By Fire & Sword: Battle between patrols AAR

This was a very interesting skirmish battle since we had two elite forces. The Swedish skirmish force made up of Veterans only, seasoned Reiters in armor and excellent veteran Dragoons - truly the crack troops of the Swedish army. The opposition was made up of the Lithuanian raiding force led by Wincenty Gosiewski and his Winged Hussars, backed by seasoned Reiters here as well, Dragoons and cossack style cavalry.

Army lists looked like this:

"Gosiewski Foray" (Lithuanian Raiding force): 11 points

Colonel Wincenty Gosiewski (4 command points)
Liuetenant Colonel Herman von Gantskopf (1 command point)
3 bases of Polish Dragoons
5 bases of seasoned Reiters
3 bases of Winged Hussars, with lances
4 bases of cossack style cavalry

Swedish Skirmish force: 10 points

1 Colonel (3 command points)
1 Lieutenant-Colonel (1 command point)
5 bases of Veteran Reiters with Arquebus
5 bases of Veteran Reiters with cuirass
4 bases of Veteran Dragoons

These two elite war bands clashed in the "Patrol" scenario. Andreas wanted to try out the Polish-Lithuanian stuff so he played the Gosiewski force, I played the Swedes. The additional effect was that a terrain piece was moved on the battlefield, it did not impact this game overall.

The scenario objectives were simple, there are three tokens on the table that represent areas to be reconnoitered by both forces. To do that, you need to have a unit or a commander within 10cm from a token at the end of your re-organization phase (end of a turn). Each objective is worth 2 points, and both sides can each gather 6 points this way in the scenario - however - each force may only truly earn these points if they have at least 1 commander left alive at the end of the battle. If all commanders in a force get killed then all those victory points are lost with them!

....
The Swedes grouped their men into three squadrons. A squadron of unarmored Reiters armed with Arquebus handguns, a squadron of armored Reiters and a tiny squadron of Dragoons.

The Dragoons were only meant to make a dash for the closes objective, while the Reiters were supposed to do the real fighting, which is also why those two units were deployed close to each other.

Initiative went to the Lithuanian force which moved forward and cashed in 2 victory points for the central objective. The Swedes cashed in 2 points for the left objective. Swedish Dragoons fired at the Polish cossack style infantry and scored a single wound, other than that the opening of this battle was very uneventful.

Turn 2 was when the battle kicked into high gear. Cossack style cavalry charged the Swedish dragoons, who fired a Salvo and broke the enemy charge, the Lithuanian cavalry was forced to withdraw and became disorganized. Lithuanian Reiters decided to charge the Swedish lines, but were short of movement, rolling to see what happened they failed the skill test and became disorganized in front of the Swedish Reiter squadrons - not good at all.

The Swedes had deployed in such a way so that they could charge the Lithuanian troops next turn, but also fire at them with Arquebus handguns - which cause a single wound. The Polish dragoons dismounted and began firing at the Swedish Dragoons but failed to hit. The cossack cavalry was left leaderless as both Lithuanian commander had joined and led units of their own - and their focus was limited to events on the frontline.

Swedish Reiters now charged the Lithuanian cavalry, Winged Hussars countercharged. Swedish armored Veteran Reiters crashed into the Lithuanian Retiers who were disorganized, and slayed 2 bases. The Lithuanian cavalry was completely brutalized and began to fall back, Swedish Reiters in pursuit.

At this time the Winged Hussars crashed into the Swedish unarmored Reiters and massacred them completely, killing 3 bases and forcing the remaining 2 to flee!!

Things looked bad but not yet lost for the Swedes,  and the Lithuanian force was probably worse off at the moment. However Gantzkopf rallied his Reiters and turned towards the Swedes. The two remaining Swedish unarmored Reiter bases were rallied as well.

It was only now that the Swedish luck ran out completely. It began with the Swedish colonel being charged by the Winged Hussars, and unable to escape their wrath - he was killed as his bodyguards failed to save him. The Swedish armored Reiters were about to deliver the killing blow on the Lithuanian Reiters - but the Polish Dragoons turned 180 degrees and unleashed short range fire - killing a base of armored Reiters. The Swedes panicked and failed their morale test, and had to withdraw - becoming disorganized.

Leaderless the Swedish unit then faced its demise as it was charged by Gantzkopf's Reiter squadron and Gosiewski's Winged Hussars, a slaughter where all but 1 base of armored Reiters perished and the last base fled off table.

As all of this was happening the Swedish Lieutenant-Colonel was navigating between the fields of fire of enemy units, evading death - but his luck too ran out at the end of turn 5 when he was killed by arquebus fire from the Lithuanian Reiters. This completely erased all 6 Swedish victory points!

The remaining Swedish unit, the Dragoons, were also badly beaten up in close combat with cossack style cavalry and ended the battle with 2 bases.

Overall the Swedish force had been almost wiped out, the survivors numbered 2 bases of Dragoons and 2 bases of unarmored Reiters.

The Lithuanian force had won 6 victory points, and cancelled 6 Swedish victory points for the scenario alone (you needed a commander left alive to get those victory points). So 6-0. Then the death toll was added to that, the Lithuanian troops had suffered Acceptable Losses, the Swedish force had suffered a Massacre with over 75% of their force value wiped out.

The total victory points of the Lithuanian force numbered 11-0, and amounted to a Strategic victory (2 points short of a Historical Victory). Despite this the game was extremely fun and very exciting with sudden turns. At first it looked as if the Lithuanians would win the weak Swedish flank - but were beaten back unexpectedly. Then the Swedes mauled the Lithuanian center. The center was then saved by the Polish dragoons at the very last second, and then the Swedish main force and its main commander were all destroyed!

It also looks like we will be 8 guys playing this game at the club once the Kickstarter ends,  two more guys seem to have given in the past couple of days. And with more people here in Sweden also picking up the game I can see a tournament in the near future after the Kickstarter has been delivered and the guys have had the time to paint up their stuff!