FoGR: The Louis XIV Years - The Oxford Doubles 2014
Buccaneer vs Later Spanish
Game 1 Buccaneer vs Later Danish
Game 2 Buccaneer vs Quing Chinese
Game 3 Buccaneer vs Louis XIV French
Game 4 Buccaneer vs Later Spanish
It's almost over!
And, with moments to spare, a great success is achieved - the Ship makes it onto the table for the first time this weekend! The Piratey Dragoons and bombers advance down the waterside as the clever Spanish avoid putting any troops there at all - the crew of the Ship break out their sandwiches as they realise that this is now getting on for almost 20 games since they fired a shot in anger (or, at all).
Why couldn't the pirate get over the Berlin Wall?
It had bARRRRRRbed wire!
The intellectual collossii facing us across the table had deployed in a manner which took full advantage of the possibility for a fluid, tactical game and the vast experience gained in writing the actual rules... oh, sorry, I'm getting confused with another game. Richard and Simon had set up in a line. Oh well. The tactic - if you could call it that - meant that a solid tide of our band o'cutthroats could wash up the beach of Spanish firepower with no real thinking involved..
Pirates! Arr!
Rear support, a fast advance - what's not to like...? The rather sheepish Spanish general could be spied through a Pirate telescope waiting in trepidation.
Raise the Jolly Roger! The Spanish had actually moved some stuff. Maybe. Anyway, a very coherent Pirate attack was building up. Our band o'cutthroats planned to just wade in and see if they won.
As the battle in the middle looked like it was inevitable, the Spanish pushed some Dragoons up to a mangrove plantation, and with plenty of spare units the Pirates responded by throwing a massive wall of infantry at them. Taking the mangrove swamp would draw some of the Average but still danger ous Span ish horse out of the game as they would be needed to stop the Mad Pirats from sweeping onwards towards the Spanish artillery park which was deployed on this same flank to enfilade the advancing bands o'hearties in the centre. Our band o'cutthroats would then be in the unusual position of executing what looked like an envelopment against the static Spanish line.
What are pirate afraid of?
Sharrrrrrrks!!
By the waterway the ships crew contented themselves with making poor quality puns about Pirate-tea as the unopposed bombers trickled onwards
Shiver me timbers! In the middle our band o'cutthroats were moving rapidly towards combat against the well prepared Spanish positions of Pike and Shotte with Little Guns.
What's burying me treasure 'ere then?
You really need to ask? It's just a frontal charge isn't it...? With nothing to delay them the Pirates are managing to keep their formation relatively coherent, as the Dastardly Spaniards wait passively. The Pirates have extra troops on the right, but the Spanish have already refused that flank.
The weight of the Pirate attack into the Mangrove swamp comes badly unstuck, as an 8-pack drops to FRAGGED in the face of some desultry shooting from just 6 dragoons! The Spanish horse suddenly take heart and gain in confidence!
Deadliest Pirates!
Thar she blows! Ready to start shooting both sides prepare for combat as the Pirate Great Commander encouraged his men forwards. The Pirate attack was solid and the Dastardly Spaniards were not entirely confident either.
Blow me down! The intial rounds of shooting see some major damage in base losses in the middle of the Spanish line, but only on Pirate unit - at the end of the line - loses cohesion. First blood to the Barbary Coast and the Carribbean!
What do pirates use to defend themselves?
Arrrrrmor!
Son of a biscuit eater! Everyone is in as our band o'cutthroats fearsome charge catches the Spanish foote and rocks them on their heels. No-one has yet gained an upper hand as the DISR and base losses have rolled over form the previous rounds of shooting
One brave band o'cutthroats had in the meantime been acting as an ablative shield, absorbing the Spanish artillery to save the main battle line. Rather unfeasibly this had worked vvery well indeed, and they now found themselves in the unusual position of having almost succesfully charged down the huge artillery park - much to everyones amazement.
After their initial success at shooting the Spanish infantry are proving remarkably resilient as our band o'hearties were starting to stuggle to break down the rather unimaginative by devilishly effec tive linear formation of Spain. Even with Pirate cutlasses arcing towards them at close quarters. the Spaniards stood firm. The tide was turning here in the direction of the Spanish Main
What's burying me treasure 'ere then?
The two lines are now fully engaged across a broad frontage. The Dastardly Spaniards have however gained an unexpected upper hand on the far right with the success of their dragoons in the mangroves - whether the battle will be decided before the Spanish horse can take advantage is the real question both sides are now asking of each other.
Heave Ho! The Spanish horse, fresh from sweeping away the mangrove-dwelling pirates on the right have appeared behind the main Pirate lines. Realising this is their time to take the limelight, they inch carefully forwards as a unit of Pirates turn about to try and deal with them before they threaten the real battle lines. An intriguing battle was developing
First blood to Spain! A Pirate unit breaks and the Spanish enter totally new territory as one of their units actually moves out of it's initial position in pursuit. THis is nosebleed inducing territory for the otherwise wildly cautious Spaniards.
The Pirates pay back the compliment and evaporate a couple of units in the middle of the now-much-depleted Spanish line and fall like marauding pirates on the second rank of average Spanish supporting horse. Elsewhere both the Pirates and Spanish foote are holding firm.
Our band o'cutthroats continued to hack away at the rapidly thinning Spanish units, and step by step they were grinding them down by dint of greater numbers.
Things were getting as spicy as a creole gumbo as the only Spanish infantry unit to demonstrate the capacity for movement found itself as the sole anchor for the Spanish flank (apart from some DISR dragoons who had already retreated as far as they could), and was attacked by two full bands o'cutthroats who had been advancing down the flank by the waterway - a rude awakening for the Spaniards, who did not expect such a strong opposition. The Spanish flank was now at risk and the tide was turning perhaps to the Pirates..
