Field of Glory Renaissance in Oxford 2010
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Half way through and a couple of defeats - by the inexorable logic of competitions, surely I was now due a victory or two?
The Sunday morning saw me facing off against another TYW army - but with a fairly different composition to mine. In the absence of a FoG Renaissance Wiki (just yet anyway) the list can be seen here
For the third game I had actually managed to deploy a linear obstacle in a useful place - giving me a wall to hide behind over on my right. However, with such a strong bastion I'd elected to go for the bluff, and only defended it lightly - and had instead flank marched with three blocks of cavalry over to the left of the board. The rest of my army waited patiently so that the far higher quality (but smaller) TYW Catholic force facing me would have to advance into my guns, and also expose its flank to the flank marchers.
| With no checkerboard deployment, my infantry here are not expecting to race forwards as they cannot make multiple moves as a Division without at least 40mm gaps between each unit |
The enemy had two unbeatable looking Superior Tercios, a lesser number of pike and shot squares and a bit less cavalry than me.
The enemy sent their light horse - and loads of dragoons - into the built up area, which was home to a Manor House which had not seen action for many years..
The Loyalist Catholic (eh?) Cuirassiers and demi-cuirassiers were all massed on the left hand side as they advanced in a big block, looking to overwhelm anything in their path, supported by guns shooting down the flank.
The center of my army again was hanging back - moving up to their gun line allowed them to refuse their right flank slightly.
The Loyalist Catholic infantry swept up to the wall, and dug in as the enemy skittered away in the distance..
The enemy Catholics light horse were forced into a quick exit, and the enemy cavalry wing was swiftly moving back behind its protective infantry as the whole army was being squeezed into the middle.
| Cavalry can turn and move, so they were able to get out of the way quite quickly. |
The enemy Tercio suddenly became the foremost thing in the enemy army - which presented quite a problem for the Loyalist Catholics, as their cavalry had little if any idea what to do about it as their real targets had hidden.
|
A new Catholic priest is nervous about hearing
confessions, so he asks an older priest to sit in on his sessions. The new
priest hears several confessions, then the old priest asks him to step out
of the confessional for a few suggestions. The old priest suggests, "Try saying things like,
'I see, yes, go on, and I understand, how did you feel about that?" The old priest says, "Now, don't you think that's a little better than slapping your knee and saying, 'No way! What happened next?'" |
The enemy had now occupied the Manor house and its extensive range of grounds, but this endeavor was watched in bemusement by Loyalist infantry who were calmly waiting as the enemy army strung itself out before them.
The massive steel wall of Cuirassiers rode up and threatened the enemy light horse - who were confident in their ability to evade...
On the right however the enemy were feeding yet more troops into a flanking position. The Catholic infantry started to get nervous...
But by now, the Flank march had arrived! Astonishingly, a swarm of Loyalist cavalry swept onto the table, with 2 units of harquebusiers and some light horse appearing. The LH ganged up on the Rebel Catholic LH, but in the first exchange of shooting the flank marching LH took a pasting - but their colleagues armed with carbines had battered the enemy Demi-Cuirassiers facing them as well - suddenly it was a real mess...
| A flank march can really mess up the order or march, as Tercio's count as 2 BGs for deployment - so you can end up deploying rather strange numbers of BGs each turn as a result! |
The Loyalist Infantry suddenly noticed that so many enemy Catholics had swung round to the flank and through the Manor house that the rest of the enemy foot were seriously now outnumbered. With a wave of a rather spectacular flag, 4 units of Loyalist foot lurched forward towards just 2 unsupported units of identical foot. A 2:1 advantage - must be worth going for?
Back on the right, two lone Loyalist units - infantry and dragoons - held the line against loads of of enemy dragoons, light horse and cavalry. It was a rather chunky forlorn hope!
