The Fight for Dutch Independence (1568-1633) at Campaign 2014
Later Eighty Years War Dutch vs Hugenot
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
The evening was as unexpectedly disappointing and enlightening in equal measure, as only an evening in one of Daventry's satellite hamlets can be. Failing to persuade my erstwhile teammates that dining in the proper canalside country gastropub where I'd ended up staying (after being too late to book into the Travelodge) was not as good an option as eating boiled in the bag steak and fries in the Travelodge Bistro I then endured a 10 minute walk home and avoided falling in the canal even after the best part of a bottle of red and a couple of pints of the local bitter
The lists for the Later Eighty Years War Dutch and Hugenot 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.
This canal-related incident was however clearly some sort of positive omen, as in the morning the miracle that the world had been waiting for happened - the Dutch won the initiative (against more Hugenots), deployed the waterway and saw the Frenchmen fail to remove it. The ship was on the table!
The pirates boiled across the decks, priming their cannon and pretending as best they could to be Dutch sailors all whilst hoping that the enemy would deploy vaguely close to the water's edge. But they didn't.
Instead a couple of big blocks of Swiss were about as far from getting their feet wet as was humanly possible, with Cuirassiers the only troops even flirting with anything semi-nautical. The Dutch lined up with a mass of gunnes to target the Swiss, and waited…
The Dutch artillery had never had a better set of targets, and this time they had even managed to deploy themselves in a proper battery
FoGR rules hint
Targets who are in more than 2 ranks are easier to hit. the Swiss were in 5....
With almost nothing in the Hugenot army capable of shooting, the Dutch dragoons were free to race forwards under the command of the CinC and harass the Swiss from close range, adding their shooting to that of the massed ranks of gunnes. With no opposition the Dutch started to feed Pike and Shotte units forwards on the flank of the advancing and impervious Hugenot forces
What's Going on Here Then?: The Dutch have deployed conventionally across the open table, but have been caught out by the Hugenots narrow deployment weighted on one flank. Many of the Dutch units are currently ouot of the game as a result, and with only three Generals the Dutch are going to struggle to redeply before the Swiss reach their infantry. The only Dutch plan involves massed artillery concentrating on the Hugenot Kiels - but there are two Kiels advancing on them, which may be too many for the Dutch artillery park to deal with.
Nothing was stopping the Dutch advance on the left, and even the handful of Hugenot Cuirassiers had decided that their best option was to get behind the Swiss and cheer them on - they marched across a ploughed field bisecting the Hugenot deployment zone and joined the rest of their army.
Soon the Dutch had pretty much totally enveloped the French army, with the Harquebusiers in particular showing a large amount of Dutch delight as they lined up to advance and unleash a salvo on the flank of the outrider Swiss block. The Hugenot Cuirassiers were labouring to get past the field before the Dutch horse swept round the back of the French army and went hunting limbered artillery.
The French army was so narrow that the Dutch had too many Pike and Shotte waiting for it in line - needing to throw more forces in the flank of the advancing Swiss, the Dutch sent forward more infantry, temporarily blocking some of their own guns in the process. The Swiss by now were receiving double-figures of incoming dice every turn
The Hugenots quickly assembled a line of troops to try and prevent the envelopment - but one of their two Kiels had now been whittled down to just 10 bases, and had to contract in order to stay legal as they continued their advance past the Dutch bacon slicing machine. The Dutch troops meanwhile scrateched their heads in puzzlement at the unusual metaphor, as they themselves were pretty certain that Holland is famous for dairy produce and not pork.
What's Going on Here Then?: The Dutch have almost whittled away one of the Hugenot Kiels - but the consequence is that the other one is completely intact. The terrain, the poor Dutch initial deployment and a stout rearguard action is preventing the Dutch from taking advantage of the flank created by the Hugenot's advance and so whilst one Kiel has been almost beaten, the rest of the Hugenot army is surprisingly well intact.
The battering of the Swiss continued unabated - down to 9 bases now, they picked up their first marker courtesy of about a million dice from almost every type of firepower available to the Dutch (apart from naval gunnery)
With the Swiss almost beaten, the focus of Dutch anger fixated itself on the rest of the Hugenot line - the local Lorraine militia Pike and Shotte had not expected to find themselves engaged in any meaningful way, but now became the focus of Dutch attentions from horse, foote and gunnes.
