WSS: Action at Vannes-Koortrijk 1703

Wargaming on Wednesday morning (for me) and afternoon (for him) - James was good enough to arrive by Zoom to continue the bloody adventures of Charles Churchill and Marshal Rabachière in Wallonia in 1703. He beat me to the punch through most of the day, so it is only right and proper that he has already posted his account of the day - and very good too.

We had a lot of things going for us - the technology managed to remain rock-steady throughout the proceedings (here at Mud Farm we've been having what seems to have become our usual autumnal blight of fleeting power cuts in the early morning, but there wasn't one on Wednesday - we did get one the morning after, though, just to keep us twitchy).

James was new to my rules and I set up a fairly balanced encounter as a sampler - James chose to be the Allies. The rules are the latest edition of my CJ-Lite set, which also behaved themselves. In fact we had a nice rip-roaring battle - dignified start and then all you-know-what broke loose. I'll try to string some kind of narrative around my photos - 8 Victory Points for glory. There were two objective-related VPs - one for each half of the town of Vannes-Koortrijk. I had also considered another one for the hill with the lead mine, but decided against it.

Orders of Battle follow:



Action at Vannes-Koortrijk (1703)

French Army (Maréchal de France Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière)
(8 horse; 12 foot; 3 art; 5 leaders)

Bourgeois’ Cavalry Brigade [1] (Marquis de Bourgeois)
Gendarmérie de France (6 Sqns) (elite)
Régt de Grignan (3 Sqns)
Régt de La Baume (3 Sqns)
Viriac’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Pierre-David Viriac, Comte Pénéstin)
Régt de Lavallière (3 Sqns)
Régt du Mestre de Camp (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 du Dauphin (2 Bns)
2 field batteries
Bichotte’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Marquis de Bichotte)
Régt de Languedoc (1 Bn)
Régt de Nettancourt (1 Bn)
Régt de Poitou (2 Bns)
Régt de Saintonge (1 Bn)
Régt de Toulouse (1 Bn)
1 field battery

Allied Army (Lt Gen Charles Churchill)
(7 horse; 14 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)

Cadogan’s Cavalry Brigade [1] (Col the Earl Cadogan)
Cadogan’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Lumley’s (Queen’s) Regt (3 Sqns)
Schomberg’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Wood’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Wyndham’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Col Hugh Wyndham)
Wyndham’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)
1st Foot Guards (1 Bn) (elite)
Chas Churchill’s Foot (Buffs) (1 Bn)
Ferguson’s Foot (Cameronians) (1 Bn)
Howe’s Foot (1 Bn)
Royal Regt of Ireland (1 Bn)
Duke of Marlborough’s Foot (1 Bn)
Lord North & Grey’s Foot (1 Bn)
1 field battery
Herrenhausen’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Br Gen Dietmar-Paul, Graf Herrenhausen) (Hessen-Kassel)
The Royal Regt (1 Bn)
Rowe’s Foot (Scots Fusiliers) (1 Bn)
Webb’s Foot (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

 

 

  

Initial layout, before the ground staff removed the dining chairs. The Allies are on the left of the picture (from this end, the brigades are Cadogan's cavalry, then Cirencester's infantry, then Herrenhausen's infantry, with Wyndham's cavalry at the far end), the French on the right (again, from this end, the brigades are Viriac's cavalry, then Bichotte's infantry, then Pelletier's infantry, with Bourgeois' cavalry at the far end). The 2-hex town of Vannes-Koortrijk is in the centre, and the lead mine on the hills at the top left (after some swithering) is just a landmark, with no terrain effect and no strategic importance

 

Chairs out of the way, we're off to a brisk start - these armies know each other well, and can't wait to get to grips. Here Cirencester's infantry advance towards the town, with Cadogan's cavalry covering his flank. One feature of the recent updates to my rules is that there are no convenient "tidy" periods in a turn for photos - it is possible to wait to the end of a full game turn, but a lot can happen in a single turn, which means it is likely that significant moments are off-camera. One does one's best - the best approach is a warts-and-all set of pictures, so you will see gaming apparatus in shot; here you can see coloured cubes attached to brigadiers, to indicate who's been activated this turn. You will also see (blue) order counters (for activation) here and there as we go along

