Landsknechts and Prussians - Round Two

[ahuyton]

We are just waiting for the game between Gdod and Snuggles to finish, but we can already move to Round Two I think. Feel free to start when you like and by 1 April at the latest.

Have fun...

The game details:

- (from Tercio to Salvo) - German States 1590 - 1609 v Polish 1576 - 1610
- open, large armies, wide, pot-luck terrain
- Polish team to launch please

The match-ups:

German States v Poles

Kiwiwarlord (Captain) v Marl_Boroman
AlexdeTrojan v Awesum4
Gdod v Tomoegozen
GentlemanRanker v Pancalvus
Dang v Snooky51
SMJohnso77 v Gribol
ahuyton v Snugglebunnies
Warrior230 v Cromlechi

Please post results below, preferably with one clear line such as: Snooky51 (Austrian) hammered ahuyton's hopeless landknechts 49-20

And then add whatever banter, pics and maps you like. I especially liked Snooky's screenshot and naming parts of the terrain in the last round which brought the report to life.

[GDod]

The following is a published report to his royal personage Herr Kiwilord in the The German States, Cologne edition of Victories Today Magazine

THE BATTLE OF BRATWURST RIDGE
Following our hopeful reports your good self Herr Kiwilord, the Bard of the Black Forest reports that we have won a resounding victory against the Polish lacky Hetman Tomoegozen upon a long ridge over-looking a swathe of Polish usurping winged hussars, pancerni, cossacks and haiduks. Although we lost our left, which was anchored on a large patch of rough terrain to a gaggle of squawking hussars, our right delayed the superior force long enough to ensure the enemy played no significant part in the rest of the battle. Although, this necessitated throwing some of those rubbishy detestable tarts (oops tartars!) and arbequisers from the border provinces at them, as expected the hussars and their cronies pursued them far away.
Even though our central guns were over-run, we remained in a good position with our light infantry continuing to learn how to fire and evade. Our victorious infantry and cavalry in the middle having routed all before them then turned to attack flanks and retake the hill from a group of sneaky hussars who avoided some of our infantry temporarily in pursuit.

Your humble servant, the Bard

Our next mission is to dig Duke Dang and the Margrave Alexander out of that wine-cellar before the Poles can get to him

In a cellar somewhere.jpg (19.95 KiB) Viewed 7365 times

[KiwiWarlord]

The following is a published report to his royal personage Herr Kiwilord in the The German States, Cologne edition of Victories Today Magazine

THE BATTLE OF BRATWURST RIDGE
Following our hopeful reports your good self Herr Kiwilord, the Bard of the Black Forest reports that we have won a resounding victory against the Polish lacky Hetman Tomoegozen upon a long ridge over-looking a swathe of Polish usurping winged hussars, pancerni, cossacks and haiduks.

Bard of the Black Forest "Durchgebraten"
Iron Cross with Oak Leaves awarded to your brave self.

[AlexDetrojan]

My Lord KiwiWarlord, it is with great regret that I inform you that our battle with those sneaky Poles has been lost. The battle was an embarrassment to the great free German principalities. Poor planning and hubris on my part resulted in a one sided defeat of our proud soldiers. Polish routed 15, German routed 61. As I bear full responsibility for this debacle, I will return the Iron Cross I received in my previous victory. I will redouble my efforts to vindicate our loss in my next battle. I will further study my tactical manuals and send out my quartermasters to recruit new and stronger soldiers for our continued struggle against the Empire and her allies...as soon as my hangover abates from drowning my sorrows in too many bottles of Riesling in that accursed Weinkellar! As an aside, these are insights I have gained from this battle:
1) Picking almost exclusively foot soldiers in my army, thinking that the staying power of that huge block of men would win battles was obviously faulty. Their return arquebus fire was paltry in comparison to the massive incoming shot.
2) It was my intent to drive those pike blocks into the enemy hadjuks, sustaining one, maybe two rounds of intense fire from them, then engaging and shattering them. But what if the hadjuks fail to engage, or worse still are not even present? Faulty thinking on my part.
3)Enemy light horse and armored cavalry can present withering fire on those same pike blocks while sitting off at a distance, especially if the Poles take as many as possible even to the detriment of other troop types.
4) Winged Hussars are pretty good and we only have one possibly two horse of our own that can match them, but they quickly get worn out and overrun by the sheer numbers of the enemy.
Anyway, thats it for now, hope all our other generals do better than I. Good luck!

