WSS: Oosterkasteel - Goodness Gracious

 I followed the calendar very carefully, and Thursday arrived right on schedule, as did Baron Stryker, having braved the perils of the high road around the capital of Scotland. We had what looked like a heavy day's fighting ahead of us, so we got off to a brisk start. If you would like to see a picture of the initial position, you'll find one in my previous post.

Our OOB was thus, Stryker's Franco-Bavarian army having 5 brigades (of which 3 were still to arrive), and my Allied force having 4: 

French Army (Maréchal de France Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière)     
(13 horse; 24 foot; 3 art; 6 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)
Régt de Lavallière (3 Sqns)
Régt du Mestre de Camp (3 Sqns)
Régt du Roi (3 Sqns)
D’Arco’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (Graf Johan Baptist d’Arco) (Bavarian)
Régt de Tarnault (3 Sqns)
Dragons de La Vrillière (3 Sqns)
KR d’Arco (Bavarian) (3 Sqns)
KR Costa (Bavarian) (3 Sqns)
KR Weichel (Bavarian) (3 Sqns)
KR Wolframsdorf (Bavarian) (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)
Régt de Navarre (2 Bns)
1 field battery
Coustine’s Infantry Brigade [4] (Marquis de Coustine)
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)
IR Bettendorf (Bavarian) (2 Bns)
1 field battery
Maffei’s Infantry Brigade [5] (Marquis de Maffei) (Bavarian)
IR Boismorel (Bavarian) (1 Bn)
IR Haxthausen (Bavarian) (2 Bns)
IR Kurprinz (Bavarian) (2 Bns)
IR Leibgrenadieren (Bavarian) (1 Bn) (elite)
IR Maffei (Bavarian) (1 Bn)
IR d’Octfort (Bavarian) (1 Bn)
1 field battery (Bavarian)

Allied Army (Lt Gen Charles Churchill)    
(9 horse; 14 foot; 3 art; 3 independent 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)
Wood’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Wyndham’s Regt (3 Sqns)
Niederhammer’s Cavalry Brigade [2] (GM Graf Niederhammer) (Austrian)
KR Cusani (Austrian) (3 Sqns)
KR Lobkowicz (Austrian) (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)
1^st 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)
Duke of Marlborough’s Regt (1 Bn)
Lord North & Grey’s 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)
Rowe’s (Scots Fusiliers) Regt (1 Bn)
Webb’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)
2 field batteries
Independent (Part of Fortress Garrison)
3 mortar batteries

 

 

Dug in; one of Pentecost's British batteries, waiting for the French attack

My early tactic was to sit tight, firing my guns as occasion presented itself, otherwise waiting to see where the arriving French intended to press. Some kind of narrative should emerge from the photos, though I have to say that things did get pretty hectic after the first hour, and the picture-taking duties slid a bit at times.

 

The initial artillery exchanges didn't really have much effect, then the French had to move their early arrivals forward, to make room for what was to follow. I was surprised to see that General Bourgeois' cavalry, on the French left, charged straight across the table, and my boys were in trouble right away...

 

We lost Cadogan's Regt of Horse, a field battery and General Pickering (and his dog, illustrated) in the first fight; that meant we were 3-0 down on Victory Pts, 10 being the requirement for the win and the main French army not yet on the table

 

From behind the Allied right, this general view shows the French arriving in the distance. After my shaky start, I was thinking nervously of the film Zulu 

 

 

The infantry in the French centre (Maffei's Bavarians in front) pressed forward.

 

At this point, Cirencester's brigade advanced 200 paces from their position on the road to Blanke; as I recall, I was thinking that if I was going to get splattered anyway then this would give me a little more room for a fighting withdrawal...

 

From behind the French left, you can just make out that the Bavarians pushed right into our front line, but they were taking losses - 4 white loss counters eliminates a unit, so some of the enemy were looking a little battered. I had brought my left-flank cavalry around behind the centre (beneath the old citadel wall), but I was 5-1 down and expecting a collapse at any moment

 

[Gulp]

 

 

The Activation process now presented me with a lucky break - Pentecost's brigade on my left got a special bonus of extra movement and extra combat dice and - since the French opposite were not rushing to attack our earthwork, we did the unthinkable, charged out of the trenches and attacked Pelletier's boys - it didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but it wasn't bad at all - we had scraped the score back to 7-8...

 

The French attack in the centre became rather bogged down as units fell back and lost momentum, and Maffei's infantry appeared to impede the progress of Coustine's fresher troops behind them. The score got to 8-all, 9-8 to the Allies (first time we had been ahead) then 9-all...

 

Of course the photographer missed it, but over on the Allied left the Hesse-Kassel IR Prinz Wilhelm, in the village of Neerhespen, routed the 1/Dauphin and we had stolen the victory, 10-9. In this photo, the Allied survivors at Blanke have somehow driven off the main attack, and they can hear the cheering from the other end of the line

 

We finished in about 4 hours, allowing for a pause for lunch. My thanks and compliments to Ian for a remarkable fight. We both ended the game more than a little stunned - certainly the most intense game I've been involved in for a while!

