Three Featherstonian Battles: #2, the Battle of Platt's Vale

The second battle in this Featherstonian trifecta is a scenario modified from the Horse & Musket scenario in Wargames, the Battle of Plattville. My version, the Battle of Platt's Vale, is set in the War of the Spanish Succession instead of the American Civil War, although I am using one of my favourite sets, the Polemos: Ruse de Guerre set, which are reasonably generically Horse & Musket, to keep in the spirit of the thing.

 

 

The Forces:

Red Force (the Anglo-Dutch):

3 Infantry Brigades, each of 3 Infantry Battalions

1 Cavalry Brigade, each of 3 Horse Regiments

1 Field Artillery Battery

 

Blue Force (the Franco-Jacobite): 

3 Infantry Brigades, each of 3 Infantry Battalions

1 Cavalry Brigade, each of 3 Horse Regiments

1 Field Artillery Battery

 

Each army has an infantry brigade as an advance guard, entering on the road (south for Blue, north for Red). The balance of each army will arrive after an hour (i.e. on turn 4). 

 

The scenario objectives are a little under-specified in the original, but it seems that a side needs to control all three hills, the bridge, the village and the church to win.

 

The Set-Up: 

 

The village of Platt's Vale in the centre, with the church on the hill just to the West. Plattswood is to the West, and Creek Hill to the East. Crow's Creek seperates Creek Hill from Moleshill (top-centre) and Hare Hill (top-right)

The Franco-Jacobite advance guard: Berwick's, Dillon's & Clare's Regiments.

The Anglo-Dutch advance guard: Lord North's, Ferguson's & Leven's Regiments behind Moleshill.

 

The Battle:

Initial manoeuvring leads to a face-off of the Scots' Regiments on Hare Hill down onto the Irish Regiments in Crow's Creek.

The volley fire of the Jacobite Irish regiments is devastating: Ferguson's and Leven's Regiments are routed quickly. Lord North's Regiment beyond the bridge is wavering also, but it has routed Berwick's Irish Regiment in its turn

The Scots' Brigade of the Dutch Army marches forward toward's Platt's Vale on the other flank

Meanwhile, the English Brigade has arrived in the nick of time to contest the hill, and the Cavalry Brigade has boldly advanced across the stream to threaten Dillon's Regiment in the flank

The French Brigade moves up to occupy Platt's Vale.

Whilst the Franco-Jacobite Cavalry (Lifeguards', Fitzjames', Sheldon's) moves forward onto the hill to counter the Allied Horse; more Irish infantry move up the road to reinforce the Advance guard, but are somewhat delayed by the survivor's of Berwick's regiment

The remaining regiments in the French advanced guard (Dillon's and Clare's) boldly move onto the hill, correctly judging that Lord North's regiment would not stand their approach, given the destruction of the rest of the Allied advanced guard. 

The Allied cavalry manages to shake out into order to face off against the Franco-Jacobite Horse; meanwhile, note in the background that the English brigade has launched an attack on the Franco-Jacobite advance guard on Hare Hill.

Continuing to fight brilliantly, Dillon's regiment routs the lead regiment with its musketry - this leads quickly to the panic and rout of the entire brigade!

The position at the culmination - the Scots' Dutch and the French Brigade are just coming to grips around Platt's Vale at this point.

But with two brigades routed, the Anglo-Dutch Army is fought out and withdraws.

Game Notes:

Great fun this quick game - I just really like these rules! They rattle along but with the tempo mechanic being really easily modified for solo player.  The formation morale rules put a high level of jeopardy and randomnes into the game too, but still giving a strong signal of what is likely to happen. For instance, the Franco-Jacobite advanced guard took a bit of a risk in advancing whilst Lord North's regiment was still in action: but it was a reasonable chance that it would give way without further fighting, and so it proved. In contrast to the Polemos: SPQR game I played earlier in the day, the reduced number of outcome moves and simplified play sequence make it definitely less brain taxing.

Like Neil Thomas' rules, these rules seem simpler than many but they really do produce very similar and at least equally plausible outcomes, with a lot less mechanical fuss. This game did finish relatively quickly, partly due to the exceptional combat performance (i.e. very good rolling) of several of the units; partly due to the relatively generous movement rates per turn*. but mainly due to the smoothness of play. Really enjoyed that! It is a good scenario too, lots of tactical interest as there is potentially a lot for each side to do.

Buildings mainly by Leven, figures from Baccus' WSS range. 

