Planning Armies: 6mm War of the Spanish Succession

Quite a niche post follows, even by my own low standards! It is about miniature army planning and scope - including scope creep...it might be of some mild interest to that tiny subset of gamers who are currently pondering the War of the Spanish Succession in 6mm; or perhaps, slightly more widely, gamers thinking about new horse-and-musket armies more generally

 

Model manufacturers are probably well aware of this, but it is definitely true that nice figures and models will help to persuade us to buy more than we might have planned. My 6mm War of the Spanish Succession collection is a case in point. The original scope of the project was quite tight: it was to be a 'tabletop teaser'-type force, with two armies, each just large enough to refight all the sources of 'Tabletop Teaser' type scenarios I possess. That amounts to, more-or-less, the Tabletop Teaser series in Battlegames magazine; Grant and Asquith's 'Scenarios for All Ages'; Grant's 'Programmed Wargames Scenarios'; and Neil Thomas' scenarios in One-Hour Wargames. And, in terms of playing, this is more-or-less exactly what has happened. Roughly speaking, the following forces will cover you for all of this:

 

BLUE FORCES:

4 units of Artillery

1 unit of Light Artillery  

1 unit of Engineers

3 units of Heavy Cavalry

3 units of Medium Cavalry 

3 units of Light Cavalry 

2 units of Elite Infantry 

3 units of Light Infantry

10 units of Line Infantry

 

RED FORCES:

3 units of Artillery

1 unit of Light Artillery  

1 unit of Engineers

3 units of Heavy Cavalry

3 units of Medium Cavalry 

2 units of Light Cavalry 

1 units of Elite Infantry 

3 units of Light Infantry

9 units of Line Infantry

 

1 Pontoon Train 

4 Supply wagons 

 

So this was my target. And it was achieved quite easily. I themed the 'Blue Force' as French, but with a very high proportion of foreign units, especially Irish. The 'Red Force' was themed as British, with as high a proportion of Scottish units as could make sense. The rationale for the above was using them as the regular troops involved in the various Jacobite rebellions, as well as for the generic Horse and Musket scenarios.

 

But, it turned out that efficiency be damned, I really, really liked painting WSS figures!  So The Red forces also got a brigade of Dutch Foot (which were Scottish), and another brigade of Dutch Foot (which were French), the French got a couple of Spanish units too (mainly Irish regiments). The Manchester Regiment, The Royal Ecossais and various Jacobite units were also done as if they had been raised for the '15 rather than the '45. You get the idea. As the armies expanded, I looked to the couple of sets of rules I had for the WSS which included army lists to give an indication of what a reasonable-sized complete army might look like.

 

Firstly, the army lists in Horse, Foot and Guns:

 

The Imperialist Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 5 x Cuirassiers, 2 x Dragoons, 1 x Hussars, 28 x Infantry, 1 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery 

 

The Anglo-Dutch Army: 2 x Command Posts, 11 x Horse (3 x Dutch, 2 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x German), 9 x Dragoons, 2 x Guard Infantry (1 x Dutch, 1 x British), 3 x Grenadiers, 49 x Infantry (15 x Dutch, 12 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x Prussian, 16 x German), 7 x Field Artillery, 2 x Heavy Artillery. (n.b. The British Horse become Cuirassiers in the middle of the war).

 

The Franco-Bavarian Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 2 x Elite Horse (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian Cuirassiers), 6 x Horse, 8 x Dragoons, 4 x Guard Infantry (3 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 2 x Grenadiers (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 39 x Infantry (34 x French, 5 x Bavarian), 7 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery (n.b. I don't think there can be strong objections to replacing some French units with Spanish, to taste)

 

There were a few surprising things in there to me: the lack of Imperialist artillery, and the preponderance of Foot over Horse were perhaps the most obvious. Grenadiers don't seem to have played quite as big a part in the WSS as these figures imply. In any case, these armies did represent a significant expansion over my originals! However, I am nearly there for the Anglo-Dutch and Franco-Bavarians, I think I am only missing some of the German Foot for the former, and some of the French Foot for the latter.  