I had a think about how things had gone (as one does) once I had regained my senses. The rules stood up to the grinding match pleasingly well; if I'd had a brain I should probably have used the table extension (17 x 9 instead of 13 x 9), but I've rather got out of the habit of thinking about that since the big table is tricky with Zoom cameras for remote games - no matter, the game was fine, but Ian would have had more scope for getting his army on the table without gridlock; I was embarrassingly lucky with the bonus, just in the nick of time. Oh - yes - and the mortars in the fortress were so useless that I stopped using them! 

WSS: Thursday's Game - the Initial Set-Up

 This is the battlefield which I showed in uninhabited form a few days ago. We have now decided:

(1) The action is the little-known Battle of Oosterkasteel, somewhere in a very flat part of Wallonia, probably in 1703.

(2) Stryker will be the esteemed Marshal Rabachière, with a Franco-Bavarian force

(3) I [Foy] will be Lieutenant General "Charlie" Churchill, defending with an Allied army which has British, Austrian and Hessian contingents 

(4) The Allied army, which is rather smaller, will be fully deployed at the start of the game, having spent a week digging earthworks to strengthen what looks rather like a hopeless position. This army has 4 brigades present - 2 foot and 2 horse

(5) The French are marching onto the field at the start of the game - they will have 2 brigades present at first, with 3 further brigades to follow as opportunity and activation cubes allow.

Here is the position at the beginning of Turn 1

 

Looking along the Allied line at 6am, before the French arrive. Chubby Charlie is very keen that his army should die in straight lines, like gentlemen

 

A better view of the Allied left; Niederhammer's cavalry (Austrian and Hessian) provide rear support for Pentecost's (Anglo-Hessian) infantry brigade, which is manning the new earthworks as far as the protruding section in the centre. Pentecost has two artillery batteries dug in - if I can find some, there may be a few gabions added to the batteries by Thursday

 

The Allied right flank; Pickering's cavalry on the end of the line, with the Earl of Cirencester's infantry beyond

 

This very early drone shot shows Dutch mortars in the citadel, trying to find space to deploy

 

Aha - the French are arriving. Here we have Bourgeois' cavalry in the foreground...

 

...and here Alessandro Maffei's Bavarian infantry brigade; the French have 3 more brigades to arrive after the preliminary artillery battle

 

A general view at this stage shows the French avoiding the earthworks...

 

Specially for Matt, who has a thing about guys with big hair, here is Charles Churchill

 

and the Comte de Rabachière, who will be along soon with the rest of his army

 

and Alessandro Maffei, born in Verona, one of a bewildering number of Italians who held high command in the Bavarian army during the 18th and 19th Centuries 

Stryker has sent word that his boys are to rest on their arms until Thursday. I believe the terminology is correct, but it sounds uncomfortable. 

WSS: Game Coming Up Next Week

 I've started putting together a battle for next week. The following introduction is shamelessly cribbed from my email to Stryker today - apologies, Ian - I can only think about anything once a day.

The scenario is influenced (a bit) by the Battle of Neerwinden 1693 (aka Landen), though it is 10 years later (and therefore has no pikes), and is not (of course) the Battle of Neerwinden - it is much smaller, for a start.

An Allied army (Anglo-Hessian, this time) is in an area near to a small (but interesting) fortress, to protect it from the attentions of the French. As it happens, the French have decided to clear out this protecting army, and have sent a larger force to deal with them. The Allied commander has opted to stay in the area, and his men have been busy digging some earthworks to strengthen their position. 

The earthworks are not that formidable - if someone is defending them then they will be a nuisance, but if there is no-one there they can be walked through - even by cavalry. 

On the edge of the table is the citadel, which is really just a bit of extra scenic interest, and is pretty much off limits, since the French do not have their Siege Train with them (this time, though the intention is to come back with the siege train once they've cleared the defending force out of the area). The (Dutch) garrison is small (about 2 battalions) and cannot be attacked, and is not available to the Allied side as a reinforcement - also the Allied troops cannot enter the fortress; it  does, however, have a few mortars available which can provide a bit of supporting fire for the Allies. Mortars have a long range, but are prone to misfires, which might just mean that the shells don't detonate, but could also mean that the mortar suffers damage right up to a complete write-off (if the shell explodes in the barrel, for example). The self-igniting shell is still some years in the future. The French army is quite a bit bigger than the Allied, and they have 5 brigade cubes to the Allies' 3 (probably). The mortars in the fort are not a brigade, but may be activated along with any of the Allied brigades (only once a turn, obviously).

There will be a preliminary artillery exchange - haven't had one for a while. 

I'll probably make another post once the soldiers arrive.

 

 

My old ECO plastic Ritterburg looms on the table edge - mostly to add a bit of visual interest, but the defending side will be able to call on a few of the fortress's guns for support

 

 

The defending side has put in many hours of spadework, which I am sure they hated, but they may gain some benefit from the time spent

 

 

Haven't yet decided which general will command which army. We do know there will be some bonus victory points if the French take any of the villages. Residents should probably check their property insurance policies

 

 

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.

 

WSS: Action at La Jongleuse, Wallonia (1703)

 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]

1^st 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!