 

(*An infantry unit in Ruse de Guerre moves at the rate of light cavalry in Polemos: SPQR. this isn't necessarily a problem, but it does make the game feel a lot faster. It also means that formations can defend an attack a lot of ground quickly, which changes the feel of the game a lot - reserves can 'get there'. Much of this is to do with the author, Glenn Pearce, designing his rules for big multi-player games, where you need to design speed in if you are going to get anywhere).

Third Bishops' War: Battle Three

The next battle in this 3rd Bishop's War, following on from a successful French intervention on the south coast in the previous battle, mirrors that next battle in the Polemarch's 'War of the Stuart Succession' campaign.

Focus switches back to the North. Unlike in the Polemarch's campaign, the invading Scottish forces lost the first battle - however, we can assume that the Scots are reinforced and, given the calamity on the south coast, no reinforcements can be spared to the North - indeed, some regiments may have been marched towards London. The upshot therefore is that the Scots have resumed their offensive, and the remaining Northern militia forces have moved to a position near some coal pits north of Newcastle to block the advance.

 Again, this game was played out a while ago, so notes will be somewhat minimal. The game was once again played with Polemos: ECW.

 

The Set-Up: The Scots advance from the North (top) through the coal pits and hills breaking up the advance. 

The battle joined in earnest - the Scots' Foot and Horse engage the leading English brigade of Foot in the centre - the constrained terrain somewhat limiting the Scots' ability to fully deploy and utilize their force. 

The engagement becomes ferocious, with losses on both sides - the English are slightly pushed back to reform.

 The English attempt to reform:

The engagement resumes with renewed ferocity - the Scots push forward, whilst the English resist, still holding the wood on the centre-left as the hinge of the position.

The English have held onto the wood and thrown the Scots back, then launching a counter-attack

A furious battle rages on the other flank - the English holding on grimly...

The counter-attack rages in the centre too:

The main Scottish attack is succeeding, but the flanks are collapsing simultaneously...

A confused end to the battle: the English hold the wood, but the remainder of the left-hand brigade has finally routed after suffering heavy casualties; but the rest of the Scottish attack has stalled and the Scots' Army's moral ehas given out.

Game Notes:

More good fun, a very close and enjoyable game which really did go down to the wire.  The Polemos rules make a decent stab at getting the balance right between manoeuvre (a little, but not none) and hard fighting as a feature of the period. Committing reserves and overlapping on a flank are doable, more complex than that is very tricky. The processes within the rules are relatively easy to follow once you get the hang of them, get into the rhythm. Apart from a couple of calibration issues (one to do with the effectiveness of musketry, the other to do with artillery - and some interesting properties about the difference between Swedish and Dutch horse tactics), the rules have really stood up for me.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Leven. 

 

Capturing Caesar's Camp: Actions 06 & 07 - Counter-attack at Villiers

For the next two actions in this re-fight of the TooFatLardies' pint-sized campaign Capturing Caesar's Camp, as the British offensive began to slow, the Germans launch a counter-attack at the village of Villiers-sur-Mareuil. The aim is to force a diversion of British effort and energy to remove this 'thorn in the side' of the advance.

 

The British are fielding a slightly weakened platoon to defend Villiers - the Germans have a fresh platoon with which to attack. The British are supported by an additional FOO and 3" mortar section, and an additional Vickers MMG and Rifle section.

The British are in a somewhat offset 2-up 1-back defensive position. One section is by the hedgerow by the road on the left;Two section is just in front of the church by the wall; the FOO is actually in the church, along with an additional Rifle section; Platoon HQ is in and around the old barn (bottom-left building); the Vickers MMG is by the bottom junction; and Three Section is in reserve by the hedgerow below the church. Three section is also responsible for guarding the right flank, if uncommitted.

One section (left) and Platoon HQ (bottom-centre)

Two section (top-centre); FOO (church); Three Section (bottom-right); Vickers MMG (bottom-left)

The Battle (Action One):

Somewhat giving the game away, there were two actions that took place in quick succession - I have rolled them into the same report. 

Jerry! A German squad is moving down the extreme flank (behind the hedgerow)

A better look.

The Germans have also managed to get a Pak36 forward too!

However, all this is being observed by the FOO - he calls in the mortars! The anti-tank gun's crew become casualties

As the mortar fire continues, some of the German riflemen manage to get forward, but the MG34 team is eliminated. The British (bottom) are holding their fire, not wanting to give away their position until they have to.

