Field of Glory Renaissance in Warfare 2011
A draw under the belt, and a quick abridged lunchtime saw game 2 hove ito view - this time against a Later Spanish Imperial army
The lists from this and all the other games at Warfare can be seen here. (Any videos in these reports are all pretty short - well under a minute)
The Spaniards were clearly very afraid of the power of the Swedish Foote and had drawn up their army behind a row of enclosed fields, marshes and areas of uneven ground. Alternatively, given the cost of the Miniature Worldmaker terrain maybe they just felt complelled to use it all in each and every game they played.
They had also commanded out the shot from a number of mixed formations giving them a few 6-strong units capable of mixing it with anything in the rough going
The defensive nature of the infantry battle the Spanish were picking was evident from early on ...
4 Dragoons faced off against a mass of Swedish horse on the Swedish right
The left saw all of the offensive-capable Swedish mounted charging towards some Spanish Cuirassiers
There were an awful lot of fully-armoured men over there...
The Yellow brigade tried to measure up the gap between the terrain pieces to see if they would fit through
With nothing doing in the middle, the Swedish Horse decided to lead the way on behalf of their army
On the right, reiters and commanded shotte and a Swedish Brigade were almost overkill to deal with 4 dragoons ...
The Spanish had no hesitation about lining up to receive the charge of the Swedish Mounted wing
More Horse than you can shake a stick at - and some Swedish foot shaking sticks as well.
By now the Spanish dragoons had already had enough and were running back home
There was a chance the dragoons might not escape, but they were shrugging off carbine shooting with ease
Would there be room for all the dice to fit ...?
Sometimes this game is bloody marvellous isn't it? What a visual spectacle !
The first couple of phases of combat were mixed - the German Cuirassiers in the Swedish army had lost a base and, disrupted, broken off - but the outermost Spanish unit had also picked up 2 markers - not an ideal place for the line to unravel
The dragoons were giving ground grudgingly as Spanish Reiters moved up - only to find themselves menaced by the Swedish Green Brigade foote, who, with the game developing slowly, had found time to keep up with their horse.
The Spanish reiters lost a base undermining their ability to bully the Swedish commanded shot considerably
With the Cuirassiers out of action, the fighting fell to the Finns and Swedes - down due to inferior armour, but better led they fought bravely on
The kerfuffle on the right was gradually drawing in more and more units, as the Spaniards tried to trap the very advanced Swedish units - but themselves came under heavy pressure from some German mercenary foot moving up to threaten their flank in turn
Mixed units were lumbering through the broken ground trying to outflank each other on the left as well, as the cavalry melee ground into a stalemate
The Spanish reiters had launched themselves at a unit of commanded shotte, with everyone desparate to either claim or not claim the advantages due to being in broken ground - but a almost-flank charge from some Swedish horse looked to be the most important possible ingredient in determining the future of this little scrap
The Spanish horse had continued their success - the endmost unit had failed to break despite being fragmented for what seemed like hours, and now the Swedish Horse were themselves almost broken leaving only the Finns to uphold the flag of Scandinavia
With the Swedes on the edge of defeat, the German Cuirassiers once again charged home - surprising the Spaniards who had forgotten they were still there. Would this buy a repreive for the Swedish horse?
Things were not going according to plan anywhere - The Green Swedish Brigade had been shot to DISR over the other side of the board and then charged home against one of the few Spanish units to leave the safety of the rough ground
Desparate to win quickly before their flank was attacked by musketeers, the Swedes threw everything - including a general - at the Spanish to try and break the 6-strong unit they were fighting in extra short order
The Spanish reiters achieved the breakthrough they had wanted - and with the loss of the commanded shot unit the other units in the Swedish army lost heart almost as one, all failing their cohesion tests to go DISR
But a moment later, victory for the Green Brigade! Their opponents morale crumbled, allowing the jubilant Swedes to pursue into safety and beyond the threat of the musketeers!!
Back on the mounted wing the Blue Brigade were embroiled in viscous close quarters fight against what seemed like half the Spanish army
The Swedish horse were gone - but the rest of the line was unpeturbed over here.
Nothing much was happening in the middle as the two armies struggled to get to grips with one another
And with that, the game was over
The Result is a non-decisive defeat for the Swedes
Post Match Summary
Like, totally radical! I've never seen such a beautiful game. Nice terrain, lovely figures with nice basing as well - they were only missing a sprinkle of Swarovski crystals and I could hae worn the armies as jewellery - NOT! Anyways, the like totally cool thing was that very few people got badly hurt either
I was like, "thats sooo radical" right up until the point at which nothing happened. The chaps gave it a good horrah, and like, who wants to waste an afternoon trying to winkle out of a corner some cowardly losers, when there is shopping and a cocktail bar to be had - I mean, like, give me a break! I suppose there is another game tomorrow?
And whats totally, like, TOTALLY AMAZING is that the chaps look to have had a coherent strategy of an attacking wing and a defensive mounted wing - and they like totally managed to match up the opponent reasonably well on that too. If it wasn't like, all tooo boring, with more time the Yellow Brigade might even have gotten into combat, which would have been nice
I now need to go and wash my hair and choose another dress, as daddy seems to think that this one is not really appropriate for a princess of the Swedish royal line - although it seems to be popular with the photographers for some reason. Like, See-yah Laters !
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Oh dear my dear, what a couple of boobies appear to be leading your cavalry today. The horsemen may sound like they using a pair of coconuts as they clip across the field towards the enemy, but they do need more than a set of dual air bags to hand if they are to hope to have success in a strategy of crashing into more heavily armoured, superior equally equipped troops and winning
And what ever happened on the right? We all Love Humps in the road,but the terrain was incredibly mountainous - it was like Twin Peaks out there at times - so why lead any of your cavalry through such an impressive range? Just face off against it and stare down the headlights with foote,and throw all your weight against the left wing - using the Commanded shotte there would have counteracted the extra armour of the Spanish Cuirassiers, instead of wasting them in a sideshow elsewhere.
Really you have nothing to be pleased about here - a dullards strategem means you need some serious ear warmers to muffle the shouts of derision from your men here
However, in your favour, I do have to say that those are really bodacious Ta-Ta's you have there.
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