On Thursday I had the pleasure of hosting what for me is an ambitious WSS battle - 5 players, quite fussy terrain, lots of troops.
The scenario was based on one I had played before; Franco-Bavarian force (commanded by Marshal Marsin) occupies a key position on the only road capable of getting the Allied siege train (confiscated from Ulm) into position to lay siege to the important fortress at Landau. The Allies send forward a force which includes Imperial, British and Hessen-Kassel troops, commanded by Karl Thüngen, to chase Marsin away.
Marsin has 4 brigades; Thüngen has 6, but 2 of his are delayed. At the outset, Marsin has a slight advantage in numbers and a strong position on a ridge overlooking the road, while the Allies' advanced troops are stomping onto the table up the road and through an adjoining wood; when the Allies' delayed brigades arrive, they will have overall superiority, but will have to get themselves sorted out quickly to bring this advantage to bear.
JBM and Jon were the Franco-Bavs, and Chris, Dave B and Dave C had the Allies.
The French side adopted a very aggressive "defence", going for the enemy vigorously to disrupt them before the reinforcements became involved.
Starting positions. On the Damebrunnen ridge opposite, the Bavarians are on their right flank, based in and around the village of Weißkirch, and the French on their left. On the near side of the table, Austrian troops are advancing along the road and in the farmland on both sides of it, while the (extremely red) British are moving forward through the Binningwald forest. The stream which is visible - the Pfefferbach - is a minor water-splash which is not expected to slow the advance down very much
The action commences, and the Franco-Bavarians are straight out of the stalls!
Withers' British infantry in the woods - the French are coming across the table at them, and there is a major cavalry fight breaking out on the right of the picture...
... as you see here - Henry Lumley's British horse (red cube) getting involved with De Broglie's French lads. The Brits did well initially, but lost momentum rather
Bavarians on their right and in the centre making rapid progress with their attack
The British foot are still in the Binningwald, but by Turn 4 the Allied reinforcements arrive - more Austrian cavalry on the flank (Cusani), and the Hessian infantry (Wilken) on the far side of the wood
General Tourouvre gets as far as the British-held wood - splish-splash
The battle took a while to build up to full fury, but then it finished quickly. Here Jon sends the Wolframsdorf Cuirassiers forward in the decisive attack, with General Weichel; they eliminated a further Allied Cavalry unit and a battery, and the game is won...
A couple of extra pictures: here you see a detachment holding part of Weißkirch - my "detachment" rule is a straight copy of the "garrison" rule from C&CN - the troops here are one of the companies from my siege spares. They were pleased to get a bit of fresh air, but they had a very quiet time
And here you see a fine publicity shot of Marshal Marsin and his staff going in with the Bavarian attack - this must be one for the engravers
It was a smashing, jovial evening - I had to leave markers and a few extra counters around the place to help me remember where we were up to (bad form if the umpire loses the plot), but it was really very enjoyable. As ever, my sincere thanks to my colleagues for their company and good-humoured preparedness to "muck in", as my Preston grannie would have said, and their ability to cope cheerfully with the residual shortcomings of what is still an evolving rule set.
Thank you, gentlemen!
Super looking game and an enjoyable read through the action. A big win for the Franco/Bavarians.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. It was a very convincing win - which impressed me even more since I played the same scenario earlier in the week, I was the French side, took a fairly static role in the defence and got hammered! In the Thursday game, the British might maybe have bailed out of the woods rather more vigorously, but I'm not sure how much difference it would have made!
DeleteTony, this was a smashingly entertaining session! You managed the increased numbers at the table with confidence, calmness, and flair. Great job to you and for providing a great game. No worries about your rules, they worked smoothly. Woods are no place for cavalry!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jon - my personal compliments on your decisive attack - wild!
DeleteMark told me to attack aggressively no matter the cost. I thought, what? I am happy to sit on my ridge and let the battle come to me! So, off I went. Having Chris move his cavalry wing into the forest was key since those horsemen were not only ineffective there but bottled up and unable to contribute elsewhere.
