Poland-Lithuania vs Sweden "Fight for the village"

This weekend David had painted up his Swedish armored Reiters and brought them for another game of By Fire & Sword. Compared to last week this was a bit more than a demo battle. We had 2 regiments per side. David had his Swedish Reiters and borrowed my Volunteer cavalry regiment. I played wih a Polish Crown cavalry regiment and a regiment of dragoons. Patrik was also given 2 companies of Polish-Hungarian infantry and 2 light artillery pieces to defend the village so that we had the same amount of points per side and no additional game effects would distract us - I just wanted to cement the basic rules of the game first.

Thomas and Patrik were also looking on to get an idea of how the game plays, they are currently both painting Swedish infantry regiments for the upcoming battle this coming weekend.

Anyway, the scenario was about the small village in the middle. David had to protect it with a mix of Swedes and Polish defected troops, while I was going to try to retake it with my Polish loyalists.

IIRC we had 14 points per side.

My left flank was made up of the Crown cavalry regiment, while the Dragoons were going to try to come in from the right. David had his Volunteer cavalry and some nearby infantry and artillery on the left - and his Reiters moving towards my Dragoons on the right.

The battle was mainly about the left flank which was pure mayhem. Cavalry from both sides rode in tight formation and crashed into each other. Infantry and artillery in the village provided flanking fire support for the Swedish sides and managed to break the morale of the Polish Pancerni unit closest to the village - making them fall back with Volunteer cavalry at their heels -jeopardizing the Polish regimental commander.

Meanwhile the cossack style cavalry crashed into the Volunteers and created one big hacking mess which became even messier when a company of Pancerni cavalry joined in on the flank, and then themselves became flanked by another Volunteer company.  Casualties were not critical, but the complete mess of breaking units scattering left and right, pursing cavalry chasing their enemies while artillery and musket fire rained death from the flanks was pretty spectacular.

On the far right flank the Dragoons rode up and dismounted their horses, preparing for the approaching Swedish armored Reiters. Those Reiters were intimidating with their cuirass but they were but a small regiment which the Dragoons should have been able to handle themselves. True enough, as soon as the first Reiter regiment emerged, the Polish dragoons opened fire inflicted enough casualties to make it fall back. The second Reiter regiment was still maneuvering to get a good charge. As the broken Reiters regrouped, both companies mounted a charge at the Dragoons. Dragoons opened fire once again, killing more Reiters - but this time the Swedes had nerves of steel and defied the bullets and kept riding until they crashed into the Polish infantry. Reiters fired pistols point blank killing a couple dragoons before slashing up more of them with their swords. The dragoons put up a good fight and managed to kill a couple of the heavily armed riders in close combat. One dragoon regiment managed to pull off a draw which meant both them and their enemies broke off. But the second Reiter regiment broke the dragoons and started to ride them down as they were fleeing.

The dragoon commander was attacked by the remnant Reiters of the second company and shot by a pistol - something that broke the remaining dragoons completely.

Back on the left flank the Winged hussars had entered the fight, crashing into volunteer cavalry slaughtering enemy riders with their lances. The Winged hussars came under artillery attack and lost a stand but pressed home another charge against a different cavalry unit and supported by more Polish cavalry they broke the enemy. Still, cannon balls bouncing and enemy units regrouping and counter attacking finally led to one Polish Pancerni company being cut off and fleeing. Unable to rally them they left the battle, since no officer was in range to do so. A company of Volunteers then rode past the Winged Hussars, cleverly avoiding them and fired their pistols which killed two riders and reduced the elite unit to a single stand. Both the Volunteers and the Polish Crown cavalry had to take Regiment morale tests at this point since the field was littered with dead riders and their horses. Both regiments had a severe penalty to their morale because of the steep casualties. However the Volunteers managed to pass a 2- roll on a D10 while the Remaining Crown cavalry broke when they failed to do the same.

The Swedes and their allies had prevailed, with heavy casualties to both their regiments, but they held the village and total amount of victory points for casualties and losses was also in their favor.