The Great Polish-Lithuanian hussars with lances and feathers ...

... are called hussars, but only in this period, even when they have long sticks!!! Later you must call them lancers, and never anything else, but I digress...

This Thursday it was, 15mm, By Fire & Sword, and true to my word, I choose the Swedish side (with Campbell as the main commander), even when we knew we would be outnumbered. While Peter, Chris and Alisdair choose the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. All of the magnificent figures came from Barts impressive collection (and  I think it was his complete collection - all of them beauties!!!).

The scenario I believe as well from Bart or it was from the rulebook (BF&S) as he umpired. We, the Swedish, had the most points, although on the table it rather looked the opposite, as if the the majority were lost to the Swedish teamster union. We were told to hold the line, while 2 wagons should arrive and pass behind us ... but of course they were late, not enough bakhshish. So Campbell formulated a secret victory condition, which he whisperd in my ear: "If we still stand at the end of turn 4, we won..." , morally, I guess is what he really meant.

We had the first turn and missed the opportunity to soften up the polish cavalry (all misses), but who can really shoot at men clad in feathers ... (yaah ...OK  ... the Spanish and the Anglo-Saxons ... I should have let Campbell throw the dice ...) Then the Polish charged with 3 units of winged hussars, as it turns out it wasn't enough to repulse and beat the old veteran Swedes (old swedes are hard to chew on!?!), which mentally demoralised our opponents from the start.

What amazes me is that even when we were doing fine (dice wise) we had to retreat, so we developed a overwhelming tactical superiority out of it. We lost the fights, saved the morale, retreat, and stood our ground again (albeit with less men). All the Commonwealth aristo-cats could do was repeatedly throw the Poles (feathered hussars) against us. I guess the other half of their (most of the time immobile) army were disenfrenchised Lithuanians.

Only in the 4th turn, we were pushed back from the hill and the unlanced, but still very much quick-winged Hussars rushed in front of the two wagons and captured them and our cheese crackers (symbol of our steadfast unwavering moral superiority). Naah,  actually I confess, I ate them beforehand. So technically we lost, but according to Campbell, we nearly won - which is still a loss in my books, but I ate that as well.

All in all it was a great game, and I enjoyed it very much ('cmon it‘s a renaissance game!!!). I get to learn the rules a little bit more every time we play. It must be an era that gives Polish players a great pride to play the invincible hussars, which makes me wonder what went wrong with the great state in the end ... when did they loose their boni ... but that seems to be another story another time ...

The Polish side ...

My Swedish guns and Infantry

The Lithuanian side

and the Commonwealth side... 

vs overwhelming Swedish centre and Campbells cavalry surrounding ...

all my guns were primed well

until the Polish Hussars with their longer lances came ...

lots of them (3 units)

we took the hits

won some combats and still ... no poles on the hill

on the road more of the same ...

in turn 3 finally the teamster stopped their strike (the cheese crackers are the Swedish morale)

Again the hussars charged in

And again my Swedish veterans took the hits

and still we send them back

at the end of the 3rd turn

Campbells dragoons were dismounting

and his Reiters were actually doing right repulsing the hussars again ... 

but then in the 4th turn ...

the end of battle ...