Pre 1570 in Warfare 2014
Early Danish vs Hungarian
Game 2 Early Danish vs Hungarian
Game 3 Early Danish vs Maximillian Imperial
Game 4 Early Danish vs Henrician English
The lists for the Early Danish and Hungarian from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
The Hungarians are an army with which you are tempted by lots of mounted troops, but there are also enough Landsnecht infantry in the mix to make it possible to be both fish and fowl..
Pretty clearly top of the table, but also tied with a few other people the afternoon game came around after a lot of shopping for scenery for M alifaux. The opponet was Kevin, who having avoided playing him for many years I now found myself facing him for the third time in three competitions (including Derby Worlds, where I didn't write a report - I have to have abreak sometime!). The Hungarians he had taken were a pretty well mounted bunch (like, almost no foot), and so the presence of some table-narrowing terrain on the right was a welcome bonus in what would surely be a textbook attempt to shove the enemy off the back of the table whilst they sought to stove in my flanks.
The solid wall of Danes sizzled forwards and lined up with the terrain fairly early on - the Hungarians were already looking little perplexed about how to deal with the advancing tide of bacon-scented infantry and Gendarmes, however their artillery was better positioned and was concentrating it;s shooting on one Kiel from the off.
On the left, the decidedly odd but often effective combo of Gendarmes and Heavily Armoured Carbine Horse 6-pack moved up to put pressure on the advance guard of the Hungarian right - who had already lost some bases in their advance into the field of fire of the Danish guns. The Hungarians would surely soon be driven back leaving a trail of paprika behind them for the Danes to advance across.
The Hungarians had a well organised artillery park of their own, and were using the rather clever tactic of using a screen of shooting LF to shoot through, round and over with their 4 guns. This saw all the artillery and 6 LF crossbowmen combining their fire, and this 7-dice of shooters were occasionally able to do enough damage to make the Danish Landsnecht Fat Kiels take tests… which of course they proceeded to fail.
The game was still all about the shooting at this early stage, and neither side particularly appeared to be enjoying it as DISR markers appeared almost everywhere that musketry or crossbow bolts were flying through the air. The Danes were particularly delighted that their unusual levy formations had managed to get in a shot and do some damage this early in the game, after their near-lossless outcome in the morning session.
As the wall of bacon crisped up across the flat pan of the battlefield, the Hungarians furiously redeployed to try and bring extra weight to bear on a part of the board which was not full of enemy artillery and 6-pack carbine heaviliy armoured Reiters.
The Danish Carbine Reiters had done their job, softening up the enemy for a surely decisive early Gendarme charge..?
With no flanks to find the Hungarians took bravery, sprinkled paprika onto it and made it into a charge-shaped goulash …. Their decent horse waded into the Danish Levy foot! Time to look up the factors...
And the outcome was a fiery stroganoff of Hungarian success, as the Danes, facing real opposition for the first time, collapsed like a deck of playing cards made out of crispy bacon and went FRAGGED!
But, apart from this one reverse the progress of the Danish army was still stately as they swept forwards across the table - although the Kiel attempting to charge down the enemy guns was taking off bases on an almost turn by turn basis….
The Danish levy broke, opening up the back field of the Danish army to the jubilant Hungarians Gendarmes. Complacency was now evaporating as the Danes noticed that their Kiel to the right of the Gendarmes appeared to be close to breaking! That's some artillery...
As the Danes had pushed past the terrain on the right flank the Hungarians had also found opportunities to threaten their flanks, and a rather expensive Danish Gendarme unit found itself co-ordinating with 4 Danish Landsnecht LF to try and shore up the rapidly eroding situation on that flank. This was not the job of Gendarmes, but sometimes even the nobility must make sacrifices for the peasantry.... and the Hungarians were far from happy themselves however, with a DISR Cavalry unit facing Gendarmes in a formation which prevented it evading
The left flank was now totally denuded of Hungarian troops, either through the actions of the Danish Gendarmes and Reiters or by the rapid redeployment of Hungarian forces away from the gaping hole the Reiters and Gendarmes had conjured up. With nothing in front of them, the second intact Kiel girded its loins and turned 90 degrees. Supported now by the Reiters, it executed the techical turn with aplomb and now faced the Hungarian Gendarmes ... who discovered that their rush through the middle of the Danish army had merely brought them face to face with a much more fearsome set of opponents
The second set of Danish levy were already engaged to the front as the Hungarians also tried to decide what to do in the face of the multiple threats and opportunities they now saw arrayed before them. The usually useless Danish Light Guns were at the top of both of these lists, potentially a couple of attrition points but also potentially an impenetrable obstacle once captured by the Danish horse.
Boom! A roll of 1 on the - of course - Swedish dice saw the 16-strong Fat Kiel broken by base losses alone. Another huge hole in Denmark's bacon-flavoured lines was opening up for the tomato and lettuse of the Hungarian army to sandwich itself through and into the sliced bread wilderness that lay beyond.
