Fleurus and Lutter with Dominion of Pike and Shot

 Next up for DoPS are Fleurus 1622 and Lutter 1626, both from the Pike and Shot scenario book. For these I'm using Alan Saunders suggested mods, +1 for the initial bombardment for a side with an artillery unit, and treating pike and shot units as 'mixed', which negates any modifiers which would apply to 'pure' pike or shot units, even if they are musket or pike heavy. Most importantly this negates the bonus which charging cavalry would get against pike and shot units, although they'd still get it against dragoons or whatever. 

Fleurus 1622. I've actually done this a few times already with both Neil Thomas and modified Marston Less. This is a peripheral battle from the TYW, and  involved the Dutch hiring two Protestant German armies (Mansfeld and Brunswick) to aid in their never ending war against Spain. The Spanish force under Cordoba was outnumbered and positioned with its flanks protected by woods and and village of Fleurus. I dug out my 2mm terrain for this one, Irregular villages and woods made from pan scourers. 

The forces are quite a mixture, Brunswick has two units of armoured cuirassiers, two musketeers (with pikes) and a unit of Reiters. Cordoba has unarmoured cuirassiers, mounted arquebusiers and no less than three types of musketeer. Normal, armoured (the Tercio) and elite (the blokes in the woods). Although I can sort of figure out who is who from the figures, to make recognition easier, I added a command stand to all the armoured units as it is very, very hard to tell the different between unarmoured and armoured cuirassier in 2mm!

The musketeers in the woods are 'elite' as Cordoba managed to pull off an ambush with them. Although the wood is a pretty good reminder, I've also attached an artillery piece as I did in the previous set of games to remind me it has extra firepower. Somewhat oddly these guys are in reserve, but think of it as an attacker stumbling into the ambush if the woods 'move' - a bit like the ambush rule in Flames of War. Or Dunsinane Wood in Macbeth.

Anyway, things started with the artillery bombardment, the Spanish missed but Brunswick didn't and forced the left flank Arquebusiers to charge the armoured cuirassier.

With predictable results. The Arquebusiers missed (needing a 6) and the cuirassiers routed them. I've started marking any firing with bits of cotton wool to make it clearer. In the real battle the victorious Protestant cavalry ran into an ambush, and so it is here as the elite Spanish musketeers, dragging their woods with them, move up from reserve.

In the first round of actual combat, the musketeers in the woods managed to rout Brunswicks cuirassiers. Brunswicks other cuirassiers charged the Reiters on the other flank, who duly gunned them down as well. God was on the side of the Spanish today. Of course the unit I thought were  'Reiters' were actually unarmoured cuirassiers, so they should have been fighting a melee, but I forgot.... I rerolled it and the result was mutual annihilation.

When the smoke cleared, Brunswick had put his own reserve musketeers up against the guys in the woods, and the Spanish reserve musketeers faced the Protestant reserve Reiters. 

The Protestants were shattered in the next round as both flanks collapsed. A win for Cordoba. I have to say there were some fairly extreme dice rolls in that, but the activation option of each side choosing one sector worked OK. I didn't particularly notice the absence of the type specific unit mods for the pike and shot units, although it did mean there were more 'no effect' results than in the Ancient set. 

I gave it another go. This time none of the barrages took effect.

But the first rounds of proper combat were a catastrophe for Cordoba as the entire Spanish front line disintegrated! All that was left was the reserves.

And outflanked by the cuirassiers on the left, the Spanish soon collapsed too, leaving Brunswick victorious. I was pleased with the how the cavalry flank attack worked out - normally the cuirassiers would have routed the pike and shot musketeers on 4+ (using Alans mods) but the outflanking bonus made it 3+, which seems more in line with the troop type relationships of the period. Cavalry can only deal with the infantry centre by outflanking them, the same as in Marston Less.

One more run through. Again the barrage was ineffective, but Brunswicks cuirassiers were routed early on, as was the Protestant centre. The Tercio rolled forwards (it is twice as effective as a normal pike and shot unit, hitting on 5+ but being hit on 6).

Brunswicks centre collapsed.

