By Fire and Sword - First Game and Impressions

I'm in love.

Frank and I played two games tonight - both at the 5-point Skirmish level.

I played Swedes, consisting of two banners of dragoons, two banners of reiters, and a lolcannon.

Frank played Cossacks, with one giant blob of Sotnia, some Register sotnia, and two stands of scouts. (Also, I have no idea what any of those are/mean).

I lost both of the games we played. The first was a slaughterfest - I used the Reiters like charging knights, and they most definitely got destroyed. In the second game, they still ended up running away due to the overwhelming ranged firepower of the Cossacks, but I think I got the hang of them a bit more.

My MVPs were definitely the Dragoons. Those guys are super nasty, especially when garrisoned.

My first turn of movement. A platoon of Dragons advances to the house on turn 1 with the help of it's recce deployment.

 I don't really have enough pictures for a batrep, but theres a few action shots scattered in. The first game I tried to play with the Reiters charging into combat, cause that's all I knew from cavalry from my previous gaming experience! But apparently, these Reiters are made for shooting - they suffer no penalties shooting their guns from horseback, and even have a special Caracole maneuver to help fancy it up a bit.

And some Reiters outflank on turn one. Sadly, they had to come on, even through I didn't want them until later. Now they're too far away to issue orders to.

 Because of my overwhelming cavalry presence, I got two bonuses - one unit got an advance deployment, allowing a unit of Dragoons to reach the building on turn 1. The second was an outflanking Reiter banner, which came come on from any of the two side board edges.

Frankos battle line.

 Dragoons are basically infantry units that can move around mounted, but are designed to fight on foot. I used them to run up to the center building on turn one, and then dismount to garrison it and fight the rest of the game. They have a nasty gun at close range - a half musket, which has the second highest (non-cannon) armor penetration I know of in the game.

Dragoons dismount and prepare to storm the building.

 The Caracole basically lets them run up, shoot, and then run back. Sadly, they took some return fire before running back, which decimated an entire stand.

Reiters attempting a Caracole maneuver...

 The Cossacks have rifled barrels, which lets them shoot weak shots at super long range fairly accurately. The saw off many units over the course of the game.

Those pesky scouts chasing off the outflanking reiters with their nasty long range rifles

 Being in a building is tough! It brought the Dragoons armor up to a six from a two! Frank assaulted the building several times over the course of the game, but never managed to make them run.

His register troops hit the garrisoned building in close combat, but bounce.

Oh yea...the lolcannon. See all those pictures of it? Nope? Yeah, that thing was worthless. Got two hits in combined during both of the games, and with each stand of guys having effectively three "wounds", and the cannon only removing one...yeah. I'll take massed small arms any day. Totally not worth the 1 point in a game this smaller - perhaps on a larger scale game.

Run little Reiter, run!

Can't wait to get some more games in next week. Sadly, after next week, I'll be gone for a while between GenCon, Guns of August, and NOVA Open. But after the mini-convention season, I should have my Swedish Skirmish set, and reinforcements to double the size of both armies. It's going to be an awesome autumn in Eastern Europe!