A wider shot

More Germans turn up.

But just as these Germans try to get forward on the other side of the hedge...the mortars arrive again!

Another 8 Germans fall in a few moments. The Germans have still not spotted a single defender.

The remaining Germans retreat!

Understandbly furious, the German company commander throws in another attack!! He also calls for some additional support...

Action Two: 

The Germans push forward another Pak36 (top, just on the far side of the road)

Yet again, it is quickly identified and a further 3" mortar strike is carried out

But this time...Stuka! No it isn't, it is a 109E Jabo. But still bad news...

The very-sharp eyed pilot identifies the British position in and around the church...

And neatly lands is bombs into the church tower, eliminating the FOO team and the supporting section! The nearby Two section are suppressed also.

The 109E pulls away...

Meanwhile, the Germans are again going right-flanking. I assume that their Recce patrols must have spotted the main British position in the centre and are determined to avoid it!

The Germans push forward, encouraged by their Platoon commander (base to the rear)

Rapid fire!!!

Some good shooting by the Camerons - the German squad is entirely eliminated!

Less good news - this has attracted the attention of the Jabo...

The 109 strafes the British section...thankfully they were more scared than actually hurt...

Another pass by the 109 - by now, some of the Camerons are in harder cover; the German platoon commander has managed to slip away into the further field

On the 109E's last pass, it gets hit by the Vickers MMG! I would like to report it went down in flames...but it was barely scratched. Still, it aborted its last run.

A German sniper works his way forward rather gingerly (by the wooden shed and the three tall trees in the centre of the village)

Meanwhile, another German squad appeas, this one going right-flanking, skirting the woods.

And then slipping through them

The British reserve section's Bren is covering the road

A German Kubelwagen turns up?!

Some German engineers are poking forward into the edge of the village too. Everyone is busy not spotting each other.

The British Bren gunner wasn't napping - as the Germans advance, four of the German riflemen go down!

This is followed by a very ineffective exchange of fire

But the Germans have shot their bolt - the Platoon Commander knows that there is little point in pressing the attack further, and gives the order to pull back.

Scene at the end of the battle - note that One Section on the Left has pushed forward a little - it managed to suppress the German engineer group (amongst the buildings).

 Game Notes:

That concludes the campaign! In the first action, the Germans lost 6 KIA, 13 WIA and the British nothing at all, unsurprisingly, since there were only a few moments where the Germans might have spotted a British soldier. The second action was rather more even: 6 KIA and 14 WIA for the Germans, 4 KIA and 10 WIA for the British. The Germans were a little unlucky in the second game, and the British Bren gunners really earned their pay. 

The first action would obviously have been terrible in H2H play, but it was quite satisfying solo: an attack getting hit by mortar fire and failing seems to have been a thing which happened quite a lot in WW2 in France (both in 1940 and 1944). There wasn't anything obviously wrong, or even generally unfair about it, except in that the British tended to have a FOO as potential support in all scenarios, and the Germans didn't.  I suspect there might be an element of rules-preference here, which I noticed in the KG Heller campaign too: if the rules a scenario is designed for are slightly more direct-fire than indirect-fire friendly, that same scenario will play out somewhat differently if used with rules which are more support-fire friendly. I would definitely count these rules, and the WRG rules family more generally, as somewhat more support fire friendly. 

The second action nicely demonstrated that bombing can be very effective! It should have been a Stuka, but I didn't have a model to hand, so I used a 109E as an early Jabo instead. Air support can be quite effective in these rules, especially with bombs or bigger cannons. Despite early losses, it was worth pressing on - the British were actually not in that great shape after the loss of those four elements in the air strike - both sides were equally shaky, is what I am getting at, so if the last Bren gunner had shot less well, then even a moderately successful German advance on the flank could have 'unlocked' the position. But it really wasn't that kind of campaign for the Germans!

Anyway, despite it not being that close in the end, I hope readers have enjoyed the write-ups. I promised new readers I do lose reasonably often in these scenarios, including once losing the entire campaign! But sometimes, things do go well and I get lucky too...

There have been lots of useful comments and suggestions on the blog and on The Wargames Website and The Miniatures Page. For those, many thanks, and  I will look to carry out a few refinements on my solo system before it is next in action.

 

Models by Baccus 6mm and Heroics and Ros. The 109E is from the Plastic Soldier Company. Buildings are a mixture of Battlescale and Leven. Rules used were Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare 1925-1950, aka The Farquhar Version.