Field of Glory Renaissance in Wales 2011
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So, the weekend of war is winding down to its illogical conclusion. A mixed bag of results, but a long way short of a humiliating exercise in demonstrating the unfeasibility of Arquebus armed infantry formations in an age of Musketeers - things were progressing as nicely as one might expect, with only the grim chips to regard as a true low point. This final time our opponents were an ECW Royalist army (again)
In the absence of a FoG Renaissance Wiki (just yet anyway) the lists can be seen here
The Royalists were cclearly from the local area - otherwise their camp had been sacked and they were most unlikely to try and liberate the remains...
This time there were no tricky forests to confuse the Hugenots, and both sides lined up with a large cavalry flank (both facing each other) and an infantry-on-infantry clash expected in the middle
The Royalists were teed up with a fullish complement of detaced shotte, widening their line of Horse and stiffening their resolve as well
The rest of the army was a more traditional mix of Pike and Shotte types, and some Shotte-only as well
The Enfants Perdus made good use of the road o race forwards, as the massive horde of Swiss and Frenchies lurched into action and started to rumble across the open field in a pre-enactment of the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, but with rather more flamboyant dress sense than an overabundance of Panzer Grey..
Long range artillery soon started to tell amongst the Royalist Horse..
On the French right, an impassible steep hill was proving a challenge fr both sides, as they tried to work out whether it was providing a defensive flank for the advancing Hugenots, or would force them to expose a flank to the Royalists as the french and Lorraine pikemen moved past it. An interesting exchange of fire ensued between groups of Dragoons..
Fear of being outflanked was not however of concern to the Swiss, who charged forward at full speed aiming for anything they could see - the Royalists wisly decided to wait and see what happened - no point in bringing forward the inevitable, as the Swiss pike-heads were already close enough!
Out on the left, the Royalist superiority in Horse was struggling to make itself felt, as the wide line of English Cavaliers simply extended itself into the center ground of the field and the cavaliers found themsleves facing off against Hugenot pike blocks
A more textbook matchup was developing on the extreme left - would the well armoured but somewhat dour Hugenot Millers be able to withstand the exuberant Charge of the Cavaliers?
The Royalists soon were facing a decidion - charge a Pike and Shotte block, or stand and be shot by it?
A series of sharp exchan ges f fire had seen the Hugenot dragoons reduced to 50% losses, and they broke and fled - but the Royalist Dragoons were in barely better shape as the Hugenots started to assemble some sort of approximation of a coherent attack combining infantry and mounted carbine-armed horse.
Bloody hell! In a move that veered dangerously into the territory of "role playing" the wizard-tastic Cavalier general ordered his troops to charge home - presumably hoping they would be allowed to roll a combination of D20's and D16's, with D12 n reserve for saving throws against magical hits from any opponent with one eye and an uneven number of arms !
The Hugenot foot held firm! Take that Frodo Baggins !
The main cavalry battle was shaping up, revealing perhaps the overall rationale for the Cavalier charge - otherwise the Hugenot foot could enfilade the Cavalier line at the crucial point when combat was surely to be joined?
As they advanced, the Swiss had been covered by the Enfants Perdus, who now retreated gratefully behind the huge Kiels. The only problem the Swiss faced was that there were too many target units for them to hit cleanly. Oh well, they would have to try and take down 2 each !
Back on the right, the Royalists were gradualy getting themselves into a position where they could work a flank - but the plan relied on the already depleted Dragoons hanging on in the face of heavy fire from the Lorrainer Arquebusiers...
Unsurprisingly, things were going badly for the cavaliers trying to take on a French Pike and shotte unit - a red marker is never good...
With the cavalry now charging home, everything was committed - apart from a Royalist commanded shotte unit which refused to charge home! Would that hand the Millers an advantage?
The Cavaliers spread out after impact, and the battle swayed back and forth in a massive cavalry melee
One thing was certain however - the Swiss would be fighting long before the action on the flanks was resolved - the Kings Mercenaries would decide their own fate rather than having the Millers do it for them
Everyone had committed generals to the cavalry fray, but it was clearly the Royalists who were suffering most casulaties
Bold as brass and twice as shiny, the Swiss lurch forward into 2 units of Royalist Foote
Comprehensively out-hitting their opponents, the Swiss deal a punshing first round of combat. How long can the shocked Royalists stand up to this sort of punishment?
As the echoes of the Swiss impact roll across the battlefield like distant thunder, the Millers also score a decisive breakthrough, and punch a hole in the cavalier lie, sweeping away a whole unit of Royalist Horse and pursuing into the backfield
But it's not all one way traffic, as the Role-playing Cavaliers dredge up a spell, hurl a potion and invoke a fire breathing D17 to start to grind back against the Lorrainers, who had through they were already half way to Winchester and a punt at theRoyalist baggage
The Swiss grind forwards, mayhem and destruction in their wake
With so much going on, the Hugenots have neglected their right flank, and the Royalists have engineered an advantage as a result. The omens for the French are not great, but at least the rest of the game looks likely to be over before the Royalists can exploit their advantage further
As battle ebbed and flowed, the Horse melee gets ever more confusing, as a second line of Royalist Horse enters the fray
Always somewhat of a lottery, the Hugenots lose a unit of commanded shot - now the Cavaliers have the upper hand (maybe?)
