FoG:R Thirty Years War in Oxford 2012
Later Imperial Spanish vs Transylvanian
Game 1 Later Imperial Spanish vs Transylvanian
Game 2 Later Imperial Spanish vs TYW French
Game 3 Later Imperial Spanish vs Early TYW Swedish
Game 4 Later Imperial Spanish vs TYW Swedish
The lists for the Later Imperial Spanish and Transylvanian from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Oxford can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
Buono Estente!
Oxford, a new sort of doubles competition. New in that the two players actually play separate games, and with a Thirty Years War theme, one player gets to choose a Catholic army, and the other a Protestant one.
The Central London team picked two safe options - TYW French for the Protestants, and my own Later Imperial Spanish. The choice was based on a few theories . Firstly my army was going to need to stand up to some Swedes, so the lots of Superior and Elite foot in the Spanish list gave me a reasonable chance of doing this successfully. Secondly I had lost to exactly this army in the last game at Britcon 2012 so I thought it must be worth a go, and thirdly because I'd found some rather lively Spanish flags which were worth giving a run out to.
The first game was a unique experience for the Catholic Empire of Spain - a rather unusual matchup against the Transylvanians - an army which I had, no doubt like many others, simply skipped over in the army list book - but which on closer inspection might well hold a decent list composition. Interesting….
Q: Why does Dracula have no friends?
A: Because he's a pain in the neck
The table was rather cluttered with terrain - not difficult as it was smaller than standard, at 5' x 3. This left a big gap on the middle - apart from a bit of yellow rough ground - and an alleyway down the right hand flank. The Transylvanians had opted to take a lot (maybe too many?) light horse, as well as some revolting peasants hiding in an enclosed field over to the left of shot. The Spanish didn't have much to aim at really…
The first priority for Spain was to firmly close the door on the right hand flank, as the Transylvanians had stuffed their retro-style Gendarmes over there. Luckily the single unit of Spanish Cuirassier-style Caballlos Corzas were probably more than good enough to stop the Gendarmes, especially with help from a pretty standard Pike and Shotte unit as well. The Transylvanians would struggle to do anything meaningful here…
In the centre the Spanish threw their Dragoons forward into the uneven ground, mainly as there were no obvious fields into which they could easily run. This set up an early face-off between the Transylvanians light horse and the Spaniards Dragoons who started to exchange shooting at close range - although the Spanish artillery were also in on the action.. as was a proper Spanish infantry unit (called a Tercio but not classed as one under the rules) which immediately started shooting up the onrushing mass of Transylvanian Light Horse
The Spanish had no real heavyweight opposition in the centre, so their numerous Tercios were free to advance quickly across the open areas of the field. Here the Transylvanians are still refusing to advance on the right against the Spanish Horse, which has allowed 2 Tercios to start to swing round the forest and threaten their flank. Both sides light troops have fallen back to regroup after suffering shooting casualties in the middle, and on the far side little is impeding the Tercios advance towards the Peasants and Transylvanian artillery park
The news from a Spanish perspective was good...
Seeing an opportunity the Transylvanians dash back in, hoping to overrun the undefended Spanish guns whilst the Spanish Dragoons are worried about losing their second base and routing
A massive exchange of close range fire sees both sides lose a unit - the Transylvanians deploying a very nice BROKEN token from Vexillia in the process - the guns are almost exposed, unless the Spanish Light Horse, quickly redeploying from the right wing, can join the battle and prevent the Transylvanians sacking the artillery park
Everyone is running away!
Q: How do Transylvanian soldiers clean themselves up after a battle?
A: They all get in the bat tub.
One of the Superior Tercio infantry units is engulfed in a wash of skirmishers (including some towing behind them a very nice DISR token from Vexillia) as it closes in on the revolting peasants. Assailed from every side by light troops shooting, the dice quickly add up and they take a whole heap of hits from shooting in the process -
…which they nonchalantly shrug off with a fantastic and timely 11+6 cohesion test and death roll… much to the disappointment of the Transylvanians
The Tercio then wades into the revolting peasants at quite a rate of knots - the rather not very good infantry only have weight of numbers in their favour, but that will not sustain them for long..
