FoGR Later Polish v Early Louis XIV French

It has been a considerable time since I played FoGR so, for a change, Tim and I decided to dust off the rules (literally in my case at least), dredge up a couple of old army lists and get some figures on the table again!

Having collected a lot of armies for the period when I played it frequently I opted for the Later Polish, partly as they are the prettiest army I have and partly as the last lot of amendments made to the rules resulted in them being more viable than they used to be.

After much flicking through the rules we managed to determine that the Polish would hold the initiative and choose Steppe terrain resulting in a fairly open battlefield.

Some war wagons and artillery which never seem to make it into the army used as a baggage camp:

The two armies formed up for battle:

The Poles are much stronger on their right facing a few French infantry units and some screening dragoons:

The French have committed all their expensive high quality mounted against the Polish left, while the numbers may look equal the Poles are rather weaker and unlikely to get the best of the encounter:

The Poles rush forward on their right. Tim's well-used copy of FoGR is visible on the left!:

Similarly on the Polish left the French hurl themselves forward while the Poles move up their shooty cavalry more in hope than expectation to slow them down: 

Immediately the Polish plan collapses somewhat as they fail to do any shooting damage to the French then realise that the Pancerni can't evade as they are in two ranks forcing both units to stand up to the charge! The combat goes reasonably though with the Lithuanians on the right losing a base and disrupting while the Pancerni stand. 

In a you-knew-it-would-happen moment Tim states 'You need a 12 to kill my general who fought in the combat' the requisite 12 arrived and down the general went!: 

That was to be as good as it got for the Polish left though as the Lithuanians break and the Pancerni become disrupted:

Apart from the left though things are starting to come together for the Poles in the centre and on the right. The French are a bit isolated with large gaps between the units and Polish firepower will soon be raining down on them:

More Hussars arrive to support the Polish left while the Pancerni successfully break off and reform:

The Poles start to outflank the French on the right:

The cavalry battle continues:

The Pancerni manage to hold on and break off again:

The Poles are massing on the right and starting to corner the French:

A massed cavalry combat! It does not go well for the Poles:

On the right though real progress is being made with the French under heavy pressure and starting to buckle:

The cavalry combat is becoming increasingly desperate for the Poles:

French infantry decide it is now or never to use their impact ability and charge the Polish foot:

The Polish foot hold the initial charge and move up on the flanks of the French foot:

On the left the cavalry combat is moving decisively in favour of the French:

Only one unit of Winged Hussars is still in action on the left though the Pancerni have avoided destruction:

On the other hand almost all the rest of the French army is disintegrating apart from the Guards who have been forced to form square and have survived a hail of Polish shot:

At this point we called the game as a Polish victory, the French would soon be broken well before their remaining cavalry could intervene. 

Considering that we had both played FoGR for many years extensively we had forgotten a lot of the rules (or half-remembered them wrongly!) and that slowed the game down a bit. As I thought the Poles had been much improved by the last set of changes to the rules which improved the ability of average troops to take losses and made them more viable in the game. I think the larger table and slower moves compared to ADLG also made a difference with Tim being used to the smaller sized ADLG table and it's tendency to close down the armies quite quickly.

Personally I'd be happy to play more FoGR but very few people will play it at the club now and opportunities are somewhat limited which is a shame as I have several armies for it I'd like to use!