It's been far too long since I actually set up a game on my own table - there's just been a bit too much 'real life' stuff going on. However, recently some other bloggers (in particular, Bob Cordery) highlighted a very simple series of rules known as 'Dominion of...' by Steve Parker, which allow very quick games on a 'three by four' grid table. You don't even need figures to try the rules, you can simply play the battle out using pencil and paper. I like simple rules and these seemed to have something about them, so I spent the huge sum of (almost) £5 on the PDF of Dominion of Pike and Shot from Wargames Vault. Typically an 'army' in the rules is up to 6 units, and there is a selection of army lists in the basic rulebook, so it was very easy to get out my veteran 15mm Thirty Years' War figures and create forces for list no. 63, 30YW French and no. 56 'German Catholic' (let's call them Imperialists), and give the rules a try.
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| initial setup, veiwed from behind the French army |
The army lists give similar but not identical forces for the French and Imperialists: each has two units of Cuirassiers, defined as 'Melee Mounted' and one unit of 'Carbineers' ( I assume 'Harquebusiers' ) which are 'Missile Mounted', and then three units of Infantry. The variation comes in the Infantry - the French foot are defined as Pike (plus Musket) - 'Melee Foot' - and the Imperialist foot are Musket ( plus Pike ) - 'Missile Foot'. These classifications are the equivalent of 'Pike Heavy' and 'Shot Heavy' infantry formations in other rules, so the French are 'Pike Heavy' and Imperialists 'Shot Heavy' in these lists. From my prior knowldge I admit that I would probably have suggested the other way round! But I wonder if the idea of these lists is to emphasise the attacking Elan of the French by making their Infantry very much melee-oriented, while Imperialist foot are a bit more ponderous and defensive-minded. Units can be deifned as 'Armoured' or 'Elite' but I kept it simple to start with, keeping all units 'vanilla', so to speak.
The picture above shows the two forces deployed at the start, shown from behind the French army. In the middle, the main forces face each other with each having a unit forming each of Left Wing, Centre and Right Wing. I went for a conventional setup of Infantry Centre, Cavalry on the wings, with the French deploying both their Cuirassiers while the Imperialists placed Cuirassiers on their right, Carbineers to their left. The remaining three units on each side are placed in 'Reserve' - those are the lines of units nearest to (French) and furthest from (Imperial) the camera. A die roll decides which side is 'Attacker' and which 'Defender' - the Imperialists won that honour, and as a result the French had to deploy first, an the Imperialists 'moved' first each turn.
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| Front Lines at start (French nearest camera) |
True to the period, there is a Bombardment phase before the first turn, even though no artillery units are actually included - a nice simple way of reflecting the reality, where artillery often did not play much part beyond an initial cannonade. Each side chooses a target sector to bombard - Left, Right or Centre - and rolls a dice, and a 'hit' forces an targeted Infantry unit to retire, but a Cavalry target if 'hit' is goaded into a charge. Risky, but presumably you aim to provoke them to charge recklessly against a better unit of yours. This phase turned out to be quite eventful - the Imperialists bombarded the Cuirassiers on the French left, and 'hit', provoking a charge at the Imperial Cuirassiers opposite them. That meant combat between the two, at which point both promptly rolled high scores, and both units were destroyed! Quite a shock for both sides, even before the first 'proper' move! the French bombardment, meanwhile, had no effect.
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| bombardment provokes Cavalry clash! |
If a unit is defeated it is removed from the game - sudden death, indeed - and must be replaced by a unit from the reserve, if one is available. So as a result the Imperialists brought up their second Cuirassier unit, and the French their 'Carbineers'.
Now on to Turn 1 - each side gets to attack in one sector, with Attackers ( Imperialists) going first. Both sides elected to attack with their respective Carbineers against opposing Cuirassiers - the logic being that Missile troops get to attack first, so the Carbineers hope to shoot well enough to drive away their opponents before being charged. It didn't quite work out, as the both Carbineers units shooting was ineffective, and the Imperial Cuirassiers promptly charged and destroyed the Carbineers on the French left (French Infantry regiment 'Bleu' moved up from Reserve to replace them), Each side gets one attempt to 'rally' a destroyed unit, and at this point the French tried to rally their Cuirassier unit - and failed. So losses after turn 1 were: French 2 units, Imperials 1.
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| End of Turn 1 (Imperialists to the right) |
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| Turn 2 : French Cavalry seem to have 'gorn' |
Turn 4 : On the Imperial left their Carbineers attacked the French 'Veste Vert' foot, to no effect, while on the French left, the struggle between their 'Veste Bleu' regiment and the Imperial 'Gruner Mantel' ended in defeat for the Imperial regiment. The newly-rallied Cuirassiers stepped up from reserve. Losses at end of Turn 4 were three units each - neck-and-neck stuff - and we have an interesting situation, with three French Infantry units facing only one Imperial foot and two horse units.
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| End of Turn 4 : an interesting balance |
The next turn was the first one without any losses - the Imperial Carbineers and French 'Veste Verts' tangled inconclusively, as did the French 'Veste Bleu' and Imperial Curassiers on the other flank. Losses remained at three each.
After that comparitive lull, things livened up on Turn 6. On the Imperial left, the long struggle between their Carbineers and French 'Veste Verts' foot continued without a result, while on the French left their 'Veste Bleus' tried conclusions with the Imperial Cuirassiers - and the French regiment was promptly routed! That brought losses to French 4, Imperial 3 and crucially left the Cuirassiers unopposed, and able to turn inwards to take the French centre in flank.
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| Turn 6 : French flank in danger.. |
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| Turn 7 : Imperial Cuirassiers strike |
and with only one unit remaining, the French on their turn facing imminent defeat, tried a last desperate attack with their 'Veste Vert' regiment on the Imperial Carbineers - only to be scattered by a salvo from the horsemen ( I think we can conclude that the French infantry were none too enthusiastic in their attack, and needed little encouragement to skedaddle). Thus Turn 7 ended wth all 6 French units routed, to Imperial losses of 3 units.
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| The final blow - last French regiment routed! |
Well, that was rather fun. Obviously very simple, but quite tense and with a few surprises and subtleties in the mechanisms. I think it took about 90 minutes to play through, but that included taking detailed turn-by-turn notes, checking rules carefully and taking some photos, since it was a first try. I think it would have probably taken less than half an hour if simply played. Some interesting questions arise over details of the rules, which give advantage or disadvantage to units in combat in certain combinations. For example 'Missile Mounted' get +1 against 'Melee Foot' ( note that without that modifier the Melee unit would have a +1 advantage, but also that the Missile unit always fires first). This is all quite subtle stuff, which I will be interested to ponder over and try to decode all the ramifications of what on the face of it is a very simple combat mechanism.
Overall, I enjoyed this - it certainly gave a very simple and quick means of 'scratching the itch' for a game, and I can see that it could be very useful for playing through mini-campaigns in short order. I note that there is a companion volume available with many scenarios recreating real battles of the period; it may be interesting to see how White Mountain, Lutzen or Naesby translate to this small gridded-game format. Having recently bought a book about Fribourg, 1644, I wonder if I could work out a scenario for that? We shall see.
Next, I need to 'crack on' with painting scenery for my Risorgimento 19th Century Italy project, and I feel a Portable Seven Years War game is long overdue - and I also hope to get to the Partizan show at Newark in about a week's time, so plenty to be going on with and to generate future posts here. Until then, keep well, everyone.
