FoGR Thirty Year's War in Warfare 2013
Swedish vs ECW Royalist
Game 1 Swedish vs Early Swedish
Game 2 Swedish vs ECW Royalist
Game 3 Swedish vs Later Imperial Spanish
Game 4 Swedish vs Later Imperial Spanish
An in-the-trenches defacto draw reduced the ability to go shopping at the Warfare show, and kept me neatly in mid table as the afternoon session came around even before any of the Central London posse were able to receive their sandwich orders at the neighbouring hostelry. Unfortunately there was enough time for us to pay for them, but they didn't arrive… but I was still digesting an enormous breakfast, so not a complete disaster. Anyway, enough of the West Reading Restaurant Review Service, and on with the competition.
The afternoons opponent was an English Civil War Royalist army, in a game which someone called Tim was almost bound to win. (I suppose it could also have been a draw..).
The lists for the Swedish and ECW Royalist from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
The armies were both classic TYW types, and the scenery also fell almost as stereotypically as it could do - although with me having lugged a house along to the competition I was committed to trying to deploy it in every game, and once you add in the overwhelming moral compunction impelling all Renaissance players to put enclosed fields on the table for their dragoons to hide in, perhaps this is not entirely unsurprising. The end result was a table with two channels of attack, and a piece of rough terrain dominating the centre
What's Going on Here Then?
With a large enclosed field in the middle of the table, and a lot of clutter on the right the field of play has been narrowed considerably - which should favour the Swedes, although the Royalists do have several groups of shotte-only units, which can move easily through the terrain. The Royalists have deployed a strong mounted force on the left of the board, which the Swedes have anticipated and responded to by targeting it with their heavy artillery. The Swedes have stacked their best infantry on the right to attack with, and are running a defensive formation of horse, commanded shot and infantry on the left.
The Royalists were ultra-traditional, and had turned out with a huge mounted wing, with clouds of dashing Cavaliers waving their hats in the air and generally being just a little bit too posh for the dirty parts of war - Billy Bragg would not have approved of the Royalist right wing in more ways than one. As the lace-clad dandy's milled around, the Swedish gunnes drew a careful bead on them and stoked their cannons in anticipation
As the Cavaliers streamed forward the Swedes had barely started to get off their initial deployment line… but even so they were somewhat of an untidy mess. Ooops!
Swedish Gunners (including Freddie Ljungberg, Anders Limpar and Stefan Schwarz) took careful aim and started to rack up a score against the Royalist horsemen - who were falling like ninepins!
Swedish Gunner
What's Going on Here Then?
The Royalist's advance on the left is already faltering, as the mounted units take a horrendous pasting from the Swedish artillery train. Elsewhere both sides are moving towards each other on a broad frontage.
The telling fire of the Swedish Gunners was so telling that the Royalists found themselves being well and truly told where to go - and they responded by giving up the unequal fight, turning tail and withdrawing as far as they could to get out of range!
As the Royalists fell back, the emboldened Swedes started their slow advance. With the Royalists already retreating, and the game moving at a much faster pace than the morning outing there was no need for the horse to separate from their Commanded Shotte, and the whole line moved up carefully and ominously
What's Going on Here Then?
The Royalist advance has turned into a tactical withdrawal as they pull their battered mounted formations out of range of the Swedish artillery, and await reinforcements from the opposite flank. Both infantry lines are moving carefully together, with the more numerous Royalists struggling to bring firepower to bear on the Swedes in the cluttered terrain on the right. A Dragoon on Dragoon skirmish has developed on the left
Having said all of that, when your own dragoons are in danger of being outnumbered in an enclosed field (where else..?) there is always scope to break the rules and add in a few more dice to even up the matchup.
Whilst all this was happening, the right hand side of the table also existed too apparently! Here the Swedish foote were matched up against Royalist foote in a narrow gap between terrain. This sort of one-on-one matchup against traditional Pike and Shotte was meat and drink (well, herring and aquavit) to the Swedes, and the marched forward confidently, even when the Royalists threatened them with yet more Cavaliers. In fact, the only worry was the presence in a relatively advanced situation of the Average Swedish Pi/Pi Horse - usually seeing them in the picture is a foretaste of a coming embarrassing debacle…
Madaxeman TV discusses the Royalists
Enough of the right - the left was where it was all happening, as having been denied targets in the shape of the retreating Cavaliers, Ander Limpar and the Swedish artillery train had turned their sights on the Royalist foote - who were faring little better than their mounted supposed betters. As the Swedish horse and foote combination advanced in a stately fashion, the Royalists were melting away before them… there was even a possibility the game might be over before anyone actually got into combat!
The right flank was now getting rather miffed at its left cousin, and wanted to get in on the action - as the Swedish infantry converged they poured fire into the hapless Royalists who struggled to stand up to the pummelling they were receiving from the massed volley muskets and battalion gunnes of the Swedes - the centre of the Royalist line was Fragged in short order!