The Hugenot right flank survives the inital onslaught, and stabilizes ...
More Swiss close in on a couple of suitable targets
Both sides cavalry formations are teetering on the brink of destruction - it will be a caseof last man standing on the left!
And the Royalists are enjoying a resurgence, as they dig in against the Swiss and refuse to be rolled over. The game is swinging back to Charlies boys!
The Hugenot right now hangs by the slimmest of threads - and the Royalists are wielding a large pair of very sharp scissors..
The Enfants Perdus head back for a shower and the comfort of their armchairs, knowing that they can contribute no more, and in any case they will be able to access the final result of the game via their in-camp wifi network and a new ipad app released by a small design studio just outside of Reims
The rench have clearly punched a big dent in the Royalist lines, but in so doing have allowed themselves to be outnumbered. It will come down to determination, luck and the last few units on each side to find a winner here..
The reserve line of Cavaliers didn;t stand up long against the Millers, but their colleagues continue to fight grimly, as do the rest of the French, who know if they fal their artillery park will be shortly off back to Windsor Castle behind a Cavaliers horse...
But a French pike units suffers an unlikley collapse in morale, and breaks, opening up a gap in the french attack...which the Royalists seem to have nothing left to expliot it with
Vive le Counter-revolution! The dogged Cavaliers have finally picked the right combination of spell and potion, and have magickked their way through the French pike block!
But in the main line, the Swiss victory seems inevitable - Royalists decide that running away is far better than formiga reserve line, and quietly attempt to sneak away...
The Kiel finally claimed a unit and was still grinding on
Not getting out the way in time, the Royalists were burst through by their own routers, but with the Swiss still pinned by a second unit, would they still have time to escape?
The Royalists, knowing their backs are againts the wall, put up heroic resistance, and land a couple of blows against the Swiss
Soon however markers sprout like flowers behind the Royalist units...
Ooops - that's the artillery gone along with a unit of Millers.
But with plenty of space to play in, some of the second line Cavaliers are starting to look more than worried as loads of Frenchies gang up on them from all angles
The red fragmented marker of doom is accompanied by the dase loss genie of severe disadvantagement. Good news for the French
The weight of numbers deployed by the Swiss and Lorrainers is also now telling - at last!
The Royalist Foote is nearly eliminated ...
With the French infantry crushing the last vestiges of Cavalier pedestrianism, the game ends in a Hugenot victory!
Post Match Summary
Verily a fantabuous victory of sorts for the Brave French, made all the better for the intelligent and chivalrous way in which we let our Swiss mercenaries take the brunt of the fighting and risk.
With dash and aplomb our Millers dished out a good solid line of unadventurous static attack, drawing the rash Englishmen onto their doom - well, other than those who ran over a couple of units and stole our artillery park, but why let facts get in the way of a good story eh?
Starting the weekend I was in some fear that our noble use of arquebuses would cause us many problems against the evil and debased Catholic Empires sweeping Europe like a scourge of apostatory, however we had the good fortune to avoid them all, and get in some good clean battles at which we generally did quite well, other than in those where we were crushed and beaten
All in all a good weekend, with even a sensible choice of lodging and a grown up approach to carousing and revelry - admittedly partially imposed by the highly religious nature of the area in which we made our encampment
Lets look forward to many more of these in future.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You consider that a victory? only in the loosest and most technical sense I fear.
What on earth possessed you to decide that a 2 hour route march across an open field in the teeth of sustained long range fire was your best option? With a significant cavalry advantage through greater armour, surely waiting for your own horse to gain a decisive advantage against an enemy who clearly had n intention of moving forwards would 'ave been far more preferrable?
You could then have both reinforced your cavalry wing with some half-decent infantry to make victory even more certain and fast, and then co-ordinated an attack with the Swiss and with your bullet-proof Millers rolling up the Cavalier lines.
This might even have alowed you not to throw away 3 units over on your right needlessly as just one more unit - either of foote or of decent mounted - could have swung that too decisivly in your favour.
And like all things there is a learning here - if you are bright enough to use it. Did you see how wel led and noble Cavaliers could take down a pike and shotte unit? It was not easy, but it was possible - leaving anything unsupported and without a General means a Superior unit with a General can till have a good old punt at them.
I know that next time is likley to be several months away, but I hopest you remeberest your lessons from this skirting with debacleness, in much the same way as I hope I remberest that I amst supposed to be speaking the tongue of the Renaissance, with bad-ley spelt wordes andest much incomprehensibility of speech, rather than utterest anachronistic phrases such as ä good old punt at them" as i seekest to deliver the word of God as pronouncement on thine incompetence
I lookest forward with a heart dark with fear over yon prospects to improve, but also one light in hope for further games in this era
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