The battlefield was a relatively open plain split up into three segments by a small forest and a village. A small stream wound its way onto the table on one side.
The two opposing armies consisted of various pike-and-shot units of differing quality, cavalry squadrons (the distinguishing features being whether they were French impact cavalry or Spanish skirmishing caballeros), and a smattering of artillery.
The Spanish opted for a double-line deployment, while the French chose a checkerboard. Both sides deployed most of their cavalry to one flank.
Kevyn and Kelly commanded the Spanish army, while Mark and I commanded the French.
The battle started with the skirmishers and cavalry of both sides quickly advancing into position.
While Kelly's caballeros had open terrain to advance into, my cavalry units were stymied somewhat by the stream. However, at Mark's suggestion, I did aggressively push our musketeer units into the village.
On the other side of the battlefield, Mark had pushed forward with a mixed force of dragoons and harquebusiers, occupying the woods and the attention of Kevyn's flank.
With both side's heavy artillery being unmovable one deployed, the Spanish decided to step off with their infantry. Meanwhile, the cowardly French infantry hung back and consoled themselves after one unit deployed a bit too close to the Spanish artillery and took a few salvos for the mistake. This did allows Kelly to chase one of my musketeer units out of the village.
Also, the Spanish caballeros were causing a real headache for my cavalry, as they were able to trot up, fire at my cavalry, and then retreat before I could do anything. (For the future, Rocky's advice is best kept in mind: CHARGE!)
The Spanish infantry continued their way across the field, although now their artillery sightlines were being obscured by their own allies. The French artillery had no such worries and opened up.
The forest fighting continued, although Kevyn's infantry were grinding away at the French harassers.
After several round of back and forth fighting, the cavalry forces on both sides were much reduced. I had finally gotten to grips with several of Kelly's units, and my musketeers had been helpful with their support. However, the remaining caballeros were still hardy enough to likely shoot their way past my reaming units.
In the center, the masses of infantry had finally closed to begin firing upon each other.
Having cleared the way of pesky French, the Spanish flank swung its way through the woods.
Before it could reach, however, the French battleline had curved around, hammering the Spanish with shot and artillery.
As the cavalry skirmished over on the open plain, a tug-of-war developed for the village. A Spanish tercio had chased the French musketeers from the area, but was then routed by returning fire.
After exchanging fire for several turns, infantry from both sides began to charge and counter-charge, mixing the lines as units either retreated, fled, or were routed.
Meanwhile, with only a couple remaining cavalry units, I moved my weary musketeers over to the horse-strewn battlefield to try and keep the Spanish caballeros from flanking the French line.
However, the battle came to end as we ran out of time. While both sides cavalry had been mauled, the French infantry had kept the center and could be called the victors of this bloody affair.
I think Rocky did a great job adapting this rules from their original incarnation. I like the hidden order cards that can also be used to react, and this went a long way to make Rockey's I-Go-You-Go version feel interactive. This could have been lost from the original's alternating activations (which would have taken forever in a game of this size).
Kudos also to Rocky (and some contributions from Mark) for making use of Warlord's weird 13.5mm "epic" miniatures to make really impressive looking pike and shot units.
No comments:
Post a Comment