Field of Glory Renaissance in Britcon 2011
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Two games, a 50/50 record. What's not to like eh?
The list I played against in ths game can be seen here. (Any videos in these reports are all pretty short - well under a minute)
The Difficult Third Game - and it's not even lunchtime!
This looked like a checkerboard formation of much more mundane Swedes - a third crack of the whip at beating the, this time a later 1650 option with not quite as much punch, but a lot more grunt and bodies to throw under the surely what were by now the resurgent wheels of the well oiled French cart-based (hence the wheels) machine?
The map was broadly like this
In a bid to keep things simple, the French deployed two guns against the likley Swedish mounted wing, planning to batter them into half submission before delivering the Coup de Grace (an icecream flavour which was a particular favourite of the Sun King) with the Line Cavalry, who were surely due a lucky game again now...
A headlong rush was what passed for tactical subtlety in the world of the French ... text
In a stroke of absolute genius, the French also decided that the unit of 4 bayonet and musket armed foote was sufficient to take the huge wood bisecting the Swedish deployment. That would surely unhinge the arch architechts of reliable hinge based furniture!
The Swedes were full of insight, and had somehow intercepted secret French communications and realised that a headlong attack was the most likely scenario.
Or maybe they had just seen the first move and guessed well .... The Swedes rushed their forces across to their left, ready to take the brunt of the French attack head on
What on earth was this unit hoping to achieve? The French Dragoons were sure to take umbrage at any attempt to occupy a piece of walled field - an area of the board they regarded as their divine right to sit in and be ineffectual throughout the game before losing a base to shooting and being forced to withdraw
Swedidh dragoons, in an equally unforseeable eventuality, scarpered for a similar walled enclosure as the French Line Cavalry raced forwards - the Swedish Horse were cowering in fear out of artillery range - or had realised that they had no need to advance as the Frenchies would do it for them
Utterly incomprehensible stuff was already happening, as Swedish horse moved like greased lightning and bypassed the indignant French Dragoons. Did they not realise that they were supposed to be pinned down by desultory fire for at least a few minutes before saddling up and moving off anyway ?
In high dugeon the French Dragoons moved out....
Ah - that's why dragoons should stay in enclosed fields and forests...The Swedish Horse turned round...
Some of the Swedes on their army's right had decided that they needed some more wood chippings so they could saturate them in glue and press them between two slices of laminate as part of a plan to dominate the world furniture market in 350 years time - and set off into the woodlands they knew so well from home, perhaps hoping to find a mushroom or two along the way
The left hand side of the table was not so much a battle, more an obscure technical puzzle with surprisingly few pieces - no-one seemed to know what to do or who held the upper hand...
In an uncanny foretaste of the French Revolution, the noose was tightening on the cautious Swedes
This was all quite encouraging - the French paused, reformed a solid line, and then started to move up again. This is veering on the sensible...
The Dragoons were being taught a lesson - one they already knew, but had stupidly ignored...
They however had not forgotten the most basic lesson of Dragoonery - When in Doubt, Run Away!!
A big tidy line was starting to form, in which the French were this time the ones better equipped to initiate combat
Things were haping up rather nicely. If only the French Horse were to win, the game would be over in short order surely...?
Unsurprisingly, the Line Horse were first to blink, and hammered home against the Swedish mounted wing....
In a rather lopsided set of results, one unit won, but one suffered a total washout against the Pistol-armed Scandinavians.
The net result was just about as bad as it could possibly get - the French failed to disrupt the Swedish unit they had beaten, and then lost a base and went disrupted against the one they had lost to - oh, and their General was unhorsed! This part of the battlefield was already as good as lost, with the French hundreds of POA's down in the upcoming melee .....
This part of the battlefield suddenly got bigger, as the adjacent foote unit also went Disrupted in reaction to the loss of the General... How much worse could it get?
The only intact horse unit was battered in melee and lost bases, and two levels of cohesion.... a quickly decided flank loomed...
