Early Renaissance at Warfare 2015
Early Danish vs French Hugenot
Game 2 Early Danish vs French Hugenot
Game 3 Early Danish vs Imperial Austrian
Game 4 Early Danish vs West Sundanese
The lists for the Early Danish and French Hugenot from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the Field of Glory Renaissance Wiki.
The French army was impressively large - in fact you could say that it was huge, y'know...?
In one of those rare moments, the terrain had fallen in such a way that there was a properly positioned set of hills on my left flank, all poised for both armies to fight over. A large area of rough terrain dominated the middle-right, which my plan was to block off with the Levy whilst shoving the 2 Kiels through the big gap and all of the horse down the left.
The hill could not have been better positioned to make the game exciting - the Hugenots had better impact cavalry with Pi/Pi horse supported by commanded shot arquebusiers but this combination was slower moving than my big block of heavily armoured Reiters who had raced up to try and gain advantage of height.
The left saw a flurry of dragoons make their way across the rough ground and an unimaginative but effective wall of levy inch towards them and open up with ineffectual crossbow shooting
Easy Wars of Religion - mangled English...
The Reiters took their lives in their hands and charged downhill into the enemy Pi/Pi horse - the general adding his weight and authority to the combat. Using a general with average horse was dicey, but with the two armies evenly matched across much of the rest of the table, eking out a small advantage here was the only move to make..
And the bravery paid off, as the Reiters recorded a full set of hits. The general could be proud of his men...
In the middle two Kiels inched towards each other, as the levy started to put themselves into a place where they might be involved in proper fighting
Kiels and Reiters faced off on the left as well, as the combat on the hill dragged on into another round.
The tiny commanded shot were invisible as the Reiters loomed over them - better armour and uphill advantage was slowly starting to count as both sides started to lose bases in the prolonged close quarters combat.
Voila! Les Soldats!.
Having previously been content to provide rear support, the appearance of yet another unit of enemy Pi/Pi horse meant that the Danish Crap Gendarmes were compelled to throw themselves into combat as well - somewhat unsuccessfully as it turned out as they lost a base and lost cohesion at first contact. Things were swinging away from the Danes as only a DISR marker on the commanded shot marked their success in the decisive combat
But, out of adversity comes success and bravery - the Reiters and Gendarmes rolled high once again, dishing out DISR markers to the shocked Hugenots and knocking off a base to boot. The DISR enemy Horse were now severely DISR as the Reiters swords came into play to give them a significan positive POA total.
With 3's counting the Reiters had the bit between their teeth - raining down hits on the now rather concerned Hugenot Millers.
With the Miller unit on the far left now exploded, the battered Gendarmes had the chance to regroup - they fell back from combat, leaving the way clear for a rather more intimidating Kiel to replace them in the front line - much to the dismay of the Millers!
Elsewhere the other Reiter unit had been enjoying outrageous amounts of luck with its artillery-assisted shooting on one of the oddly-sized French infantry units, and had done what Reiters are supposed to do and broken the Frenchmen from volleys carbine fire alone. This catastrophe did not go down well with the rest of the French army, with the other Pike and Shotte formation on the hill double-dropping immediately to FRAGGED in response.
But at least the two proper Kiels were now properly engaged right in the middle - weeks of dice rolling locked in prospect as the two huge units slammed into each other, making the earth shake and giving the first decent photo of the double-rank-based Museum Miniatures pikemen as well
One of the Levy units was living up to their billing as press-ganged agricultural workers, and were attempting to plough slowly through the large field - but repeated volleys of close range arquebus shooting was starting to take its toll, and with Danish generals committed elsewhere their ability to recover seemed a somewhat distant possibility
How all Religious Wars Started
Both Kiels were taking losses, but the slightly wider Danish line, aided by the halberd-holding levy in ++ overlap was slowly gaining the upper hand.
Back where the Hugenot morale had collapsed, the second Landsnecht Kiel took the initiative and opened up with some deadly shooting of their own.
By now the fight on the hill has swing decisively in Denmark's favour - the Millers were crumbling in the face of heavier armoured Reiters, and the gendarmes has also recovered and added their intimidating charge to help push the initiative firmly in favour of the land of bacon. Faced with a cascade of routing units the Hugenots were unable to reorganise in time to avoid the horrors of multiple burst-through's, hammering their morale even more.
With enemy baggage captured in the first game, the enemy artillery now hove into view in game 2!
The right flank was best forgotten, as the Levy, without means of rallying, had been shot to pieces to such an extent that enemy horse dared to charge them in the RGo.
The inevitable result - routing from every possible cause! But at least this flank had been delayed for the loss of just one unit
The main Kiel on the left was sweeping all before it as it advanced
German Stuff
Seeking a few final units, the Danes secret weapon - Average Armoured Lancer Sword horse in a 4-pack - charged downhill into a 2-pack of unprotected MF arquebusiers. This would be their moment to win the game rather than just lurk around playing at rear support!
And, after too much of a struggle, the mission was accomplished and the Hugenots teetered on the brink of defeat
In a manner which seemed fitting given the way the game had played out, a routing Hugenot pike block burst through some of their own horse to tip the French over the edge...
The Result is a 23-2 win for the Danes.
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 Early Danish Commander
What a sizzling performance from my pig-in-a-blanket-tastic Reiters! Surely they are the apogee of Germano-Scandinavian military technological evolution, and this whole heresy of wearing slightly less armour and charging with pistols will be proven to be the flash in the lardon-sizzling frying pan that swiftly washes away in a swirl of Carlsberg-flavoured washing up liquid!
The game was here to be won and lost on the fall of a dice, and the first to the top of the hill was going to be not only the Grand of Duke of York, but also the king of this particular battlefield – and I made dammed sure that my men were in the right place at the right time, keeping victory for myself and condemning the opposition to a downhill slippery slope towards defeat.
The bravery and accurate shooting of the carbine Reiters and artillery was also tremendously effective, and the lily-livered Frenchmen had no backbone with which to stand up to the hail of fire we laid down. A worthy result proving that bacon is better than croissants as the breakfast of the gods!
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, this was not a victory of skill unless skill is measured in advancing straight forwards at full speed until you engage whatever enemy is in front of you, then trusting to the fates to bless your dice with fortune and curse the cubes of your wretchedly unlucky opponent!
To trust your whole battle plan to an average unit of Horse on evens combat odds is impudence and folly of the deepest order, and so I am left to wonder whether thou hast word, or wit, or impudence that can yet do thee the favour of maintaining yourself in such high office with such poor intellect?
To see a victory achieved by such a reeky whoreson miscreant is a foul taste indeed, but to then hear that you do not recognise the fortune involved in inflicting a double-drop on an otherwise solid unit in the key part of the enemy line is galling in a way which makes me gag and retch!
Let us see if you can recognise fortune when it drops in your lap in the next game, thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
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 2 Early Danish vs French Hugenot
Game 3 Early Danish vs Imperial Austrian
Game 4 Early Danish vs West Sundanese
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