The Fight for Dutch Independence (1568-1633) at Campaign 2014
Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Later Imperial Spanish
Game 1 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Hugenot
Game 2 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Dutch
Game 3 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Later Imperial Spanish
Game 4 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Hugenot
Game 4 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Later Imperial Spanish
It's a long, long day when you are in an industrial unit on the edge of Daventry, and game 3 hove into view with grim inevitability and an injection of kit-kats and coffee to keep the blood flowing. The enemy who would be the beneficiary of this fatigue were the Spanish - high quality pike formations, deep and wide and hard to kill - but vulnerable to artillery, with which the Dutch were liberally festooned.
The lists for the Later Eighty Years War Dutch and Later Imperial Spanish from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Campaign can be seen here in the Field of Glory Renaissance Wiki.
The table yet again avoided having a waterway, so yet again the Dutch ship failed to make an appearance - so far 105 points had been effectively wasted on the non-present merchantman. Anyway, here's a picture of it if you were hoping for something a little more Pirate-ey in this report...
Other than the peculiar lack of aqueous content, the rest of the table was a bit of a cluttered mess, with houses, fields, vineyards and plantations pretty much everywhere to be seen, astride a nice open army-sized clearing right down the middle of the board. Unsurprisingly, with much of the enemy infantry starting 3 ranks deep the Dutch, erm, formed a line and waited.
There was even no obvious place for the 3 units of Cuirassiers to stand in a line together and wait, so two of them went off on a little jaunt, looking for a suitable picnic space from which to unwrap their wax-coated cheese collections and spectate on the rest of the battle.
What's Going on Here Then?: The Dutch have deployed conventionally across the open table, but have been caught out by the Spanish deployment of a fair amount of artillery of their own. The challenge for both sides is how to advance on each other through the cluttered terrain in the face of such artillery. There is nothing for either sides mounted to realistically do on the table, so the Spanish are concentrating on rear support for their infantry and the Dutch are probing for weaknesses in an attempt to tease some of the Spanish foot out of the main route of advance.
With so much terrain, the Dutch were rather short on dragoons to contest it and rather over-qualified in the "bit dull and not really a match for the Superior and Elite" enemy infantry anyway" 6-packs of Pike and Shotte, and with the prospect of a tedious wait followed by a sound thrashing not really appealing to the cloggy foote, some of them decided that today was also a good day to experiment with winkling out small units of dragoons from terrain.
Field of Glory Renaissance hint - Pikes and Shotte units are surprisingly effective in fields. Only the Pike bases get dirsordered, and as that means they lose one base in every three when fighting, there is no effect as there are only 2 bases of Pike. The shotte shoot and fight as normal, all that happens is they move very, very slowly.
The Spanish army was high quality, but dammed tiny, and fairly early on in the game the Dutch spotted an opportunity to try and tease it apart - this took the army deep into brand new territory, as their pedestrian passivity in the previous games was suddenly replaced by a cautious, dare we say it, offensively minded advance, seeking to threaten the Spanish at multiple points along the line and try and take on the superior quality troops with greater numbers of their own rather less special ones.
With plenty of gunnes on both sides, the game was all about lining up and staying out of shooting arcs. Here a column of Dutch units skirts past the firing line of a distant Spanish battery, seeking cover from whatever type of terrain that piece of terrain actually was (which probably means it was an enclosed field, as they were all over the place in the Renaissance)
The Dutch general urged his Pike and Shotte regiment to advance into the field - they looked at each other in that way that only true-born Dutchmen can, kicked the tyres of his insanity …and pronounced it good. The huge block of men and pikes then lurched unsteadily forwards into the field (let's just call it that - it's probably right, and it's easier than keeping referring to it as undefined terrain) and the rather bemused Spanish dragoons suddenly realised that they might be in trouble against such a slow, but determined advance of solid line of battle foote, and hastily fell back.
Seeing the weakest part of the Spanish line before them, yet more Dutch troops decided that advancing was probably quite a good idea and move steadily up - their Cuirassiers had by now joined them, hoping to give the Spanish infantry pause for though if they ever plucked up the courage to initiate a charge of their own. And also because there wasn't really anything better for them to be doing right now as well.