Meanwhile, the intrepid unit who had eyeballed the Spanish gun crew so succesfully finally gave up the ghost, with a rather healf-hearted cohesin dice roll to offset the excellent death rolls they had been consistently dialling in until now
Suddenly a breakthrough! The devastating cutting edge of the Prate army, the 4-pack of LF bombers had found a target they could intimidate and rushed forwards to bomb the by-now FRAGGED Dragoons to death!
Our band o'cutthroats had by now largely swept the middle of the Spanish army way, as theur cutlasses had made any overlaps count severly. The rear echelons of the Dastardly Spaniards were now in the front line as the Pirates continued to push forward and try to wrap up a famous victory before falling to an ignoble defeat, as the longer the battle went on, the more time there was for the Spanish horse behind the Pirate lines to mop up Pirate artillery and baggage... would our band o'cutthroats weight of numbers and direct attack come to count for more than Spanish perfidiousness?
Behind the Pirate lines the battle was looking to revolve around the ability for bravery of a lone unit of Spanish foote that was holding up a one-unit tide of Spanish horse who might otherwise clatter into the rear of the Pirates main lines
In the middle, knowing the enemy horse were close, the Pirate Great Commander was furiously directing traffic as he urged his men forwards to knock off the last few remainig units of enemy foot - Superior pirates opened up at a FRAGGED unit on the baseline as both sides surveyed the carnage of lost and destroyed units
The Spanish horse were committed! Both sides knew the importance of this fight and committed generals to their cause - it was horsemen vs the taste of cold cutlass !
The Pirates lost a general.... oops! The Spanish Horse were suddenly confident and the battle was surely theirs, the question being how long it would take
The Old Pirates charged home against the DISR average Spanish unit they had been unsuccesful at shooting - time was running out but this unit stlll looked like a Pirate victory, so much so that the Great Commander committed himself to combat!
The Pirates were furiously reloading as they sought to finish off the Spaniards - a DISR average unit of foote and a 3-base Average horse unit stood in their way... although the one round of shooting that should surely have destroyed the Spanish horse failed spectacularly to break them, with another flurry of ones!
The Spanish Dragoons did a sneaky Dragoon move and captured the Pirate artillery park for the second game in a row. However this afternoon there were no waiting bombers to retake it...
And with that the game ended in a pirate-shaped defeat. The Spanish had run out the winners, with the aggregate losses in the fairly equal exchange in the middle being tipped in Spains favour by the unseemly collapse of the Pirate right flank in the face of 3 dragoons and 4 average horse. The Pirates had come close, but their inability to finish off the middle of the Spanish army had in the end cost them dear, The Result is a reasonably large defeat for me band o'Pirates.
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 me band o'Pirates Commander
Dolloping doubloons, what a success in the Shipping Forecast but what a dissapointment in the cutlass-point skullduggery! The Spanish underhand tactics have left us yet again agonisingly close to victory whilst in fact only tasting the sour seabiscuits of defeat.
To see a whole plan come undone because 8 Pirates failed to survive the shooting of a handful of dragoons in a swamp feels like a result which we have achieved against the odds- dolloping dolphins, it was a terrible close run thing and a reat shame that the only army to really take the initiative here came unstuck on the last rounds of shooting and combat dice alone!
My brave hearties in the middle did sterling service and none of them will be forced to walk the plank for their efforts, but the coddling catfish on the wings will live long in Pirate infamy as tales will be told in inns and bars across the seven seas and five foamy oceans !
At least we have ended the weekend in fine style though - as in every game we have played there has been much drama, much combat and many losses with no army involved on either side suffering anything less than nigh on 40% casulaties. On such fine margins victory and defeat is decided - and one day that margin will fall in my favour I have no doubt!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
My timbers are well and truly shivered by your display of ineptitude and lack of ambition. To have a static enemy with a flank that they would clearly refuse due to the presence of the Ship, and then to fail to launch a decisive attack on that same flank is truly shameful - a full frontal attack on a broad frontage is a sight to behold, but it is not big and it is not clever. Your enemy had no need to move, as your plan played right into their hands. The only saving grace is that your men did the business in the end of their own accord - your role in any victory they almost achieved is almost non-existent and any maneuvering that you did achieved little more damage than had already been done by your lack of big picture imagination.
And I also don't remember seeing anything about burying any treasure, hoisting the Jolly Roger, or splicing any sort of brace, never mind a main one? Call yourself a Pirate? What a disgrace!
The mangroves were key - as always, if you are attacking down a flank, make sure to plan a proper attack, not just one unit and no generals! When you fire a broadside, make sure you give them all the barrels you've got. And if you have a plan, execute that plan to the full. I’ll watch you dance the yardarm jig before I see you learn this I fear. Two flank attacks and a refused middle would have rendered the enemy impotent as they were clearly incapable of deviation from their simple and static plan. Failure by dice is not a shame, but failure by healf hearted execution of a fundamentally unsound and incorrect plan is a cause for walking the plank.
Your army is simple. You are simple. Your plan needs to match, or you will be undone by your own hand long before anyone reaches the point of combat and somene swings a Cat o'nine tails around your ears our lad
And even I must admit that The Ship did look pretty neat though. Shame it didn't fire but hey, one can't have everything...
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Game 1 Buccaneer vs .Later Danish
Game 2 Buccaneer vs Quing Chinese
Game 3 Buccaneer vs Louis XIV French
Game 4 Buccaneer vs Later Spanish
FoGR Rules for the Renaissance
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