The levy furiously jabbed their heavy weapons and motley collection of pointed sticks at the Hungarian cavalry who were fighting them. Really second-rate Danish sword-only armed horse astonishingly found themselves pressed into service to try and prevent the levy being charged in the flank. There was a real risk that there would not be enough room for the Kiel to get into combat!
Inconsequentially perhaps, Hungarian light horse were grappling with the state of the art Danish technology and skilled metalwork high design of the, erm, landsknecht arquebusiers who were taking every opportunity they could to demonstrate the impact of death rolls on one hit to the rather miffed 3-pack Hungarian proto-Szecklers.
Another object lesson in gunpowder technology was being provided by the Danish artillery park, who were targeting Hungarian mounted troops at ranges which the Hungarians has previously imagined that cannonballs would only be able to be delivered across by the Magyar Post and Parcel Service. The Hungarians were vulnerable to the shooting and tried to keep out of the way.
Back in the middle and the Danish Bog Standard Horse had been quickly swept away as Hungarian nobility ploughed into the front, sides and the rear of the "we really aren't paid enough to do this job" Danish Levy. The Kiel looked on in disgust as the Danes morale wobbled precariously
But the Levy were tough as old Danish boots and hung on grimly, handing out some DISR action of their own to the bemused Hungarian horsemen.
Meanwhile, in the annual pro-celebrity arquebus sniping competition the Hungarian LH just about manage to do enough to sneak away… .
To say the action was very much concentrated in the centre of the board was somewhat of an understatement, as the Kiel re-took the Light Artillery park and the Reiters wheeled around to start thinking seriously about taking on some more Hungarians - who were very much occupied chewing up the Danish levy still…
When the levy breaks…. In this case they only had a very limited number of places to go.
FoGR hint - they rout away from all enemy facing them, bisecting the angle if they are engaged on multiple sides... so we reckoned that here they squirt out of the side.
The Hungarian cavalry stream after the routing levy and run them down to a man, leaving them all rather close to the Reiters…. Who really should have seen this coming a while ago.
But, executing a neat turn the Reiters face off against the Hungarians, who now have some Danish recaptured artillery enfilading them, and a rather irritated Kiel breathing down their horsey Hungarian buttocks. The recapture of the artillery has given the Danes some breathing space in the race to lose most attrition points as well as a rather amusing "hit on 3's with Poor artillery" shot to boot
But, whilst this excitement had been going on, the Danish gendarmes from earlier had snuck back into the frame and were now just about to capture the Hungarian artillery park. This would be decisive…
The Hungarians had to go for it, with time running out they charged into the Reiters! Both sides were on the brink of defeat, and of victory as well!
The Hungarians also had a chance to capture the enemy guns - they too had a brave and potentially suicidal charge with a rather battered unit of LH against the Danish train.
But, the decisive blow was finally landed by the Danish Gendarmes, grabbing some artillery. The game coudl have easily seen a mutual destruction, but the Danes had come out on top
The Result is an 18-6 win for the Danes.
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 Danish Commander
Well, crisp me up and put me between two slices of bread - that was a close one campers, wasn't it? I thought for a while we were going down the tubes big style, and after such an encouraging start as well! I suppose the problem is that the Kiels are very tough, but when they die they leave a very big hole, not only in the army but also in the number of cohesin points that you have left on table.
At least it was a good outing for my Reiters, who did some sterling service with their friendly gendarmes - and they also managed to get back to the main part of the battle just in time to have no real effect. And I will never whinge about the silly artillery capture rules again either, as whilst they did create a totally ludicrous situation here it was both very amusing, a real tactical conundrum and also it allowed me to recapture the guns and stay in the game - all of which are good in my big book of bacon battle recipes!
It just goes to show that you should never give up - every moving part on the table can do something, and as long as they all keep trying that will end up being either good or bad at some point in future.
Right, time now to bring home the bacon in the games tomorrow!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You feel this was a success? O, were mine eye bans into bullets turned, that in a rage I might shoot them at your face! You were outfixed by an enemy who had little to challenge your men if you managed to complete a long line and advance, and yet you threw away not units but complete legions of troops to the most easy of opponents, a simple set of shooters!
At times it seemed that the entire table had been swept clear of troops of both sides, and still with so few toys to play with and so few enemies to target you still struggled greatly to coordinate and execute any sort of coherent plan.
Never has hung poison on a fouler toad than you - how is it possible to end up winning a game in which the enemy seem to have managed to charge almost a mathemetical majority of your troops in the rear? Recapturing artillery to stay in the game, and closing out the result only moments before your own train and baggage were taken back to far off Hungary? You are supposed to be a danger to the enemy, but looking at you now I can see that you have never broke any mans head but your own, and that was against a post when you were drunk
You have claimed a high place in the table after this narrow win, but surely the other players will be keen to play you in the next game, as this record of winning is not yours to keep, and they will see you as naught but a disease that must be cut away
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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Game 2 Early Danish vs Hungarian
Game 3 Early Danish vs Maximillian Imperial
Game 4 Early Danish vs Henrician English
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