Last Wednesday night Myself and two other sturdy lads from the club, John Maguire and Brian Buskell, got together and played a short game of Baroque. Our game focussed on the Early Dutch Wars of Independence from the Spanish. Both sides where made up of 700pts per army. Six regiments of foot, three cavalry and two artillery guns for the Dutch (plus to skirmisher units) and the Spanish two Early Tercios, four later Tercios, three cavalry and two artillery guns. Fairly even per side you would think…….hell no!!!! Those Tercios early and late are extremely tough nuts to crack, which is why I guess the Spanish Infantry Tercio dominated Europe for over 100yrs.
The game however went very well and the Dutch lads in their first battle as a complete Army did ok and stood up to the Spanish for a few rounds at the most. One Dutch regiment final destroyed a later Tercios in the last round of the combat, but by that time the rest of the Dutch Army was fleeing back behind a well fortified town.
Unfortunately I did not get to use my three cavalry regiments as I hope and have thus started painting another regiment of cuirassiers in hope of playing the later period when the Spanish are not as strong and the Dutch are better trained. I will also need to paint up another artillery gun and crew as the two guns in the Army are not nearly enough. Concentrated fire on one Tercios at a time should be the key to braking one or two more of them I hope.
Brian Buskell fly up to Townsville for the night and we just had to introduce him to another period…..he is now thinking about buying an army.
Dutch Lancers and German Reiters deployed to support the left flank of the Dutch Army
In the foreground a early period Tercio and the later period Tercio in the back ground. Both are extremely hard to defeat and take a lot of pounding.
Dutch mounted arquebus stood no chance against the Spanish heavy cavalry
The Dutch baggage camp
A regular Dutch Infantry Regiment and artillery await the Spanish advance
More Spanish cavalry advance to threaten the Dutch right flank
Brave Dutch infantry boldly stand ready for the Spanish
Dutch Cavalry fix the Spanish right flank…. but not for long. They will soon come under fire and are forced to fall back.
The lines exchange musket fire
The Spanish charge into the Dutch line expecting an easy victory
But the Dutch hold firm all across the line and in some cases they push the Spanish back.
But not for long the shear weight of numbers and the superior training and discipline of the veteran Spanish troops soon tips the balance in their favour and the Dutch line starts to break
Spanish cavalry break through on the Dutch right flank and over run the gun line and are soon pushing pass the Dutch flank
An English regiment puts up a good fight and even pushes back a Spanish regiment but they two are soon hit in the flank from other Spanish troops
With Dutch troops fleeing to the rear and Spanish cavalry riding them down in scores the battle is lost.
The last charge of the day Dutch lancers try to stop the Spanish onslaught and give the fleeing infantry time to get away.
