Thirty Years War - French vs Spanish

[shadowdragon]

This is the 5th game I've fought using the WRG Programmed Scenario - The Weak Flank. The other games were 2 FoGAM games of Carthaginians vs Syracuse, 1 WRG Napoleonic French vs Russian and 1 Napoleonic Principles of War French vs. Spanish.

Despite all these games I found it somewhat of a frustrating scenario as the force on the flank has to struggle across the brush/stream to mass on the flank. On the other hand I tried different mechanisms for the reaction of the defending forces with varying degrees of success. However, the FoG rule system really showed well and were my most enjoyable games. So, looking foward to FoGN.

The miniatures were all ECW, but the forces were:

French
1 X GC
3 X TC
2 X Superior, Armoured Determined Horse
2 X Average, Armoured Determined Horse
2 X Old Infantry BG (superior)
2 X New Infantry BG (average)
1 X Dragoon (4 stands)
1 X Med Artillery (2 stands)

Spanish
1 X GC
3 X TC
1 X Superior, Armoured Determined Horse
1 X Superior, Heavily Armoured Horse
2 X Average, Armoured Determined Horse
2 X Tercios viejos (elite)
2 X Other Spanish (superior)
1 X Dragoon (4 stands)
1 X Med Artillery (2 stands)

Spanish deployment from right to left: Dragoons, 2 X Average Horse, Artillery with 2 X Tercios viejos, 2 X other Spanish, 2 X Superior Horse



French deployment from right to left: 2 X superior horse, 2 X other infantry, 2 X old infantry, artillery, 2 X average horse, dragoons



Close up of the Spanish right (weak) flank:

[shadowdragon]

The battle:

The Old French BG had the tough job of facing the tercios viejos and the artillery while the other French BG moved up on their right. The average French horse and dragoons were try and work around the right while the superior French horse were to hold off the Spanish superior horse and infantry.

The Spanish were not allowed to move in their first turn, but they were allowed to have reaction moves like interception charges.

The initial artillery duel only manage to disrupt temporarily one BG on each side before the foot came within musket range.

The closing to musket range:



The French left got the luck of the rolling and within a couple of turns broke the Spanish dragoons and both of the horse BG, which allowed the French horse to sweep around onto the flank and rear of the tercios viejos. On the other flank the French infantry managed to gain the hill advantage against the one Spanish BG that came up to aid the tercios viejos. The Spanish BG held for 2-3 turns before being autobroken, which allowed the French to overlap left tercios viejos BG. The breaking of that Spanish BG and subsequent loss of a commander ended up fragmenting the other Spanish superior foot BG.

With the one tercios viejos that was fighting in two directions fragmented, one superior Spanish BG fragmented and one broken, 2 horse BG broken and the dragoons broken, the game ended with a Spanish defeat (25-0). There was a lot of luck on the French side but it was still a fun game.

End of the game:



Close up of the tercios viejos at the end:



A very different feel to an English Civil War game. I had been wondering if the changes in troop types and quality would do that.