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Back in Ukraine: a winning draw for Lubomirski at Słobodyszcze

20/11/2016

5 Comments

 
Picture
Orders for turn one placed, the Poles are approaching the Cossack front.
This has been a great weekend, with two games and a trip to Warfare 2016 in Reading, UK. It is my favourite show, with a good balance of traders, demonstration games and competitions. I picked up some new ECW and Ancients rules; a Rubicon Stug for Bolt Action and some animals to decorate my tables. I was keeping an eye out for a gaming cloth but curiously, couldn't find any. Over the past two years, Cigar Box battlemats seemed to be everywhere but they just weren't visible this time. Perhaps mail order for these things is so straightforward these days that traders don't find it worth stocking. I was pleased to see that Kingdoms, the supplement for the Tercios rules, has been translated into English. Thus book has stats for the ECW and for Eastern Europe. I hope it leads to more English speakers getting to know these excellent rules.

​On Saturday evening Keith and I played the battle of Słobodyszcze, 7 October 1660, using Tercios. Keith took the Cossack army, attacked while in camp by a smaller but high quality Commonwealth force that I commanded. I will add the scenario to the 1660 page on this website.
Picture
End of turn 2. The Hussars and Reuters have destroyed their targets but the Pancerni bounced off.
Tercios has several original mechanics that really work well for a 16-17th century game. Units are given order cards each turn that they may use either to carry out the main order or to react to enemy action. The quality of a unit is reflected by the number of dice it receives for each function (discipline tests, shooting, Melee, Courage) while the target number required for each die is determined by the relative situations of the units interacting. Thus, pikemen are harder to hit with cavalry than musketeers are. Artillery fire is unpredictable but when it hits its target, it can cause serious disorder. Commanders are able to influence the flow of the game by interfering with unit orders and by adding support to units in action. I find the rules for commanders as written to be over complicated and a bit artificial, so we played a slightly streamlined version last night. It worked well I think.
The game began with the Polish Centre and Left assaulting the Cossack front line, with mixed results. A Hussar unit destroyed one Cossack wagon, while a nearby Pancerni unit bounced off another wagon. Meanwhile, Keith brought his second line Infantry up, to stop the Poles from advancing down the flanks of the Cossack position. After some gruelling duels, the Cossack first line was breached. Cossack losses rose faster than Polish, as the attackers were able to withdraw vulnerable units to recover but the Cossacks had less scope to catch their breath. At the end of turn 6 Cossack losses had crept so far ahead that the game ended then, with a decisive victory for the Poles.
Picture
Polish centre has made it into the Cossack camp at game end but faces a solid line coming up to counterattack.
However! Coming up behind the Cossack front was a solid line of Cossack foot, very capable of carrying on the fight. We had reached nearly midnight by now so agreed to abide by the written victory conditions, but we both felt the Poles had suffered enough attrition to give a Cossack counterattack a very good chance of succeeding.

Keith went home with my summary account of the real battle. It is satisfying to see that our game followed the history quite faithfully. After at first breaking in to the Cossack camp, the Poles were repulsed by a counterattack and despite further attempts, were unable to repeat their initial success.

This was a tense and exciting game, in which Keith showed his customary grit by refusing to leave the initiative in Polish hands. The rules worked smoothly and made every turn engaging.

Now, what next? I am tempted by Radziwill's Kiev campaign of 1651. But the 1660 sources contain material for at least a couple more scenarios.
Picture
The Polish right as the game ends, having pushed the Cossack first line out of its way
5 Comments
Roman Pronyszyn
20/11/2016 08:00:40 pm

Sounds like a good game - inspired me to go back and finish off my Cossack army

Reply
Tim Simmons
22/11/2016 05:48:58 pm

Thanks Roman

I do like playing with a Cossack army, especially with a Tabor on the table.

Cheers
Tim

Reply
Robert McLean link
22/11/2016 04:34:12 pm

Hello Tim

I spotted your post on the Operation Zero Forum (I am based in Brussels). I was at Crisis in Antwerp this year and got chatting to the Tercios guys. I bought two packets of the order cards which are nice and neat although they do not have national markings on the back.

I think I prefer my own which I downloaded and reduced before printing so as to make them less intrusive. I am thinking of making them even smaller because, although I do love the order card system, I think they clutter up the table.

In your photographs I see your order cards only in the first photograph but not in subsequent shots. Have you replaced the order card system?

Regards

Robert McLean
p.s. I am impressed by your command of French on the forum.

Reply
Tim Simmons
22/11/2016 05:47:04 pm

Thanks for your comments Robert.
Like you I love the order cards but don't like the way they clutter the table. We remove each card as it is played. The first photo is at the start of turn one while the others were all taken at the end of the turn. I like your idea of reduced sized cards. Alternatively, I was wondering about painting one side of an mdf token and having a key beside the table to remind what each colour means.
Cheers
Tim

Reply
Robert McLean link
22/11/2016 10:28:16 pm

Hi Tim

I had thought of the mdf idea but never tried it. We leave the cards upturned to show which units have activated but I suppose removing them has the same effect.

My interest is more the Franco-Spanish War 1635 to 1659. The other guys here played the game but were not enthused I'm afraid. I will keep trying.

Regards

Robert

Reply



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  • Blog
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    • American Civil War scenarios
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