FoGR at The Worlds in Koblenz 2014
Early Swedish vs TYW Germans
Game 1 Early Swedish vs Hungarian Transylvanian
Game 2 Early Swedish vs TYW Germans
Game 3 Early Swedish vs Later Swedish
Game 4 Early Swedish vs LoA Anglo Dutch
Game 5 Early Swedish vs Caroline Imperialist
Game 6 Early Swedish vs LoA Anglo Dutch
And it's a Sweden Germany matchup, as the TYW German Hoofmeister Army under the command of allegedly Australian but in reality Central London clubmate Simon. The hoof-heavy TYW German list is stacked full of fast moving, hard hitting horsemen able to concentrate on a weak point in the enemy line and quickly overwhelm it… however, in the one previous game between these two armies the Swedes had come out crushingly victorious, so hey ho.
The lists for the Early Swedish and TYW Germans from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at The Worlds in Koblenz can be seen here in the Renaissance Wiki.
Unsurprisingly the +1 Initiative Swedes managed to come out second again in the initiative roll-off, and this left the battlefield as bald as , erm, actually that's one Swedish reference we can do without I guess. With little if any terrain the Swedes were resorting to the old tactics of trying to spread out without leaving big gaps between units in order to try and cover the open space. The Germans had massed their artillery park on the right, opposite the Swedish mixed horse and commanded shot wing and this surely would be where the attack would concentrate too.
The Germans had boldly deployed their gunnes last, and put them in line of fire for the Swedes thus partially blocking off their intended target. However, with the needle-threading precision of the typical C17 artilleryist the Swedes could still spy a route through to the softer Horse behind.
Learn to Speak German
"Artillerieschlüssellochschießen"
"Highly accurate artillery shooting"
Soon a massive cavalcade of cliche-riding German cavalry were efficiently marching down the right hand side of the table towards the average Swedish mounted, and the rest of the Swedish army were chasing shadows in the middle as thousands of points of highly capable combat troops walked resignedly after LH.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Germans are doing a textbook hoofmeister redeployment, although the fairly compact Swedish army is not entirely unprepared for this and may have the opportunity to whittle away some of the German horse as they pass. The next few rounds of shooting will be vital to see if the Germans can make it into position in a coherent formation
The (Superior) Red Brigade on the left had a particularly challenging mission, tying down two units of enemy horse with a rather half-hearted wood to act as a maypole round which they would attempt to dance. Kinda nothing good could happen here..
With the Germans now many units deep the Swedish (Superior) Yellow Brigade also made its first real appearance in these reports, swinging around in an attempt to "shut the door" on the advancing Germans and ideally force them to engage it, the best unit in the Swedish army, in combat this cutting off the supply of Cuirassiers to the underbelly of Swedish mounted on that flank
The Germans were however experts at wheeling, turning and wheeling, and generally eke-ing out the last half-millimetre of distance from every possible march move, and even under intense pressure and operating in spaces so confined that they would make the gap occupied by non-pork based products on a Koblenz supermarket shelf look narrow they squeezed their way round the Swedes to get a good look at the mounted harquebusiers
On the hopefully now irrelevant left, two units of Swedish Brigade (Red & Brown) were looking to combine and try and trap the German horse. Had they bitten off more than they could ruminate upon?
Visiting Germany
The Germans were now pretty much committed to where they would fight on the right, with Cuirassiers lined up against carbine horse and Commanded shot, and the soon to be infamous "Simons Disco Dragoons" pulling all sorts of funky moves in the middle of the line of Cuirassiers as they ducked and dived, jinked and jived their way towards and away from the puzzled and dour Swedes.
Despite being Superior and led by a General, the Yellow Brigade decided that being shot at by 3 dragoons and 2 guns represented ideal time to lose bases and drop two levels of cohesion, first from being shot at, then from losing a combat against charging Cuirassiers. Oops! The shutting door had been well and truly kicked down…
Learn to Speak German
"Gutersoldatzuzufügenherzversenkung"
"Regretting placing an over-reliance on the inherent quality of good troops"
Their General did a quick runner to the safety of a nearby unit, as the until-now-1-rolling Yellow Brigade suddenly started to rout at high speed with a succession of 6's, dragging behind them the German Cuirassiers on a headlong charge towards the Swedish artillery park.
What's Going on Here Then?
The collapse of the Yellow Brigade is a catastrophe for the Swedes, as they represented both a tactical roadblock preventing the Germans from truly massing their horse in a decisive manner, and also they were one of the most potent anti-mounted units in the Swedish lineup. Their loss will be hard to deal with as the Germans now have an open route to pile pressure on the Swedish right
Similar catastrophe's instantly befell the harquebusiers, as despite the support of the Commanded shot and personal intervention of a General they too lost two levels of cohesion at an essentially evens impact phase. The entire Swedish right was now pretty much toast, and had little more to contribute other than to be washed away in as embarrassing a fashion as they could muster.
Everyone was now at it - the adjacent units all collapsed like a deck of cards as the first unit of harquebusiers routed (again at high speed towards their own guns - of course) and now the once-strong wing consisted of one steady, one DISR and one FRAGGED unit - everything else, hope included, was now lost.
