Slitherine

Last night at the club played a practice game for Roll Call against a swedish army.

Now it went to plan swept his cavalry of the board with mine.

But after much trudging across the board his foot 1 elite and two superior supported by some average hit my line.

Being elite and salvo they got a ++ at impact having general they re-rolled 1,2 and 3s and needed 3's to hit. So that was 7 dice = 7 hits my average unit had the same 7 dice needing (no general) 5's 2 hits lost a base and dropped two levels, how do youy stop those dammed swedish......

Shoot them up on the way in. I know they are 5s against you, but that is your main chance. Also make sure your troops are supported, and if possible assign a general to where they will hit, he need not fight, but being there adds +1 to your cohesion test. In melee the Swedes are 4s just the same as you. If you have scattered their cavalry try to have a unit of yours within 12" of their open flank, causes them to suffer from a threatened flank which will give them a - poa at shooting too.

From what I have seen so far, the Swedes seem to be like the Later Republican Romans were in Fog (am), best foot troops out there, but not a lot else. The best tactic as always is try to gang up on what you can beat and avoid the rest as best you can.

Which army were you using against him ?

Scrumpy wrote:Shoot them up on the way in. I know they are 5s against you, but that is your main chance. Also make sure your troops are supported, and if possible assign a general to where they will hit, he need not fight, but being there adds +1 to your cohesion test. In melee the Swedes are 4s just the same as you. If you have scattered their cavalry try to have a unit of yours within 12" of their open flank, causes them to suffer from a threatened flank which will give them a - poa at shooting too.

From what I have seen so far, the Swedes seem to be like the Later Republican Romans were in Fog (am), best foot troops out there, but not a lot else. The best tactic as always is try to gang up on what you can beat and avoid the rest as best you can.

Which army were you using against him ?

Its strange I've played before against Swedes and have done the same beat their Cavalry on one flank and shoot the foot down before they get into contact.

I even had a Light Arty battery between my Infantry Bgs who did have a general and rear support but being average just could'nt stand the impact. Even my medium artl of to one side could'nt cause enough worry to his BG in range. Still as you say they don't have a lot if they use their points on all the good foot. I hope not everone will take them.

I was using German Protestant 1637 against him all average foot.

Still a great game even if i did lose.

Well it was not against Swede's but this weekend we had 2 BG's of heavy art concentrate fire on a single unit to break a late Royalist superior Pike&shot unit which was trying to get to them across the table. In 3 rounds of shooting and the foot was running for the hills and had suffered 2 bases lost... Some poor rolling there, you might say.

Of course this is a lot of firepower in one place but it seems to take 4 art dice to start to get real impact on long range sustained shooting. Oh and the general did rally them just before they left the table.

There is, of course, the battle where my battery basically gutted an early tercio, but artillery should be directed firstly against mounted troops where possible - knocking off 1 base of 4 is a serious blow, and killing two bases with sustained fire makes Averages disappear. This has been painfully evident in a number of games.

The safest order of march is for artillery to be deployed last, but if deployed earlier can have a disruptive effect on the opponent's clear thinking (it is helpful if it can pivot later). Got to love those gentle hills.

If you have to face this mythological Elite Swedish Yellow Brigade(in reality they are only famous for being shattered to pieces in Lützen without achieving anything), You'll have to remember that this BG with RG cost 103 points. To counter this, you can have 2 BG of Bandellier Reiter Average, Unarmoured for 72 points (36 each). That gives a firepower of 6 dice against 3, and if they charge you can easily break-off without much harm to the Reiter. That leaves you with another 31 points to use against the rest of the Swedish army. And, as you said, you routed the Swedish Horse, than just crush them with your victorious cavalry.