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 

  

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!

WSS: Some Actual Wargaming?

 I have a quiet week on my hands, and the weather appears to be relenting for a while, so I have a good opportunity to get on with some Other Stuff. 

One of the Other Stuff items is some hobby time. I have set up the battleboards, and have had an evening of solo noodling, to check out some suggested rule changes I scribbled down before Christmas. I have also been teaching a new laptop to do Zoom things without causing trouble - seems OK, so I have a remote game scheduled for Sunday. 

I include a couple of photos of the set up. More improvised history. The action is a moderately-sized clash between an Allied force, commanded by the notable Charles Churchill (for once freed from the shadow of his flaming brother), and a French army led by the little-known (though well-connected) Maréchal Comte de Rabachière. 

 

Charles Churchill (1656-1714) - just another podgy bloke in a wig, but his brother was a national hero and a great favourite with the ladies, as I'm sure you know

 

Clément-Alibert, Comte de Rabachière (1661-1722?) - his military career is sadly overlooked by history, though there is a story that he was never forgiven for laughing at an inopportune moment during Louis XIV's performance of his "Dance of the Six Planets" at a royal supper party

 

The action was fought at the farm of La Jongleuse, not far from Huy, on the Meuse, in 1703. As you see, it looks very much like my other WSS games - the generals of the day seem to have had a very stereotyped idea of what made a good site for a Square Go

 

Another lesser celebrity has a day out; this is Roland Crispe, 2nd Lord Whitstaple, in command of some of the Allied horse

 

The church of St Gaspard l'Oublié, with its walled cemetery, provides a relative rarity in my games - a strongpoint (as defined in the rules). This one can't be used by artillery though

 

More of this after Sunday. 

***** Late Edit *****

I received an email, asking for more details of the "Dance of the Six Planets". I confess I am not an expert, and this clip is a bit early, but it may give an idea...

********************* 

 

 

WSS: Neues Ritterheim - noch einmal...

 Monday afternoon was the date for the second Zoom re-run of Neues Ritterheim. If you would like to see a map and the OOBs, you'll find them in the report of the original face-to-face game I played with Stryker, here.

My opponent for this second re-run was David, keeper of the very fine Not by Appointment blog. I am pleased to be able to confirm that the flags for most of the French units in our game were his designs, which is a nice touch - I am a big fan.

Once again I was the French commander, Marsin, while David took the role of Prince Eugène. Because I have now remembered that Zoom games run quite a bit more slowly than face-to-face events, we reduced the victory requirement from 9 points to 7. The game went well enough, though we had some technology glitches which were mostly my fault, as it happened, and we did run out of time, the Austrians being 5-4 ahead; we agreed it was a draw, though, since David was leading on points, held the village and had disabled one of my brigade commanders (Maulevrier), it could be argued that he probably had the best of it. We certainly agreed that neither army would have been in great shape to continue a campaign any time soon!

 

Yes, once again the action started with the cavalry on the flanks trying to assert themselves. From behind the Allied left you can see Kegel bringing forward his horsemen against the enemy, while beyond him General Backer, with infantry from the Duke of Lorraine's regiment and from Hessen-Kassel, moves to occupy the village

 

On the other wing, Niederhammer faces up to the French, and his Cusani Cuirassiers suffer an early thumping, which discouraged them somewhat. Over the day, the Austrians won this flank

 

I had some early doubts about how useful it was to throw a lot of effort into possession of the village; after all, if the village is worth 1 victory point and you lose 3 units contesting it, what have you done? However, when Backer's Austrian brigade advanced toward it, my chaps in Bligny's brigade found themselves shuffling forward to stop them. So much for analysis?

 

The remainder of the Austrian forces - Furneburg's infantry brigade - were withheld while matters elsewhere developed. Accordingly, the French troops opposite them waited to see what happened. If this sounds uninspired, the reality is often that, since a turn normally ends before all brigades have been activated, anyone who is a second priority may miss out on occasions

 

 

Back on the French left/Allied right, the early French cavalry success stalled very quickly. Niederhammer employed some skillful evading manoeuvres in this area

 

The Austrian centre, still developing relatively slowly, about an hour into the action...

 

...here's a closer view

 

 

The infamous ploughed field - this time occupied by dismounted French dragoons. No, they achieved nothing in particular, but at least they did it in the approved manner. What's in the sacks? - no idea, but it might be turnips

 

At last the Austrian centre advances - note that the command base behind the leftmost battalion in the second line is Prince Eugène himself - some say he was becoming impatient...

 

By this stage, Kegel's Austrian cavalry on the left flank had a short pause, during which they got their breath back and glared at the French Gendarmérie...

 

...who were far too superior to glare back...

 

General view from the French right flank

 

View from behind Furneburg's Austrians. The artillery unit in the left foreground actually scored a hit on the dragoons in the ploughed field from 800 paces, which is not bad at all, considering they hit little else all day

 

The Victory Point markers on the table edge indicate this is around the end of the day, and the action on the Allied right peters out with protracted bickering (between the toy soldiers, I hasten to clarify...)

 

General view along the field from behind the French left 

 

As it became obvious that a draw was imminent, both sides were careful to avoid throwing it away late in the day - battered troops were pulled out of harm's way, and no risky attacks were undertaken. Here in the French back line, 2/Navarre is conspicuous by the 3 loss markers - they had obviously been withdrawn from a hot spot at the front. This is Maulevrier's brigade, though by this stage the brigadier had been seriously wounded and removed from the field

 

The cavalry action on the French right had gone very quiet - the troops watching each other but avoiding unnecessary risks

 

 

More general views, to show where the troops were at the end

My thanks to David for an enjoyable game, and my apologies for the techie problems, which I shall explain here, not least so that they can remind me of things to be careful about...

Technology hiccups. For a start, the first one was my fault. I got all the cameras set up and everything running about half an hour before kick-off, but I forgot to switch on the mains supply for my laptop (which was serving the East camera), and it has a duff battery, so about 5 minutes before David was due to check in it went flat, made a pathetic chiming sound and shut down. As I recall, in this situation the laptop is supposed to go into hibernation, so switching on the power should get everything back to where you were, but no - the camera was signed off - gone. In the ensuing fiddling around, I did get the East camera admitted to the session again, but managed to knock out the close-up camera in the process, so decided to run with just the two main cameras [the close-up camera would have been useful, so that was a bit of a nuisance - I may have uttered an oath or two, for which I apologise as necessary..]. 

Late on there were 2 momentary power failures, about half an hour apart (thank you, Scottish Power) - the Zoom session kept running, but the Bluetooth switched off both times, so I had to poke about in System Preferences to get the audio working again! Ach well - war is hell.