A few games of 30 Years War using Baroque

We have played two Thirty Years War games over the past two weeks.  Firstly it was a general bash with reasonably evenly matched forces with the Swedes up against the Catholics.  It was mainly a way of getting a group of us together to play the rules (re-aquaint ourselves).  It was a good game even if it came to a quick conclusion for one Swedish flank when they broke after losing heavily in their first contacts of the game.  We note now that we did not follow the rules correctly in determining when a 'wing' of an army breaks.  

The Tercios in the middle about to come to grips with the enemy

Close up of the Bavarian tercio

And the remiander of the photos are a few close up of various units on the field

Catholic dragoons

Swedish P&M unit

Swedish P&M unit

Swedish P&M unit

The second game was on Friday evening with a smaller group.  Again Ralph brought his 15mm TYW troops - this time foir a historic refight between the Poles and the Swedes.  Just a few photos.

 

 

Christmas big bash at Cumberland

The annual Christmas Napoleonic Big Bash at the Cumberland club took place in mid December.  It is basically an excuse to get as much lead on the table as possible and advance.   I had a Corp of Bavarians and faced off against John with his Russian Corp and a s***load of Russian guns.  The Age of Eagles rules were used

The other tradition is a wonderful lunch put on by Joey - I thought I had photos but alas they do not appear to have been on the phone.  

But to summarise as glazed ham, roast lamb, chicken, mango salsa for the ham and baked veggies washed down with a Crown Lager or two.  Excellent.

The table from the French and Allied right flank

Our left flank with the Bavarians in the middle to the right of the fields

Bavarian gun line

Inspired by the Russians

Bavarians advancing to hold the village

Considering whether we want to advance on those Russians brigades

A Russian Brigade snuck through up the side of the village

But was quickly seen off 

The end for the Russians with the Bavarians in the clear

Fuentes de Onoro with Blucher

 As is obvious from the lack of posts, I have been derelict again this year in maintining this blog.

Now that I have some time off work over the Christmas holidays I will make a few posts mainly showing the few games that we have gotten in over the period since March.

First up is a great game of Blucher that Ralph put on for us at the club in July.  It was the Battle of Fuentes De Onoro.  John and I were the Spanish / British.  A few photos with captions.

British Division advancing to protect the right flank

We're defending the river and advancing to Fuentes

Just in the time as French cavalry appear on my right flank

British Guards are in Fuentes and would be very hard to evict

After many attempts and wasted French brigades they get into part of Fuentes

But not for long - we took it back on the next turn

We had a great day's gaming and as to be expected :) the British / Spanish forces won the day.  The victory came down to the covering action on the right flank and the steadfastness of the British in the town.

Borodino Big Game

Last weekend a group of us met at John's house to re-fight Borodino.  John had painted the entire Russian Army and also made the purpose built terrain for the game.

The figures are 15mm - many brands but certainly many many Minifigs - including some strip Minifigs.  Rules used were Age of Eagles.

An overview of the table.  Russians on left, French on right

My command - lots of cavalry including the Russian Guard cavalry

The lay of the land prior to the first shots

The Russian cavalry advance

An infantry fight in the centre

The redoubt is lost - hardly surprising when you see what was coming onto them

Russian cavalry starting to get going

The Russians aligning in anticipation of a French infantry assault

Any general will tell you that logistics are the key to success - a restock of the troops overnight.

Russian supplies on the left and French on the right

Hard pounding

Broken through the French Cavalry and getting ready for the second line

Lots of Russians pushing forward on their right flank and the French were in some trouble (at this time)

This is the status late on Sunday.  The Russian left flank (top of picture) has been pushed back uncovering a Grand Battery.  The Russian middle is just holding but is quite brittle and on the Russian right flank (bottom of photo we have pushed the French back and were getting quite excited by the chance of getting into the French left flank, then into their rear  ..... until the sound of drums, Vive L'Emporer and bearskins became visible on the horizon (middle right in column coming on)

Status late on Sunday

The Russian Grand Battery and the Russian line forming again after having fallen back.

Grand Battery after having cleaned out a few Poles

Russian spies report bearskins on the march

It took quite a while for the French Guard to get going, but when they did they were rushed to their left flank against my advancing Russian cavalry.  If they weren't needed there - or after having dealt enough damage to the Russian cavalry, they could have turned right and punched through the Russian centre.

The Guard advances

Thirty Years War at Annandale

We met at Annandale yesterday for a great game of Baroque with some lovely Thirty Years War figures painted by Maurice, Bob and Grant.

Maurice and I were opposing a nasty looking bunch of Swedes.  Managed to play to a conclusion in about 4 hours of game time.

Most of the villages / hamlets are from Total Battle Miniatures 10mm range.

My pike and musket regiments in line before the battle.

Part of the Swedish line opposing me.  Unfortunately out of shot to the right of the Swedish infantry was a large number (five regiments) of Swedish horse.  Against them I only had three regiments.  Pretty obvious that this flank was going to be the result of the battle.

It didn't take long for the horse to come to grips with each other.  My first unit of Cuirassiers below didn't earn their horse feed on the day.  These guys lasted one round and with the followup they routed. 

Action pretty quickly turned to my massed Reiters taking on another unit of Swedish horse.  These Reiters has inserted themselves into a gap between villages and were protecting the flank of my infantry as they slowly advanced towards the Swedes.  On the day, they fought as gallantly as anyone could hope.  This melee lasted in the vicinity of five or six turns.  In the end they broke but only once they were contacted on the flank by another fresh unit of Swedish horse.  

While the horse battle was going on the infantry ground their way towards each other.  As we advanced, my artillery slowly took chips off two of the Swedish units to the extent that when we finally met both Swedish units did not last long at all.  

Unfortunately my two units of infantry in the foreground of the photos took a few rounds of fire from the more powerful Swedish units before we could get into melee with thee.  This resulted in both being thrown back and then quickly overwhelmed by the Swedes.  

The end results was that both our armies broke on the same turn - a very enjoyable draw on the day.