What a hot and tiring weekend that was. Up very early on Saturday to get there in plenty of time for the 9am start of the first game; finishing the third game just after 7pm; up early again on Sunday for the 4th game's 9am start and heading home about 5pm after all the prize giving. All the while stuck inside a rather warm hall in a shopping centre while the sun was blazing down outside.
I did take pics of all the games, some more than others. My prediction of games finishing in about 2 hours instead of the 3 hour limit was only borne out for Sunday's games. My other prediction of how my Swiss would fare was confirmed in four of the five games (22-3, 24-1, 23-2 and 22-3 losses). My second game was actually a 11-9 winning draw for me. However, as my opponent was a very young girl I am definitely not bragging about that. Mind you, her average score over 5 games was almost double mine and three of her other opponents won by much more than me.
But before I do the pics of the games, here are pics of my purchases. Just two items, both for The Chicago Way:
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| Out of the bag |
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| Markers punched out of the sprues |
Game 1 - Swiss vs Taramasalata* Spanish with Early Henrician English Allies
* OK, you got me - Trastamara Spanish
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| Milanese gendarmes lose a base to heavy guns |
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| Not looking good for my light horse |
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| Pike keils are almost there |
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| I told you it wasn't looking good for them |
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| And they break |
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| Whoops! Light foot get caught while evading light horse |
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| And the pikes are in at last! |
They would have got in sooner, but I'd forgotten that in FoGR you can't interpenetrate light foot when charging.
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| I did break a Spanish Keil, and was lined up to muller the camp |
Sadly my opponent had broken another of my units, breaking my army. 22-3 loss.
Game 2 - Swiss vs Maximillian Imperial
This was the game against the young lady.
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| The keils close in. Those German cavalry in their rear are a bit worrying though... |
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| I opted to protect the rear of the first keil in by charging the middle one into the gendarmes. |
Both combats here were going badly - my dice rolls were truly atrocious. the keil fighting the gendarmes broke and the other keil rolled horrendously for seeing the break, dropping them to fragmented. The broken keil then routed through them causing them to break, leaving a very large Swiss pike keil shaped hole in middle of the table.
Fortunately I'd broken and fragged enough of her units to come out just ahead on points. 11-9 winning draw.
Game 3 - Swiss vs Early Henrician English
The other two members of my team got byes for this round due to their opponents having to pull out to deal with family illnesses or bereavements. Below is a pic of the tables they would have been playing on:
I kept forgetting to take pics during this game, largely because we were having a great time chatting and taking the mickey out of various things.
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| And combat is joined! Mind you, some of his light horse have captured my camp (and light guns) but my skirmishers have revenge in their sights... |
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| One of my only truly good dice rolls! |
24-1 loss
Game 4 - Swiss vs Flodden Scottish
I knew this game would be rough even before my opponent deployed his troops. When I realised he had 5 pike keils totallign 70 bases against my three keils with just 34 bases, the maxim that "Quantity has a quality all of its own" sprang to mind. I decided to split my keils with the two superiors taking on 3 Scots keils, and the small elite keil taking on two by itself.
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| Level pikes and charge! |
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| As it happens, he charged me. The light foot rolled low for their evade, had to drop a file and got caught. His keil might have hit mine in the flank, but it wasn't actually a flank charge, which helped for later on. |
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| Crap, that's my light guns gone again! |
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| What was it with all my evade dice rolling low and letting me get caught? |
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| Those light foot held on remarkably well in the melee... |
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| Middle superior keil has lost 5 bases (mostly to artillery on the way in) and is disrupted. Meanwhile my left hand keil has still to join combat |
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| They went in, won the impact 4-2 but then he rolled a 12 for his shot at my general |
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| "We can just elect another general" |
You may recall seeing my gendarmes slowly working up to get behind the Scots pikes. Well, this is where they had an effect. His already disrupted keil lost badly in the melee then he rolled incredibly low for the cohesion test. If the front edge of my gendarmes hadn't been just beyond the rear edge of his keil, they would have been self-supporting and only dropped to fragmented. However, the gendarmes meant it was a double drop to broken.
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| Unfortunately it was his turn next and his light horse took my camp, breaking my army. |
I've just realised that I hadn't said anything about the other pike push - my elite keil of 10 bases against two average 14-base keils. Well, they didn't lose any bases or drop in cohesion and did do some damage to their opponents.
23-2 loss.
Game 5 - Swiss vs Scottish (not Flodden)
This round saw the Central London Wargames Club civil war as our team, played the other team from the club (who were in the lead throughout the tournament and the eventual winners). No Scots pikes this time - they were spearmen instead.
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| The heavy guns sighted in on my right keil. |
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| And again |
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| And again - broken |
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| "Umpire - new dice!" |
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| But I managed to rally them two turns in a row |
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| These dice need to be sacked. Or crushed. Or burnt. |
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| Now, that's what I call a recovery |
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| That'll be the guns captured again... |
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| But then I captured two of his! |
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| "Kerrunch" |
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| The Milanese men at arms crash into the highlanders, who get fragged at impact |
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| And broke in melee. My pursuit didn't quite reach the next lot of highlanders |
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| My third keil has been taking hits from the guns again. Also a bit of a FUBAR with my lights who had to evade through each other in opposite directions. the one who evaded rapidly from the light horse did so into the charge of the Scots spears who had targeted the other, then lost at impact (unsurprisingly) |
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| Meanwhile, his light horse captured my camp, ending the game |
Mind you, we hadn't spotted that the game had ended and carried on. during the melee I actually broke both his centre "keils", but they didn't count as it was all over in the impact phase.
22-3 loss
Despite my huge losses I thoroughly enjoyed all my games. With hindsight, taking the Swiss was a mistake as they simply didn't have enough battle troops, thanks to the rule that you can't take any more bases of superior/elite troops than you take of average/poor (separate for foot and mounted). As the Swiss keils are either superior or elite and all the average troops and light foot, it was never going to be a winner. If I'd actually read the other lists I might have taken another army, probably Maximillian Imperial just using my Swiss figures to sub in as landsknechts. I'd be able to take quite a lot of other heavy foot, some medium and heavy artillery and a lot of gendarmes as well.