The Dutch navy was becalmed, but at least they were close enough to the incoming tea to get a waft of the intense aroma. Coffee shops were held at bay for at least a few more years as the religion of English Breakfast took root in decidedly non-Catholic Holland.
The Swiss were so battered - here picking up a different coloured marker - that the Dutch were leaving them to their artillery park to finish off. Gaps were opening up across the Hugenot back lines, and only the surprisingly stubborn resistance of the 8-strong Lorrainer unit was preventing the gaps becoming one huge gaping chasm.
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Boom! The Swiss turned and fled under a hail of cannonballs, leaving chaos and havok in their wake as they routed back past their own men. The Dutch artillery however had little time to rest on its laurels as the second Kiel was now danger-close to the Dutch lines.
What's Going on Here Then?: The Dutch have taken 4 attrition points in the shape of a Keil - but many more points of Dutch are now at the mercy of the second Keil. The Dutch are still making heavy weather of beating the Hugenot flanking units, and the French have also now started to funnel their Cuirassiers into a position where they can protect their baggage and maybe even take the fight to the rather strung-out Dutch army, taking advantage of the shorter lines of communication and reinforcement that they now enjoy.
With nothing much capable of stopping them with any degree of credibility the Dutch threw forwards a couple of units with the sole intention of fighting - and probably losing - a combat some way in advance of the artillery park, hopefully delaying its demise for a while longer.
Over on the approaches to the Dutch baggage the two sides had massed their Cuirassiers together and were picking a fight that had also taken place in 2 of the previous 3 games. Both sides committed Generals, sensing the importance of the battle - the difference this time was that the Dutch also had a Pike and Shotte unit to extend their lines. Would this prove a decisive advantage? Is so, the Dutch could be dining on French baggage within the half-hour
But this time the fortune of the Cuirassiers was smiling on the Frenchmen. One Dutch unit was swiftly reduced to half strength even given the morale-boosting benefits of the CinC beaming down on them from a great height, and even though the French had suffered a morale drop they were happy in the exchange when set against the loss of 2 Dutch bases. At least the Lorrainer infantry at the bottom of the shot were being thinned out.
Seeking to slow a Swiss Kiel was proving extremely challenging for the Dutch, and a unit of Dutch Cuirassiers broke off and fell back after receiving a very intensive course of Helvetic acupuncture which left then shaken and FRAGGED. The Swiss could now focus all of their attentions on the Dutch infantry - a rather unequal struggle one suspected.
The mauled Cuirassiers could not survive much longer, and soon lost the decisive third base, breaking and routing back towards their own lines. Fortunately for the Dutch the lack of any opposition on this entire flank meant there were by now plenty of reserves in play and Pike and Shotte units lined up to interdict the rather surprised French Cuirassiers as they found themselves behind the Dutch lines.
The Swiss ground onwards, slowly chipping away at the two Dutch units who's morale was up and down like an Amsterdam red light district's draws on a busy Wednesday night. The Dutch artillery park crossed its collective fingers in some trepidation, hoping that the rest of their army could achieve a swift victory before they fell victim to the Swiss steamroller (which would already have surely trampled at least 2 units by the time it reached them)
More Hugenot Curassiers were now appearing, and the furthest forward point of the Dutch advance was starting to look more like a salient to be cut off than a spearpoint breaking into the Hugenot rear echelons.
What's Going on Here Then?: The Hugenots are now in amongst the Dutch back line with their Swiss Keil - are are chewing up the Dutch cuirassiers as well. But the extended flank of the Hugenot advance has started to crumble, and with it the attrition points are mounting again for the Hugenot losses... and with one Kiel gone, the 4 APs already down are now creeping towards double figures.
A decisive flank charge and the second Dutch Cuirassier unit was wiped from the field. The Dutch backstop unit suddenly had three lots of Cuirassiers to deal with - not really part of their plan!
With 2 units down and 4 more at risk, the Dutch were now in something of a hurry to try and close out the game. Spying some tiny scraps of Hugenot pedestrians the unusual combination of Dragoons backed up by Pike and Shotte (shooting past their flanks) homed in on the smallest and most vulnerable elements of the French army, smelling many attrition points for the taking.