At least some French were doing what they were good at - the centre of the field was looking far better, as the rather average Swedish Foote crumbled at the very sight of the French advance, no doubt intimadated by excessive displays of lace sleevage
Moments later there were no French Horse left at all... Ouch!
The true scale and horror of the unfolding catastrophe was still unfolding in a horriffic and catastrophic manner, especially if you were a grey-coated pedestrian with a penchant for baguettes and a whiff of garlic about your person
The French had by now broken through the Swedish centre,but there were no more targets to hit as the mobile Swedes had redeployed their reserves out of the way. But the loss of the French horse had created a gaping gap on the French right which Swedish horse were pouring through.
What ignominy - French infantry have to resort to forming Square this early on in the game!
Some of the French Guards had at last found a Swedish unit which hadn't managed to skulk away into the woods - the units maneuvered clumsily (as they should) to try tro get to grips with each other
YES!!! The 4-strong musketerr unit had captured the woods!! Or, at least the bits of it not swarming with two units of Swedes!!
The batte was now almost DBA-sized, and concentrated in a tiny square of the board. Well, the bits that were going reasonably well for the French were here anyway.
French Line Horse wave nonchalantly at their guns as they rout past them...
Dragoons scuttle away.... of course...
The Swedish horse had decided that this was a battle they might try to "participate" in rather than actualy "fight" in
The entire Swedish centre had been swept away by a tide of French Shock troops
The artillery were overrun - but the Swedish army was well dispersed, and even the loss of their infantry heart was not doing much to erode their break point
French Guards charge home....
The Square has so far withstood all the Meatball Eaters can throw at it - and, in an eventuality allowed by the rules, it inches away from the surrounding Swedish Shooters
The French were being squeezed from all sides as the Swedes decided at willl where they would attack
The magnetic pull of the Square sucks in a unit of Pike and Shotte...
The French guns take their last shots as Frenchmen, and prepare to show their soon to be captors where the gun aseembly instructions and oversized allen key are hidden...
The Square has some corners knocked off it...
The Swedish centre has now been overrun, but the French wings are in far greater dissarray - there is a desparate race to see who will capture the baggage first as French foote and Swedish horse both rush forwards...
They are Guards! They have a General! They have Rear Support! But They Aren't Winning!! Oh No!!
No longer in Square, the French adopt the more familiar "Fleeing Rabble" formation yet again...
The French Guard are being whittled away by their less impressive and well dressed opponents... nothing is going right for the French here
Here Swedish Boy - Have an Overlap Too !!
That'll be the death roll dice then...
In fact, that's the death roll dice that ends the game, with the Swedish Army spread across the table and the French one smeared across it....
The Result is a rather harsh feeling 19-6 defeat
Post Match Summary
Well, this is most unfortunate. An army that refused to stand still and be run down by my much improved regimetes of Foote - that is almost unsporting and were I not a near-despotic ruler with absolute power over most of Europe, I would regard it as bad forme.
This time my noble horsemen were the ones who failed to do the business, but dice are hard to predict, and harder yet to control so I think that luck will even out, and she may well be a lady later tonight if we are gentle to her over the lunchtime period - as in, don't neck 4 more pints of ale and lose the power of reason
And 6 points is more than 4 points - I can say that with some surety of being proved right.
So it is all going the right direction. A win next for sure...
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
A pox damn you, you muddy rascal, is that all the comfort you bring me? Another bout of incompetence here, as your luck-dependant cavalry sailed merily into combat long afore ye much better prepared and able infantry were anywhere near the enemy lines.
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, uncapable of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy would still have better ability to time and co-ordinate the various elements of yoru army - of which, lets face it, you only have 4 moving parts, Foote, Dragoons, Guns and Horse. But, that's far too many for you I fear
And whilst you may well be lubricated with ale, your brain which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, hath strange places into which such defeats and humilations offer you a crumb of comfort - has't you not realised that as soon as your 2 horsemen are overwhelmed, you also lose the baggage, the gunnes and have one unit of foote attacked in the flank? So, every time your horse lose, the game is but one extra unit from slipping fore'er from your grasp? I think we will see this demonstrated agin a'fore the weekend is out.. Fool !
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