What's Going on Here Then?: Both sides are now fencing, and being drawn into the terrain in an attempt to get to grips with each other. The Dutch artillery superiority is starting to gradually erode the Spanish troops, but not to any meaningful extent just yet. The Dutch are happier being in the terrain on the left, and the Spanish are enjoying advantages in the terrain on the right. Nothing is resolving itself just yet - but the longer the artillery duel goes on, the better it is likley to prove for the Dutch
Emboldened by the Dutch initiative of putting infantry into terrain on the other flank, the Spanish thought they might as well try the same thing and pretended that this had been part of their plan overall rather than just something they had been forced to do because they had deployed slightly too far to the right and couldn't actually fit all of their men into a nice neat line in the open. No-one was now protecting the Spanish guns, which with red-coated Dutchmen on the march might well never actually make it back to Andalucia and instead could end up in Amsterdam, Aarhus, Aaaarhus (that's a town very near to Aarhus, but full of Pirates), Aachen or any number of other Dutch towns where the the good burgers had been a little too keen to make sure they were top of the list in the classic C17 Dutch system of basing the award of central government financial grants for municipal improvements mostly on alphabetical order rather than actual need or even well written PowerPoint presentations, …
Dutch TV
In the enclosed field on the other flank, things were getting decidedly interesting. The Spanish dragoons were now in mortal peril - FRAGGED and down a base, and the slow grudging advance of the Dutch infantry, their clogs reluctantly freeing themselves step by step from the grasping loam of the ploughed surface as they advanced, had spurred the Spaniards to respond by moving up one of their Elite Tercios… who by now were actually 2/3 of an Elite Tercio, their rear rank having been stripped away by continual long range Dutch artillery. An additional Dutch unit was also standing by, adding to the weight of shooting raining down on the rather bemused crème of Spanish infantryhood, who were starting to wonder if being an artillery target and then advancing into a place from which they would be unlikely to emerge - even if victorious - until long after the game was over was indeed the best application of their martial abilities.
On the other side, the Cuirassiers were now wishing the had stayed at the picnic site, as Spanish shooting had whittled them down by half. But, despite being a man down, the Redcoats now had an opportunity as their opponents had lost confidence in the face of their surprising and bold advance - the unit facing then now sprouted its own bright yellow marker which read DISRUPTED (admittedly it was in sentence case rather than all in capitals, but artistic license often demands its own formatting on occasions like these).
The Redcoats went in, and so - rather bizarrely - did the Cuirassiers, probably on the basis of misunderstanding the rules about which bases in a mixed Pike and Shot unit count Disordered and which still count as Protected when the unit is partially in Rough terrain. Other Dutch horse looked on in apprehension and puzzlement, hoping that someone would bother to read the rules properly before committing them in such a foolish manner.
Elsewhere, unremarked until now and not particularly interesting to photograph, the Dutch artillery park had been doing sustained damage to the Tercios of Spain - with the Elite Tercio now committed to a life of rural agriculture, Average units of enemy horse and three-deep Tercio foote had been taking the brunt of the sustained shelling, and now off in the distance some of them were now fleeing in artillery-induced rout!
With the terrain rules now fully explained to them, the Dutch Cuirassiers were reluctantly now forced into ridiculous combats, and with nothing better to do had been sacrificed in the name of protecting the flanks of the main red-coated infantry line, who were still engaged in a bitter close-quarters struggle to try and punch a telling hole in the Spanish lines. It seemed a waste and almost certainly was, but even so a large proportion of the Spanish army had been bottled up, at the price of (so far) one and a bit Cuirassier units. Would the tradeoff pay off for the Dutch..?
Elsewhere, quality was starting to tell, and so were numbers. The better quality and more numerous Spanish units swept through the thin Dutch line, brushing it aside with some considerable degree of distain.
The same suddenly occurred to the Redcoats, totally eliminated whilst also breaking their opponents in a rare mutual destruction with both units autobreaking from base losses in combat at the same time. The Dutch rejoiced, as they now had a spare commander - if only there was someone for him to command??
What's Going on Here Then?: The Dutch are taking a pasting in the rough terrain on the right, but have only committed a limited number of units so are in some ways trading units for space and time. This is allowing them to start pressing a small advantage on the left towards being a significant one, as they move up steadily, combining firing from a number of units to good effect. The Dutch artillery is also now starting to rack up not only base losses, but also unit losses on the Spanish forces and the Spanish are consequently losing the attrition battle whilst apparently winning the positional one. Interestingly poised...
