Friday 28th December

The scenario was based around events in 1707 at the opening of the campaign. Louis had ordered the French in Flanders to hold the line whilst they progressed the Rhine campaign. Marlborough had other ideas but was hampered by the Dutch. Accordingly I set the game around three villages lying between the Allied and French lines, villages that had to be taken if Marlborough was to lay siege to the French fortified towns of Lille, Mons and Tournai.

The opening position was that the French had on the table five battalions, nine squadrons of Dragoons (was twelve but I forgot to deploy three) and two field guns. This was all they had to hold the line until reinforcements arrived.

The Allies arrived in four columns on four different roads. each column comprised 7-10 battalions (each with at least one elite unit), 8-10 squadrons of horse and a variable number of dragoons and field pieces. To arrive each commander had to roll 6D6 scoring equal to or lower than the move number for a unit to arrive (a unit being a battalion or squadron or field piece).

French reinforcements could not arrive earlier than move 5 (determined by the roll of 4D5 the highest score being taken). To appear on the table they then had to score equal to or lower than the move number on a D10 anbd then if successful rolling 1D6 for the number of units to appear. Again four colums consisting of three columns of 7-10 battalions and 7-10 sqaudrons and one column of the Maison du roi in all its glory (12 sqaudrons of elite horse & 1 battalion of foot guard).

I have to admit that the fighting was very confusing and hard to piece together, just like the actual thing I should imagine. One village, the most southerly and lightly defended, fell to a Dutch column. However, the battalion holding it did put up some sterling work early on but was soon overwhelmed.
The other two villages at one point looked likly to fall but reinforcments arrived in the nick of time. Bavarian infantry flooding into the eastern village and Spanish foot into the western village. In both cases it was only just in time with the enemy pressing hard to gain a foothold.

We were treated to some interesting events. The Danish horse trying to ride into the eastern village only to be repelled by the depleted battalion Souvre. The English horse on the eastern flank trying to break through the Bavarian grenadiers and failing by the slimmest of margins. The massed cavalry of both sides converging on the center of the field, and the only open ground - at one point I beleive there were some 60 squadrons of mounted troops milling around the center.

However after five hours of gaming the French held on and retained two of the three villages. admittedly this was largely down to some extraordinary morale tests from the right wing French commander (how many people do you know roll 11, 12, 11, 11, 12 with 2D6 on five consecutive rolls?), and some equally extraordinary musket fire rolls from the English commander (unfortunately they were extraordinary for the wrong reasons).

Overall I think I got the organisation about right. Troops arriving in sufficient numbers to make a game woithout one side being overwhelmed too quickly. The table was 18' by 6' with a center extension of an addition 2' (to make the middle 6 foot of tabletop 8' deep) giving some 120sqaure feet of playing surface. Interestingly because we arrived in dribs and drabs there appeared to be an aweful lot of room to move around in - on our club night games we find space hard to come sometimes).