DeleteAs Franco Bav Commander I knew we’d have no where to retreat to, other than off board, once the enemy began piling up their reserves against us. We needed to create a log jam in their rear areas to prevent them bringing them on in a timely fashion. Attack seemed the slightly counterintuitive option. Not sure if we really held up the reserves that much but we at least had some room to fall back if and when required.
ReplyDeleteWhatever else, you restricted their space - I was intimidated, and I was just the umpire...
DeleteI do not know too much about the history but the spectacle is first class. Lovely looking collection.
ReplyDeleteThank you Matt - the joys of old-fashioned 20mm, as sculpted by Les Higgins, back in old-fashioned 1970. Since I realised that I have always secretly wanted armies in 3-cornered hats - proper toy soldiers, elegant and with correct human proportions, it was important that these guys had to have gloss varnish and all the business. To make a celebration of their toyness.
DeleteAs for the history - I'm picking up more and more as I go along, but it is outrageous. If you have a spare minute, just for a laugh, have a quick read of the causes of the Wars of the Spanish Succession, then go and lie down in a quiet room.
As always, a great pleasure to see one of your battles Tony. I have some Les Higgins which are serving in the French army of SYW - probably far from accurate but at the time they were the nearest and it doesn't bother me (much).
ReplyDeleteHi Jim - glad you enjoyed the post. I'm sure your French troops are proud of their historic uniforms! I'm in for a spell of Real World in the immediate future, so there will probably be little or no wargaming for a while. It will give me a chance to iron some more wrinkles out of the rules. Keep well.
DeleteMany Thanks Tony, that was a great game, even though I was on the end of a drubbing. I'm chalking it up as a learning experience, our opponents were much more savvy to the C&C/CJLite system. My British infantry brigade did have a lovely picnic in the woods for most of the day, though - shame about all the noise nearby, can't think what the neighbours were up to!
ReplyDeleteReally liked the rules, I think they press all the right buttons, and my favourite feature, I think, is that you put musketry into 'close combat' ( or just 'combat', really ) - exactly right for the period.
Thanks David - it was a jolly evening, with an excellent crowd. I thought at the time that you could maybe have got your boys out into the fields with a bit more haste - especially once the reserves started to arrive. Blame it on the Commander. I didn't mention it, since (a) umpires don't do that, and (b) my credibility was zero since I had been thrashed at the same scenario 2 nights earlier!
DeleteOh yes - the white activation cubes! - my latest wheeze is that we start each turn with no white cube in the bucket, just a BROWN cube, and when it gets drawn it is replaced with a pukka white one. I may not be able to remember how many times I've seen the white cube this turn, but I can certainly recognise a brown one. Thanks again for input.
I thought of calling it the Wombat Rule...
DeleteAn all out aggressive assault by the Franco-Bavarians? Well that's not what they're supposed to do is it? ;o)
ReplyDeleteNonetheless it's hard to be a Marlborough if the enemy behave like this.
Indeed so. In passing, during this particular passage of not-quite-history, Marlborough was busy capturing Trarbach on the Moselle. I think Thüngen was sent ahead here by the Margrave of Baden - there may be an exchange of sniffy letters.
DeleteAnother wonderful looking game on your table Tony and a complete success hosting such a large number of remote players who all report a fine time of it.
ReplyDeleteThe Franco-Bavarians did well, keeping the Anglo-Austrians bottled up in woods *and* winning the cavalry mêlées, so often a key to success in this period.
Will look forward to your next after your little sojourn in the real world. Hurry back, it's not a place that you want to visit too often.
Best wishes, James
Thanks James - always good to hear from you! I received an email recently from someone who was quite kind about the blog, but commented that my games all look the same - I had a good laugh about this - I guess that must be the way I like them! I'm glad that they please others as well.
DeleteYes - the Franco-Bavs really went for it. I played a trial run at the scenario earlier in the week, adopted a more obviously defensive approach for the F-Bs, and was soundly hammered for my efforts. Ah, says I to myself - I wondered if that would happen...