Neil Thomas Horse & Musket Scenario 010

The next scenario in this series of refights of the battles in Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames features one army trying to break through a defile against a smaller enemy which receives regular piecemeal reinforcements.  The terrain is apparently very loosely based on the 1866 Battle of Gitchsin (not a battle I am familiar with) although the rest of the scenario appears to be a Thomas original.

 

 

 

As it happens, this scenario is double-changed, since I accidentally got my North and South scenario instructions mixed up!  So in this case, the attackers are moving through the town to breakout, rather than trying to capture the town.

 

As ever, I am using Thomas' Simplicity in Practice rules with a few modifications and slightly larger forces (9 units rather than the suggested 6). 

 

The Forces:

 

The Hanoverian Army:

? Infantry units

 

The Franco-Jacobite Army:

? Infantry units

 

The game begins with the Franco-Jacobite army with 3 units deployed, whilst 3 more units arrive on Turn 5, and the remaining 3 on turn 10.  The Hanoverian Army starts off-table, but arrives on Turn 1.  There are no restrictions on its arrival except that all units must start on the road (i.e. imagine everything is in a long march column just off table). 

 

There is a strict time-limit of 15 turns for this game. 

 The Set-Up: 

The battlefield: the mountain on the left is considered impassable for tactical purposes in this game.  The Hanoverian Army will approach from the town (bottom-right)

Irish infantry and French artillery block the road

Supported by more Irish infantry in the woods

The Battle:

The British arrive!  The infantry is on the road, some Horse and Guns are off to the Left

A closer look

The artillery in place to support the infantry attack (right)

The leading British regiment (Fergusson's) takes heavy casualties from musketry and artillery fire

In fact, the fire from Berwick's Regiment and the French artillery is so ferocious that Fergusson's regiment is dispersed!  Meanwhile, the British infantry starts to develop an attack on the right, towards the woods

A more even exchange of fire begins along the road, with casualties on both sides; meanwhile 17th Foot begins exchanging fire with Dillon's Regiment in the woods (top-right)

The Hanoverian General comes up to encourage his redcoats to redouble their efforts

4th Foot (Seymour's Marines) charge Berwick's regiment; meanwhile, the French artillery are suffering heavily from musketry and counter-battery fire (left)

Berwick's Regiment are worsted...

And Seymour's Regiment have cleared the road!  To add insult to injury, the French general was also injured in the exchange and the Franco-Jacobites are currently leaderless

Luckily for the Franco-Jacobites, reinforcements have arrived (top-left); the French artillery has retired to join them

The Hanoverians are starting to develop the attack on the wood (top-right), whilst bringing up some of the Horse (centre)

The Franco-Jacobites attempt to put themselves into some kind of order

Numbers begin to tell in the struggle for the woods...

Whilst British musketry causes heavy casualties amongst Clare's Regiment (top-right) as it tries to extend the line to join with Dillon's regiment in the woods

It marches through the fire, and successfully reaches the cover (top)

However, 5th Foot (Pearce's Regiment) charges into the wood and scatters Dillon's Regiment!

A wider view: the Franco-Jacobites are under severe pressure...

The relentless British attack continues: Pearce's Regiment charges Clare's Regiment before it has set itself in its new position...

Whilst Pearce's Regiment charges French Regiment du Roi

Clare's Regiment is defeated and routed

With the woods now cleared, it will be very hard for the Franco-Jacobites to maintain any kind of position

Whilst on the road, du Roi's Regiment is also broken, and another French general is captured!

Luckily for the Franco-Jacobites, their last reserves come up in the nick of time: the Etranger Horse regiment charges Seymour's Marines...(top)

And they run back to reform, having been badly cut up!

The Hanoverian Army tries to reform, having become slightly over-extended: the 4th Foot (centre) is retired in order to regroup

The Franco-Jacobites have managed to piece together some kind of line, although the Horse regiments cannot hold that ground for long if the Hanoverians reform their infantry line

The Hanoverians are obviously trying to anchor their line on the wood, which should make it hard for the Franco-Jacobites to hold the road: time is beginning to press a little on the Hanoverians though, they cannot wait until they are in perfect order before resuming their attack

Leven's Regiment (centre) seems to have been having the better of the musketry battle with the Franco-Jacobites in the centre; Royal Ecossais howver has been reformed and is rejoining the line of battle (centre-left) to replace one of the Horse regiments (Fitz-James')

The British artillerymen are proving rather more effective in these latter stages of the battle than their French counterparts - the remaining Franco-Jacobite infantry is still suffering heavily from cannon ball and musket ball...

Leven's Regiment sees its opportunity and charges straight down the road

Another successful bayonet charge!  The French regiment (Normandie, I think) is forced back (top) but is still just holding on...

However, effective musketry now stops Leven's Regiment in its tracks

The musketry exchange rages on around the road, whilst the remainder of the British infantry begins its attack from the Right

The Etranger Regiment charges Lumley's Horse, and defeats them...

Lumley's Regiment disperses, unable to reform before men and horses are lost in the woods or surrender!

The infantry fight in the centre - casualties have been very heavy

But as the Hanoverians bring their superior numbers into play, there can only be one outcome...

Normandie breaks and the road is now clear; whilst Etranger is trapped under heavy fire (top)

Position at the end of the battle: the Franco-Jacobite's army morale collapses just at the point they are tactically defeated and the road is open to the Hanoverians

Game Notes:

More fun gaming and perhaps closer than it looked, because of the time factor: the Hanoverian Army won, but there was only a single turn left.   They really do have to get on with things, without rushing into failed attacks: an interesting dilemma.  There is an element of 'slow is sure and sure is swift' here.

 

Low-level tactics are relatively simple in Neil Thomas' rules: get local superiority of firepower as often as possible.  The Hanoverian Army mainly managed to achieve this and then use the bayonet to finish off disordered opponents - all good straightforward stuff.  Having the extra artillery really helped too, since the Franco-Jacobites were always under pressure in the longer-ranged firefights.  All that said though, the British infantry seemed to have the rub of the green in this one too, at least after the opening stages, especially in the fighting in the wood.  The Franco-Jacobite Horse seemed to do quite well in this one, being in the right spot to deliver a couple of very effective charges but it was always going to be hard after the Franco-Jacobite line crumbled a little more quickly than might have been expected.

 Figures as ever by Baccus 6mm.

Incidentally, it might have looked as if my pace of gaming has declined a bit since January, but not a bit of it: I just haven't had time to write things up.  There are a few more Neil Thomas' games coming, plus my kids have wanted to play some Shadowrun, so I might get around to doing a few write-ups of that on my other blog.