FoGR at The Worlds Koblenz 2014
Early Swedish vs LoA Anglo Dutch
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
The lists for the Early Swedish and LoA Anglo Dutch 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.
Half way through day 2 and the first LoA Anglo Dutch army faced the Swedes across a rather textbook and formulaic table of agricultural terrain. The enemy had deployed deep, with horse supporting foote supporting yet more foote, and several shotte-only units looking keen to try and outflank the Swedes by advancing through a series of well-placed plantations and fields on the Swedes right - leading to the Swedish gunnes being trained on this part of the enemy line.
Keen to engage in battle (and protect their gunnes) two of the Swedes Superior units pushed forwards on the left, supported by Commanded shotte and carbine horse.
Learn to Speak German
"Deinenfeindbeweglichenihretruppen"
"Executing a strategy which suits your enemy"
All of the Superior units were in the centre, with the two average Brigades on the right wing to keep the enemy forces bottled up in the woodlands
The Dutch had advanced in echelon, allowing the Swedes to concentrate fire from many files of the 2 Brigades on one end of the Dutch line. Even so, the Dutch shrugged off the weight of shooting and continued to advance, neither losing bases nor cohesion.
On the wooded flank the Dutch faced a dilemma - the path through the woodlands was relatively clear, but Swedish troops on either side threatened anyone who dared try and sneak through the gap.
Deciding fairly swiftly that this appeared to be a bad idea, the Dutch troops turned tail and fell back as one. Was this a victory for Sweden, or did it just leave the Swedish horse and commanded shot isolated and with no real job to do?
The Anglo-Dutch infantry continued to march forwards into line, utterly oblivious to the rain of musketry and small calibre cannon flying almost continually towards them from the Superior Swedish brigades.
Don't Mention The War...
All three of Sweden's best formations were now converging on one point in the Anglo-Dutch line - the Swedes were extended by Carbine horse and dragoons on the left for even more firepower, but each time they shot the LoA troops steadfastly refused to roll anything less than a 5 for their death rolls....
What's Going on Here Then?
The Swedish army is looking to concentrate forces on one point of the uniformly-strong LoA line, hoping by so doing to minimise the effects of enemy shooting. The LoA troops are standing up well so far to Swedish shooting and artillery, and an intact line of shooters is not something the Swedes really want to be hitting home against.
As the Dutch crept forwards, finally they agreed grudgingly to lose a base or two.
Learn to Speak German
"Würfelndienurfünfenundfechsen"
"Dice rolling that always exceeds a score of four"
Things were now getting towards the sort of charge-friendly distances that the Swedes liked - but the Dutch firepower had been far more effective on the Swedes than they had been in return, and the Red Brigade was already 2 bases down.
The Swedish line has pushed well forwards now, and is ready to charge in many places. The Dutch have inserted some Average cavalry units in their line to try and disrupt the Swedes fearsome charge, but the horse are by no means safe either from the Superior Swedish brigades. Something dramatic will happen quite soon…
And it does - the Red Brigade is shot away by the Anglo-Dutch forces at exactly the wrong time - before they have a chance to charge in and use their salvo +2 POA in impact! This has left a huge gap in the Swedish line and battle plan - their general looks on in some shock and dismay as he realises that he needs a plan B, and that it may consist of Average Pistol Pistol horse who were theoretically there just to provide rear support.
Learn to Speak German
"Generalerentdeckthatkeinehosen"
"The feeling your general gets when his incompetence is exposed"
The Yellow Brigade has also been removing bases at a steady rate and with enemy horse blocking its path, elects to take them on relying on their own superiority, the battalion gunne and the presence of a general to sort things out favourably for them.
Likewise the Blue Brigade charges home - this time hitting enemy infantry and horse at the same time. Not really a time-saving initiative, more a post-hoc explanation of what happens when you are outmaneuvered...
A Result! The enemy foote are DISR by the Salvo charge! A crack is appearing in the Anglo-Dutch wall of shooting
Another Result! The Yellow Brigade does the business as well ! At two vital points the Anglo-Dutch line is starting to falter and as their confidence ebbs away the Swedes start to scent victory…
German Tourism
The Blue Brigade however find their initial optimism has now stalled, and they have been sucked into a slogging match with general-led and well supported enemy infantry. The initial DISR result seems to count for naught as the Anglo-Dutch stand firm.
Irrelevantly, on the right flank, Dutch dragoons (or possibly English ones) retreat backwards in the face of superior Swedish firepower.
The Average Swedish troops now join the fray… but they have taken a right pasting from Anglo-Dutch firepower as they advance to charge range, and with the Dutch infantry standing firm against the Salvo charges things suddenly look grim, as the 4-bases now visible from the green unit in this photo are surely not really enough for an average 7-pack that breaks on, erm 3 losses… The Swedes realise that knowing me, knowing you (ah-haa) there is nothing they can do
What's Going on Here Then?
The Swedish attack is starting to falter as the initial successes are replaced by an attritional war in close combat. The Dutch superiority in numbers of combat units and numbers of generals is surely now starting to tell
Things - amazingly - are also going wrong for the Yellow Brigade. After winning their initial combat against the enemy Average horse, and being contacted by enemy foote (at a +2 impact) they have somehow now slipped down to DISR - and have lost their general as well !
