Over the last few weeks we have been play testing the 1651 Battle of Trylisy in 28mm using the By Fire and Sword rules.
At Historicon in 2021, I ran the 1651 Battle of Berestechko using Pike and Shotte early on the Thursday morning. This Battle took place between the 28th and 30th June, 1651. The cossacks lost the battle and retreated. Eventually the Poles and Lithuanians caught up with the cossacks at Bila Tserkva (white church) on the 24th September 1651. On the Saturday morning at Fall In! 2022 I plan to run the Battle of Bila Tserkva again using Pike and Shotte rules. This game will be reasonably large and will be for 8-10 players.
Before the engagement at Bila Tserkva, the Poles fought a small engagement against some cossack units at village Trylisy on 23rd August. The village was defended by a small garrison of about 600 cossacks. At Fall In! 2022 I also plan to run the Battle of Trylisy on the Friday. As it is a smaller engagement I plan to use the By Fire and Sword rules. As the rules are more complex and detailed, I plan to limit the number of players to four. This smaller game will allow me to tech the rules to anyone who has not played them before and wants to try them out.
At our last club games day we tried the rules for a second time. We caught most of the errors that we made during a first outing of the rules, but made a few new errors. As a result of the game I believe that we now have a good understanding of the system.
Most of the errors that we made the first time involved not understanding the cossack infantry special rules, which give them some defensive options against cavalry. As a result the cossacks got massacred. Because of this game, we overcompensated by giving the cossacks too many defenses, which made it extremely hard going for the Poles. I believe we now have a good understanding of how to achieve a balanced game.
I am hoping that I will get a few players that want to get to learn the By Fire and Sword rules sign up for the game. In my opinion it is a set of rules that really captures the flavor of the period. Due to the size of the rule book they can seem a little overwhelming. But a convention should allow people to try them out.
I plan to have a relatively small number of units. The Poles will have a unit of Winged Hussars, a unit of Pancerni, two units of Polish cossack style cavalry and two units of Noble Levy. The cossacks will have two unit of register cossacks, two unit of moloitsy and two units of mounted cossacks. Each player will have three units to control.
We should easily be able to finish the game of the Battle of Trylisy within the four hours.
For players preferring the larger game, I will be running the battle of Bila Tserkva on the Saturday with way more troops. This game will use the Pike and Shotte rules.
