FoG:R evangelism in the ECW
Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:00 pm
This past weekend I had my first success at my club as a FoGR evangelist. I have demonstrated a number of games but not had any takers 'til now. The game was arranged at the last minute due to the weather conditions. My opponent has played a couple of games of FoG:AM but none of FoG:R. He is an experienced DBR player (I have never beaten him).
My opponent chose the ECW Royalist 1644 Oxford Army using the WoR starter list. He has the Royalist Army at Cropredy Bridge (painted and based for DBR) which looked really nice. I was using ECW Parliament Eastern Association (1644), choosing to take all Average troops (though if looked at closely the figures bore an uncanny resemblance to my 30 Years Wars Swedes). Both lists were about 600 points and a nice historical matchup.
The game was partially a training exercise so everything was taken at a slow pace, with me explaining the rules as we went through each phase.
All of the terrain fell on my right. My opponent deployed his baggage on his left, pulling a nice bluff by deploying 1 BG of Firelocks in front of it and the rest of his army on the other flank, leaving much of my army far from the action. I spent some time moving my right flank towards where his troops were, while he rushed forwards. Before the game started my opponent did say that he was good at rolling ones, which he proved by failing so many death rolls that he almost ran out of space on the next (empty) table for his casualties, and that before I had even lost a base! He also did not pass one single CMT that I can remember even though most of his army was Superior. (Eventually he changed his dice!) However he more than made up for the ones by passing almost all his CTs easily. This left his army in reasonable shape as he closed.
Moments that will stick long in the memory were his superior pike and shot BG closing to musket range of one of my pike and shot BGs. Though he failed one death roll on the way in, I failed 3 consecutive CTs (even with a TC attached!) and the BG broke with no loses. 2 points down. My BG next along the line had more success, Disrupting and taking 2 bases off one of his 6 base Average pike and shot BGs for no loss. However with my flank exposed to his Superior BG turning in, I could not wait for further shooting hits so charged in. I had 6 dice to his 3 at 0 PoA so it did not seem a huge risk. I was less than impressed to inflict only 1 hit and end up disrupted! However it was not a disaster, as I would have 4 dice vs 3 at 0 PoA in the Melee. Again I lost and went Fragmented. 0-3 AP. Great!
I did have success over near his baggage, where the Firelocks were being reinforced by a 3 base BG of Dragoons. However two rounds of shooting from my Dragoons Autobroke his. 2-3 the score. By now some Cavalier reinforcements were on their way. Could I get his baggage before they arrived?
On the open flank, 2 BG of Armoured Superior Cavaliers charged 3 BG of Armoured Average Determined Horse and 2 BG of Average Commanded Shot. I had taken 1 base off with Artillery fire (the Dragoons having masked the Artillery for a while) and disrupted the 4 base BG with shooting from the Commanded Shot. Impact was my 14 dice vs. his 12 (split across 5 BG - my opponent had not understood the consequence of splitting combat across target BGs and I had not explained as I wrongly assumed he would have seen that in FoG:AM - mia culpa). I lost 1 base but passed the 5 (yes, five!) CTs from Impact. However the Melee would be mine! I broke the 4 base BG - the score was now 4-3. His 3 base BG Fragmented one of the Commanded Shot BGs and I lost another base of DH, taking the score to 4-4.
We had to call it a day then but the game had been a real joy.
My opponent left talking about a bigger game next time - more Dragoons and some Artillery. Now to work on the next potential recruits. One has a huge ECW Royalist army, one has Italian Wars Spanish, one has so many in-period figures he weighs rather than counts them, and one of the ancients players was looking at the WoR Hungarian list - he has a Later Hungarian DBM army so maybe. It's all looking up.
My opponent chose the ECW Royalist 1644 Oxford Army using the WoR starter list. He has the Royalist Army at Cropredy Bridge (painted and based for DBR) which looked really nice. I was using ECW Parliament Eastern Association (1644), choosing to take all Average troops (though if looked at closely the figures bore an uncanny resemblance to my 30 Years Wars Swedes). Both lists were about 600 points and a nice historical matchup.
The game was partially a training exercise so everything was taken at a slow pace, with me explaining the rules as we went through each phase.
All of the terrain fell on my right. My opponent deployed his baggage on his left, pulling a nice bluff by deploying 1 BG of Firelocks in front of it and the rest of his army on the other flank, leaving much of my army far from the action. I spent some time moving my right flank towards where his troops were, while he rushed forwards. Before the game started my opponent did say that he was good at rolling ones, which he proved by failing so many death rolls that he almost ran out of space on the next (empty) table for his casualties, and that before I had even lost a base! He also did not pass one single CMT that I can remember even though most of his army was Superior. (Eventually he changed his dice!) However he more than made up for the ones by passing almost all his CTs easily. This left his army in reasonable shape as he closed.
Moments that will stick long in the memory were his superior pike and shot BG closing to musket range of one of my pike and shot BGs. Though he failed one death roll on the way in, I failed 3 consecutive CTs (even with a TC attached!) and the BG broke with no loses. 2 points down. My BG next along the line had more success, Disrupting and taking 2 bases off one of his 6 base Average pike and shot BGs for no loss. However with my flank exposed to his Superior BG turning in, I could not wait for further shooting hits so charged in. I had 6 dice to his 3 at 0 PoA so it did not seem a huge risk. I was less than impressed to inflict only 1 hit and end up disrupted! However it was not a disaster, as I would have 4 dice vs 3 at 0 PoA in the Melee. Again I lost and went Fragmented. 0-3 AP. Great!
I did have success over near his baggage, where the Firelocks were being reinforced by a 3 base BG of Dragoons. However two rounds of shooting from my Dragoons Autobroke his. 2-3 the score. By now some Cavalier reinforcements were on their way. Could I get his baggage before they arrived?
On the open flank, 2 BG of Armoured Superior Cavaliers charged 3 BG of Armoured Average Determined Horse and 2 BG of Average Commanded Shot. I had taken 1 base off with Artillery fire (the Dragoons having masked the Artillery for a while) and disrupted the 4 base BG with shooting from the Commanded Shot. Impact was my 14 dice vs. his 12 (split across 5 BG - my opponent had not understood the consequence of splitting combat across target BGs and I had not explained as I wrongly assumed he would have seen that in FoG:AM - mia culpa). I lost 1 base but passed the 5 (yes, five!) CTs from Impact. However the Melee would be mine! I broke the 4 base BG - the score was now 4-3. His 3 base BG Fragmented one of the Commanded Shot BGs and I lost another base of DH, taking the score to 4-4.
We had to call it a day then but the game had been a real joy.
My opponent left talking about a bigger game next time - more Dragoons and some Artillery. Now to work on the next potential recruits. One has a huge ECW Royalist army, one has Italian Wars Spanish, one has so many in-period figures he weighs rather than counts them, and one of the ancients players was looking at the WoR Hungarian list - he has a Later Hungarian DBM army so maybe. It's all looking up.