FoGR at The Worlds Koblenz 2014

The range of armies in the competition was surprisingly wide - we had supposed that everyone would pretty much pick League of Augsburg Anglo-Dutch (for its large number of superior all-shot units) or the Louis XIV Frenchies (for their pretty uniforms and general all round joie de vivre) however some surprising entrants distrubed the array of French and Dutch. Austrians clearly had something going for them, and the Ottoman army looked like an interesting choice too - both would no doubt feature lots of good quality armoured cavalry, a good choice against the generally weak mounted options available to most armies in the later book of lists

What's Going on Here Then?

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Renaissance hint - text goes in this block

Post Match Summary from the Early Swedish Commander

Well, like, this was another of those kinda games, wasn't it? What is a girl to do when the numbers are not in favour - and red is definately becoming my least favourite colour from now on, as those red dice have haunted me throughout the latter parts of the weekend in relentless fashion.

Here the terrain did me no favours, and the left-field deployment of the enemy also made it rather tricky for my "down first" army to really make a plan. But make a plan I did, and to attack a 6-pack of shooters through a plantation seemed like a clever idea as then it minimised the shooting we would receive on the way in.. but those three "1's" from the Red Brigade first up set a pattern for much of the rest of the game that I really did not like one little teeny bit.

By the time things started to go my way on the dice front, the game had already ran away from me and it was all over bar the calling of time (very efficiently done by the German hosts I think). At least those pesky dragoons got their come uppance, but with my Swedes getting in 7 salvo-driven charges in this game and not causing any cohesion drops as a result... without my main weapons working it becomes a difficult game indeed.

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Hannibal's Post Match Analysis

You are nothing but a varlet of the basest kind, revelling in your so called misfortune when in fact the only misfortune to befall your army was to have such a prize dullard as it's commanding officer. This was a game when you had naught to do but sit and wait, and instead you consipred to fritter away units wastefully, and probe forwards in a manner which was more akin to a child poking at a bear trap than a military leader marshalling their troops. I really do not know where to start with your bad deployment, and how you consipred to lose BOTH units of commanded in a game where they would frankly have been more use if you had left them in the box..? That was the difference between victory and defeat I am afraid, and your idiocy meant there was only one choice for you here.

You failed on intelligence (not noticing that the enemy formations on the right were armed with Pike, not noticing that the Swedes were Salvo shot, and not noticing that you were a hung over idiot) and then you failed on execution as well - and execution is what you will most surely recieve in any just society I duly pray and hope. Even your Salvo attacks were often wasted - how many of them were the full 7 dice? I think just one...which is not much out of 7 attempts, so no wonder the enemy did not lose cohesion!

The whole event has been a fiasco from start to finish, from your weak choice of army, poor selections of terrain, your failure to win any of the initiative rolls all weekend, some admittedly rather mixed dice and a half-hearted committment to actually using the arrmy in the way it was intended to be used. All of these things are sadly true, and this is why your final position reflects fairly on your lack of concentration, skill and planning. 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.

Gustavus would not have been happy, and neither am I. This is thankfully the end of this event. I am glad to see it gone

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