Hobby Update 14 Jul 26...and a game!

The push to get through the lead mountain continues. Next up were a bunch of Fireforge Templars, plus some unknown - maybe GW? - late medieval style cavalry? The former are new, the latter second-hand and in need of some restoration...

There area still a few bits to touch up (and a missing arm!) on the cavalry, but they are looking a bit better than they were.

(a Viking that had been missing from the previous batch also sneaked in)

I based the Templars for the desert. Not sure if that was the best choice, we shall see!

And on Sunday, I actually got around to playing a game. I ACTUALLY GOT AROUND TO PLAYING A GAME! I was sitting in the garden doing some reading, then I was doing a few things with original D&D (playing out a few example combats to remind myself of the mechanics) and then the urge really struck me to just play a game, so I set up an old favourite: Scenario 1 from the One Hour Wargames book, with my Baccus WSS figures and the Polemos: Ruse de Guerre rules.

 

 

The Set-Up: 

The 'Anglo-Dutch' at the bottom, facing the 'French' at the top.

I rolled for forces from the book (slightly modified to allow for 9 units instead of 6) and generated the following armies:

 

The Anglo-Dutch Army:

Duc de Aunis

1st Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Murray, Colyear, Portmore)

2nd Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Ferguson's, Lord North's, Leven's)

3rd Brigade: 2 bases of Dragoons (Lord John Hays', Ross'), 1 base of 6pdr Foot Artillery  

 

The French Army:

Lord Lancaster 

1st Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Berwick, Galmoy, Dorrington)

2nd Brigade: 3 bases of Infantry (Dauphine, Sault, du Roi), 1 base of 6pdr Foot Artillery

3rd Brigade: 2 bases of Horse (FitzJames, Sheldon)*

Slightly on the exaggerated side, but all real units - all Scots in the Anglo-Dutch army, apart from Ross' Dragoons (Irish) and the artillery; whilst the Horse and the 1st Brigade in the French Army are all Irish.

(*okay purists, I know that these are really the same regiment at different times...)

The Dutch Scottish Brigade (1st) on the Anglo-Dutch Left.

The Dragoon Brigade and artillery in the centre.

And the 2nd Brigade (Scots' Brigade) on the right.

The Irish Brigade on the French Left.

The 2nd Brigade in the French Centre.

And the Cavalry on the French Right.

The Battle:

The French Army takes the initiative in a shallow echelon, leading by its left (top-right), with its right slightly refused; the Anglo-Dutch have slightly advanced and pivoted their left-hand brigade (Dutch Scots' Brigade) to counter this.

Things get serious. The Dutch-Scots' Brigade has advanced to check the advance; the French 2nd Brigade has pivoted to engage them, although this has slightly disordered the advance; note that some of the British Dragoons have fallen back to avoid French artillery fire. The Franco-Jacobite cavalry has trotted forwards (top-left), threatening to charge

A wider shot

The Irish infantry move forward to engage their Scots' counterparts...

The Dutch-Scots' traded a volley with the French and then charged forward. The Franco-Jacobite cavalry then charged the left-hand battalion of the Dutch-Scots' (Murray's Regiment)

The result: Murray's Regiment (left) ingloriously collapsed and ran; most of the French infantry was pushed back (Dauphine and Sault, centre)

But Dauphine's Regiment subsequently broke when the Dutch-Scots' resumed their firing! (top)

The action then switched to the Anglo-Dutch Right: the Irish and Scots regiments traded close-range musketry volleys...with the most devastating results! Fergusson's Regiment was routed (bottom-right), but all three of the Irish regiments were broken!!

After a few more moments, the French position becomes untenable - the two remaining regiments of Dutch-Scots' (Colyear & Portmore) stop any further French cavalry attack, and also break another French regiment (Sault) by fire. The remaining unbroken French infantry and artillery are unable to do too much to stem the rout.

The position at the end, when the French Army gives way.

Game Notes:

A very crushing Anglo-Dutch victory - but the real victory was getting an actual game on the table; or in this case, the garden grass. It was great fun, although it was over a little quickly (not perhaps as quickly as the photos imply, the game was slightly more involved in that, I skipped over some bits). The rules were fine, remembered them all straight off, except whether units which support to a flank recoil when the base they are supporting does (they definitely do so when supporting from the rear). The musketry looks highly decisive, but this is deceptive - the firefight between the Dutch-Scots and the French was pretty ineffective and it needed a further combination of bayonet and a second firefight to produce a decisive result. On the other hand, the musketry exchange between the Scots and the Irish witnessed 4 '10's being rolled out of 6 dice, which accounts for the sudden destruction of the French left. The Franco-Jacobites did have their share of luck - the successful cavalry charge on the Dutch Left was a low-odds (but high pay-off) tactic. It was just that the Anglo-Dutch (ok, Scots) were luckier all in one go...

 The scenario is the first one (Pitched Battle One) from the OHW book - based on Ceresole, apparently. 

 Game on a 2'x2' board, using Baccus 6mm figures, with the Polemos Ruse de Guerre ruleset. 

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).

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.