With the Catholics closing the trap, the enemy Light Horse found themselves unable to evade and were hammered in the rear by a unit of Cuirassiers! Oich! But right at the back of the board, a small unit of enemy Cuirassiers decided to take their superior POAs in their hands and initiated a charge against the weaker - but more numerous - flank marching harquebusiers...
Looking down the touchline here, the huge mass of Loyalist Catholic Horse is piling on the pressure - but the enemy Catholics have a solid flank in the Tercio, although concerted artillery fire has weakened it somewhat (see the missing pike elements in the formation) and have also turned a Pike and Shot unit (with integral guns) to face the flank as well. This will prove a real test to see if the vast cavalry superiority counts for anything wnen facing such decent foot.
| A Tercio doesn't worry about flanks - it fights normally to all 4 faces even if hit in the flank! |
The enemy LH are slowly crushed....
But despite the massed flank attack, and the line of Pike and Shot to their right also advancing, the rest of the Loyalist Catholics were still uncommitted (except to a belief in the infallibility of the Pope and the inherent wrongness of not eating fish on Fridays). But facing 2 superior Spanish Tercios, wouldn't you be too?
The Catholic harquebusiers were whittling away the enemy Horse facing them, causing a cohesion breakdown to add to the base losses they had already inflicted - but the small enemy Cuirassier unit was holding firm as a bit of a stalemate developed. The Enemy Pike and Shot unit moved up closer to threaten the flank of the Loyalist Cuirassiers... but it's still IGOUGO, so they knew they had opportunity to turn around!
With the two lines thinking about clashing, things were nip and tuck... finally the enemy Tercio's made a decision, and split up to go their separate ways - exactly the situation the Loyalists had been trying to engineer as now they had the opportunity to attach them piecemeal !
A wall of Foote advanced on the badly outnumbered enemy Catholics - even losing a base to the initial round of shooting was unlikely to tip the balance against the Loyalists here
| When a Pike and Shot unit takes casualties, the Pike go first, then 2 Shot, then another Pike... and having only 1 rank of pike isn't a problem, as whilst it plays like an element based game, the combat factors essentially give the whole unit the same POA's |
The Loyalist Catholics were hoping they could withstand the enemy outflanking sweep - the Pike and Shotte unit was more than a match for anything the enemy had out on that wing, but two Dragoons in a field were not much cop at all...
After careful consideration the enemy Catholic general decided to circumvent the Pike and Shotte, and concentrate on two hapless Dragoons!
The flank march was now developing into a full blown melee, as the enemy horse had recovered their cohesion and charged home against the flank-marching Harquebusiers. This just left a mexican standoff between the Catholic pike and Shotte and the Catholic Cuirassiers.... the Cuirassiers General moved up to help maintain his men's cohesion in the face of repeated batterings from shooting
The Average Tercio found itself a target for two enemy Superior Tercio's...
But wit hthe Tercio's distracted, the relentless advance on the enemy Pike and Shotte units continued apace. Soon we would be at the push of the Pike ....
A ridiculous amount of Horse now squeezed past the Tercio and homed in on the increasingly worried Pike and Shotte block. But even if they fell, what would the Loyal Catholics manage to do - they would not be able to worry the back of the Tercio...?
With the Tercio being whittled down, and the enemy Demi-Cuirassier unit being evaporated, harquebusiers turned onto the flank of the Pike and Shotte bastion - surely now the sand in the hourglass of their existence was running out ?
Equally short on time were the two lone Dragoons - their flimsy attempt to hold up the hordes of enveloping enemy Catholics was looking more dicey by the moment...
The micro Cuirassier unit also broke - suddenly Loyalist Catholic Horse had the run of the rear of the enemy army!
But even in their moment of triumph, the Loyalists were thwarted - the enemy pulled a cunning stunt and formed Square! This was just too much for the Loyalists, and they launched an all out charge on the rather embattled enemy formation - even as more enemy horse arrived behind the Tercio to prevent their square from being totally enveloped !