The left was not to be outdone - never mind Fragged, here one Royalist unit is wiped from the table in panic as it comes under sustained artillery and infantry fire. The Royalist line would look thin if it were even a line - but it was more a collection of isolated units waiting to be run over… the Cavaliers were now getting desperate enough to attempt a Hail Mary type charge (especially any Catholic sympathisers in their ranks one would imagine)
What's Going on Here Then?
Both sides infantry are now in shooting range, and the battle is about to be joined. On the left the Royalists have reinforced their mounted wing and are preparing to risk the artillery and make a Cavalier-style assault on the Carbine and Commanded Shotte formation of the Swedish horse
The right saw the Swedish foote cramming together to intimidate the battered Royalists, who were still badly rattled as the herring-breath of the Swedes started to waft across their yeoman faces..
The Swedish Salvo foote unleashed a telling salvo (as they would) and charged home!
Tick, tick, tick, tick...
The staggering impact immediately broke the already teetering Royalist foote unit which had been unlucky enough to take the brunt of two full Swedish Brigades. With friendly units stacked up behind it there was nowhere for it to go - they routed through their own supporting cavalry and infantry, allowing the jubilant Swedes to pursue into the second line (and fight another round of impact combat in the same turn!)
FoGR hint - I'm pretty sure this is right- break someone in the impact phase and anyone else you hit in your impact-phase pursuit gets fought in the same turn
The left attempted to get back into favour with the cameraman by teeing up a classic - Impact Mounted Swordsmen against commanded shotte protected Arquebusiers with melee pistol.
The Swedes continued their rampage on the right, causing markers to sprout along the Royalist line in a manner which suggested that the Great Marker Shortage of 1622 was about to revisit the shores of Merrye Olde Englande yet again!
The Swedes however proved to be quite good at shooting with arquebuses, muskets and battalion gunnes as well as with their heavy gunnes earlier. This would be tough for the Royalists to come back from …
And indeed, rather than coming back, some of the Royalists simply went home, blasted out of their saddles by Swedish firepower
Unsurprisingly, in a field, somewhere far, far away a unit of Royalist Dragoons recorded a rare victory on what was turning into an ignominious afternoon in the shires..
But at least there was some fight left in the Royalists. The only half-viable Cavalier unit charged home against the supported arquebusiers, and more than held its own. Honour for the King was slowly being restored…
Working on the perhaps erroneous expectation that the game would continue for many more turns, the victorious Royalist dragoons also returned to the fray, cheering on their colleagues (but not comrades) from the sidelines as the battle raged between the two mounted forces.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Swedish infantry have been blowing away the Royalists in combat, and the Cavalier attack on the Swedish carbine horse formation has not fared much better, being decimated by shooting from the horsemen, and their accompanying commanded shot. The game looks about up for the Royalists
On the right the battle was about to be decided, as a second line of Royalists crumbled beneath the relentless Swedish attacks. The third line were now out front… never a good sign in a game in which 50% losses breaks the army.
On the other flank, not much had changed as the Cavaliers continued to fight on, but in the battle of who gets the most photos the left was keen to make sure it had the final word, perhaps mindful of the societal upheaval and class struggle at the heart of the English Civil war itself. So, game over..
The Result is a massive vistory 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 Swedish Commander
Well, like, totally winning is my new black - No Duh! Despite my own regal heritage, there is still satisfaction in like totally wiping the kitchen floor with this Englishman, if only because he's not actually that good looking ginger one who's always out at Boujis chasing us yound European royals but for some reason doesn't really look like his father either - strangearooney huh?.
They do sometimes say that warfare is a jungle. But I love animals, so thats not really a problem, and there is like so much a fur coat to be made from this victory. Those gunners of mine need to take a chill pill, or they'll like be so much into trying to win the next game on their own, and using up all of our good dice in one go. But still, a massive, massive win - I mean, acronym, it was great.
Now the game is done it's time for more shopping, which is super - well for a few hours annyway, although if I shop too much I soon get to the point where I just can’t take pavements!
Really. This is super, Winnner, winner, chicken dinner !
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Thou be a mangled paper-faced gull-catcher!
What strange fish hath made his meal on thee for you to discover such a historically structured opponent - it is as if the benificial munificence of Lord Tol of Van Martin was looking down upon you in this game, and verily you did smite him most mightily, with the benefit of terrain, an accommodating army list and a great set of initial shooting dice to boot.
To face an army without artilllery is a boon, but to do so when you have 4 is indeed something which even an infectious knotty-pated codpiece such as yourself can be expcted to exploit with haste and speed!
Were I the opponent I would have stacked my right wing much deeper with all of my horsemen, and ridden on through the hail of stone shot, losing a unit would not be a loss if the weight of Royalist horseflesh had then falllen upon the rather thin skein of defensive troops you set against them, but it was not to be, and you claimed a scalp which will no doubt give you false hope for the future - and what a fool art thou, a rampaging fool, to brag and stamp and swear of this, which the world itself knows is merely a temporary respite until the next game when we expect to see normal service resumed
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 Swedish vs Early Swedish
Game 2 Swedish vs ECW Royalist
Game 3 Swedish vs Later Imperial Spanish
Game 4 Swedish vs Later Imperial Spanish
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