As a reminder first the rules are still being tested . We were tasked with a full "commanded shot" test and we wanted to test Tilly's veterans.
The army builder is also not finalised but here are both armies
Gustavus won the initiative and won the outscouting ( equal so the Catholics deploy first ) . As usual for me I went for some terrain ! We have a protected flank ( mountain and forest ), 2 woods one protecting my right flank ( I was very happy ) and a marsh to annoy my dear opponent !
In my plan, I would let my mounted absorb the cuirassier assault so they got a mediocre commander while the reiter-like cavalry would have a competent commander ...who had one green token during the whole battle so mostly blacks or white
Two early tercios , the rightmost being some of Tilly's veterans . We decided to have a minimum 1 BW between both units as to make a nice checherboard deployment
Another veteran early P&S with some reiters in support and ART in the woods ( nothing preventing ART in the woods)
The dreaded heavies but without reiter support
The swedes are deploying ,red, yellow and blue are SUP , all have regimental guns. Blue, yellow and brown behind are in checkeboard deployment . Red is not part of it but is in another command !
An average P&S scottish mercenaries TUG with all the swedish cavalry. the large blok is average unprotected but with commanded shot !. As we want to see how it will work ..they will defend ! so the scots will ignore the enemy mounted who will ignore the scots .
Ready to go
Manoeuvring ! the first shots were very inconclusive
Big bataillons coming
The swedish light ART advances ..( in our opinion it is highly unhistorical but doable in the rules )
The reiters meet the cuirassier
The catholic reiters try to slow down the swedish infantry and shield the veterans from the ART .
A glorious charge, the reiters should skirmish they cannot beat those full metal monsters
They survived and a pesky wound for the cuirassiers
This time the swedish ART did hurt the early P&S ( green dice as vs 3 rank deep )
The swedish cavalry has numbers but not the quality !
The swedish infantry advances but tries to concentrate yellow and red regiments vs one of Tilly's veteran big bataillon
I think the swedish flank is a bit open
The elite of the catholic cavalry goes in ! but has to pay as they are a bit too far for 2 of the UGs ! Those with flags are exceptionnal
My shooting with commanded shot
He pays to get to grip
Impact was not that bad he was only on RED and I on white ..he managed no shatter ..
And his other cuirassier TUG charging the reiters got hurt coming in, 3 wounds + the wound from before and a wound at the charge ..those swedish reiters are impressive
Ready now
The cuirassier are loosing it it was amazing
The swedish cavalry is still fighting with some impressive results on white or black dice the enemy being on red and yellow and no skulls for them!
CHAARGE ! the shoot & charge worked well and his shooting was not that good as he did not push me back but even I had what was needed for it just in case !
Shoot & Charge ..it did hurt I must admit it ..
The veterans fight each other but the catholics are loosing the battle
The average tercio is also nearly broken
The cuirassiers are near gone. Commanded shot gave the swedes victory but I must admit that I had expected a much more balanced result ! The catholics just did not roll skulls even on red dice
We finished the game and so
Commanded shot seems to work reasonably well
Pushing back by "S" only worked well in our game
ART is too mobile ( in our idea )
Early P&S are strongh but highly vulnerable to ART but I also had 6 bases of ART wanting to test it
Most important we both enjoyed the game !
Next time early P&S will meet something else with much less ART so we will see what happens