"Open FOR R Tournaments " Topic

My local club is running an FOG R tournament open to all armies. My question is it worth trying to run early armies, e.g. pikes and knights, when you could be up against armies armed with bayonets?

Hi Mike, I have been involved in running a number of Fog R tournaments and my experience is that in an Open tournament the early Western armies tend to suffer. It's not so much the bayonet armed troops but you need to watch for:

1) Early (lance armed) cavalry tend to lose out to Pistol armed horse.
2) Troops armed with Arquebus are seriously outshot by Musket.
3) Tercios look impressive but they are not cost effective compared to later Pike + Shot BGs. Keils are not bad but both are vulnerable to artillery.
4) 17th Century Western armies are reasonably balanced, later armies have generally better foot but worse cavalry.
5) A low tech army with massed bows can give people a nasty shock.

I believe that there are three periods within the dates covered by Fog R that work well:
1) Pre 1570
2) 1570-1620
3) 1620-1698

Hi Mike

Kevin is right but if you want to simplify even more

Period 1 pre 1570 (no impact pistol or musket armed other than light foot

Period 2 after that date

cheers

Alasdair