The Dark Ages

For our next campaign we're going back to the Dark Ages for some mass skirmish action using Dragon Rampant Version 2. We've played a few of the rule sets using the same system, most recently doing some ACW and Sudan games. 

Between us we can field quite a selection of British / North European armies so we should have some interesting show-downs. 

This week we used Anglo-Normans vs Saxons for a practice game at 32 points with 3 players a-side. The target though is 3 * 24 point games running at once. 

   

September roundup

I've not blogged for a few weeks as I've been busy playing more games than usual. So a quick round-up of the last few weeks.

A visit over to Fishponds saw me playing the Humans in a battle with Twilight Kin (evil elves) and Abyssal Dwarves (evil dwarves) using Kings of War. It was a tough day for the humans who killed some dwarves but struggled with the elves.   

I've also been working on some home-brew fast play rules for the French Wars of Religion. We plan to use them in a seriously big game at the Cotswold Wargames day on the 20th Oct.  

Continuing the testing theme I played Keith Flint at a test game of his new WWII rules, Startline. It was his first game using the US and Normandy. No major kinks so I look forward to seeing them in print.     

Finally some Great North War - in this case a battle from 1702 between Sweden and a Polish / Saxon army, giving a chance to field some colourful units.  

Wars of Religion - week 8

This week the North were renewing their attacks into Southern on all fronts. Three games played 

Game 1 - Landsknechts (north) vs WOR (south)

The south had half their forces in a vanguard position looking to delay the norths advance, whilst inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. They opted for infantry holding the line and horse moving to reinforce. The Germans plan was to push their tercios up the centre and left whilst their less numerous horse protected the right flank. 

The Germans moved up rapidly apparently intent on assaulting the French defending the fields on the centre line. They began taking fire and this seemed to distract them as they stop advancing and settled into an exchange of fire. This suited the French who had the better cover and mostly wanted to delay the attack.       

Eventually the Germans got moving again but were unable to get any scoring units over the half way line. WOR (south) win. 

Game 2 - WOR (south) vs WOR (north)

The southern forces were defending a key strong point guarding the way to their regional capital. They opted to spread their forces across the field in the hopes the north would match the deployment and so draw units away from main objective.

In the early turns the north looked for an opening whilst the south tried to attack to prevent them getting close to the stronghold. This somewhat worked for the early part of the game and the northern horse was pushed back on both flanks. 

 

Southern harquebusier see off the northern cuirassiers 

Up until turn 5 the south were in the lead and a win looked possible, but in turn 6 the north manged to get a couple of units attacking the stronghold and snatched a late win. Northern Win

Game 3 - Polish (north) vs WOR (south) 

Both sides were looking to capture three vital terrain pieces, with one each close their deployment zones and one in the centre.  The largely mounted Polish army massed its heavy horse on their left looking to capture the WOR "home" terrain and the central hill. 

The Polish found that much of the their horse was facing the WOR infantry - not a good match for most armies but the Hussars are capable of tasking-on enemy pike units if things go well.  

On this occasion the gods were with them and they broke the WOR right and swept to victory. Polish win.

Campaign situation

The norths run of good form continues with them winning 5 of the last 6 games and making inroads into enemy territory. We'll likely play a couple more weeks as the north seem to be ahead now. 

 

  

Battle of Fleurus - 1622

This game was played a couple of weeks ago but I never got the time to write it up. On a night when lots of folks were away on holiday we did the Battle of Fleurus, 1622. This was one of the early battles of the French Wars of Religion. It saw a Protestant army under Von Laurenstein attacking a Catholic army commanded by Don Phillipe De Sylva trying to defend his line of retreat on Antwerp. As the Catholics were surprised they had their baggage train with the army, and this formed the objective for the game.

Spanish tercio

The Protestants had the more numerous cavalry and had recently adopted a Dutch style organisation, so had more firepower than their opponents. The Catholics had a decent position with one flank guarded by a village with a shot company there. They also had some old style tercios, this being one of the last times they were used.   

Protestant left wing

The Protestants advanced their infantry and made their strongest attack on the left side where they had a 50% cavalry advantage. Some shooting from the village disrupted them and they failed to break through the Catholic horse.  

In the centre battle was joined and the Protestant shooting drove back the Catholic foot. More unexpectedly the Protestant horse managed to breakthrough on the right and a unit of cuirassier found themselves loose in the enemy rear.  

Pinned to their front, the Catholics were unable to reach very effectively to the cuirassiers and they went on the sack the Catholic baggage. This reversed history with the Protestants the winners.   

The baggage falls

   

My wargaming weekend; part 2 - Wars of Religion week 7

Monday evening we met for the usual weekly club game. As it was a bank holiday we only played two of the campaign game. 

Game 1 - WOR (North) vs WOR (South); Surrounded

The southern forces were defending an improvised camp when the enemy attacked them from 2 sides. The attackers deployed second and opted to put their cavalry against the enemy infantry and their foot against the enemy horse. 

Seeing they were facing cavalry, the defending infantry quickly decided to leave the cover and advance on the attacking horse. At the same time the attacking foot advanced into the flank of the camp to attack the defending cavalry.  

The attackers struck first and were able to push back then destroy some of the defending horse, allowing them to break into the camp. At the same time their own cavalry was falling back in the face of the defenders foot taking some losses as they went.

By the end of play honours were even - the VPs the attacker was scoring from being in the camp were wiped-out by the losses taken. Draw.

 Game 2 - Landsknechts (north) vs Ottomans (south); Stronghold

The Ottomans fought for the south this week and found themselves defending a strategic fortification. The Ottomans had to deploy party of their force at the fort whilst the rest pushed-up to reinforce them. They opted for the guns, Sekban foot and a cavalry unit in the vanguard zone. 

The Germans looked to attack with a solid wall of Tercios and placed their horse on the left flank. 

The Ottomans aim was to delay the enemy as much as possible so they launched a spoiling attack against the Germans swordsman, destroying them and creating a hole in the line and generally being in the way.   

The Germans advanced under heavy fire taking hits as they came in, before launching an attack on the Sekban which they were able to beat back.  

After the first couple of attacks the Ottoman reserves began arriving and reinforced the line to keep the Germans away from the fort. With the arrival of these fresh troops pressure increased on the Germans and they were forced to fall back. Ottoman win in turn 6.   

 Campaigns Situation

A draw and a southern win have stabilised the situation for them and ended a run of losses.