This does not look good, and soon the Yellow Brigade have taken a clog-based kicking and end up FRAGGED and at their last base. This is a potential enormous hole in the whole centre of the Swedish army, with nothing behind them and the already -gone Red's apart from gunnes and baggage.
FoGR Rules tip
Pursuers move in both players turns, so by remaining in contact (or pursuit) with routers, your troops can often move across the table twice as fast as normal. This is know as the "magic carpet of pursuit"
And, as if on cue, the Yellows break, flee and are run down by pursuing enemy horse who are thus magic-carpeted towards the Swedish artillery train. Knowing me, knowing you (ah-haa) the Swedes have no choice - they just have to face it, this time they're through
Learn to Speak German
"Unvermeidlichkeitdergroßengewehrkapitulation"
"When artillery know they will be taken by the enemy"
With the Greens, Yellows and Reds now all blown away only the hanging-on Blue brigade and an Average (Brown) Brigade stands in the way of a total demolition of the Swedish centre. They are engaged in a desperate one-one-one struggle with a Dutch 5+1 unit which has caught them in column - a formation which they are now slowly trying to expand out of…
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The Blues are still in the game though - only one base loss, but their opponents are still hanging on too and refusing to fail their cohesion tests despite some gradual base losses which have reduced their total bases and dice materially. Everywhere the Dutch have been whittled down but not quite enough to lose complete units - and now, increasingly, the Swedes supporting army of Horse look like they may be called upon to actually play an important role in salvaging the battle.
The weakest part of the Anglo-Dutch army, a soft-as-Gouda average 5+1 on the end of their line finally falls to the above-average shooting of three dragoons and three Carbine horse (oh, and a Superior Commanded shot unit with a little gunne too). The routers burst through the supporting Average horse, DISR-ing them but the almost-broken Swedish carbines still don't really fancy their chances against this by all normal standards fairly sub-standard opponent.
Knowing Me, Knowing You (ah-haaaa)
The Dutch pass their test to charge in, and clatter into the carbine horse … who win, and the Anglo-Dutch suffer their first catastrophic dice roll of the entire game so far! The enemy are Fragmented !
But, even fragmented, they still prove more than a match for the carbine horse in melee, and beat them causing a cohesion drop to DISR for the Swedes. The Dutch are teasing the Swedes everywhere with their "almost FRAG" and "almost broken" status, but in each case they always manage to hang on and often inflict reverses on the Swedes whilst in their near-crippled state. Only the Blue Brigade are still intact - but even so they cannot seem to take the final casualty from their opponents.
The Average Brown brigade is now starting to appear somewhat outnumbered…
The Swedish Carbine horse, having failed spectacularly to finish off a fragmented enemy, break and rout back towards their own base edge
What's Going on Here Then?
The Swedish army is in tatters, its morale shot and the few opportunities it has created have failed to materialise as well. The wall of Dutch have stood firm/p>
The Anglo-Dutch horse then finish the job by neatly capturing all of the Swedish artillery park. The game ends in a crushing defeat.
This victory has been brought to you by the Anglo Dutch death roll dice, and the number 5 !
The Result is a crusing defeat for the Swedes.
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, that was, like, pretty dissappointing really. I was so looking forward to treating these silly little men, who can't appear to decide if they are Dutch or English, and dress in red and blue whilst claiming to be the army of Orange, just what a fashinable Swedish piece of good design could do to their unimaginative solid lines of people who shoot a lot - but the enemy just simply refused to lay down and die when my lovely boys charged them, and also refused to die when we shot them as well.
This campaign in Germany is not exactly proving to be the catalk I was looking forward to, and with the shopping options in this Rhine-side spa town apparently largely restricted to sausage-based gifts there is actually not much enjoyment to be had in the weekend right now. What I really need to do is to conjure up a way to make my opponents fail more tests when they are hit by Salvo foote really, as without that happening my army, which is based on the destructive power of Salvo foote charges is rather bereft of weaponry
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
What a shambolic disaster this game was, however far from causing your defeat your opponents rather impressive dice rolling skills only served to draw a pale shroud over your serial and continued lack of ability, forethought and expertise instead of being cubical architects of your downfall in their own right
The enemy army plan is hardly poorly telegraphed when they consisted of one troop type who’s only skill was forming a line and shooting at you – but here your own execution was one of almost Brownian motion for your handful of isolated units, with the end result that a piecemeal attack was taken to pieces and feasted upon by the simplicity and clarity of your opponents execution. A simple charge up the middle, maximising generals and adding in ample rear support would have served you better, and it is a rare and dark day indeed when one can say that your strategy was insufficiently simple to succeed.
Again, you also fell foul to the misplaced desire to use your commanded shot in a historical manner, keeping them with your carbines even when it became obvious that the opposition had no troops to threaten their incompetence, and then leaving them to their own devices at a later stage. Using them not as they are intended is admittedly not ideal, but if they have no role on the battlefield, simply do the best you can and add them to the line of infantry – at least then the vast edifice of overpriced 2-pack infantry you have constructed is actually contributing in a positive manner to the game rather than simply being wasted. If they are placed at risk, so be it – this offering some opportunity to your opponent, so even if it is not historical it is still doing something.
Without them, and with the extra costs of the Swedish Brigades your army is contributing almost an 8o point head start to your opponents – which is too much for any General to claw back, never mind one as stupid as you. I hope next game offers a less lucky opponent but I fear that you will need a far less competent one too if you are to improve on this dismal showing.
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
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