Polemos Ruse de Guerre: Second Battle

The Battle of Quebec Polemos: Ruse de Guerre scenario was too good just waste in just a single playing, so I reloaded it and had another go now that I had a better understanding of the flow and finer points of the Polemos Ruse de Guerre rules.  I didn't make any changes at all from the first scenario.

Here is a summary of the orders of battle again:

British:
12 bases of Infantry
1 base of Skirmishers
2 bases of Artillery

French:
7 bases of Infantry
4 bases of Skirmishers
2 bases of Native American skirmishers
4 bases of Artillery

The Set-Up:

Viewing the British left wing, with the French on the left as viewed and the  Native Americans concealed in the rocks and bushes (bottom-right)

French artillery and infantry prepare to give the redcoats a fierce reception on the French right.

As they do on the left, too.

The British right wing prepares to advance

As does the British left wing

 The Battle:

The British begin a left-flanking movement - the Native Americans look to find a better position (left)

The British left and centre advance into French artillery range...

Splendid French gunnery, along with some accurate tirailleur fire, routs two British battalions in short order!

A view of the same from the French right-hand battery

The French left-hand battery achieves results nearly as good: another British battalion is broken and it flees to the rear (top-centre!)

On the other hand, the British left-wing attack has routed the light troops opposing them

Seeing the British advance falter, the French charge down the slopes!

Whilst further accurate French gunfire routs the Louisbourg Grenadiers too!

However in the centre, a crashing volley from the Highlanders routs one of the attacking French battalions

The British left slowly advances...

The British Highlanders' volley and counter-charge has routed two French battalions and shaken another; perhaps just as importantly, the threatened British 3lb guns (right) managed to hold off the attack upon them

In the confusion Montcalm himself and a French brigadier have been captured, the French centre routs and the army's morale collapses!

Game Notes:

Losses:
British: 4 infantry bases
French: 2 infantry bases, 2 skirmisher bases, 2 generals

A highly unlikely victory for the British here.  The French artillery caused so much devastation that it seemed impossible that Wolfe could triumph.  However, using the scenario deployments, it is quite difficult for the French to avoid having their left turned, so given the British losses, it was reasonable for the French to try and charge and destroy a British brigade.  The key moment wasn't so much the Highlanders' volley and charge, effective though that was, but the British artillery holding out against the odds against the initial French infantry charge.  Although it only recoiled the French, it allowed the Scotsmen to volley, charge and rout the troops in front of them.
Because the tempo points worked out quite differently than in the first game - in that the British held the initiative, in this game, the French held the tactical aces - it had quite a different character: units couldn't move and/or were destroyed easily, the sides couldn't get coordinated attacks going, the flank moves were really slow, generals couldn't rally their troops in time.  I shall have more to say about this in a later post. 
This game really rattled along, now I understood exactly how the tempo process and turn sequence would work in this game; the processes are not complicated, making it very quick to administer.

Polemos Ruse de Guerre - First Try: Battle of the Plains of Abraham

Today I finally got around to setting up a game of the new(-ish) Polemos ruleset, Ruse de Guerre, which covers the C18 and C19 wars in North America.

I used the first scenario in the book - the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, featuring Wolfe's famous victory over Montcalm.  I don't possess any armies for the Seven Years War / French & Indian War, so I substituted my Napoleonic forces, along with some newly-painted Native Americans.

The forces involved are not large:

British:
12 bases of Infantry
1 base of Skirmishers
2 bases of Artillery

French:
7 bases of Infantry
4 bases of Skirmishers
2 bases of Native American skirmishers
4 bases of Artillery

The Set-Up:

French on the heights to the left, British on the plain to the right

A close-in view of the British

French regular infantry and artillery defend the heights

Skirmishers cover the French right flank

And the French left flank

And the view from behind the French position

 The Battle:

The battle begins:  Long-range artillery fire is exchanged, causing a few casualties amongst the British infantry); thenWolfe and Montcalm send out their ADCs with orders (see the small groups of mounted men clustering around the generals of both sides)

A few casualties are caused by the British artillery's return fire

Another view of the French position at this point

And another view of the advancing British

The British continue their advantage, and continue to take casualties as they do so

And so on, across the line of the British advance - they halted briefly at this point to unlimber the artillery and prepare to assault

The British left flank has re-orientated itself and has begun to advance against the French skirmishers

The British prepare to assault, Brig-Gen James Murray scurries between his units trying to restore order in the ranks disordered by the fire of the French artillery

Wolfe leads the Louisbourg Grenadiers into the assault (left); the remainder of the British are still reforming

The odds aren't looking good!!

The attack on the French left develops...

The British attack develops all along the front

The Louisbourg Grenadiers get to the mouths of the cannon before they are driven back...

The French skirmishers are routed after a brief fight; the Native Americans are hard-pressed too (background)

A closer look, as the British infantry storm across the stream...

The British line is repulsed by French fire

All along the line, the story is the same...

The flanking British battalion closes with French skirmishers

The Native Americans under severe pressure...

The British reform for a second assault on the French left

The renewed British assault on the French right however goes in, and breaks further French formations: at this point, the French formation collapsed, which led to the entire army's collapse and flight...

The French centre and left has held off most of the British assault, although they have lost some infantry and some guns - but the collapse of the right has rendered the position untenable...

Game Notes:
A very exciting and close first game as I got to grips with the rules.  Not my finest tactical hour, but I was concentrating on learning!  Generally speaking both sides fought hard and well, with the French perhaps holding on rather harder and longer than they did in real life.  The blunt British advance was, well, blunted but the effect of the frontal pin, flank attack, then combined attack was pretty effective.  Altogether, the French lost two infantry bases, three skirmisher bases and two artillery bases - the British lost two infantry bases; but the majority of these losses were suffered right at the end.

As far as first games go, it sent very well.  They seem a notch simpler than most of the other rules in the Polemos stable: partly I think due to the nature of the conflicts represented, but also as a result of the author clearly having played lots of Polemos games and developed a "user-friendly" approach to the rules framework.  However, I will be writing another blog post soon to give a longer "initial thoughts" review.

Figures by Baccus 6mm, as ever.  The buildings (not very appropriate for Canada!) were from Total Battle Miniatures.