In the muddy field, the Elite Tercio was starting to creep towards the very rare condition of Autobroken. Now facing 2 enemy units, no longer self supporting and losing dice through the effects of the terrain, even with its fearsome ability to conjure up hits it simply wasn't rolling enough dice against each opponent to cause them any real problems. The Spanish dragoons meanwhile had decided that discretion was certainly the best part of valour and were fleeing to the rear.
With a mighty final push, the Dutch men of the land drove the last remnants of the Spanish infantry into the mud. Trampled underfoot, the mere handful of remaining bases turned and fled…
Meanwhile on the right flank a C17 Dutch Bob Dylan lookalike had been considering whether to go electric or stick with acoustic for his latest composition, "The Great Dutch Cuirassier Picnic Massacre Disaster Blues"
The Dutch centre had basically ceased to exist, partly as the Spanish had charged a Tercio through it, but mostly because the Dutch had moved all of their infantry to the flanks earlier in the game in what had looked as if it might be a good move at the time, but was now looking like it would go down in the annals of Dutch history as a rather poor decision - especially if that history happened to be written by one of the three, effectively defenceless units of Dutch artillery who were now at the mercy of the advancing Tercio.
With the Spanish dragoons having routed off table, and the Tercio now long gone the Dutch dragoons had actually had a rare opportunity to do some proper skulking, and had successfully skulked themselves into a position where they could jump out from behind a hedge and capture the Spanish artillery park. Hoorah!
And with that - amazingly - the game was over. The Spanish army had lost half its men, and the Dutch, erm, hadn't. Rescuing the Cuirassier had contributed to a spectacular victory. The Result is an 18-7 win.
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Later Eighty Years War Dutch Commander
Mwahahahah! Victory is mine, and achieved with a flourish of trombones and a peal of cowbells run by big-buxomed Alpine mik-maids cavorting merrily in the fields around a hypothetical Viennese Austro-Swiss mashup! What can I not do if in this game I have broken enemies with gunfire alone?
The Spanish thought they had me, but the MOR gyrations of those grandfathers of Julio Iglesias have proved no match for my even more cynical Dutch Mastery, and my men have triumphed in a most glorious fashion which places us surely high up on the ladder of success, and ready to reach through the open skylight of victory and grasp the trophy that is my own evening on Sky Arts1!
The key moves in the game revolved around the use of terrain, and my ability to outfox my opponent by dragging his units into it when all normal people would have thought that this was an impossible avenue of attack. The Spanish fought us in what will later become Belgium in the 17th century, and in a rather overly complex historical metaphor I can grasp at drawing some parallels with the Blitzkrieg of 1939 and the outflanking of the Maginot line there too - a lesson I am sure these Spaniards will not learn and remember on account of having been thrown out of the Low Countries many centuries before. /p>
So, Genius, Lateral Thinking, and Surprise - these were my three main attributes that the Spanish post-battle evaluation committee - Genius, Lateral Thinking, Surprise and Overwhelming Firepower are the three, no, the four, the Four main attributes…. Oh well, you know the rest by now..
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
How much good fortune can one man have, and one so undeserving as you as well. The only good thing here is that you managed to rescue one of the Cuirassier units that you so wastefully threw away to no good import - and, looking back on the near-shambles that you presided over here it is hard to see what any officer or soldier would have been told by you in order to convince them that you are in any way a worthy leader of men.
Otherwise this was a tale of taking on at-best evens combats, pushing high quality horse into positions where they were immeasurably disadvantaged, and leaving a path to your artillery park and baggage so wide and so obvious that I am surprised it was not captured by figures belonging to some of the players in the other hall instead of nearly being lost to your actual opponent
The refused centre is of course one of my own special ploys, but in the historical battle where I pulled it off with such great aplomb, I did have enough troops on both wings to overwhelm the enemy as they advanced - here your outflanking forces merely drew the enemy onto them, and it was by sheer luck (and your immense artillery park) that they were so weakened by the time they arrived to fight you that your paltry and average forces were able to prevail.
Let us see if you are so fortunate as to face deep ranked enemies who are magnetically attracted to cannon balls in your next game
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You can also comment, "like" or give feedback on these reports on either the Madaxeman.com Facebook Page or the Madaxeman.com Blogger Site.
Game 1 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Hugenot
Game 2 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Dutch
Game 3 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Later Imperial Spanish
Game 4 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Hugenot
Game 4 Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Later Imperial Spanish
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