A Dutch friend of mine said that life over there isn't at all like the stereotypes portrayed, and they don't all walk around in clogs, live in windmills and grow tulips for a living.
All I'll say is the last film I saw from Amsterdam had more than it's fair share of dykes getting fingers stuck in them
The Dutch resistance collapsed as the Swiss ploughed on in a decidedly un-agricultural fashion. Cowbells chimed in delight across the 13 Cantons as they spied the undefended artillery park before them.
Even the rout of the Dutch was doing nothing more than dragging the Swiss forward faster
FoGR rules hint
If you are routing or pursuing you move in both players turns.
But, scattered across the table were a host of attractive targets for the rest of the Dutch army. Average commanded shotte in 2-packs were especially vulnerable to a couple of cohesion test failures, and with the combination of harquebusiers and Pike and Shotte, even the Cuirassiers were far from safe. It was a race against time for both sides, with defeat and victory on the table for the two protagonists in equal measure.
Oranje-Boom! One artillery unit falls to the Swiss.
Desperate to avoid simply being shot, the French cuirassiers pile into the unlikely target of a steady Dutch Pike and Shotte unit.
The Dutch are now panicking - the rest of the artillery park is at the mercy of the Swiss, and so an additional Dutch unit races forwards to try and prevent the inevitable.
What's Going on Here Then?: Both sides are within an attrition point or two of total defeat - and both are looking for the easy kills to take them over the line. This is a question of who can mop up first...tactics are out of the window.
And in fact "prevent" may not be needed - "delay" could be good enough as the French lose two units in quick succession, as their tiny formations of commanded shotte and skirmishers fail to stand up to the concerted fire of the Dutch musketeers and dragoons. Victory is in the grasp of Holland - and of France.
The Swiss are almost distracted from the last artillery piece by the approaching Dutch infantry, and decide to charge them as well.
This does not go well for the Dutch, who are broken in the first two rounds of combat! The game is won for the Hugenots, with the Dutch falling just one attrition point short of themselves winning the game. The Result is a 16-9 defeat
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
I fear that this small reverse will require a little distractionary winking on my part, and possibly a flourish of trombones as well in order to hide the ignominy of losing to an army who use sticks and arquebuses instead of muskets. To come so close and then lose out at the end is not something that I normally regard as acceptable when I am considering appointing a new xylophone player, so for an army it is going to be hard to take and absorb.
My plan here appeared sound, and only on the slimmest of margins was victory turned into defeat. Losing a Cuirassier battle I should by rights have won, and seeing some number of French units escape by millimetres from the pain of shooting right at the death, any one volley which might have tipped the 2-packs into the Fragmentation that would have cost their side the game.
So close, but this is I suppose still a good haul of points as well, so my brave Dutchmen are very much in the hunt. It would have been nice to see the ship get to shoot, but at least it was on table this time.
Bring on the waltzing ladies!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Sir, you are something, but that is surely only one letter away from the "winker" you claim here to be. This was a defeat of the most bitter kind, in that it was tinged with the taste of victory and that hint of sweetness has been cast aside by your incompetence and exchanged for the sour pain of defeat. How easy it is in retrospect to analyse your failure!
The story of this game is one of you concentrating - very well I must grudgingly admit - on the weak points of your opponents army, mopping up the easy points whenever you could with nearly decent efficiency and ruthlessness… but then, after achieving heights of clarity of thought and focus rarely attained, you then go and throw this good work away by wasting 3 whole units in defending an artillery park which even you admit was impossible to defend!
Instead of such foolishness imagine if you had left them to their fate? What then - at worst the Dutch camp would have been added to the Swiss trail of victory, but surely this would have been far better than the three units you knowingly lost in a vain attempt at "slowing an advance"?
The game is not won and lost by time, it is won and lost by killing the enemy and avoiding death yourself - and with your own approach to the enemy baggage falling at the last hurdle, perhaps the time you "delayed" by fighting combats you were bound to lose could have been better spent getting in a few more bounds with a non-broken army instead of in fruitless combat ? This was therefore a defeat you worked hard to deliver, and therefore you go into the next game on a familiar downward spiral instead of with a compfortable cushion of success. Let's see what happens next shall we?
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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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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