Yesterday I hosted the Zoom game I previewed in my previous post. My guest general was David, who has not played this game or this period before, and had no previous experience of remote gaming, though he is a serious Zoom user in his working life.
Spoiler picture. Very early in the action, the Earl of Cirencester is hurried into deploying his infantry brigade in the enclosures at La Jongleuse farm, in face of a full-on assault. He was lucky enough to get a "brigade bonus" with this activation which gave his troops extra movement to get ready
Because the game was primarily going to be a walk-through of the rules, and because we knew in advance that we had limited time to play, I kept the army sizes down to a moderate size, and we set the required score for a win to 7 Victory Pts. We had a 2-hour clock on things; in fact we ran to about 2 and a half, but we never expected to complete the game - this was always going to be an introductory taster. It was, in any event, a lot of fun.
The commanders were provided with the briefest of briefing notes...
Battle of
La Jongleuse (1703) – Briefing Notes and OOB
An Allied army under Sir Charles Churchill has been sent into Wallonia
to intercept a French force commanded by the Comte de Rabachière, which is on
its way from Verviers to support the French siege of Huy. The armies meet in
open country at the farm of La Jongleuse, near the River Meuse.
The action is a straightforward encounter. No-one has
prepared any fieldworks, there will be no preliminary bombardment.
The game is to be played using CJ Lite rules. Any
unit currently holding the (strongpoint) churchyard of St Gaspard l’Oublié will gain 1
temporary Victory Point. 7 VPs wins the day.
The forces are of very (extraordinarily?) similar composition.
The very large Gendarmérie de France is fielded as two units, both being rated
as elite; the British Foot Guards are also elite, and 2 of the British foot units
have attached battalion guns. The Hessian troops are actually in Dutch service,
and are considered to be equivalent to British regulars. [The two commanders are both regarded as
competent and experienced, so there are no advantages in the Activation
process.]
All units and generals have a mini-dice attached to their
bases, bearing the number (1 to 4) of the brigade to which they belong. These
mini-dice are dark blue for the French, red for the British and white for the Hessian contingent in the Allied army.
French Army (Maréchal de France Clément-Alibert,
Comte de Rabachière)
(6 horse; 10 foot; 2 art; 5 leaders)
Bourgeois’ Cavalry Brigade [1] (Marquis de Bourgeois)
Gendarmérie de France (6 Sqns) (elite)
Dragons de La Vrillière (3 Sqns)
Saint-Gervais’ Cavalry Brigade [2] (Marquis de Saint-Gervais)
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 de Languedoc (1 Bn)
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)
1 field battery
Allied Army (Lt Gen Charles Churchill)
(6 horse; 10 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)
Hay’s (Scots) Dragoons (3 Sqns)
Whitstaple’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Br Gen Lord Whitstaple)
Wood’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) [2 Bns have battalion guns]
1st Foot Guards (1 Bn) (elite)
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 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
David took the role of the French commander, Rabachière, and I was Charles Churchill. In each army, the brigades were set out with No [1] the cavalry on the right flank, No [2] the cavalry on the left flank, No [3] the infantry on the right of the centre, and No [4] the infantry on the left of centre.
At the very start of play, the gods of probability were having a laugh; the first 4 brigades activated in the first turn were all French, which meant that, whatever his initial intention, Rabachière found that he was attacking - here you see his army in motion, advancing across the table from our left. When the Allies finally got to do something, their first artillery shot rolled double 6 with 2 dice, and it was clear that something odd was going on. After this, things did calm down a bit!
Saint-Gervais' cavalry on the French left, moving up with the general advance. The Régt du Roi shows two hits, from that early artillery hit...
Here we see Churchill's response to being hustled, from the Allied right flank - Pickering's cavalry and Cirencester's infantry brigade move to cover the farm, before the the attack arrives
Down on the farm - Cirencester places his men to take advantage of what cover is available
On the Allied left, Whitstaple finds that he, with the Hessian Leib zu Pferd, is confronted by the entirety of the Gendarmérie de France, which is not what he had in mind. Note here that the French cavalry are uniformed in red, to confuse matters. This did not go well - the LzP recoiled, and kept on recoiling, right off the table. At such moments I still have to check the rules, to see what happens to the brigadier (p16 in this instance) - in fact he was left behind, to fall back on his own, and did well to rejoin his troops later!
Over on the other flank, things are going from bad to worse for the Du Roi lads (4 white counters and you are out) - this was one area where the Allies did fairly well
Back at the farm, this time from the French side; Cirencester had a few early disappointments, cover or not - two of his battalions were routed very quickly - Churchill's own foot regiment (later the Buffs, which I mention because it is traditional to identify British units by names they did not have until years later) and Ferguson's (aka the Earl of Angus' Regt, aka the Cameronians, which serves to emphasise how complicated this all is)
Pentecost's brigade, mostly Hessians, belatedly start to assert themselves. If we had had more time, this might have made better progress, but in the first couple of Game Turns this brigade were left without orders when the turn ended early
The cavalry fight on the French right was still sputtering away when we ran out of time. The on-table VP markers show that the French were 5-4 ahead at this point - including a red counter for possession of the churchyard...
...a situation which they gained very early in the game, when the 1st battalion of the Régt de Béarn just walked in, and were never opposed
By the end of the day, Pentecost's boys were still in a nice straight line and might have done OK with more time, but the likelihood is that the Allies would probably have lost it elsewhere
General snapshots from the end of the game: Pickering's horse probably had the edge on the Allied right...
...2nd Bn of Navarre threatening the farm, with General Pelletier de Montmarie looking on from a safe distance...
...for fans of vintage Britain's farm pieces, here's a close up of a field which I think contains the British Foot Guards...
...and, calmness personified, le Maréchal Comte de Rabachière (on the left of this photo with his staff) finds - maybe to his surprise - that his lads have probably won the day
My sincere thanks to David for joining me for the session - it was great to meet up with him at last, and he performed well in unfaniliar surroundings. Of course, as required by our gentlemanly upbringing, we each came up at the close with reasons why, though it was technically undecided, the game had probably been won by the other side, but no - I'm happy to concede defeat on points; I got off to a poor start and only made up a little ground thereafter. Thanks David, and well played!