 

Some of Pelletier's boys in reserve - no problems thus far - we're all right, Jacques

 

Things are off to a more measured start on the Allies' left flank

 

Cirencester advances toward the town, with Cadogan's horse on his right. Cadogan, as always, is accompanied by his dog, Jupiter; I thought of referring to him as CaDOGan, but that would stop being funny straight away. We were using a newly-updated version of the rule for artillery firing overhead, which worked nicely and meant the guns were not quite as useless as usual

 

Viriac (complete with order counters and blue activation cube) brings forward his cavalry to get rid of Cadogan's people

 

This didn't go brilliantly. You now see a couple of Victory Points on the edge of the board. Each side has a counter for eliminating an enemy unit, and the French have a red one for marching into one end of the town. 2-1 to the French; since the Zoom cameras don't get to show it, I didn't bother with the venerable billiards scoreboard for this game, which is a shame, but I was busy, man... 

 

Now the Earl of Cirencester gets serious about the town. The white counters are hits (4 will eliminate a unit, and - to add excitement - units can also run from the field with no losses at all if they fail a Morale Check). The 1st Foot Guards are to the fore, as you would expect, bearing a red counter to indicate their elite status. [Rules note: elite units do not fight better than other units, but they are steadier, and will hang around longer under duress (usually...)]

 

Same moment - drone view from the French side

 

General view around the same time - of interest here is the top left corner: Wyndham (with red cube) brings forward the Hessian Spiegel regiment of horse, and they were magnificent - they had been sent to harrass Pelletier's advance, and duly announced their arrival with 4 sixes with 4 dice (which I don't remember witnessing before) and the opposing battalion vanished from the field. Spiegel swept on into the next French regiment of foot, and scared them too, then withdrew to threaten the French Gendarmérie on the flank. Ouch

 

Meanwhile Cadogan had lost his edge on the Allied right; VP counters show that the French are now leading 4-2 (they now hold all of the town - that's 2 red counters - and each side has eliminated 2 enemy units). Viriac sees things possibly turning in his favour here...

 

...and sets about ganging up on Cadogan's remaining regiment - however, things have slipped over in the centre - the counters tell us that the British Foot Guards have taken half the town, and a few other reverses now make the score 5-4 to the Allies. Hmmm...

 

 

Yes - the town isn't looking very promising for the French now - Rabachière will have something to say about this, once he's thought what it is - more equipment on view - the small red arrow indicates that the Foot Guards have moved into combat. It maybe seems counterintuitive, but moving into action is a disadvantage for infantry (they lose one die in the combat) because just about all the infantry close combat consists of short range musketry, and shooting and (especially) reloading are tricky when you are moving

 

Some heavy action under way now over by the lead mine, but the French are losing momentum in their attack. The Allied troops (with their backs to the camera) are British and Hessian - they've taken losses but they are holding

 

Rabachière still fancies his chances here - he organises Bichotte's boys to die in nice straight lines, in the approved manner, and is starting to wonder what he will have for lunch. All he needs to do is take back the town, and get Viriac to mop up the remains of Cadogan's horse and then Robert, as they say, est ton oncle

 

 

Alas, the French elite cavalry are having a very bad day over on the right...

...

 

...Bichotte can't do anything to shift the Foot Guards out of Vannes-Koortrijk...

 

...in the top left here you can see Cadogan pulling back Woods' Horse onto a hill, while Viriac moves in to finish them off. Viriac lost one of his regiments, and managed to get himself killed...

 

...and somehow the mopping up collapsed. The score jumped from 6-all to an 8-6 victory for the Allies.

 

Rabachière was inconsolable. It is said that his language was so awful that he had to go to Mass immediately after the battle.

Well played, James - thank you for coming out to play - a fine effort indeed. Outstanding performances, I thought, were provided by the Hessen-Kassel cavalry kicking lumps out of everyone in sight and that remarkable last stand by Cadogan with Woods' Horse, which won the day. Rabachière's career may be on a slippery slope now - it could be fortunate that Louis XIV can't remember who is commanding his army in this area. However, I am confident that Charles Churchill's brother will ensure that this victory is overlooked by history

NOUS AVONS LE SEUM

 

Rabachière was inconsolable