Hello guys,
These days I am playing battles with my father using the rules "Pike & Shotte" from Warlord Games, I tested these rules some years ago and played a few games with them, with good results :)
I find them easy to learn, fast and flexible enough to be used both for Thirty Years War and late XVII c. conflicts like the Franco Dutch War and League of Augsburg War.
There are some fan made rules out there, and probably I will make my own army list for Spanish very soon. This time, we used these
https://psdb.home.blog/alphabet/ for French, and I modified slightly the Dutch one (Franco Dutch War) to represent my Spanish.
The first game we played was a fictional encounter between two small armies: French and Spanish.
French side view
Spanish view
general overview
My father, who is a true patriot, refused to play the French side, so I played the French Army, and my father the Spanish army.
The game is set during the first stages of the Franco Dutch War, When Spain joined the Dutch Republic in its desperate defense against French aggressors. In 1673 The French Army in Rousillon was not very numerous, although it was well led by the talented Duke of Schomberg. By 1674, The Spaniards, led by Duke of San German, attacked France from the South, in order to reduce the pressure of the Dutch front, and San German took the fortress of Bellegarde and routed the French in Battle of Maureillas/Morellás the same year.
Our game is in 1674 in Rousillon where the 2 armies met in a prairie.
the order of battle is :
Spanish army:
CiC Duke of San German
Infantry:
Tercio Amarillos Viejos
Tercio Morados Viejos
Tercio Catalan del Consell
Cavalry Squadrons of:
Trozo de Extremadura
Cuirassiers of Count of Lumiares
artillery:
1 medium gun
French Army:
CiC Duke of Schomberg
infantry:
Regiment de Foix
Regiment de La Sarre
Regiment Picardie
cavalry squadrons of:
Cuirassiers de Roi
Royal des Carabiniers
artillery:
1 medium gun
Both armies started from the edges of the table, and tried to advance with infantry in the middle, and the cavalry in their flanks, while the artillery aimed the center of the enemy front...
But dice decided that most of my French army did not move in the first turn because of not passing the command test, So the Spanish made a sweep advance towards the middle of the table.
Luckly for me.. eeem for the French, my artillery scored a hit that disordered the Tercio of Amarillos Viejos, and my infantry was able to cover behind a small wall of a wheat field.
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I thought my French infantry was safe behind that small wall , and the wheat field is considered difficult terrain, so If the Spanish wanted to cross it, they would advance at half pace, so the dice allowed me to fire some shots at the advencing enemy.
In the next turn, the Spanish had a lot of luck with the dice in the command phase, so the Trozo of Extremadura cavalry made 3 full movements of 9 inches in order to charge my French infantry regiment in the flank... and they succeded.
The cavalry charge against the flank was terrible, the French regiment was unble to hold its ground, the fire had disorder the unit and the pike company bonus of the regiment did not apply when charged on flanks, so after a brief combat, the unit was destroyed.
But the French had time to laund a cavarly charge on the flank of the Spanish cavalry while they were engaged with the ill fated French regiment La Sarre.
This time victory was for the French, in the melee phase, Cuirassiers du Roi inflicted heavy casualities to the Spanish cavalry, and retired a full move, While Regiment de Foix shot the remant of Trozo de Extremadura until it dissintegrated by the concentrated musketry fire.
In the next turn, both armies rushed to close the gaps left by the destruction of the French infantry regiment and the Spanish cavalry squadron respectively
Meanwhile, on the left wing of the battle, Spanish and French cavalry charged and counter charged each other during a couple of turns, with the Spanish having the upper hand in the melee,
And the battle was decided in the center, where 2 French regiments engaged 2 Spanish tercios:
The French had the advantage, as one of the tercios (the middle one) had 3 casualities and was disordered by artillery and musket fire, and the French unit in front of them where fresh and undamaged,
I ordered my 2 French regiments to advance and shoot at close range, after that charge the enemy in order to engage them in a melee with advantages. Spanish responded with closing fire at the charging enemy, but as they were all disordered, they had penalties at shooting, so the charge was a complete success for the French, eventually both Spanish tercios would be destroyed in the next turn...
On the right flank, Tercio Amarillos Viejos and the Spanish artillery, shot heavily on my Cuirassiers du Roi, until the French, damaged and disordered, had to retire backwards...
the Cuirassiers were now far from danger, almost in their starting position...
As I said, in this turn, the battle ended, there were 3 unit destroyed: 2 Spanish and 1 French:
On the left front, The Spanish cuirassiers finally managed to destroy my Royal Carabiniers cavalry, next to the 2 cottages... but the Spanish tercios were destroyed too, the first one, on the left, Morados Viejos lost a melee round, and in its break test, they had to move backwards a full move, but they were in front of a house, so unable to move back, so... destroyed, and the other tercio, was shaken and disorderd when my French infantry charged them, in the left of the wheat field, so they were destroyed too.
After loosing more than half of their infantry, the Spanish had to retire from battle, and look for the protection of a better defended area, where the next battle will be fought, I will post it here too!
I hope you like this little battle report, Cheers!!