But the Horse sent to reinforce the enemy flank proved to be no match for the Loyalist Cuirassiers and Demi-Cuirassiers, and were blown away in moments - and now two columns of Loyalist Horse were on the rampage behind enemy lines!
Swinging back over to the left, and one Loyalist Pike and Shotte unit had allowed itself to be diverted by the Tercio, but that still left a 3:2 advantage for his colleagues ganging up on the remaining enemy.
And in fact the "diversion" was no bad thing, as it allowed the increasingly emboldened Loyalists to concentrate their own Tercio as well against the enemy - the carefully staggered waves of attacks were creating a series of material advantage of numbers across the field..
The Loyalists were definitely winning on the "cooler flags" front today...
3:2 proved swiftly decisive, and the two enemy units were swept away at first charge! The enemy were by now close to total defeat
And, ready to tip them over, here came the flank marching Harquebusiers, steaming in to loot the baggage! A great win for the forces of Loyalist Catholicism!
Post Match Summary
Hoorah!
I was so confident of a catholic victory going into this battle - and I was
proved right, in a truly astonishing fashion.
Fortunately the bold and ambitious stroke of sending 3 units of Horse off on a flank march proved decisive, and I can now retire back to my country estate and look forwards to long evenings down the club being roundly hailed as a new Napoleon, even though that tiresome Frenchie will not be even born for a good few hundreds of years.
The honour of my family, and of my poorly painted rag-tag army of odds and ends is fully restored, apart from that of those bits of it who lost and were sadly killed in action.
We even managed to beat the cowardly square-forming infantry to boot - I bet they were surprised when our Harquebusiers started unloading their carbines against the immovable object of the pedestrian formation - well, unless they happened to know that Harquebus essentially is foreign for carbine anyway.
To draw, tally how, and lets all set out for the next game with renewed hope in our hearts and weights in our dice (I was only joking about that last bit, honest).
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Forsooth,
'tis a grey day indeed when the crows stalk the high moors, and 'ere the cock
croweth a war most uncivile erupts forthe from the darkest recess o' a catholic
heart, to wreak great scourge upon the sod.
Thy erstwhile opposition dids't appear paralyzed with a terrible fright - as one might be, when faced with the gamblers insanity of a marche around the unkempt flanke. Didst thou not knoweth of the risk? I thinketh that luck rather than skill hast much a'do about the nothing that were thy plan here my fortunate fellow.
Forsooth, for all the fortune that rained down upon thee, e'en so yonder Marche of the Flanke achieveth little - a mere 2 units of cavalry fell to the flankers, and the reste 'twas swept away by thine own horse in such great numbers as to be a scourge upon the land whose passing will be re-tolde by hags and singers and traveling ministrels for many a'year aroud these 'ere parts.
Imagine - hads't thou simply put yon thrice o'horse on the actual table, much teh same result mightest have occurred - yet without a painful delay of hours in which the Harquebusists toiled wi'out much great success agin'st thine enemies horses of better horse?
'Tis always a simple plan which sufficest - thine luck passeth all understanding but still fashinoed for ye little of decisive import. And hads't yonder Tercio o'Spain moves a tad agin'st that win, a door woust have slammed shut alike which no stable hound of hell would have passeth - never mind your slow of foot and slower of mind Cuirassiers, leaving the weak and mewling harquebusists surrounded and soon for this world ney more .
The saving grace - and Grace cometh from God, 'ene thou thou sharest yon God with the enemy this time, a fact which I suspevt we will all have to get rather used to as this dammed war drags on - perhaps for another 29 or so years to hazard a guess - was a victory, and for all the bluster which a man as me cans't raise up, Victory is the arbiter ultimate against which all we men o'war are measured.
FoG Renaissance is out now
It looks to have most of the buggy bits from FoG Ancients ironed out, and with less skirmishers and more people shooting in the Renaissance era, it is a lot more about beating your opponent by removing bases rather than making them fail reaction tests!
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