WSS: A Little Gentle Solo Rules-Testing for a Wet Afternoon

 This is a first step at getting back to what passes for normal at Chateau Foy. Last game I played here was in January, when David Crenshaw visited, courtesy of Zoom. Since then there has been a stream of excuses - all good, but too many in number (check out this old post of mine, from back in the Dark Ages, for the theory). I lost weeks of late evenings, studying online the fine details of the Scottish Courts' guidelines for submission of probate on inherited estates, meanwhile we had decorators working here, so we had rooms out of action, and in addition I had persistent problems with my eyes - all very tiresome and not at all interesting. If you sampled the link above, you will observe the mystic count of three excuses...

The decoration is complete, Edinburgh Sheriff Court (Gawd bless them) finally became fed up with trying to think up new reasons to bounce my application, and relented, and my eyes are now improving - slowly but indisputably, so it has become time to get out the toy soldiers and see how it might go.

No problems at all. I took the opportunity to run a game to test some recent changes in my rules concerning the effect of fordable rivers and streams. I have had some concerns in this area for a while, and a solo game seems the right occasion to try this out. I can describe the testing very quickly - it worked well, the new rule changes produced no snags - all good, but I still have to say that the presence of a significant river - even a fordable one - does not enhance the excitement levels in the game!

The OOB for this game was the original one for my January Zoom game, or, rather, what that game would have featured if I had not cut it back a little because of time constraints.

There is no back narrative - it was just a solo test game - an encounter - 9 Victory Pts for the win. If you like OOBs, here it is. 

French Army (Maréchal de France Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière)     
(8 horse; 13 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)

Bourgeois’ Cavalry Brigade [1] (Marquis de Bourgeois)
Gendarmérie de France (6 Sqns) (elite)
Régt de Grignand (3 Sqns)
Dragons de La Vrillière (3 Sqns)
Saint-Gervais’ Cavalry Brigade [2] (Marquis de Saint-Gervais)
Régt du Mestre de Camp (3 Sqns)
Régt de Lavallière (3 Sqns)
Régt du Roi (3 Sqns)
Régt de Tarnault (3 Sqns)
Pelletier’s Infantry Brigade [3] (Comte Pelletier de Montmarie)
Régt de Béarn (2 Bns)
Régt de Champagne (2 Bns)
Régt de Languedoc (1 Bn)
Régt du Dauphin (2 Bns)
1 field battery
Coustine’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Marquis de Coustine)
Régt de Navarre (2 Bns)
Régt de Poitou (2 Bns)
Régt de Saintonge (1 Bn)
Régt de Toulouse (1 Bn)
1 field battery

Allied Army (Lt Gen Charles Churchill)    
(8 horse; 12 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)

Pickering’s Cavalry Brigade [1] (Br Gen Sir Mortimer Pickering)
Cadogan’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Lumley’s (Queen’s) Regt (3 Sqns)
Schomberg’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Hay’s (Scots) Dragoons (3 Sqns)
Whitstable’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Br Gen Lord Whitstable)
Wood’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Wundham’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Leibregiment zu Pferd (Hessen-Kassel) (3 Sqns)
Spiegel Karabiniere (Hessen-Kassel) (3 Sqns)
Cirencester’s Infantry Brigade [3] (Br Gen Earl of Cirencester) [3 Bns have battalion guns]
1^st Foot Guards (1 Bn) (elite)
Duke of Marlborough’s Regt (1 Bn)
Chas Churchill’s (Buffs) Regt (1 Bn)
Ferguson’s (Cameronian) Regt (1 Bn)
Howe’s Regt (1 Bn)
Hamilton’s (Royal Irish) Regt (1 Bn)
1 field battery
Pentecost’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Br Gen Jan-Hendrik van Pentecost (Dutch))
Lord Orkney’s (Royal) Regt (1 Bn)
Lord North & Grey’s Regt (1 Bn)
IR Leib zu Fuss (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)
IR Erbprinz (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)
IR Prinz Wilhelm (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)
IR Stückrad (Hessen-Kassel) (1 Bn)
1 field battery

 

    

 

Since this was a day about fighting with wet feet, it was essential to deploy the swans on the lake. You know it makes sense

 

Initial set-up; French on the left, Allies on the right, with a dirty great river dominating the field

 

I won't attempt a detailed account - the idea is just to offer some pictures to look at. This is Lord Whitstable's cavalry brigade, on the Allied left

 

The Allied Commander (another outing for Charlie Churchill) has a look at the old Butter Market in the village

 

Another general view at the start - this time from behind the Allies' right flank

 

The French commander, with his staff [I must try to arrange for some blank 5mm mini-dice, to identify the army without giving a fake brigade number for the Marshal...]

 

Regrettable lapse in elegance here - one of the French battalions does that embarrassing thing of balancing sideways on the bridge. In fact my infantry, if detached from their sabots, will form a very convincing column of march which is narrow enough to fit on the bridge, but it's fiddly. and this is a solo test, with the dining chairs still in position. A unit in the centre of the table gives too high a chance of dropping everything in a heap - especially given an operator with dodgy eyesight - so I played it lazy but safe. You know that for a proper game I'd have put them in column specially...

 

Splish-splash...

 

 

Nuts-and-bolts testing photo, warts and all - that dice roll inflicts one hit and one potential retreat on the enemy. The red cube indicates that this general's brigade (Pentecost, I think) has been activated this turn. The blue Tesco tokens show units which are ordered. Since Zoom is not used here, I reverted to the official black loss counters

 

British unit advances across the river (why us, serge? - because we're 'ere, lad)

 

Unusually for one of my battles, the cavalry only really got involved late in the day

 

Situation after about 3 hours shows a large hole in the middle of the French army. The Allies won 9-3 on Victory Points

 

The Bone Yard at the end. Lost units are classified as "Rally Fails" (i.e. "legged it") or "Eliminated" - French trays at the top here. The classification is meaningless in a single encounter game, but in a campaign the proportion of hits recovered for the next game depends on which tray the units finished up in, how many hits they suffered and what kind of a victory it was. Death by spreadsheets.