can fight in wedge, a very effective close combat formation, but susceptible to missile fire. I planned on having my knights be in wedge.

How many commanders should there be? With a small army, you can most likely get by with two; however, I was going to opt to use many small units of cavalry, so for command control purposes, three generals would be needed. The generals, including the commander-in-chief, would all be in the traditional white tunics and cloaks, riding white caparisoned horses. The CinC would be a single stand commander, but I would place the two sub-commanders in units, giving each an additional stand of knights. Since the Teutonic generals are all of Elite status, the additional stands for each of them would be Brethren elite knights as well. Thus, I satisfied the minimum required two stands of Brethren knights and provided my two generals with powerful escorts. They could also fight in wedge and with the general leading them, the bodyguard stands could opt to try to go frenzied in their charges, something trained troops cannot do unless led by a charging general. This, coupled with the modifier to the close combat result from being in a unit with the general meant that these two units could be a very strong tactical weapon, but must be used at the right moment. Once a general is involved in a close combat, his order giving abilities are lost until he is finished fighting.

The army lists require two stands of Confrere Teutonic Knights, veterans in status. I therefore bought two stands of these to use as a unit. There are also Crusader Knights available. These are irregulars; one of the very few troops types in the Teutonic Order armies that are not trained. I decided to use two units of two stands each, giving me a total of five wedges of armored cavalry, four of them capable of attempting frenzied charges.

Tactically, you certainly do not want to use your expensive wedges of cavalry precipitously. Charges by your knights should be limited to crisis situations or decisive points in the battle, where a charge by wedging knights will be a determinant of victory. Keep them back and use them at key points in the battle. They are most effective in their initial charge, especially if frenzied. In subsequent rounds of close combat, they are difficult to kill, being armored cavalry and unless hit in the flank, will usually lock or win, but rarely lose. Still, once they are involved in a close combat, they have lost their combat effectiveness, mobility and potential threat.

Watch out for missile fire, especially from units of longbow or crossbowmen. This fire can be very effective against knights, especially since they are wedging. Keep the armored cavalry back and out of the arc of fire of such units. If exposed to this fire, those very expensive knights will be destroyed slowly but methodically.

With such limited numbers of armored cavalry, you can only use them effectively at one or at the most two, points on the battlefield. Concentrating them is preferable to spreading them out across the table. This is where your pre-battle plan is essential. If you find that you placed your knights completely out of position, you have a very limited amount of time to rectify your miscalculation before the enemy is upon you.

The Teutonic Order can have a limited number of excellent quality trained, veteran skirmish cavalry crossbowmen or a large number of poor, irregular horse archers. I opted to go with the trained crossbow horse. They are more than twice as expensive as the horse archers but being veterans, will not have the morale and maneuver problems of the irregulars. I use eight stands of the SC in small two stand units or larger four stand ones. One unit can be sent out on an off-board flank march. These are great at coming on behind an enemy line and disrupting him.

The SC can also be used in conjunction with your own armored cavalry. When used as support units for the armored cavalry, the SC not only provide valuable missile fire support to help 'prepare' an enemy target for a charge, but they also can be used to screen your expensive knights from hostile missile fire. Another advantage is to use them to charge in support of your knights, either into an exposed enemy flank or simply frontally, to absorb overlaps from the usually larger enemy units. When used in support, two stand units work best for maneuverability as well as getting in and out of tight places. The problem with small units is that they are very fragile and the loss of the unit will cause morale checks for any friendly units within range of them.

Finally, SC are good for placing on a flank. They will be able to use their very fast movement to pin the enemy and allow for exploiting his limited deployment area.

I use three units of four stands each of these close order, trained, heavy infantry missile troops, rated as warriors for morale purposes. Crossbowmen are not as effective as longbows; they cannot use Arrow Barrage, nor do they have the longbow close range advantage, but they do have something other archers do not have -- pavises. A pavise allows the crossbowmen to fire with a large degree of protection, counting both as being shielded as well as in cover. The crossbowmen can be very effective if used properly, but they must be supported and kept in re-supply range of supply units.