 

The other set of army lists I have for the WSS are those in the 1e of the Polemos WSS rules.  They imply much bigger forces, big armies by anyone's standards, even in 6mm:

 

Ansbach (1 Foot, 2 Dragoons)

Austria (36 Foot, 28 Horse/Cuirassiers, 11 Dragoons, 4 Field Guns, 8 Light Guns) 

Bavarian (12 Foot, 13 Horse/Cuirassiers 1 Field Gun, 2 Light Guns) + 2 Guard Horse 

Cologne (3 Foot, 3 Horse, 2 Dragoons)

Denmark (13 Foot, 8 Horse, 3 Dragoons)

France (67 Foot, 45 Horse, 11 Dragoons, 2 Hussars, 8 Field Guns, 10 Light Guns, 4 Siege Guns) 

Franconia (3 Cuirassiers, 2 Dragoons)

Hanover (13 Foot, 6 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 4 Light Guns)

Hesse (7 Foot, 5 Horse, 3 Dragoons)

Holland (21 Foot, 22 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 1 Field Gun, 4 Light Guns)

Holstein (2 Foot, 1 Cuirassier, 4 Dragoons)

Ireland (4 Foot, 2 Horse)

Italy (1 Horse)

Mainz (2 Dragoons)

Mecklenburg (1 Cuirassier, 1 Dragoon)

Munster (3 Foot, 1 Horse)

Upper Reich (Oberreich) (8 Foot, 2 Horse)

Palatinate (10 Foot, 6 Horse)

Portugal (9 Foot, 12 Horse, 1 Field Gun, 2 Light Guns)

Prussia (14 Foot, 5 Horse, 4 Dragoons)

Savoy (10 Foot, 4 Horse, 3 Dragoons, 1 Field Gun, 3 Light Guns)

Saxe-Gotha (1 Cuirassier, 3 Dragoons)

Scotland (4 Foot), 

Spain (11 Foot, 16 Horse, 5 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),  

Swabia (2 Cuirassiers, 2 Horse, 1 Dragoon), 

Switzerland (4 Foot), 

Britain (18 Foot, 6 Horse, 3 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),  

Walloon (4 Foot), 

Westphalia (2 Horse), 

Wurttemberg (3 Foot, 1 Horse, 1 Dragoons), 

Wurzburg (2 Dragoons), 

[Allied artillery totals (12 Field guns, 18 light guns)]

 

(the bold is just to indicate the larger contingents involved)

  

So I have enough units to paint for a very long time, if I want my games to be accurate to the individual facing colour level. This is not however what Heretical Gaming is all about! So my actual target has evolved into having sufficient forces for the HFG lists, plus functional extras as they come up (so a few units of Spanish Horse for Almanza say). 

 

The other way to approach this would be to look at the overall forces one would need for the battles listed in the ruleset, viz.:

 

Chiari 1701: 

Imperials: 27 bases Cuirassiers, 36 bases Foot, 9 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 8 bases Light Artillery 

French: 34 bases Horse, 66 bases Foot, 5 bases Dragoons, 5 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

Luzzara 1702: 

Imperials: 28 bases Horse, 35 bases Foot, 12 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Field Artillery, 5 bases Light Artillery 

French: 31 bases Horse, 39 bases Foot, 14 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 6 bases Light Artillery  

Speyerbach 1703: 

Allies:13 bases Horse, 30 bases Foot, 6 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 4 bases Light Artillery French:17 bases Horse, 27 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 4 bases Light Artillery  

 

Blenheim 1704: 

Allies: 26 bases Horse, 43 bases Foot, 16 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 7 bases Light Artillery Imperials: 20 bases Cuirassiers, 10 bases Horse, 21 bases Foot, 19 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 3 bases Light Artillery 

French: 11 bases Cuirassiers, 50 bases Horse, 88 bases Foot, 8 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Siege Artillery, 6 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

 

Ramillies 1706: 

Allies: 43 bases Horse, 74 bases Foot, 19 bases Dragoons, 12 bases Field Artillery, 18 bases Light Artillery 

French: 48 bases Horse, 2 bases Hussars, 70 bases Foot, 17 bases Dragoons, 8 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

 

Almanza 1707: 

Allies:14 bases Horse, 23 bases Foot, 4 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Field Artillery, 5 bases Light Artillery French:20 bases Horse, 26 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 6 bases Light Artillery

 

One could then create a 'Blue' Army of the maximum number of bases to fight as the French, and a 'Red' Army of the maximum number of bases to fight as the Allies or Imperials. In practice, that just means sufficient bases to refight Blenheim and Ramillies, everything else fits inside. 