The Disco Dragoons pulled another series of shapes, and the bemused harquebusiers simply panicked, turned and fled, causing yet more consternation in the remaining handful of men. With three units broken, two more isolated and exposed and both guns and the baggage helpless before pursuing enemy Horse the game was all but over now, only point scoring in defeat was left for the Swedes.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Swedish dice are triggering a dramatic collapse of pretty much the entire right flank - the Germans needed a bit of good fortune to take on the coherent Swedish formation and they have recieved it in spades. The highly mobile Germans are pretty much free to exploit this now, and the Swedes are having to fall back on the idea of nicking a few odd units to rack up at least some points before they break.
Just to add insult to injury the first commanded shot unit broke and fled - those Disco Dragoons certainly knew their moves alright!
On the left some stuff was happening, but this was fairly positive all round with a degree of co-ordination between multiple foot units, dragoons and use of terrain all working to help the Swedes see the opportunity of recording some points in the shape of some battered and base-diminished German Horse. Things are always sunny in the rich man's world (Aha-ahaaa)
The last commanded shot puts up a brave display as they are clattered into by enemy Cuirassiers
Swedish Army
By now however, some points were actually almost on the board, and the enemy artillery park was almost in range of the advancing Blue (Superior) Brigade. Behind them, after being the victim of sustained sniping from the Swedish artillery a unit of Germans was at the brink of evaporation as well… there was some dignity to be clawed out of this defeat after all…
But, as soon as dignity raised its head, ignominy savagely grabbed its nasal hair and twisted, twisted hard. A unit of FRAGGED German Cuirassiers survives another round of shooting, is rallied to DISR, passes a test to charge and then slams into the flank of the Brown Brigade who had already marked them down as being effectively dead already - so their surprise at being charged by them in the flank is as unbounded as their lack of joy.
Learn to Speak German
"Unvermeidlicheniederlagetasseteeverschoben"
"Delaying inevitable defeat for an arbitrary period of time"
Assailed from the front and the rear, the Browns hang on in there, cheered on by a General who has few enough units left to command and so joins the combat in this case as they seek to stay in the game long enough to give other parts of the Swedish army a chance to try and record some points
The last commanded shot have also found some spine, and are refusing steadfastly to evaporate in the same pathetic way as their colleagues earlier.
There are now opportunities for points grabbing everywhere - here a Superior Salvo + Gun Red Brigade looks to record the last, second casualty needed to wipe out the 3-strong LH unit… but fails…
The overwhelmed Brown Brigade slide down the cohesion ladder gracefully…
As does the last Commanded shot unit on the other flank. Clearly combining them with harquebusiers is a waste of time - they'd do better alone! But with that slide, they slip to FRAGGED and take the whole army down with them. The result is a crushing defeat for Sweden
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 Early Swedish Commander
Well darlings, that was a bit rough and ready, wasn't it? I love horses as much as the next woman, but I prefer them when I am in control, not whan they are kicking in the doors of my apartment and pooping on my floor like these uncouth German ones did today.
Whether my plan was actually correct is hard to reverse engineer out of the disasterous dice rolling incidents - the Yellow Brigade will need an upgrade to Elite status in my next list if they keep coming up with terrible dice rolling like this battle, and without them being able to rely on achieving even average sorts of levels of luck I really don't know what to expect of the future for this army now.
Although in retrospct perhaps having all of our bad luck in one game is a better way to go about things - at least it gets it out of the way pretty early on I suppose.
Somewhere down the line I can confidently predict a game of huge luck in my favour, in which my glorious Swedish boys will achieve great victories, smashing enemy troops at impact and causing double cohesion drops in the process and my artillery will make mincemeat out of enemies even before we close to musket range. Oh, what a glorious day that will be, and if this debacle has in some way contributed to the karma that brings this day forward, perhaps it will have been worth it in the end?
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
What a stunning shambles. I agree that the dice deserted you in this game, but with such craven tactical incompetence I can hardly blame them - you were lucky to be left with any troops at all as if placed in such a situation I think most men of sound mind would have deserted such a leader too. Any court martial would surely have exonerated them for their desertion, as facing certain death through the incompetence of their general is no doubt a robust defence
It is a rare luxury in any battle to know the enemy's plan, in detail and in advance - but these one-dimensional mounted armies are exactly such oponents and yet you still appear to have been caught by surprise and without a thought about how youmight counter them. You matched them in artillery, and a solid line of troops butted up against terrain and the edge of the table would have surely sufficed to hold up the enemy and neutralise their only tactic but no, you spread your men thin and created a weak point for the mounted legions of Germany to aim for as well - how kind, how stupid...
Even worse, hanging your best unit out to dry was a crime which deservedly went punished - the game is about generals, support and solid lines of troops, not just sticking the one half decent unit you have in a position where it has noone of the above, and where it's loss will render what half-hearted shambles of a plan you claimed to have irrelevant at a stroke.
It is often said in my critiques that simply lining your troops up and waiting for the enemy to attack them would be a better plan than any of your atempts to move stuff around the board - and this was certainly true in the game. Lets hope that things improve in the next game - but I will not be holding my breath
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 Early Swedish vs Hungarian Transylvanian
Game 2 Early Swedish vs TYW Germans
Game 3 Early Swedish vs Later Swedish
Game 4 Early Swedish vs LoA Anglo Dutch
Game 5 Early Swedish vs Caroline Imperialist
Game 6 Early Swedish vs LoA Anglo Dutch
FoG Renaissance
Order on Amazon here
Renaissance Reports Pageloads to date.
View My Stats for My Renaissance Pages
