Tercios Wednesday game

My friend and I again worked our way through a smallish (1000 points per side) game of Tercios featuring my Catholic League army versus his Scottish/ECW host.  The primary difference being my troops were in Classic Squadrons - so shooting with mixed arquebus and muskets while his troops were a bit later and as Reformed Battalions and were mostly musket armed.

The terrain had been set up so the choice was to the guest as to which side to enter from.

This is the view from the Scot side, the Catholics to set up opposite.  Pretty much equally bad terrain for both but gentle hills and some fields with hedging and a few spots of woods.

The Scots were deployed with the infantry on their right, all the cavalry on their left which is a mirror image of the Catholic deployment!

 Both sides moved quickly (choosing the 'Run' card for all units) to gain the center of the table.  Once there the Scots seemed unsure how to proceed so went for an immediate assault with all their cavalry while their infantry was still coming up.

 Unfortunately the Catholics stood on the slight slopes with 'Fire' and 'Ready' orders and were able to inflict just enough casualties by both fire and then melee that the Scots were forced to 'disengage' back three inches.  They then took even more fire from the Catholic units supporting their horse.

By the time their infantry moved into support range it was all over for the Scots and they were going to need to make a slow withdrawal with their reformed battalions to their camp.

Well it was a good trial for the rules and the troops weren't happy about being placed back in their boxes I can tell you.

We do find these rules better for smaller sized engagements and reckon that the 'overhead' of placing and then playing the order cards in sequence is offset by the surprising things that seem to fall out of the actions.  No truly dominant troop types and good plans, preparation and fire support go a long way to helping your cause for sure.

Next time the Catholics might actually have to advance to the attack and then they will see how it truly feels.

The Nine Years War Campaign Part V – 1694, a year for Bourbon recovery

Our Nine Years War campaign continues into 1694 with the inclusion of new event cards as prescribed by the rules of the game that feature events more relevant to the later stages of the war.

The map is displayed below with the setup as existed when we completed our last session and the French had been repulsed decisively from both Madrid and Amsterdam.

While the Alliance regained some territory in the Low Countries they had not yet recovered from the peril of the past few months.

Both sides showed numerous 'destroyed' counters in their respective force pools for rebuilding.

The Alliance was able to seize the initiative for the first round and moved their main army up to Antwerp to recover it for the Alliance.  The Bourbons, lacking a field army to contest the place withdrew into the fortress.

The Bourbons then with three actions reinforced Tournai, built a new force in Lyon and conducted a hasty withdrawal from in front of Madrid (more akin to a rout, but praised as a 'controlled maneuver to our supply lines').

The Alliance then took two actions, one to siege Antwerp which was partly successful, and to advance the Spanish army to Saragossa as they followed up the retreating Bourbons.

The Bourbons then took two actions, moving an Army to Metz to contain the lower Rhine theater and to reinforce the troops in Spain.

The Alliance played three actions, a continuation of the siege of Antwerp that was not successful at all, the Spanish moved to besiege Barcelona, and a move of a small force to Briancon to keep the Bourbons guessing on the lower Rhine.

The Bourbons countered by pulling their army completely out of Spain and moving to Briancon to repulse the Alliance forces there.  The Alliance decided to retire to Montpellier.

The Alliance with two actions were finally able to bring the siege of Antwerp to a conclusion and also were able to assault Barcelona since the Bourbons had departed and left little in the way of a garrison.

The Bourbons with two actions next conducted a siege of Metz without effect and attacked the Savoyards at Montpellier, driving them back into Savoy.

The Alliance with its last action of the year reinforced their forces in Central Germany.

The Bourbons with three actions to end the year renewed the siege of Metz and were successful in taking it.  They then reinforced their forces in Briancon and recovered forces in Flanders.

One battle was fought, the Alliance forces in vain trying to defeat a slightly smaller Bourbon force (11 brigades to 10 brigades on the table) but their drive ran out of momentum when both their cavalry wings were defeated and things in the center looked 'dicey'.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures to chronicle the battle so we will have to wait for Le Hertier to finish his large paintings for Louis XIV to see the action as it occurred.

In this year the Alliance claimed a lack of action points and were unable to fully exploit the weakness of the Bourbon position, especially in Holland.  The Bourbons were decisive in evacuation Spain and also aggressive in Savoy where things are not looking too good for the Savoyards since no reinforcements have arrived from the Empire as was promised....

The Bourbons wisely created new corps with their resource points, thus keeping an approximate balance to the number of corps in play, even if they did suffer from having more that were reduced ('flipped') when time came to count actual bodies in the field.

We continue to enjoy the balance and the finesse that this game offers and will play our next session in April.