As the Spanish infantry rather remarkably start to close down and outflank the Transylvanian Gendarmes, the Spanish Cuirassiers also move up to close the jaws of the pincer movement. The question is now whether enough of the Transylvanians will be caught before they can squirt away and the clock runs out..
And, sneakily, a unit of Donnington Miniatures Transylvanian Infantry have inched their way down the left flank, slipping through the woods and along the Spanish base edge towards the Spanish baggage ! They too hope their mounted colleagues can hold out until they have their wicked way with the Spanish baggage
The Spanish light horse are now enjoying themselves - the Transylvanians facing them have mostly been reduced to three-base units in various stages of disarray, and so the Spaniards can charge into them and scatter them to the four winds with impunity !
The Tercio is grinding down the rather resilient revolting peasants with a series of spectacularly good dice
The Peasants Revolt - explained with lego
On the right, keen to get the battle over and done with before some Transylvanian oik steals their baggage, the Cuirassiers have decided to wade in, supported by some typically rubbish average horse - who have managed to find some equally poor opponents to take on this time
Q: What is Transylvania's National sport?
A: Batminton.
This is last chance saloon for the Transylvanians, and they commit generals to the fray (using some very nice General In Combat tokens from Vexillia) in an attampt to stem the tide of superior quality horsemen from the far future they find themselves now facing - but it is not enough as the Gendarmes go DISR and are unable to expand out and overlap the Cuirassiers due to the unfortunately closer-than-normal edge of the world
(yes, it's different…and very funny)
The Peasants Revolt has been broken! And with it the Tercio captures the Transylvanian artillery park as well
The Spanish light horse are rounding up the last stragglers of Transylvanian light horse - they have had no answer to the artillery park and its supporting shooters, and have all suffered horrendous casualties as they sought to charge down the Spanish guns
As the Transylvanian horse make a last stand, the Elite Tercio is almost upon their rear! Transylvanian skirmishers trying to slow them down fail to get out of the way in time and are caught -not a good matchup for the Transylvanians…
The Light Foot are immediately broken, opening up the possibility of a follow-on pursuit style charge thingy into the flank of the already engaged Transylvanians horse
But there is no need - the Transylvanian horse cannot stand up to the frontal attack, and they break and instantly deploy a very nice BROKEN token from Vexilliabefore they suffer the ignominy of a rear attack from infantry
Q: What idoes the Transylvanian army do every day at 11am?
A: Have a coffin break.
The game ends with the Transylvanians scattered to the four winds - nothing could stand up to the Spanish foot and guns, and even the sneaky infantry have not snuck fast enough to capture the Spanish baggage….
The Result is a very substantial win for the Spanish !
This week I 'ave mostly been routing Transylvanians
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 Later Imperial Spanish Commander
Bono estente! Nobo squintero tos con Plungers!
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Tothi-peg horribalements mortuo transylvanicanos totale vamos! Victoria incredibalemente et grande deservedio. Genius militar phenomenologica, el toto monde subjagatore a el brilliantemente de mios
Plano simplamentico - advance, shootios, poke, win. Brilliante, exacerbitede par el lack of proper foote de el Transylvanianoicos - mistakio terribilio. Talbot Solara, Talbot Horizon, disastre do Dracula. Morte subito et expectiamente.
Victorioso !
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Pray you, stand farther from me you foul smelling toby jug of a man!
How you struggled against such lame opposition I shudder to think - far greater travails awat you than this toothesome rabble - simply surviving the endless stream of poor quality vampire jokes and utterly irrelevant videos in this report was a far harder task than actually winning the game - perhaps the Transylvanians should concentrate on raising and then relentlessly commercialising small families of woodland creatures attired in Victorian dress instead of attempting to bring war famine and pestilence to the fields of C16 Europe methinks?
Admittedly that will mean a change to drop the "Tran" from their names, but after this showing they will not be returning to the field of battle anytime soon methinks
Pernicious and indubitate beggar, your time of defeat is soon to be upon ye. Do not hesitate to rasp it with both hands...
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You can also comment, "like" or give feedback on these reports on either the Madaxeman.com Facebook Page or the Madaxeman.com Blogger Site.
Game 1 Later Imperial Spanish vs Transylvanian
Game 2 Later Imperial Spanish vs TYW French
Game 3 Later Imperial Spanish vs Early TYW Swedish
Game 4 Later Imperial Spanish vs TYW Swedish
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