Crossbowmen are vulnerable to enemy attackers so do not rely on your crossbowmen as close combat fighters. They have no shields (pavise does not count as a shield in close combat), no weapon and no chance to charge frenzied - unless they get this way as a result of a morale test result. They cannot effectively run away from enemy cavalry or loose ordered infantry, as they are so slow. They will have to stay and fight if attacked. This is not all bad and sometimes, if used with Defend orders, the crossbows can be deadly enough to destroy a stand of the enemy attackers, forcing him to take a morale check and possibly halting the charge. You will get one good shot as the enemy closes in, provided your crossbowmen hold their fire until the enemy closes to within close range (you must make a morale roll, rolling your morale to pass number, 4 or more for warriors, or higher to fire at close range, otherwise you fire at effective range).

Once the enemy unit contacts you, he has all of the advantages. It is a good idea to provide your crossbowmen with either cavalry or close combat foot supports.

You should always strive to move the crossbowmen up to effective missile range, give them Defend orders and fire away. If threatened by a distant enemy, retreat can be an option, but this is still risky if the enemy has the potential speed to catch the crossbowmen. It is sometimes effective enough to simply fire away, forcing the enemy to take morale tests as he loses stands. Keep them back and shoot with them.

To support the crossbowmen and knights, I elected to use two units of four stands each of trained, close order, heavy infantry spearmen. These troops have long spears and shield, and are warriors in morale rating. If they are placed in a shieldwall, they are as hard to hit as the crossbowmen behind their pavises, but are then extremely slow, moving only 1/2 of their normal movement allowance. Keep them to the flank of your crossbowmen to attack any enemy threatening the vulnerable missile troops. The combination of a 1-2 punch of crossbow fire and close combat attack of spearmen can often result in a significant problem for an unwary enemy.

The spearmen also provide cover for the knights. When the spearmen are placed in Crusader Mixed Order, knights can charge through and retreat behind them with no disorder to either unit. This is a tricky maneuver to pull off effectively, but if done correctly, can be very effective.

Spearmen are also useful as your own attacking foot force. They can be extremely tenacious in tackling looser ordered enemy foot who will be less heavily armored. They are also very strong versus any enemy cavalry, forcing the enemy horsemen to take a hefty negative modifier when facing long spear armed foot. If they have a vulnerability, it is to prolonged enemy missile fire, necessitating using them in conjunction with your own crossbowmen, who should be able to take on any enemy missile troops with the advantage of their pavise protection.

I use a single unit of four stands of mercenary, trained loose order heavy infantry longbowmen to fire out of delaying terrain or woods. Being trained, they fire as close order troops, but move as loose ordered foot, allowing you to put them in difficult terrain where your other troop types are not able to go. They also can use Arrow Barrage, giving them one shot counting 1 1/2 times as many stands firing before they automatically go low on missiles.

Unlike the close order crossbowmen, loose order trained archers can actually retreat effectively in the face of an enemy charge. Since you cannot use Arrow Barrage against chargers, it is sometimes a good idea to simply give the longbowmen a Retreat order and run away to fight another time. Being able to move fairly well in delaying terrain without being disordered also helps. You can actually use the longbowmen in ambush in forests, hoping to fire and surprise an enemy unit moving within effective range of them.

I like to use the longbowmen along with the armored cavalry as well sometimes. Their higher movement rate allows them to shadow the cavalry and keep up with them. Adding longbow fire to an armored cavalry threat can really rattle an enemy commander.

A single unit of four stands of irregular skirmish archers completes the army. This unit is used to screen the armored cavalry or to clear delaying terrain and expose potential enemy ambushes. It can also be used in ambush, to fire at unsuspecting enemy units moving by. The single skirmisher foot unit is good to advance ahead of your own foot, not only screening them from enemy fire, but helping to pin the enemy further back, allowing your own, slower foot to move up and begin to dictate the course of the battle.

That about wraps it up except for the non-fighting assets. I use two supply wagons to keep the missile troops in arrows and crossbow bolts. Two wagons allows you to cover a huge amount of battlefield with supply. Units that are not within 16" of a supply unit may not be resupplied, so it is essential to have your units in supply range. The second supply wagon also allows you to automatically resupply one unit that is low (but not out) of missiles at the end of the current turn.

Finally, I have a priest who enables you to re-roll one bad die roll per turn by praying for God's favor, a very typical behavior in the Middle Ages. This roll can be used for any die roll that turn, but may only be used once. If you chose to use it at the wrong time, it can be costly. Preferably, save it for important morale or combat rolls, not individual stand archer fire.

This is the Teutonic Order, a small, but tough army of trained professionals. They will be getting their baptism of fire at the Fall In convention and I will let you know how they do.