[KiwiWarlord]

..as soon as my hangover abates from drowning my sorrows in too many bottles of Riesling in that accursed Weinkellar!

Mein herzliches Beileid zu dem tragischen Verlust Herr Generalleutnant Alex von Trojan

[AlexDetrojan]

..as soon as my hangover abates from drowning my sorrows in too many bottles of Riesling in that accursed Weinkellar!

Mein herzliches Beileid zu dem tragischen Verlust Herr Generalleutnant Alex von Trojan

Danke mein Herr.

[GDod]

bitte kann ich seine Ländereien haben Herr KiwiWarlord?

Ich kann den Keller zumauern!

Not time to come out yet.jpg (9.03 KiB) Viewed 7258 times

[AlexDetrojan]

bitte kann ich seine Ländereien haben Herr KiwiWarlord?

Ich kann den Keller zumauern!
Not time to come out yet.jpg

[gribol]

Gribol (Polish) win with Smjohnso77 (German) 47:8
My spammy army with lots of annoying lights cav was at the same time everywhere and nowhere, and somehow its happens.
Thanks for the battle.

[awesum4]

Well Played Gribol,

in true heroic Polish style you have confused the enemy and surrounded and killed them. Those Germans with their huge lumbering infantry blocks won't dare to invade our motherland for centuries to come knowing what awaits them if they do,

[gribol]

Well Played Gribol,

in true heroic Polish style you have confused the enemy and surrounded and killed them. Those Germans with their huge lumbering infantry blocks won't dare to invade our motherland for centuries to come knowing what awaits them if they do,

... additionally they paid the ransom containing tons of Nurnberger Wurstchen and hectoliters of Weissenbier und my favourite lieblich Moselwein
Ultimately we are not angry at such an exchange.

[SnuggleBunnies]

SnuggleBunnies (Polish) defeats ahuyton (German) 43-11

GG, match should post tomorrow.

[SnuggleBunnies]

And here we are:

https://youtu.be/SVYjSvlY16w

[ahuyton]

And here we are:

https://youtu.be/SVYjSvlY16w

Shudder, a horror story!

[SnuggleBunnies]

And here we are:

https://youtu.be/SVYjSvlY16w

Shudder, a horror story!

A difficult match for the Germans, given the light cavalry swarm. Next match should be a bit more of a conventional slugging match.

[GentlemanRanker]

Somewhat to the surprise of both players, GentlemanRanker's German States 1570 - 1589 beat the Polish army 1576 – 1610 of PanCalvus by 14 to 48.

As the German general, I confess my plan for this game was to avoid losing for as long as possible. I did not think that we could possibly win a cavalry battle, so the plan was to build a wall of pikes and shelter my cavalry behind it. The Germans were to be deployed in the open, to avoid at all costs the possibility of having to engage Haiduks in cover. I would have circled the wagons, but none were available for selection. As it was, the line had to be overextended in an attempt deny a large patch of rough ground to the Polish musketeers. The German right was anchored on large forest.

PanClavus invested heavily in Winged Hussars, took all the available light cavalry (10 units), and backed these up with numerous units of Cossacks. As a consequence, he was able to field fewer Haiduks than I feared. I think the sight of so many pike block initially nonplussed him, but he soon began probing for potential gaps in the line with his Winged Hussars. The Winged Hussars would make a demonstration, the pike blocks would move to counter, and then both sides would fall back to their original positions.