Helpfully, this family of Polemos rules also includes options for Smalland Medium-sized games based on the above. Broadly speaking, they imply forces of a third to a half of the above figures for Small, and around two-thirds for Medium. Even for 'Small' battles, it is noteworthy how much proportionally more cavalry and artillery there will be on a Polemos battlefield than on an HFG battlefield. The 'average' small armies work out as follows:

Chiari:

Imperials: 14 bases Foot, 9 bases Cuirassiers, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

French: 22 bases Foot, 10 bases Horse, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery 

 

Luzzara:

Imperials: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery

French: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 6 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 base Foot Artillery

 

Speyerbach:

Allies:   6-7 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

French: 12 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

 

Blenheim:

Allies: 27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery

French: 26 bases Foot, 22 bases Horse, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery  

 Ramilles:

Allies: 23 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 6 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Field Artillery

French: 24 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 7 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 3 bases Field Artillery 

 

Almanza:

Allies: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery

French: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery  

 

Roughly speaking, these armies are about a Baccus Army pack plus a couple of extra individual packs in size, with the exception of Blenheim and Ramilles, which are more like an Army pack and a couple of reinforcement packs.  That might be a good target for the average gamer. The Polemos 'Small Armies for Big Battles' lists are similar-ish in size to an HFG army - which makes sense, when a base is Polemos WSS 1e is ~ a battalion, and a base in HFG is ~ a brigade.

 

An Allied Army would come out as  27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Foot Artillery, which would be:

1 x Generals Pack (£4.32)

2 x Foot Booster Packs (£47.52)

1 x Foot Pack (£8.72)

1 x Horse Booster Pack (£23.76)

1 x Horse Pack (£10.08)

1 x Dragoon Booster Pack (£23.76)

2 x Dismounted Dragoon Packs (£8.64) 

2 x Light Artillery Pack (£8.64) 

1 x Foot Artillery Pack (£4.32)

Or about £130-140 all-in. 

Even More Montmirail

It is a little while since I have been quite as grabbed by a scenario!  So many thanks to Glenn Pearce (and Miniature Wargames, and Wargames Illustrated!) for designing such a good one.  Again, I was using Phil Barker's Horse, Foot and Guns rules.

The first battle report, which contains all the details, is here.  The second battle report is here. I won't repeat the details of the scenario set-up since they are all on the previous posts.

I gave this a third go to give it a last chance of lasting long enough to let the Prussians arrive.  After the second battle, I began to suspect that although the game isn't particularly deadly in any one combat, the amount of dice being thrown, especially for artillery, always gives a chance of producing elimination results.  Artillery will basically fire twice every turn (in HFG units fire in both the friendly and the enemy turn).  And with so many dice being thrown, the chances of more and more units being eliminated is quite high.

The Set-Up:

Sacken's Corps advancing (yet again!) from the top, Napoleon and elements of his Guard oppose them, with Ricard's infantry holding the left

Sacken's Right

And Centre

Nansouty's Imperial Guard Cavalry on the French Right

Napoleon and the Guard Infantry astride the main road to Montmirail

The Imperial Guard Heavy Cavalry

The Battle:

Sacken's right descends the hill again to threaten Marchais (left)

His infantry columns start to poke forward over the stream...

Sacken's infantry threaten the centre...

...but are hammered by the Guard Artillery!

French troops contest the advance in the woods on the extreme left...

The Russian infantry, having crossed the stream, prepared to assault Marchais

The counter-attack of the Imperial Guard infantry throws some of the Russian infantry back from the stream (centre-left)

Sacken's infantry make good progress pushing on to the left of Marchais

A wider shot: the Russian attack on the French left is progressing nicely (left), but has stalled along the line of the stream (centre)

Sacken's troops determined to hold in the centre in the face of the Emperor's grumblers and his beautiful daughters...

