PIKE & SHOTTE
| AN EARLY FIGHT | A FEBRUARY FIGHT | A BIG BATTLE | A FOURTH FIGHT |
| 400 Pts Early 17th Century French vs. Elizabethan English | 400 pts Early 17th Century French vs. Elizabethan English | 1000 pts. Early 17th Century French and Late Ottoman Vs. New Model Army and Elizabethan English | 450 pts Early 17th Century French vs. Late Thirty Years War German |
| A BIGGER BATTLE | |||
| 1000 pts Early French and New Model Army vs. Late TYW German Catholics and Protestants |
30 Jan '11. 400 point game. The army of Nantierre has triumphed once
more (2-1-0) with a marginal victory over Elizabethan English.
The Anglo-Dutch force would have initial successes, with Dutch reivers
destroying two regiments of French cavalry. When the Cuirassier hit the reiters
though, they collapsed. The earlier Dutch pistols had the advantage that they
could be used at range, but the French trick was to save their pistol fire until
impact and melee.
In the final moments, the Anglo-Dutch luck started to go against them and
then there was no way back. The French lansquenet was in a perfect environment,
getting both heavy weapons teams into overlaps, having armoured advantage, and 4
ranks of pike.
The Elizabethan infantry regiments (late tercio) will require a complete
overhaul to find a way to become effective. The French cuirassier were quite
surprised to see that not only did they cancel out lances against their pistols,
but it also got them an advantage in impact and then again in melee vs. swords.
Moments after the third photo was taken, both fragmented units would break and
the disrupted one would fragment.
Another victory for the French over the English. Bruce is being let down by his Elizabethans. This was a 400 point battle with terrain that encouraged us to crunch in the center
The French Chevaux-Leger have used a triple move to cross in front of the French front lines and set itself up in the path of the English demi-lancers. Among the infantry, neither side was keen to get into a firefight.
Meanwhile on the French right, Cuirassier would menace English light horse to
no great effect, as the English horse would evade at leisure.
Generally though the fight would go the French way. The demi-lancers would
easily brush aside the Chevaux-Leger but then would be obliged to slam into the
massive pike block that had become disrupted due to the shock of the loss of
friendly cavalry. It would turn out that cavalry cannot voluntarily break-off
from non-steady infantry. They would stay in the fight until broken then, only
to find their flank charged by Cuirassier. The Cuirassier would pursue the
Demi-lancers into the supporting billmen (heavily armoured infantry with heavy
weapons). That infantry would have even odds against the French cavalry but
would eventually lose.
Of the infantry, the Forward Vieux infantry unit would get initial successes but
would eventually be worn down by losses and would auto-break. When the English
pursued, it would bring them into the fresh lansquenet (who spent several hours
trying to remove that initial disruption effect)
Once the regular late tercio of the English became fragmented and the billmen
broke, with the demi-lancers long ago routed off the table, the English threw in
the towel
I'm becoming fond of the Lansquenet Keil. It is an 88 point unit when unarmoured from the French Wars of Religion list. It isn't legal in an early 17th century French army list. The 17th century Vieux infantry are 44 points each, as is the foreign regiment. I like having a single central core to the army with four ranks of pike and heavy weapons men ready to overlap.
A few shots from the game 20 march '11. Early 17th Century French and Late Ottoman Vs. New Model Army and Elizabethan English. Its about 1000 pts aside.
A few thoughts on the fight
1) The Janissaries were more effective in Melee then shooting, which surprised
me. Since they are unarmored, med foot I thought for sure they would blow apart
after contact with pike armed heavy foot and heavy cav.
2) The Janissaries held against repeated charges from English Heavy Cav, however
this success had more to do with luck then anything else.
3) Mass cannon works great as long as the enemy obligingly walks toward you at
parade speed.
4) Ottoman Cavalry needs to be fielded in large numbers to be effective as they
lack armor or impact weapons.
April 10 '11. 450 pts Early 17th Century French vs. Late Thirty Years War German
A BIGGER BATTLE
