Thursday, August 23, 2018

Further Adventures in the Nine Years War

     Both Joe and I had an evening available so I once more imposed on his good will for further testing of my rules. The scenario was a follow-up to the previous one; with the success in the last battle the French were able to force the Allies to turn and fight a major action. Unbeknownst to the Allies the wily French had dispatched a force to turn the Allied flank. Discovering this threat at the last moment the Allied commander sent a brigade of foot and a couple of guns with the intention of slowing the French enough that they would arrive too late to affect the outcome of the main battle.


a quiet looking bit of north-east France


the Anglo-Danish force

the French force

the English deployment; fusileers pushed forward into the bad-going
 in front of a solid line backed by the cannon and the lone cavalry squadron




the French sledgehammer; three Line battalions fronted by skirmishing fusileers on the right, on the left we see two more battalions and all three cavalry squadrons, 
the CinC held the center by himself

first blood went to the French fusileers, downing five of the Englishmen
surprisingly their return fire inflicted even more casualties and drove off the French light troops

but the French skirmishers had done their job 
and the French line now drove off the English light troop

the British fusileers failed their steadiness check 
and were forces to retire well away from the aggressive French troops



on the other flank the British guns were doing fine work against the French line infantry
eventually driving off the foot that were screening the Horse

this may have been a bad decision, 
when the Foot failed a morale check and fell back behind the Horse 
the bold French cavalry now advanced at full speed 
take a moment to look at this picture,
 it was the last moments of the Anglo-Danish brigade as a fighting force
 
the flood-tide of French horse now threatened the British right, 
the gunners hurriedly rammed home a double-shot of grape to welcome Louis's horsemen 
I issued a "Stand Ready" order to them but then rolled horridly in the Command Phase 
thus  allowing the French to act first

the wily French charged the British Foot instead



the doomed Foot got off a steady volley and dropped four French cavalry
Joe, of course, passed his morale check with flying colors 
and inflicted a shattering eleven casualties to the Foot who replied with a feeble four

blasting through the retiring foot and evading gunners (who all took shelter in the woods)
 the French Horse followed-up into the end of the Danish Foot

suddenly my commander was in charge of little else but a gun!

unable to fire, the Danes took a blistering ten figures in casualties 
while doing only four in return to the frothing Frenchmen 
the Danes found that discretion was the better part of valor and retired



in the space of one turn the entire Anglo-Danish force was thrown into disarray and only the magnanimous gesture by the French Commander of allowing them the Honors of War
saved them from extinction

     This game was intended mostly to test the Light Troops rules. After due consideration (i.e. Joe and I talked about it over a couple of beers) we decided that the shooting of Skirmishers was too effective and we are changing it to one die per three figures instead of one per two. In other respects they seemed to work well enough and we will test them further before other changes. The game stood out with Joe's uncanny ability to roll very well in the Command Phase on the turns when he needed the initiative  giving him the option to act or force me to take my actions first, on several occasions it saved his Foot from further pounding from my guns and at the end he was able to deliver the crushing cavalry charge unhindered by my laggard command staff. Jolly good fun all around, and done start-to-finish (not including the beers) in under two hours.

9 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. They are in the rules, just not in this scenario, to be honest, I haven't gotten around to painting any

      Delete
  2. Regulars deployed in skirmish order doesn’t really seem to fit in with the historical reality of this period?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most armies maintained troops that were able to deploy in a more open order, you are right in that I should not refer to them as "skirmishers" because they did not operate the way that later ones did. Grenadiers and some fusiliers were often given tasks that demanded they function in a less regimented manner, this is why they are referred to as "Light Troops" in the rules. Neither title is completely accurate, just a modern short-hand to describe them.

      Delete
  3. A picture story! My favorite!! A good read. And all the good photo's! Well done. So, all these years I've visited here and never knew who Anton was.... Amazing!
    Skip
    (sitting here still in my jammies eating a fresh Georgia peach!) Life is good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Skip! Is that you? Kev said that you are heading up this way soon. I can't wait to see you after all these years. It is good to see that you are doing well.

      Delete
  4. Discussed over a 'beer'? Beers? You let Joe have cavalry. You should know better. Over here we have a 15mm FOW 3.1 1941 Russian/German battle, with Soviet Cavalry (Cossacks). Have about 12 more to finish a Regular Soviet Cavalry Squadron - Mounted. To add to the joy it is winter. By the way, do you need a green felt cloth for your table????
    Also, if only Joe shows up call me and I will rush over.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A wonderful period, a beautiful table and great looking armies, a magnanimous gesture (from a French general!)....what's not to like? Great report...

    ReplyDelete