Field Of Glory: Renaissance - Later German versus Later French

Another game with FOGR today as my Later TYW German Catholics faced Stephens Later French force.

Tercios no longer available (army roughly 1635-1639) so a bunch of Pike & Shot foot backed by couple of Kuirassiere and Reiters with usual Dragoons and Artillery with a unit of Tratischer (Sword and Buckler types) and Croats for a change.

French foot are all Impact (which proved decisive) backed by Determined Horse and also with usual Artillery and Dragoons and also fielding a unit of Croat Light Horse.

Both sides managed to field 14 units rather than usual 11 or 12

Game really decided early on in middle of field when 3 of my foot units were destroyed or broken with a General lost (even though not fighting in front rank) and loss in same turn of another General on my left whilst leading Kuirassiere in combat.

The Impact ability of French in the Impact Phase (quelle surprise) made the difference.

This left me with only one General and so any Disruption or worse not able to be Rallied.

Further losses saw my force defeated in short order, but still this way a fun game if only in trying to beat the odds (Never a forte of my dicing skills).

The extra shooting dice of my units (French are Musket*) was I felt outweighed by the Impact ability as losing in Impact phase and subsequent Cohesion losses is crippling in a foot vs foot encounter (as generally occurs in center in FogR) but such is life.

Germans approach French lines

Despite having numbers on my left I was unable to overwhelm the French mounted

German right

Commands & Colors- new scenario Baecula 208BC started on Vassal

Mike back from Arnhem (lucky sod) and so we are starting next scenario in our Pbem Vassal Punic Campaign entitled Baecula 208BC.

This one has Carthaginians defending several Camps (each a Victory Banner for Romans if occupied)

Commands & Colors Ancients - Castulo scenario completed

Completed the Castulo scenario with Mike (Part of our ongoing Punic campaign) a with a narrow win for my Romans. 

Romans could gain Banners by exiting units off the Carthaginian board edge in addition to normal casualty method.

However despite managing to move across board on my right I was then stalled for what seemed ages as I failed to draw any cards for moves on Right or Leaders and Mike began to inflict casualties on my left and center meaning things were neck and neck but thankfully I took out his LC and then drew a card which would end game.

End game just as I am about to play a card to win by exiting cavalry on right

Field Of Glory: Renaissance another outing - Spanish versus Dutch

Game at Stephens and he choose FOGR again but this time we tried earlier armies namely the Spanish and Dutch in Flanders in  late 16th century (all figures Stephens).

I took Spanish and thankfully realised my list was underpointed early on, and also thankfully this was easily fixed (by losing lots of Superior status and downgrading a commander)

I had 3 Early Tercios (1 Superior), 3 units of Walloons (one a skirmisher) backed by 2 medium artillery batteries, a unit of mounted Arquebusier, 1 unit of heavy Gendarmes and 2 lowly Light Lance Celadas horse.

At start I split 2 of the Walloons into a pike Keil and a unit of Arguebusiers to try these formations.

Dutch had 3 nasty Kuirassiere units and set up a portion of their foot and guns behind fortifications.

Another fun and bloody game with the Kuirassiere crushing my cavalry (some awful Cohesion tests once more) but my artillery shot really well causing lots of hits but only 2 kills but did Disrupt a unit of superior Pike & Shot several times.

Cowardly cur Dutch hiding behind defences meant it took my Tercios a good while to get to grips but these proved quite resilient and drew in several Dutch units (although they were suffering towards the end), their lack of flanks or threats to same is bonus but they are unwieldly with dissipated shooting (due to width)

My losses mounted and the Wavering (ie Fragmenting) of a Tercio tipped army over the edge.

Bit different using Keil, Early Tercios and having most shooting reduced to 3" (Dutch had a couple of musket armed units) .

 

Spanish left wing with Walloons and doomed mounted

Tercios with mounted Arquebusiers in support

Central area with skirmishers in field (chased out by Dragoons) and Dutch fortifications in distance

Artillery deployed together on left as Walloons and cavalry deploy

Battle Command - solo Seven Years war bash (pic heavy)

Better half had friends over today so made myself scarce up to lair and decided to play a solo miniatures game.

Toyed with trying several sets periods (initial try with Bolt Action 3 maybe) but I choose FOB3 (shock ! horror ! gasp !) and my SYW Russians and Prussians testing out a points system which yielded 18 Prussians vs 24 Russians with Prussians having better command.

I used scenario generator from FOB2 to set up the game and one of its terrain cards.

I rolled for Army Morale with Russians getting only 20 and Prussians a mere 14 morale chips.

This yielded a nice narrative for the game with Prussians getting better deployment options and one Russian unit delayed (but only for 1 Move option)

I then decided to switch to using Bat Cmd for a change for no reason other than 'just cause'.

Great game that went to the wire with both sides losing all morale but Russians 'gifting' 5 chips to Prussia to give them a minor victory when Russians failed their first Army Morale roll.

I really enjoyed Bat Cmd this time round with its reduced card deck and multiple options on the Action Matrix generating another nice set of decisions to make in a game, the rest of system of course pretty much unchanged from FOB3.

I still feel that FOB3 just has the edge in gameplay for me personally, not fully sure why maybe its just comfort or familiarity but such it is, although Bat Cmd very much now in close contention for my affection.

Russians in foreground try to turn Prussian left flank as their center decimated

Cavalry stand off on Russian left after couple of ineffectual charges apiece

Russians have just managed to save two Routing units but hole in central lines obvious

Russian mounted arm on their right rather weak with Horse Grenadiers backed by lowly Hussars and Cossacks and enemy has managed to turn their flank to thwart progress

Prussian Cuirassier in center (at hill) took no part in proceedings as loathe to engage steady foot 

The open Prussian flank visible prior to Russian mounted advance

Battle lines drawn around the village, the Prussian artillery here done a lot of damage

Prussian left wing 

Russian artillery was less effective at longer ranges

Fighting around village intensifies it was captured, lost and recaptured by Prussian Grenadiers in battle with Russian Grenadiers

Cavalry face off on Prussian right

Losses and disorder mounts on both sides

Prussian Cuirassiers come off the hill top deployment to keep advancing Russian foot honest

Prussian left were tardy facing cavalry threat 

View from Prussian lines 

Russian foot in summer garb advance

Prussian in their blue oppose

Less than stellar Russian right wing

View 'down' the table with armies clashing almost right on center line

Field Of Glory: Renaissance - Early Catholic vs Late Swedish

Game today with Stephen using FOGR and my Thirty Years War Early Catholics fielded against a Later Swedish force.

Been several months since we played FOGR but all went smoothly and fun game was had, well for me if not for my troops.

I had fairly decent (ie average which is good for me) shooting and death rolls, but failed to win many combats which led to numerous Cohesion Tests and a deluge of awful results.

Even when I rolled 5 hits in a combat the evil sod rolled 6 and I had couple of units Fragmented or Broken without a single base loss !!

Needless to say this saw my lot implode with Swedes virtually untouched besides a few lost bases.

But was good experience with a decent set of points based/competition style rules which despite their complexity we have pretty much got handle on despite playing intermittently and always good to get TYW toys on table.

Not seen much online re FOGR recently, suspect the newer Renato Et Gloriam (which I dont follow) may corner this market ?

Late Imperial Tercios advance, note Regimental Guns attached to some Swedish units, these are decent add-ons 

Imperial Kurassiare (who were pants) face Determined Swedish Horse

Four Late Tercios form main Imperial battle line

The supposedly Superior Imperial Kurassiere formed right wing

First moves