FOGR TYW French v Early TYW Swedish

Simon wanted a practice game for Warfare in November. The Period was 'Wars of Religion' and, unusually, it was a 650pt competition on a 5' x 3' table rather than the usual 800pts on a 6' x 4'.

I decided to use TYW French as, firstly, I had not used them for a long time and secondly even with the points reduction the army would be quite large at 13 battle groups and four generals.

Somewhat surprisingly Simon went for Early TYW Swedish, an army which even at 800pts is small, at 650pts it consisted of 11 battle groups and three generals.

The terrain fell fairly openly and both armies deployed with infantry centres and cavalry flanks.

Initially my right flank fell back and the Musketeers moved over to support them. On the left my cavalry advanced while in the centre both infantry lines moved forwards.

The infantry lines close and start to exchange fire. After brushing aside a unit of French cavalry the end Swedish infantry unit has charged home on the end of the French line. Meanwhile on the left one of the French cavalry units has engaged the lone Swedish cavalry on that flank allowing the second French cavalry unit to push through a gap in the Swedish line.

The two infantry lines have clashed. In the centre and on the right things do not go well for the French against the Salvo Swedish infantry but on the left the French Guard have more success with the Swedish infantry being nervous of the French cavalry unit moving onto their flank.

Meanwhile on the right the Musketeers have broken the first Swedish cavalry unit and pursued into the second in a successful charge. However the Musketeers couldn't save the French artillery who were shot down by Swedish dragoons.

The French infantry line has now collapsed in the centre and right while the Swedish infantry have broken on the left.

Both sides have now taken heavy losses. The Musketeers on the right break their second Swedish cavalry unit but, with the Swedish infantry poised to attack the French camp, it isn't quite enough to tip the Swedish into defeat and the French army breaks first.

A close game in which both sides had units explode unexpectedly quickly and Simon's better quality units just overcame my larger army and extra general. FoGR still gives a great game and the smaller points total together with the restricted table size ensured that the armies were quickly in action.