Sunday 27 August 2017

Storming The Redoubt

I tried another game of Pikeman's Lament yesterday with my Great Northern War forces.  I went with similar, mixed-arm, forces to the previous game, with a couple of minor changes.

For the Russians I dropped one of the Cossacks (Dragoons) and replaced it with another unit of Gallopers, giving them 4 x Raw Shot (with Socket Bayonets), 2 x Gallopers and 1 x Dragoons.

I wanted to make the Swedes more determined, but lower in numbers. I went with 2 x Raw Shot (with Socket Bayonets), 1 x Raw Pike and 2 x Elite Gallopers,. This left me with three points to spend, so I gave each of the three infantry units an Agitator/Priest, which would boost their morale, hopefully creating the effect I wanted.

I rolled for a scenario and got Storming The Redoubt, with the Russians attacking. The terrain was randomly determined, and I ended up with a small settlement with some fields just in front of the redoubt, but an otherwise mostly open field with just a couple of hills. The Russian leader was uninspiring (no activation bonuses) but brave (morale bonus), whilst the Swedes were led by a mistrusted mercenary (no morale bonus) who was bold in the attack (automatically pass one attack activation).

The Swedes deployed one Shot and one Pike in the redoubt. I didn't have enough defences to cover their baseline as the scenario suggests (with hindsight I think you just have a small area of defences in which the rest of the forces is deployed), so just had small stream instead to act as a defence.


The Russians led with their leader's unit, putting two Shot in close order to mount the main attack, whilst two other shot would cover with musketry before charging in themselves. The horse covered the flanks; Gallopers on their right and Cossacks on the left.


Terrible activation rolls by the Russians saw their attack stall from the start, and the Swedes quickly brought up their cavalry to oppose that of the Russians.


Initial exchanges of musketry saw Russian casualties, but with their leader to the fore morale remained high.


As the Swedish cavalry closed on the Russians the leader's unit received a volley from some supporting Shot which emptied a couple of saddles. The affected unit immediately turned tail and fled; the Swedes were right not to trust their mercenary commander.


The other Swedish unit took the fight to the Russians.


They drove the Russians back with heavy casualties (the post-combat follow-up is deadly) ...


But were counter-charged by the other Russian cavalry unit and destroyed after a fierce fight.


The loss of their cavalry meant that the Swedes had lost half of their force, and their leader, but their morale held. The Russians now launched their first assault on the redoubt.


It was driven back, but the Swedish defenders now faced a ring of steel, and their was little hope of relief; their other Shot unit was pinned down by the Cossacks. In fact all the Russians really had to do now was stand off and shoot, since they had time on their side.


Despite the protection of the redoubt, the Swedish shot were forced to fall back by Russian musketry. A Russian unit advanced to rush over the parapet and take the fight into the defences.


Ever aggressive, the Swedish Pike charged out of the defences (some of them anyway), and took the fight to the Russians, driving them away from the defences.


A volley from the Shot scattered the Russians, causing their leader to flee.


Russian morale held, but the Swedes maintained the offensive, their Pike driving into another Russian Shot unit.


That, too, broke and ran. A third Shot unit forgot itself and charged the Pike, with inevitable results. It fell back disordered.


The Pike counter-attacked, but the Shot rallied and held, and scattered their Swedish attackers.


On the Russian left their Cossacks had been skirmishing with the one remaining Swedish relief unit.


The Russians made another assault on the redoubt, but were pushed back.


The Cossacks took a casualty, but returned fire, and routed the Swedish Shot.


This now left the defenders of the redoubt as the sole Swedish unit on the table. However the Russians were depleted; not in units, but the units they did have were now well below full strength. One of their Shot units decided to slip quietly away from the battle.


Another rushed into the redoubt, however.


As they did so, the Cossacks fired a volley, felling another Swede. This was the final straw, and they surrendered.


This was a pretty close game. Both sides suffered failures to activate at key moments, shifting the initiative to their opponents. The extra morale boost the Priests gave the Swedes kept them firmly in the fight, and made the redoubt a tough nut to crack. The Swedes came very close to inflicting a 50% points loss on the Russians, forcing them to break off the attack and giving the Swedes the win, although the Russians had competed one of their special orders, which would have blunted the Swedish victory somewhat.

All in all, a great and exciting game.

6x6 - Game 3.4

1 comment:

  1. These rules seem to work well for the Great Northern War judging from your game reports.

    ReplyDelete

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