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

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

A rule set not played for awhile - Field Of Glory Renaissance - Early Imperial Catholic vs Later French

Game with Stephen today using FOGR which we have not used since early 2021 and both rather incredulous that we have had these since publication in 2010 !!!.

I fielded my one and only army the Early Imperial Catholic and Stephen fielded Later French (so a wee bit out historically but not by much).

Usual 800pt armies but using the latest (2020 ?) amendments.

Considering we have not played in so long the game went very well, with only couple of things we needed to look up or learn anew despite it being a bit more complicated/involved than usual fare for us of late (probably an age thing but we tend to simpler types nowadays).

The game really turned in second phase of melee when several French foot completely pulverised my line of Late Tercios. 

Compared to LadgRenn we sort of prefer the big infantry formations in FOGR but much prefer the 'Squadron' style single units of mounted in LadgRenn. 

Overall enjoyable outing and great to see these armies on table again.

Ulster Wargames Society - Battle of Umboto Gorge (actually pursuit after Isandlwana )

Attended UWS meeting today and participated in very fun game put on by Phil with stuff from his ever excellent 20mm collection (with some venerable Ral Partha, Minifig and Garrison figures on display !).

Game was semi-skirmish style with a set of rules 'Front Rank Fire' (from an old Wargames Illustrated mag) and scenario had a bunch of stragglers from Isandlwana trying to escape across a stream (via 2 fords) after defeat on front slopes of the mountain pursued by a horde of victorious Zulus.

Stragglers comprised of disparate groups of British and Natal Native Contingent.

Billy commanded a group of 10 (?) Brits commanded by a superior NCO (Bob Hoskins), Ivan in middle commanded another group of 10 Brits (with a couple already wounded and therefore slow) and I had control of 14 NNC natives (2 of whom carried boxes of ammo) with a Boer commander and a Boer marksman.

Phil and Jeremy commanded the Zulus

We set up about 18" from table edge 3 turns before Zulus would appear as busy killing of Burt Lancaster, sorry Dunfords lot but with proviso that the Zulu horns may outflank us from either table edge.

Zulus were in large units of 30 or so figures (with each figure signifying 2 warriors so 60 man units !)

Whilst straggling back for several turns (we could run for 5" then walk for 2.5" whilst Zulus could always run 6") we had to try to form nominal lines/units to try to delay Zulus until we crossed table center line when it could be every man for himself.

Great game ensued as we manfully tried to conduct a fighting withdrawal in face of every increasing numbers of Zulus some of whom inevitably appeared on our flank (thankfully Billys not mine).

Ivan did manage to form a couple of 5 man lines and volleyed his pursuers, a hit would cause a casualty but more importantly force a morale test which could halt a Zulu unit for 1 turn (however a roll of 12 on a D12 would allow them to surge forwards an additional 8") but lost too much time using ammo reload  I had sent him (very much a red herring) and then had half his force killed in 1 devastating shower of Zulu throwing spears (thankfully only 1 such 'volley' per unit).

We soon realised that single men could delay the Zulus as much as a group and once across the center line that is what we tried with single figures trying to sell themselves dearly whilst mates fled.

I had a single NNC warrior hold up a Zulu unit for a glorious 4 combats (each combined turn roughly 8 secs only but still some sort of native Ninja character to last 16 secs !) allowing bulk of my chaps to outdistance warriors, in contrast my Boer marksman fired 3 times only hitting once with Zulus passing tests and indeed surging forward to overwhelm this Dutchman instantly.

Ivans remaining 5 Brits got caught by Zulu swarm but again held them up before being wiped out.

Meanwhile Billys bunch were heading for ford hell for leather with couple of blokes similarly delaying Zulus on his flank with shooting and fisticuffs.

At the end I was defending a ford with NNC whilst covering Billys survivors and sending some of my natives to safety.

All came down to a last gasp volley of spears as our rearguard was crossing the ford with Zulus achieving 5 hits on 8 target figures with Boer commander and 2 British figures surviving to cross ford, loss of either the Brits or the Boer would be an outright win for Zulus (not that they could really lose as such). In the end we managed to 'save' a mere 6 NNC, 2 British regulars and the Boer leader from initial force.

