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.

 

 

 

 

Narrative OHW Campaign Battle 2: Battle of Lochmire

Campaign Briefing, Battle 02:

Following the success of the Dutch Army at Fernbrae, its leader, General de Ruyter ordered a somewhat leisurely pursuit of the Spanish force towards its Lochmire, where it was besieging that important town, its castle and its Scottish garrison. The Spanish commander, General Sarsfield, covering his retreat with his powerful cavalry arm, moved his main body back towards Lochmire to focus on the siege. However, De Ruyter, screening the Franco-Spanish cavalry with his own, conducted a surprise march to attack a portion of the Spanish lines outside Lochmire.  Sarsfield scribbled an order to an aide, telling him to present it to the commander of his brigade of Dragoons and to return to Lochmire post-haste. Meanwhile, his troops prepared to resist the Dutch attack.

Forces:

The Dutch Army:

C-in-C: General de Ruyter

1st Brigade (C. Murray): Colyear's, Lauder's, Murray's Foot Regts

2nd Brigade (D. Saxe-Weimar): Portmore's Foot Regt, Saxe-Weimar Dragoons, de Vries' Foot Battery,

Garrison: 42nd Foot

Murray's and Colyear's regiments are Veteran, Portmore's is Raw.

The Spanish Army:

C-in-C: General Sarsfield

HQ: Siege Battery, Clermont's Battery

1st Brigade (Reding): Limerick, Ultonia, Royal Eccosais, Light Artillery Battery

2nd Brigade (Meagher): Leon, Toledo

3rd Brigade (Cortes): Mahony's Dragoons, Crofton's Dragoons, Ferrari's Dragoons

The Toledo regiment is Veteran, everyone else is Trained

 

The Set-up:

The garrisoned town with castle to the SW; the advancing Dutch Forces to the West (left); the defending Franco-Spanish Forces to the East (right, centre, top)

A view of the garrison

Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Murray's Brigade

The Limerick and Ultonia Regiments of Reding's Brigade

Two batteries and the Royal Eccossais garrison the entrenched camp.

Meagher's Brigade

Another view.

The Battle:

As de Ruyter has decided to attack with his Left (top-left), Reding's Brigade tries to redeploy under some irritating artillery fire

Murray's Brigade forms up for the assault

Numbers and skill tell - a couple of devastating volleys and the Spanish brigade is routed!

Reding's troops are making some heavy weather of the redeployment, partly due to the artillery fire but partly sheer incapacity and confusion. However, the French artillery is playing effectively on Saxe-Weimar's Dragoons (centre-left)

Cortes' Brigade of Spanish Dragoons (okay, Italo-Irish!) arrives, hopefully to stem the tide!

Another view. Two regiments are mounted, one on foot.

Reding has at least got his units deployed to protect against any river crossing

Things go from bad to worse for the Spanish: one of Reding's battalions guarding the bridge breaks under artillery fire

Desperate to restore the situation, Cortes' leads his dragoons in a desperate charge

Whilst Dutch (i.e. Scottish) infantry attempt to splash through the river, Reding reforms his troops

The musketry of Murray's brigade beats back the attacking Dragoons

Some success at last! Colyear's regiment breaks under the heavy French artillery fire; however the dismounted Spanish (okay, Italian) Dragoons are about to succumb to the effects of the Scots' musketry (top-right)

Cortes orders his surviving troopers into one more charge...

Which is no more successful than the last! Crofton's Dragoons are destroyed...

And Mahony's Dragoons ride for the rear!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Spanish Army has had enough and its broken units flee, its unbroken units retreat

View at the end of the battle.

Game Notes:

 The Spanish Army will have to retreat and re-group after two defeats at the hands of the Dutch. The invasion of New Dalrydia is misfiring badly! Hopefully I will get to part 3 soon...

 

A fun game and a reasonably comprehensive victory for the Dutch: most things they tried worked, most things the Spanish tried did not! Ruse de Guerre gave a good, swift game although it is very generically 'horse & musket' - in particular the artillery is probably a little too powerful, although it isn't the biggest issue in the world. You wouldn't think it perhaps from the game but I did slightly change the firepower calibration to requiring a 7+ to shake an opponent (although I kept at 10+ to break, still wondering if I need to move that to 11). More specifically, the Spanish kept on getting awful tempo point allocations on key turns, mimicking quite well the 'shock' that armies can experience when attacked in surprising and impactful ways. So it worked quite well as part of this mini-campaign.

 

 

Very well done to anyone who twigged the scenario this was taken from: it as an NT-esque adaptation of the Castillon scenario from back in Miniature Wargames 02 - it seemed to take the treatment quite well and the broad scenario fitted quite easily into the campaign narrative.

Figures by Baccus 6mm, mostly the buildings are from Leven, and the fortifications are from Irregular.