ADLG-R Swiss v French Italian Wars

With another ADLG-R competition coming up at the club soon I gave Swiss a try-out against Mike's French Italian Wars army. I thought I'd try Swiss as they are rather one-dimensional which perhaps suits my level of ADLG-R experience! The army consisted of elite Pikemen, more elite Pikemen and some elite Pikemen to make up the numbers with a few skirmishers and a couple of allied Gendarmes.

The Swiss attacked in the woods, as usual the table ended up fairly open with a few hills and woods on the flanks:

Simple army, simple plan. Everyone advances with the Gendarmes in reserve:

Swiss skirmishing crossbowmen lose out to Stradiots on the left:

Mike's army consisted of Gendarmes, Landschneckts and (even more) Swiss Pikemen all of whom awaited the Swiss avalanche:

There are three individual battles really, Swiss Pike v Gendarmes on the left, Swiss v Swiss in the centre and Swiss v Landschnects on the right:

French artillery fire is having an effect on the Swiss:

The Gendarmes await the Swiss attack:

Troops close up in the centre and on the right:

Being 'Headstrong' the Swiss are forced to charge into the Gendarmes. This seems like a bad idea:

It turns out to be a very bad idea as one Kiel is obliterated and the other takes numerous hits. I seem to remember all four threw 1's in combat to Mikes Gendarmes 5's or 6's:

In the centre Swiss clash with Swiss, again going badly for the erm Swiss:

On the right Swiss and Landschneckts battle it out:

On the left the Swiss recover a little and dispose of a French Gendarme:

No result as yet in this combat:

Or this one:

A Landschneckt Kiel breaks:

Unfortunately so does the Swiss one in the centre breaking the Swiss army:

The Swiss were indeed rather one dimensional but were still fun to play with, having to charge the Gendarmes was unfortunate but with better luck might not have been so disastrous! One other thing I didn't pick was the 'swordsmen' option for the Kiel's which allows them to win ties in melee against other pike or spear armed troops, I didn't think it was worth the cost but Mike had paid for it for his Kiel's and I think it made a fair bit of difference.

Still contemplating what to use in the competition, the lists are all quite similar with no 'unusual' choices like the Chinese army I used last time!

Cold War Commander BAOR v Americans

After several games of my Soviets against Simon's Americans we thought we'd have a change and try the BAOR against the Americans, after all it could be an exercise rather than an actual battle in preparation for the cold war going hot! 

The first thing I noticed was that you get an awful lot less British than Soviets which meant that with limited forces almost everything I have painted got used including two RAF Jaguars (though not the two Harriers I have as well).

The British are arriving from the right, the Americans on the left:

Chieftains in the centre flanked by infantry in FV432's:

The Americans:

With the Americans having made little progress (Simon's Americans seem to love failing command rolls!) the British continue to advance with the infantry taking cover either side of the Chieftains:

More movement in the face of American inactivity:

Finally some action as an A10 strafes the Chieftains but is driven off by AA fire:

The RAF retaliate but miss their target:

Chieftains press on, in the distance the American tanks await the enemy:

An artillery strike hits the Chieftains:

Four tanks take hits:

The A10 returns, adds a few more hits and suppresses some of the tanks:

Demonstrating excellent combined arms tactics the American tanks pour fire into the left hand group of Chieftains. Hits and suppressions mount:

They also overcome their command problems and manage to continue firing:

Three Chieftains are forced to withdraw and five are suppressed but the resilience of Western tanks results in none actually being knocked out:

The Jaguars return but are again off target. Not a good day for the RAF!

The next A10 also misses though:

US and British IFV meet across a hedge!

More US IFV have moved up into the central wood, unwisely as it transpires with four out of five being taken out by the remaining unsuppressed Chieftains. In return the American tanks finally knock out a single Chieftain:

It's not a good day to be an infantryman as two FV432's are knocked out:

As it was getting late we called it a day at this point with the action undecided, the Americans had lost six IFV to the British two plus a Chieftain so honours were declared even and both sides withdrew to contemplate the lessons of the day!

Simon combined his artillery, aircraft and armour well but even so the resilience of Western tanks made it hard for him to convert this into knocked out tanks. He also suffered from dismal command rolls as he seems to in every game with the Americans, they really don't seem to like him!

From my point of view looking back it is interesting that after the games with the Soviets I have developed a rather Soviet way of doing things which I didn't change here! The Soviets get a significant command bonus if everyone does the same thing hence that's how I play with them. This time I'd have benefited a few times from the flexibility of allowing some of a command to do different things ( some move, some fire for example) but I didn't think of that!

I'm also interested in how you make ATGW work (they have not done much in our games so far) and the use of ambushes. Finally I must paint up my British artillery and add a few more bases I think to up the choice for the army a little....
 

LaSalle French v Russian

My second game of LaSalle, this time in Norfolk using my French against Pete and Mel's Russians. This time we went for the 'Hold Your Ground' scenario at the large (300/250 points) scale.

I was defending with the French and went for a French Infantry brigade, a Bavarian Infantry brigade, a Light Cavalry brigade and a Cuirassier brigade. All the cavalry started off table and would hopefully arrive quickly. The objectives were two towns and a point behind the French held hill.

The Russian army was huge with masses of artillery. The Bavarians deployed to defend the town on the left, the French the one on the right:

The Russians advance:

Russian Cuirassiers advance on the Bavarian infantry:

On the right the Russians prepare to cross the river and assault the town:

They cross the river and attack the town:

Disaster for the French as their outnumbered infantry are broken and flee:

The Cuirassiers menace the Bavarian infantry who form square in response. This may not be a good idea given the amount of Russian artillery in the distance:

On the right the Russian cavalry advance over the hill but are faced with French infantry in square:

On the left the Russians assault the second town:

Disappointingly the Bavarians are also routed: 

The rest of the Bavarians are still facing off the Russian Cuirassiers:

With the failure of any French cavalry to arrive the rest of the army is starting to struggle:

It's not all bad for the French though as some Russian Jaegers are routed by fire:

At last help arrives, it is only the Light Cavalry though. Perhaps they can stabilise the situation:

They certainly have an impact, immediately forcing the Russian infantry to rethink their plans:

Fire almost takes out another Russian unit:

The French line charges home and finishes the job:

At this point we called it a day as it was getting late. The Russians had captured the two towns but lost slightly more units giving them a minor victory. The failure of the Cuirassiers to turn up (in five turns) didn't help the French at all!

As for the rules we are still working out how to do things, using your momentum is critical with the timing of when you fire, move and rally troops influenced both by the tactical situation and the amount of momentum available to both you and the enemy.

Two things that did strike me during this game were firstly that Russian artillery in mass is very effective and secondly that it almost appears to be worth charging units as it appears much less dangerous to be the charging unit than the target.