However, the Russian gunners are capable of returning the compliment, routing some of the Guard Heavy Cavalry...

Whilst the Imperial Guard Horse Artillery shows that it too is capable of great execution!

Ricard's infantry launch a counter-attack (left) to push back Sacken's infantry from Marchais

Whilst the French Imperial Guard are in turn pushed back from around the bridge, despite the losses suffered by the Russians...

Sacken's attack, in spite of setbacks, is now developing more fully around Marchais

His attack to the left of Marchais has been successful and the Russians are now around the French left flank!

Whilst there are further gaps to exploit after the defeat of the brigade of Imperial Guards adjacent to the bridge

Not too soon, more units of the Guard arrive (bottom) - a brigade is immediately despatched to help defend Marchais (bottom-left)

The French move quickly to form a defensive position with Marchais as the hinge to prevent an outflanking attack

More Imperial Guard infantry restore the line of the stream around the bridge

French counter-attacks push the Russians back all along the stream: the Russian Right is now somewhat isolated around Marchais

This hasn't affected their fighting prowess though: one of the French infantry brigades has been destroyed in the fighting!

The Russians go back to the attack, pushing back the French infantry in front of Marchais (centre)

Sacken restores his defences on the far side of the bridge

Subject to continuous bombardment from early in the battle, Marchais catches fire

The ebb-and-flow of battle continues - another brigade of Guardsmen has been destroyed and the stream is again passable by the Russians (centre)

Another French brigade in retreat, unable to make progress in the face of Russian muskets and guns

The garrison of Marchais bravely but grimly holds on against mounting Russian pressure

Napoleon rallies some Guardsmen

Just in time, as the Russians launch a desperate attack to clear out the Guard artillery which has caused so much damage around the bridge

But to no avail, as the French Guards and guns restore the position and force the Russians back

French Guardsmen launch a counter-attack to ease the pressure on Marchais (left); whilst more of the Russians retire from the intense musketry from its defenders

Napoleon brings up more guns - he now has 50+ guns blasting the Russian centre

At this moment, Nansouty and his Horse are launched forwards

But suffer huge casualties from the Russian guns (centre)

The Guards' counter-attack is successful (left) even though the French infantry is at last forced from the village (centre)! 

But the Russians are unable to exploit, since the supporting infantry is also pushed back (centre)

The French infantry cross the stream in front of Marchais and Sacken has run out of reserves to stem them...

Nansouty's troopers charge home

The Russian infantry is holding on...just!

But the Russian artillery in the centre is captured.

And there are French horsemen now in the Russian rear (centre)

Sacken's troops can do no more and being their retreat

Game Notes:
Another very exciting re-fight! I think of all the battles, the Russian infantry very nearly did turn the French flank but it was not quite to be.  The French reinforcement schedule does put a lot of pressure on the Russians to attack but by doing so, they begin the engagement which has a gravity all of its own and makes it very likely it will be all over before Yorck's Prussians arrive.  If Sacken simply sits tight, he is probably just allowing Napoleon to concentrate his entire Guard for a single irresistible blow; but if enough dice are being thrown, then the chances are he is going to suffer quite heavy casualties.
The problem here is that these eliminations are (pretty much) just as likely to happen on turn 1 as on turn 10.  I am beginning to think that this flat attrition line will nearly always prevent battles lasting a realistic amount of time.  In comparison to other rulesets, where the problem was simply casualty rates were too high, in these rules it is the lack of meaningful attrition mechanisms.  To be fair, how to combine the importance of attrition and shock in horse-and-musket warfare is not an easy problem - and I'm not sure anyone should be really confident about how it works in detail. Polemos' shaken mechanics, although by no means an ideal solution to this problem, seem a slightly better bet.  But, despite the many sterling qualities of these rules, I am starting to look around for some alternatives.    Perhaps I need to dust off Grande Armee.  Or maybe I need to take the plunge and write my own...
Figures by Baccus 6mm, most of these buildings are by Leven I think.