The Battle of Fleurus - 1622

[streetgang]

Managed to get a proper game of Liber Militum Tercios in this evening against my friend Alex. We refought the Battle of Fleurus. In our our refight, as in reality, the Spanish were victorious (unfortunately I commanded the Protestant army ).









More pictures and an in-depth report of my thrashing here: https://lecoqfou.blogspot.com/2024/03/fleurus-1622-tercios.html

[paulr]

    

[Steve J]

Lovely looking game there!

[pierre the shy]

Thanks for the batrep, very impressive 

Those large Spanish tercios certainly look pretty formidible.

[streetgang]

Thanks for the batrep, very impressive 

Those large Spanish tercios certainly look pretty formidible.

Pierre, the tercios are very tough nuts to crack in combat (as my Protestant infantry and cavalry learned first-hand). I think the best way to tackle them is with artillery and infantry salvoes to get them properly softened up and disordered before the cavalry or infantry come to grips in hand to hand combat.

I thought the rules gave a good account of pike and shot combat. I own lots of P&S rules because so many have been unsatisfying. The mechanics are less fidly than I feared. I was resolving combat without referencing the QRS and unit stats after a turn or two.

[Keraunos]

A very good looking game and clear write up.  Thank you.  I've had a look at the rules you used and might try them out, though my sense is that Fleurus is about the biggest battle you would want to tackle with them.

[streetgang]

A very good looking game and clear write up.  Thank you.  I've had a look at the rules you used and might try them out, though my sense is that Fleurus is about the biggest battle you would want to tackle with them.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I was playing. I think we definitely were near the upper limit (or my upper limit) of what Tercios can handle in terms of number of units. It didn't necessarily drag but the order cards began to clutter up the table. I do really like the rules however and would be interested in seeing how they handle the ECW and earlier periods like the French Wars of Religion (with some modifications).

[pierre the shy]

Pierre, the tercios are very tough nuts to crack in combat (as my Protestant infantry and cavalry learned first-hand). I think the best way to tackle them is with artillery and infantry salvoes to get them properly softened up and disordered before the cavalry or infantry come to grips in hand to hand combat.

I thought the rules gave a good account of pike and shot combat. I own lots of P&S rules because so many have been unsatisfying. The mechanics are less fidly than I feared. I was resolving combat without referencing the QRS and unit stats after a turn or two.

Yes, I imagine you would want to try to disrupt/disorder the tercio first for sure no matter what ruleset you use.

We tried a few different P&S rules before settling on the ones we use....we're currently focused on the war of the 3 kingdoms (aka ECW) period but hope to eventually get to some engagements outside the England/Scotland/Ireland area.