The tercio outflanked and destroyed Brunswicks Reiters on his right. A heroic effort by the Protestant cuirassiers routed the Spanish infantry in the woods, but  Brunswick failed to rally any units and reduced to just one unit, withdrew. A Spanish victory.

I really enjoyed that, Fleurus is an interesting engagement as it features actual Tercios and the cavalry is very asymmetrical. One thing I did realise is that along with keeping track of armoured and elite units, I need to keep track of which side has used up their rally entitlement. I've got some wagons, perhaps I could use those as a reminder.

Next up was Lutter in 1626, which isn't one I've done before. King Christian IV of Denmark joined the Protestants in the TYW and inevitably Tilly marched forth to duff him up. There was a dried up river between the armies which I left off, but I still put some woods and buildings around the battlefield edges as it looks nice.

Tilly has the better army in this one with Reiters, armoured cuirassier, musketeers, armoured musketeers (the Tercio) and an artillery unit. I'm really not sure about artillery in these rules, they seem a singularly useless unit. I'd be very strongly tempted to let them hit anything on a 5+, not just armoured infantry, but treat them as missile foot vs cavalry, so you can do the rock, paper, scissors Napoleonic thing. Anyway, I played them as written, albeit with a +1 to the initial barrage as per Alans suggestion.

Christian has got a large but very average army. Unarmoured cuirassiers (melee horse), two units of Reiters and three musketeers (with pikes) who I treated as mixed missile infantry.

Tillys Catholic League. The front rank is Reiters, artillery and armoured Cuirassier. Reserves are the Tercio and musketeers.

The Danes. Front rank is Reiters, musketeers and unarmoured cuirassiers. Reserves are two units of musketeers and one of Reiters.

The opening barrage. Tilly fired on the cuirassiers to try and force a charge and the Danes fired on the Catholic artillery because I got muddled up! Everbody missed anyway.

The first round of proper combat had Tillys cuirassier charge the Danes and the Danish musketeers engaged the Imperial artillery as I reckon it is such a lousy unit it should be easy to destroy.

The Imperial Cuirassiers duly routed their opposite numbers and hilariously Tillys guns actually rolled a 6 and blew away the impudent musketeers! Perhaps artillery are better than I gave credit for. Christian committed more musketeers to the centre and his reserve Reiters to the right flank.

The Imperial Cuirassiers just repeated their attack on the fresh meat and routed them too. That is the disadvantage of this activation system, why would anyone pick a sector to fight unless they have an advantage? I guess that is military reality though.  In the centre however, the odds finally told in the favour of the Danes and their infantry duly overran the guns.

The Danes managed to rally their Cuirassier and put them back on the right flank, but it didn't help as Tilly routed both their centre and left flank. The Danes were down to two units now.

The Imperial Reiters outflanked the musketeers in the centre but missed (would normally have need 5+, +1 for outflanking). That is fine. I really can't imagine Reiters having much luck against a pike block surrounded by musketeers.

Tilly got them on the second attempt however, and having already used their rally, the Danes fled.

That was an interesting game, and tends to reinforce my view that a) Alans suggestions are sensible and b) that artillery is weak. Perhaps it should hit anything on a 5+ but be vulnerable to charging cavalry. OTOH it is such an uncommon unit type that perhaps it isn't worth fiddling with. 

One last run through. The Imperial guns were wiped out before they could do anything, but both sides lost units in the cavalry battle on the Danes right. The loss of the armoured cuirassier was something Tilly could ill afford. The Tercio was curiously ineffective, but I actually quite like the infantry blasting away at each other turn after turn, that feels very period appropriate.

Eventually even the mighty Tercio gave way, but not before more Danish units were routed, leaving both sides with just two units each and nothing in the centre!

The Danes prevailed and the Tilly failed to rally, so King Christian was victorious!

I really enjoyed those games, it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon and it was nice to spend a little bit longer on each one as well as thinking about various aspects of the rules. I liked adding the eye candy terrain, smoke and other markers and maybe next tie I'll actually use four bases per unit for a bit more mass. I preferred the look of the smaller bases side by side rather than in the columns which I'd used before as well, even if it possibly looked a bit like the War of the Spanish Succession. Anyway, there are plenty more scenarios in the book.