Lasalle 2 at the Ulster Wargames Society

First meeting of Ulster Wargames Club in Belfast today since Februrary 2020.

Stephen and I brought along his French and my Prussian forces for another game of Lasalle 2 using Scenario 5 'Hold Your Ground' with French in defence.

Good old slog along a river line with my Prussian Grenadiers managing to take one of the two town objectives but my Line units failing to take the other despite 6 separate assaults !! got nowhere near the third objective in French rear area.

My Skirmishing dice were very poor all day even when I had 28 vs initial French 18 and I only won one phase outright, with 2 drawn (I did get Initiative on those 2) and lost other 5 phases.

Pretty much a toe to toe scenario this one as French can line river with initial forces and tough nut to crack (the extra MO needed to move/charge across river is a real drain) even before French reserves arrive.

Another fun and slick game with these rather enjoyable rules despite (or maybe because of) its abstractions and broad brush style.

Was great to get back to further normality and see people in the flesh as it were instead of via Zoom. I hope to get to Elimination club as well in due course (just have not had a free Friday evening this month)

Besides our game there was a Field Of Glory Renaissance game (Ottomans Turk vs Venetians) and a Chain Of Command game (British vs German).

Prussian right wing attacks  

As Grenadiers and Russian support attack on left

A solid line of French defenders (several Elite Battalions to the fore)

Disorders start to accumulate

Prussian cavalry are across river

First assaults on town are repulsed

Russian suffering on my left as Grenadiers threaten an unoccupied town

French cavalry have appeared to counter my mounted units (we both lost a unit each)

Grenadiers about to take the town (Prussian high water mark)

The 'two Davids' and Paul with the FOGR clash, I tried to take a pic of the rather excellent flags on display but photo does not do them justice.

The 'two Jeremys' and yet another 'two Davids' and Phil (a newcomer to the fold) battle it out on western front with CoC i

Field Of Glory: Renaissance - Thirty Years War - Swedish versus Early Catholic

Another game at Stephens and he selected FOGR again having just read a book 'Lion Of The North' and wishing to field his Early Swedes.

I fielded my Early Catholic again this time with 3 Average Early Tercios.

I took a huge risk putting two units of Cuirassier a Reiter and a Field Commander on a Flank March as I know that my army is outclassed in a straight on stand up fight.

The Swedish Brigades are simply awesome especially when Superior (Stephen had 4 Brigades with 3 Superior) and with Regimental Guns and they usually (ie always) steamroller my Tercios with their Impact and Salvo traits.

I also selected Woodland terrain in attempt to disrupt Swedish advance but Stephen managed to remove two of four Forests with rolls of 6.
Although with the way heavy Infantry set up in the center in FOGR avoiding these Brigades is a tough proposition.

With fully one third of my force off-table at start it was always down to if or when the Flank march appeared.

With a Field Commander I needed to roll a 9 on 2d6 but consistently (ie every bloody turn) rolled an annoying 8 so........................

This meant I was fighting with only 9 units but thankfully I had decent dice rolls today and did manage to hold up the Swedish mounted on both flanks.

I had a 3 gun Battery that fired 7 times rolling 2 Hits every time which I could not complain about but of course Stephen 'demoned' his way to passing all but one death roll and  Cohesion Test caused.

The crunch of game came in center as my 3 Tercios were engaged by the 4 Swedish Brigades.
I did remove a couple of bases from firing but lost a couple myself with neither side suffering any Cohesion tests so all fighting 'Fresh' at Impact
Two Brigades hitting one was a hiding to nothing as at Impact the Swedes rolled 6 dice needing 3 and 1 dice (Regt gun) coupled with Superior status generating re-rolls this is awesome stuff.

Two of my Tercios (those facing Superior Swedes) went Disrupted then Fragmented and soon Broke in short order.
My other Tercio with a General in fronk rank managed to withstand the Average Swedish Brigade and eventually Disrupted then Fragmented it but failed to Break it.

By this time my wings had collapsed and game ended in another abject defeat.

++ Note to self - if trying an outflank send the tatty Reiters not your Cuirassier and maybe just 1 unit not 3 !! ++

A tale of too much risk for no reward, but it was a fun game all the same trying to remove 'nuts from the fire'

First game out of 'lockdown' - Field Of Glory Renaissance

First face to face game since Covid Lockdown back at start of March (that seems sooo long ago !) today........yee hah......

At Stephens and he chose to use FOGR with a Selujik Turk force against which I used my Thirty Years War German Catholic 1618-1632 (being as it is only Renaissance army I have) with Later Tercios.

After a lengthy catch up/waffling session and bitch about the world we finally got down to playing and very enjoyable it was too.

Solo play is great for rules learning but nothing beats 'competitive' play.

With late start we failed to finish but Turk firepower was coming to the fore as my Horse units struggled to contact the evading Turk Cavalry.
I did catch one unit of Saphis with my Cuirassier and gave it short shrift but the Janissary Infantry are potent shooters and had decimated a unit of Reiters and my Dragoons and I had lost a Tercio to Turkish guns.

FOGR is a decent set of rules which has nice interaction of troops types and period specific formations and is very playable.
The FOG family of rules lack any real form of inertia/chaos (mainly due to being competition biased I suspect) compared to newer systems (ie no orders, no Pips, no activations or cards), but they do what they say on the tin and the lists are always fun to play around with within the points system.

We were playing with the last batch of updates and all played pretty easily as nothing truly radical in terms of changes for the armies we used.

Game booked for next week at mine and likely to be a try out of FOB3.

All pics from early stages as my phone died mid-game

Field Of Glory Renaissance - Imperial Catholic versus French

Game at Stephens today using FOGR (he was inspired by games at Warfare) which we have not used for ages.
I fielded my Early Imperial Catholic force and Stephen choose French.
A very good game with a set of rules that whilst on the complex side of things generates a very plausible Thirty Years War game.
Terrain fell ok for me which allowed me to place my Field Guns in newly acquired Redoubt (Field Fortifications).
I massed my mounted on my left hoping to break his flank which was mostly Impact Horse whilst sending my Late Tercios to contest center and essentially refusing my right flank.
Things actually started well once contact made with Stephen suffering from several Death Rolls but tellingly he managed to pass associated Cohesion Tests and I could not break through his mounted wing.
On my right it was fairly static until one unit of French Shock Foot routed a Tercio despite being down to 4 bases.
This seemed to inspire his other foot how took out my center Tercios in a couple of turns (my horrible Cohesion rolls not helping as I went down 2 levels in a couple of key combats).
Try as I might I could not get rid of his horse despite out fighting them with my Kuirassiere.
I did manage to Fragment a couple but at this stage my Army was defeated.
Enjoyable game overall and surprisingly we had no issues recalling rules despite several changes (all for the better we both thought) to troop interactions and suchlike.