Field of Glory Renaissance in Warfare 2011
You can "Like" this page on Facebook
Another day, another Swedish Civil War - but this time against the UK distributor of Testudo figures. Wonder what he'll be using for his army then?
The lists from this game at Warfare can be seen here.
The game was clearly a first for Pete, who had his Gunnes first up in the deployment order. The army was arrayed with Foote in the middle and a mix of Hakkapells, Dragoons and crappy horse covering off the mess of fields and brish on my right, with his only 2 units of horse - the Swedes and Finns on the left as I faced them. I chose to respond with a massive left hook with all my 4 units of good cavalry on that side, hoping to sweep away the smaller Enemy forces and roll up the army in a mounted-first clash
The Swedish figures were not just wargame figures, they were Testudo Figures, ozzing class and style and weighed down with expectation that comes with being seriously expensive. It appeard not to worry them ...
The initial phase of the game saw my Green Brigade dazzled by the sheer physical perfection of the onrushing Testudo-manufactured dragoons, almost as if an entire brigade of Johnny Depp look-alikes were advancing towards them
The Gunnes were finding it hard to contemplate actually hitting such marvels of perfection of the human form
The Enemy had adopted some bizzarre pseudo-Swiss echelon formation with their foote, but the main action was as my waves of horse raced past the Enemy gunnes as the homed in on the two lonely units of Enemy Swedes, accompanied by a sole Commanded shotte pairing
Only a perfect physical specimen such as these fellows could possibly hope to get away with wearing a yellow jump suit with white frilly collar and cuffs..
The Lancashire Games Yellow Brigade contemplate giving a right kicking to the poncey southern jessies to their front
Gustavus himself urges on the German Cuirassiers as the Enemy Gunnes bark at his men
lmost immediately the game is moving towards a decisive clash all along the line. The irritant is that up at the top one unit of my horse has suffered a base loss and a cohesion drop to the shooting of the commanded shotte pairing, but surely there will be enough horse left to overrun the two solitary units they face ... oh - that's another Enemy Swedish unit frantically redeploying. Maybe 4 against 3 is fairer odds - but still in my favour ?
The Enemy reshuffle their mounted line to face off against my onrushing mounted wing.
Another base is lost to the deadly commanded shotte
But as the Karabinyatterye move up in support, my forces feel optimistic still. Generals, rear support, and the Enemy not fully ready - and with some of its Pistol-armed Horse in the front line - all is here to play for
Elsewhere German mercenaries are pouring fire into the advancing Enemy formation, aided by our Gunnnes. One decent hit and a unit of 2 commanded shotte will surely explode, leaving the Enemy Geman Cuirassiers exposed?
Oops - the blue-coated Swedish horse lose yet another base. They now are committed to going in against the Enemy pistol-armed Horse - but will best them at impact I hope ?
Overcome by the sheer beauty of the Enemy figures, and paralyzed by the thought of how much that unit might have cost to buy, the Swedish Horse pause before charging home....
Elsewhere in the middle a sharp firefight between Lancashire Games and Testudo figures sees both sides lose the odd base. Their lead may be better scuplted, but it withstands bullets just as poorly.
Combat is joined!!
The Enemy German Cuirassiers have lost a base, but the pesky Commanded shotte refuse to die despite the pounding they are taking from all sides. My own Commanded shotte are coming off worse, as they go disrupted
This looks a more even like a big clash shaping up
The Enemy German Cuirassiers are down to their last 2 bases - one more and they are gone! On my side a Swedish brigade goes DISR - oh, and almost out of shot my commanded shotte have gone FRAGGED !! The end of my line looks to be unravelling
The other end of my line is not faring much better, as my own German Cuirassiers are now Fragged, but they are still doing better than my Swedish Horse, who have been totally eliminated ... and it's now Pete's turn, and his triumphant Horse are able to tee themselves up for a flank charge on the supporting troops in my army !
My own Reiters hang on grimly after losing the impact badly - a double 6 on the reaction test postpones the inevitable somewhat ..
Flipping back to the other flank, one more round of shooting and my Commaed shotte turn and flee. The only Testudo figures in my army have clearly had enough of staring themselves in the face, and rout away, causing mild panic amonst my own Reiters, weakening my flank still further. The choice to take only 3 generals looks a poor one all of a sudden
Pete's rampaging Horse have now easilt broken my Karabinyatterye and charge onwards, pauding only to run down the already broken German Cuirassiers. My entire right flank consists of 3 DISR Finnish Horse. Hardly the great victory I was hoping for...
The Enemy Horse steam onwards and are instantly ready to menace the flanks of my foote
Two identical Swedish Brigades join combat (with the Enemy aided by another pesky 2 Commanded shotte and a little gun) - the Enemy loses cohesion, but we lose bases. And from an average unit that's not really that good.
My men are now losing out in the melee, shooting and maneuver phases to the rampaging Testudo figures, How ignominious. Plenty of time at the bring and buy beckons me...
As the Enemy pour forwards, my lack of generals again causes problems, and my Karabinyattere on the right are forces to retreat in a vain attempt to get out of Enemy musket and little gun range...
The Blue Brigade prepare to go back in the box in the face of overwhelming Enemy superiority
The Geen Brigade are crushed and run down by their opponents, sowing fear and panic amongst the 2 German mercenary units who ae supposed to be supporting them but are now just extra collatteral damage to their crushing defeat.
At the last huzzah some proper Swedish on Swedish action takes place - my men outnumbered and assailed on all sides, but still fighting gamely at the last..
The Green Brigade remnants burts through a supporting german unit,already DISR by their rout. They drop to Fragged, and then rout as the pursuing Swedish foote charge home. Catastrophe
Even in a relatively even fight my men come of far worse - the Yellow Brigade is wiped out by base losses as their opponents suffer only mild indegestion
The Result is a crushing defeat for the non-Testudo figures. You get's what you pay for methinks....
Post Match Summary
Oh yah, a great victory for Sweden here. So, like, what's not to like? My chaps looked fine and they seemed to have, like, a well good and reasonable plan, and they totally like attempted to execute it and with some gusto - but such a downer, it was like soooo much plain old fashioned bad luck that beat us in the end.
And against an army which had cost more than it would do to build a bridge between Sweden and Copenhagen, or like totally go shopping for a couple of hours in downtown Stockholm - what can one do?
For sure, I should really promote some sort of scandinavian spirits like Aquavit or Vodka, but, but these Testudo figures are like so toatlly reassuringly expensive aren't they?
In any case, I've just been SMS'ed by one of my like totally online girlfriends who's told me that in 2011 I was listed by CEOWORLD magazine as one of the Hottest Royal Women in the world, so to be honest, losing a game of soldiers, what do I care?
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Oh dear oh dear. Go thou and fill another room in hell with thine incompetence.
You callest your left flank an attack in force? That'll be the attack where you left behind some Commanded shotte, didn't deploy your own guns in a position to support it, and set up in such a way that you'd need to reorganise once you got near to the enemy?
And where you underestimated the effect of the commanded shotte unit to not only level the playing field, but to actually make the opponents line of Horse stronger than yours?
Frankly you were lucky to last as long as you did you foolish paltroon, with your army of heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves
FoG Renaissance
Order on Amazon UK here
Or from Amazon USA
FoG Reports Pageloads to date.View My Stats for My FoG Pages
