ADLG-R Later Polish v Ottoman Turks

Having just returned from a few days in Krakow it seemed appropriate to give Simon a game of ADLG-R using my Later Polish against his Ottoman Turks.

I went for an almost entirely mounted army with lots of shock and impact ability. The plan was to flank march one command and concentrate on that flank of the Ottoman army. Unfortunately the terrain didn't fall well to implement this plan so I reverted to 'let's charge forward and see what happens':

First action on the left where my sole infantry unit is attacked by Sipahis:

The Polish infantry hold the Ottomans but there are some Janissaries moving up quickly to join the fight:

The charge forward plan has already been abandoned with the Poles splitting to the right and left: 

The Polish infantry fight on supported by Lithuanian cavalry:

On the right the Poles are starting to suffer from Ottoman fire:

The second command of Hussars prepares to take on Janissaries:

Very quickly things go badly wrong for the Poles as red hit markers sprout all along the line:

The other command of Hussars is faring little better:

More bad news on the Polish left:

Losses from Turkish shooting are mounting rapidly:

The Poles are collapsing:

The Turks have not lost much at all, this is as good as it has got for the Poles:

The Polish army collapses and flees from the Ottomans:

A game in which pretty much nothing went right for the Poles! Turkish shooting was very accurate and, on the whole, when the Poles did get into melee they failed to make any advantage count. I suspect my force selection didn't help, having such expensive troops meant the army was very small and had very poor command and control. At least they looked great though!

A few pictures from one of the armoury museums in Krakow:

Winged Hussar:

Pancerni armour and weapons:

Hussar armour:

ADLG-R Later Polish v Ottoman Turk

A second outing for the Poles under ADLG-R, this time the later period army against Simon's Ottomans. A similar army list to last time with muskets instead of harquebus basically!

Both armies deployed with the traditional infantry centre and cavalry flanks:

The Poles immediately begin to advance in the centre and on the right:

Polish artillery demonstrates remarkable accuracy battering the Ottoman cavalry that thought they would be an easy target and weakening them before the inevitable Winged Hussar charge:

The Polish fortified camp sits in splendid isolation!:

Combat! Polish infantry and dragoons pile into Janissaries:

Unfortunately as in the last encounter the Polish infantry fares badly and markers sprout everywhere!:

The Polish centre crumbles away quickly:

Winged Hussars get to charge! The remainder of the centre flees:

On the right an indecisive combat has been ongoing for a while:

The Polish army breaks with the Turks still a few points off their breakpoint:

A second game where the Polish infantry were slaughtered by Janissaries! Being the later armies the Janissaries are not elite and the Polish infantry have 2HCW so, in theory, it is a more equal combat. The Janissaries have the advantage of impact so are better at contact (though several of the Polish units benefited from overlaps) but after that the 2HCW should help the Poles.

The Hussars were also fairly ineffective (to be fair they were under FoG-R as well), looking far more magnificent than their actual game strength. I suspect as with FoG-R the most effective Polish army wouldn't bother with more than the minimum Hussars but where is the fun in that?!

ADLG-R Polish v Ottoman Turks

My second ADLG-R game in a row had my Polish taking on Dave's Ottoman Turks. I thought it would be an interesting contrast between the arquebus armed Poles and the bow armed Ottomans. I had two commands of cavalry and a single large command of Polish foot, heavy artillery and the rarely-employed in FoGR war wagons!

The Poles won the initiative and attacked in the plains:

The mighty Polish cavalry on the left and centre:

The less mighty Polish foot on the right:

The Polish mounted rush forward to overwhelm the Ottoman horse while the Ottoman Janissaries (with markers for half their bases as Dave didn't realise that in ADLG-R "battle troop" infantry are two bases joined into one per element:

Ottoman cavalry try to escape the Poles but are forced to turn back and fight. Meanwhile the Janissaries are making short work of the Polish foot and war wagons:

At this stage the battle still looks in the balance, the Polish horse are doing well but the infantry are collapsing:

A whirling mass of men battling for supremacy!:

The Polish foot are wiped out and the army breaks:

A fairly short game with lots of action! Dave skilfully used his mounted wing to delay and hold up the Polish cavalry while his infantry overwhelmed the Polish infantry. 

As with FogR the arquebus seems to be a dismal weapon for foot units, against bows the bows have double the range (4MW compared to 2MU) plus bows get a +1 firing at mounted. The only positive for the arquebus is that everything has a protection of 1 but, by this period, armour is becoming less and less common. I suspect I'd even rather have bows than muskets as they still out range them (by 4MU to 3MU) and you get the +1 firing at mounted. Having said that we did miss one part of the rules where it states that in the event of a tie when shooting arquebus armed foot inflict a hit which might have made a little difference.

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!