ADLG-R - Game Report 1

Danish (19) vs Later Imperialists (28)

One of my long-standing projects had been to explore how I could rebase my 30 YW figures for ADLG-R. A few days over the Christmas period proved invaluable to see what I could deploy and field. At the same time Paul was pushing me, ever so nicely, to get my troops together so we could try out the rules.

With my troops and some commanders and Light Horse from Paul we were good to go with a Danish Army of Later Tercios, Heavily Armoured Caracole, Medium artillery support, Musketeers and Heavy Cavalry with carbines.

For Paul for his Imperialists he went down the Pike and Shot route with Cuirassiers, and a bevy of light troops including Dragoons.

The terrain selection and deployment went well, at least for me, as I managed to position my Medium Artillery on the hill. Other than that our deployments were reasonably typical for the period.

I decided to holdback in the centre and use my artillery to soften up the enemy line, however, despite inflicting losses Paul very adroitly used the benefit of supports to rally of most of the hits. On the left I committed my Caracoles forward less one and a Heavy Cavalry unit which would play with the light troops in the plantation. Meanwhile my other Heavy Cavalry was sent on a depth penetration mission.

And thus, the fire fight began; there were a number of turns where we effectively explored the limitations of firepower from battle units and skirmishers alike.

Eventually the combined effects of Pike and Shot flank attack from the cuirassiers and light infantry in the rear saw off one of my Caracoles and the other succumbed shortly thereafter. The other complicating factor was that in the rules Caracoles have a cohesion of 4 whereas reading the QRS it says they have a cohesion of 3. Clarifications are being sought. On the right the casualties from fire are building and the Danes have the potential to close and destroy this flank, some stunning rallying from the Danes was very beneficial for their cause.

The Imperialists advance! Meanwhile the Danes close to close combat on the right and the impact of the musketeers on the flank of a Pike and Shot have seen it destroyed. Meanwhile the cunning Imperialists are trying to address the problem of the Danish Caracole and Heavy Cavalry with their carbines; not that they needed to worry about the latter as they were shooting blanks for the second half of the game after destroying one Croat Light cavalry and damaging the other!

The Imperialists achieved fire dominance in the centre and destroyed a Later Tercio by fire. On the right the combined effects of a Tercio in Front and one in the flank has still not destroyed the Pike and Shot regiment in front of it!!

Outcome

A creditable draw for the Danes; Paul may disagree.

Lessons Learnt

The rules merit persevering with, albeit that we need to see what the next version brings and there are a number of errors and clarifications that would be of benefit.

Relying on the core ADLG rules for the vast majority of the game mechanics makes the rules relatively easy to pick up.

Despite the size, in cohesion points, for the battle units they can be vulnerable to concentrated fire.

The battle units, double bases, take a bit of thinking about when you fight each half separately. We found using a 1UD spacer in front of each half when adjudging fire combat made it much easier to work out who fired at what!

The jury is out on force and army selection and design, but it is clear that firepower dominates the action, but close combat is deadly even when you have 4 cohesion hits already on a battle unit!