Super fun and many thanks to Phil for providing every thing and running such a entertaining game .

The dispersed stragglers at start with Dunfords camp to rear. My NNC in foreground

Fuzzy Wuzzy pic (oops wrong war) of Ivans Brits

First Zulus appear note my being wary of a 'horn' appearing, Ivan has formed a couple of lines

Zulus 'thousands of 'em' press forward. Ivans line and my marksman pre-doom on hillock, Billys blokes out of shot running to rear 

NNC have also formed a couple of lines just as they reach center line

'Those bloody spears never run out......'

Overview of latter stages as NNC defending ford with Zulus delayed on my flank, Ivans chaps gone and Billys lot reduced to 6 figures with Zulus in hot pursuit from flank and rear.

Also at club the usual suspects had a FOGR game with Spanish Armada force that having not sunk dare to invade English soil (no idea how this ended ?)

Spanish camp with Inquisitors enjoying their 'hobby' in sun

Equally gory English 'bring out yer dead' plague camp

   

Ulster Wargames Society first meeting of 2022.

Attended UWS club today for first meeting of the year (hopefully first of uninterrupted schedule this year) where a couple of games were put on and some mighty waffling with various chaps.

Did not book a table myself this time as unsure if able to attend until last minute but Field of Battle game covering Minden planned for next meeting.

A 20mm Burma game was put on by Phil with some very nice figures and great to see a couple of venerable Airfix 'bamboo huts' in action. 

Rules were I believe a home brew set set at 1:1 skirmish level

Other game by 'Two Davids' and John was a FOGR game of the Siege of Vienna (think was 1200pts apiece on 8' x 4' table), 

Again some really nice 15mm figures that my snap shots fail to do justice too especially the winged Hussars.

The forces (2 reduced Companies plus supports)

Turks at the gates of Vienna

Ulster Wargames Club - Field Of Battle 3 - Zorndorf

Put on another Field Of Battle 3 game today at UWS Club using my trusty old Zorndorf scenario (simply as I had scenario stuff easily to hand).

I umpired and had 5 players participating as Prussians (David T and Phil) against Russians (Jeremy N, David S and Leslie) on a 6' x 4' table with my smaller 3 base units, but we used standard 25mm measurements which fairly made the game crack along (I would usually use 1/2 or 2/3rds on a 6x4).

Zorndorf is essentially a straight forward slugging match (as it was historically) and so it transpired in this outing.

Prussians held back on their right with Schorlemers Cuirassier Brigade as it faced the inferior more numerous cavalry wing under Demiku and managed to engage this wing effectively throughout game despite Schorlemer being shot from saddle at one point 

On Prussian left their cavalry under Seydlitz and Bieberstein faced their counterparts under Gaugraben and this was a bit of and to and fro with Prussians gaining upper hand but just too slowly.

But the story of the game was with the Prussian infantry of Manteuffel, Kanitz and Dohna in the centre advancing against the Russian foot under Saltykov, Gallitzen and Browne.

The Prussians suffered horrendously from the Russian guns (so many 1s rolled vs high Russian rolls) early on and failed to rally on most opportunities.

Some Prussian Grenadiers did manage to assault and almost breakthrough the Russian center but were then repelled and finally destroyed and their supporting formations of Musketeers also suffered high losses and Dohna was also shot down.

This failure by Prussian foot saw their Army Morale dwindle to nothing and Frederick failed to muster their resolve (failed roll on Army Morale card) and they quit the field.

Another excellent game with FOB and it was very interesting to watch the battle develop from afar. FOB is easy to umpire as mechanics are basically simple and the card sequencing makes it easy to explain what players can do each time. The multiple dice types can be a bit confusing for new players but they certainly generate decisive results and aid fast play. The opposed rolls also keeps players engaged in game which is a real benefit in multiplayer games.

Winner and losers both expressed their enjoyment of the game and ultimately that is what its all about no matter the dice results. 

David B and John were engaged in a couple of FOGR games but I only managed to take pics of their second game which was an interesting match up of Monrose Scots against an Later Northern Parliamentarian force. Some lovely flags on display again.