Gradually, inevitably, the Polish lights and Cossacks worked their way around the German right flank. The pitiful compliment of German light horse (3 units) and several units of Akebusiers tried to hold them up, but this was a one sided battle. The fact that much of the fighting took place on the margins of, or within the forest, slowed this down more than PanClavus might have hoped; and several units temporarily evaded of the board edge. But the outcome was inevitable, and the half way point in the game, the Polish cavalry had successfully infiltrated behind the pike wall, had overrun the light guns, and the Polish forces started a general attack all along the line. At this point, both players thought that it was only a matter of time before the Poles secured yet another Round 2 victory.

However, it turns out that, although far inferior to that of the Haiduks, I had underestimated the firepower of the German pike and shot units. By concentrating several units on a single target, disruptions could be fairly reliably obtained, which allowed the few units of German heavy cavalry, lurking behind the pikes, to charge home effectively. The enemy Haiduks were dispersed along the line, and were unable to bring sufficient fire to bear to disrupt the German pike and shot units; as a consequence, the Winged Hussars were forced to charge steady pike and shot units, and tended to bounce off, even when they won. An unexpected asymmetry became apparent; the pike and shot units were immune to flank attacks from the Winged Hussars, but they were able to make flank charges against the cavalry when the opportunity presented. So the Germans units cooperated to achieve a couple of early breaks, and the resulting cohesion failures cascaded in such a way as to give a very unrepresentative final score.

Most useful German unit, the Early Tercio; fairly manoeuvrable, immune to flank and rear charges, able to scurry around the battle field without worrying about facing, able to lock down or charge cavalry, and possessing a modest firepower. Best Polish unit, the light Tatars and Cossacks, extremely manoeuvrable, able to evade out of trouble, capable of combining to focus significant firepower, annoying.

[KiwiWarlord]

GentlemanRanker's German States 1570 - 1589 beat the Polish army 1576 – 1610 of PanCalvus by 14 to 48.

Mein Gott GR !!! a German General of the Highest Order !
Your insight, battlefield skills & courage are rewarded by the highest of German Honours ' the Knight of the Kiwi '

Award(2).jpg (62.06 KiB) Viewed 7064 times

[GentlemanRanker]

Ohhhh, shiny! Thank you.

[PanCalvus]

At this point, both players thought that it was only a matter of time before the Poles secured yet another Round 2 victory.

You thought that, I was trying my best not to encourage too much confidence in you because that would only have made my job harder.

You played very well. I brought too much heavy cavalry and I used it wrong, dancing around with the heavies while going behind your lines with the lights. The other way around would have been much more effective (but was scary because I didn't know what exactly would be hiding in those woods. In hindsight I could have gone into unit selection to see exactly what could have been hiding there.) I also probably should have gone for as much artillery as I could get. I figured you would just overrun it, the strength of the Poles is mobility, not holding positions. But it would have at least granted me some ability to lure you forward away from the edge of the map so i could better threaten your rear.

You meanwhile got a lot of pike and shot, successfully resisted the urge to try and set up in such a way that you could run towards that hill and try to take it before I could, kept your line disciplined and in one peace for as long as you needed to and spread your units out correctly for the final assault. I don't think I got even just one of your pike and shot units to become disrupted, and I would have absolutely needed to break several of them to get to the numbers I needed to win. Very well played on your side, a well deserved victory with never a moment of being behind in score.

I try not to make a habit of commenting on battles I lost, but some of you guys are allowed to show a bit more confidence when you play well.

[awesum4]

Pancalvus and Gentlemanranker,

thanks for your reports of the battle, both well written and its interesting to read the different view points of how the battle went.

Those tercio are very hard to break, its requires massed shooting, or shooting over a sustained period at a single unit, which is difficult if the opponent moves fresh units inn the way.

Well done to both of you, it sounds like you had fun, which is the most important thing,

Andre