Narrative OHW Campaign Battle 3: Battle of Mogmoor

This was the third battle in this narrative campaign experiment. To recap, Spanish-Jacobite forces have invaded the territory of New Dalrydia and are opposed by a Dutch-Scots' force. The invasion has not gone to plan and the Spanish-Jacobites are hunkering down near the small town of Mogmoor. The pursuing Dutch Army has seized high ground overlooking the town amd the Spanish-Jacobites must push them off, or otherwise defeat them - or be forced to evacuate New Dalrydia or worse, surrender...

 The Forces:

The Dutch Army consists of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases, both Irish units)

1 brigade of Foot (3 bases, all Scottish units) 

1 brigade of Foot (2 bases, one Scotch, one Swiss unit)

2 bases of Field Artillery

 

The Spanish Army consisted of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases of Jacobites)

1 brigade of Dragoons (2 bases, both Irish)

1 brigade of Foot (4 bases, all Spanish)

1 base of Field Artillery

 

The Set-Up:

The Dutch are on the high ground, the Spanish are defending the village.

Spanish Dragoons on the left, Infantry in the centre.

The Dutch have their Horse on their Right (left), whilst the infantry take the Centre and Left (right); note the refused flank

The Dutch Right

The Dutch Centre

The Dutch Left

One last overview shot

The Battle:

You just know it is going to be a bad day when the first artillery bombardment breaks one of the Spanish infantry regiments in the centre!

The Spanish can't afford to not be bold: the Franco-Jacobite Horse advances on the Right

However, the Dutch (ok, ,Scotch-Irish) Horse mirrors the movement on the other flank, threating the Spanish (ok, Irish) Dragoons

The battle develops with the Spanish attacking in echelon by the right...

Another view

Not quite as devastating, but the Spanish artillery is causing some casualties in the Dutch centre

The action starts to break up somewhat: the Dutch Horse has been slow to actually engage, allowing one of the Spanish infantry regiments to begin enfilading musketry...only to be enfiladed by an advancing Scottish regiment in its turn. Meanwhile, the attack on the hill proper is about to start

Seizing the tempo at the right moment, the Dutch Horse charges in - as does the flanking Scottish regiment (centre)

At practically the same moment, the main Spanish infantry asault goes in on the hill

It could have been worse for the Spanish Dragoons, but they manage to hold their own against the Dutch Horse; however, another Spanish infantry unit has been broken (centre)

One of the Spanish regiments manages to close up and capture some Dutch guns; the other is held back by the fierce musketry

The Dutch Horse re-engages, for another bout of melee

Fierce fighting continues on the hill - the Scots' infantry launches a counter-attack on the right-hand Spanish battalion

This time the Spanish Dragoons have come off worse against the Dutch Horse

But more importantly, the Spanish infantry attack in the centre has collapsed, with the musketeers running back towards the town

Position at the end of the battle. The only somewhat bright spot is that the Jacobite cavalry is still intact on the right.

Game Notes:

A good game, although the Spanish-Jacobite force never really seemed to get the rub of the green. The terrain and deployment of the Dutch didn't make it easy for the Spanish though, it was difficult to know how to create at least one decent match-up on one wing. The actual fighting was fairly even, but the Spanish needed to do better than that, and it never looked that likely...

 

There were no particular points in regards to the rules or anything: I am relatively happy with how this type of small battle works with Polemos: Ruse de Guerre, so they typically rattle on at a fair pace. They might be a little quick and nippy for the full early C18 experience mind, but they do give a generally good horse-and-musket game, which is pretty easy to tweak. Not sure if I will try Polemos WSS proper again next time out, or perhaps incorporate some of its concepts into RdG, particularly around artillery and  movement.

 

So the campaign leads to the restoration of New Dalrydia, as the Spanish general sues for terms!

 

Well done for anyone who spotted this, but this was a re-casting of the Battle of Mohacs into One-Hour Wargame scenario form, and then translated into early C18. I did it previously as a more straight-up re-fight, although that was over a decade ago now (eek!). In any case, I was using this as part of my play-testing of my new mini-campaign concept. It has seemed to work pretty well, although it hasn't been quite stress-tested enough yet, on account of one side winning three battles in a row! Still, a promising start.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings mainly be Leven I think.