Malplaquet - the Game

Sixty battalions on the table top for this refight.
For the French there were fifteen battalions on the right Bois de Lagnieres, ten battalions lining the defences across the center and a further five in the Bois de Sars. Added in to this were two batteries, one of six guns angled across the face of the Bois de Lagnieres and a battery of four adjacent to the Bois de Sars. Off table were the sixty squadrons of the massed French horse.
Facing the Bois de Lagnieres were the five battalions of the Prince of Orange, in the center ten battalions under Orkney, then the eleven battalions of Lottum & Schulemberg across the front of the Bois de Sars. Finally off table and due to arrive on the extreme left of the French were the four battalions of Withers and his horse.
Game rules were kept fairly simple.
Firstly the Prince of Orange had to make Boufflers believe he was under attack. If no threat was forthcoming then the French could withdraw forces to the center.
Secondly Villars could withdrawn whatever troops he wanted from the center to reinforce his left.
Thirdly Withers would arrive at a predetermined point based on different criteria - early if the French were forced out of the wood, later if real time was getting too advanced.
For the French there were two other conditions - the Dragoons covering the extreme French left would appear only if enemy troops exited the woods opposite them and, the French horse would only appear if the allies breached the fortifications in the center (both conditions were unknown to the Allied command as was the time of arrival of Withers to the French).

So to the game.

Schulemberg and Lottum both attacked the French in the woods behind their fortifications. The three French battalions lining these defences stalled the first two attacks from Schulemberg but were gradually forced back by the more aggressive Lottum as he attacked the angle of the defences. Schulemberg had detached a battalion of Austrians to swing right around the flank of the French and try and force an early arrival of Withers.
At the same time the Prince of Orange moved forward so very slowly that Boufllers was confident enough to detach a battalion to the center. However, after some stern words from Marlborough, the Prince flung his command forward. In fact he stormed the first line of defences and committed almost his entire force in a single attack. Mauled but not beaten Marlborough was again forced to intervene and withdraw the Dutch from this first assault as the French began to feed in multiple reserves.

Things were going much better for the Allies on the other flank.
The first line of French had been cleared and the massed ranks of the Allies were now pressing through the woods into the second line. Giving ground slowly the French were felled in numbers by the superior numbers of Allies and eventually evicted completely from the woods.
The lone battalion of meandering Austrians emerged from the woods but were stopped in their tracks by the massed dragoons of the French appearing in front of them. This small French victory was short lived as more and more Austrians came out of the woods and then Withers force appeared on their flank.
Dismounting the French dragoons formed a firing line in order to try and stem the tide. Despite putting up a show of resistance the Austrians forced their way forward and the French began to withdraw to the center.
Then as Lottum took the left hand battery the Allies came through the defences between the wood and central redan.
This caused the French horse to appear and in massed ranks they thundered into the charge. Bowling over the first line of the enemy they halted in the face of the formed second lines and the line of defences.

As this had been taking place Orkney advanced and fired into the French lining the earthworks. Several volleys later the French watched as the Allied first line withdrew to reveal two more lines preparing to enter the fray.

By this time Villars knew the game was up.

The left flank was completely turned and no longer defensible. The earthworks here were now more of a hindrance to the French than the Allies and these were appearing in ever increasing numbers from the woods.

So just as on 11th September 1709 Villars and Boufflers withdrew from the field leaving the Allies the heavily bloodied victors.

Game mechanics.

The French horse appear on a "floating board". The table used at the club has the ability to be extended across the width by a further three feet using a board placed on the table frame and a running batten along the rear wall. So a six foot wide table becomes nine feet wide where required.
The woods were marked with a number of pieces of roofing felt and scattered with trees to give the feel of a wooded area without restricting too heavily our ability to move troops through it and without reducing the visual impact too much. We restricted movement to half rate but with no discernible disorganisation resulting. All firing within the woods was treated as in cover. Overall this was one of the most pleasing aspects of the game for me. The long hard fight that the Allies had through the woods came across quite nicely in the game, it taking some fifteen moves to clear the wood of all the French.
We only fielded two major redans on the table, both held by the French guard. Both were bought from Partizan but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the company (stand adjacent to Gripping Beat & choc full of lovely scratch built buildings and fortifications at extremely reasonable prices - please help me remember the name and get it published!). This was felt to be more than sufficient to represent the obstacles facing the Allied troops.
Otherwise rules were as per usual.

And for a real quirk of history - we woke up this morning at 7:30 to a heavily fogged Grimsby, just as fog shrouded the battlefield three hundred years ago!

Malplaquet

Today marks the tricentenary of this battle. The last for John Churchill and the end of British involvment in the War of the Spanish Succession.

I look forward to honouring the day with the refight at the club in a couple of weeks time.

WSS Game Monday 7th September

A genuine small game on Monday last. My Danes (four battalions of foot and nine squadrons of horse) aided by a couple of Dutch battalions (courtesy of Mark) took on Andy's Imperial troops of six battalions and twelve squadrons.

Fairly conservative deployment from both of us with foot in the center and horse on the flanks.

So the opening moves so the horse move out on both wings and clash together. On our left the two sides fought a round and then withdrew to lick their wounds. On our right the outnumbered Danes fought against the Austrians and both sides withdrew after the Danes had a bit of a mauling.
Meanwhile the Allied lines advanced and watched with incredulity as the Austrians advanced and then retired in front of them.
The opening shots were fired by the Dutch on the left. Several volleys were exchanged and despite the losses on both sides neither protagonist were prepared to give ground. Next into the fray was the first battalion Princess Caroline. Taking on a larger Austrian battalion the Danish volley was considerably more effect. Caroline in the end saw off the enemy but were in no state to continue, their place in the line being taken by Prinds George.
Whilst all this was happening the Danish foot guards and Wurtembergers had advanced into range of the enemy. The guards had marched forwards and were braced for a volley without being able to fire in return having moved too far that turn. No fire was forthcoming from the imperial foot. Next turn the Danes opened up and caused havoc amongst the enemy foot and dragoons. Indeed the enemy dragoons were forced to charge the Wurtembergers to avoid being shot from the field. Despite losing a quarter of their number in the charge the horse moved into contact but were no match for their more numerous opposition. Routing from the field it left the Wurtembergers to advance against the enemy flank.
Keeping an eye over their shoulder they wheeled onto the enemy flank. A lookout was necessary because even though the Danish horse had rallied and returned to the fray they were quickly routed off the field. This left two regiments of Austrian Kuirassiers to roam the Danish flank. Thankfully they were too far away to prevent the Wurtembergers from rolling up one battalion and threatening the last. By the time the Austrian horse were in a position to charge their commander thought better of it.

The game ended with the last two Austrian battalions effectively surrounded with their horse looking on.

A good fun game and my thanks to my two colleagues for making it so.

I leave you with two shots of Andy's Austrians.
The first is of his massed horse and mouth wateringly good they are too.

The second is of his double strength grenadier company. Containing several conversions, and all Front Rank figures, it is an inspiration for us all.

Partizan September 09

The main (only?) reason for going to this show was to see the Malplaquet game.
The guys had a fantastic looking table on show with the focus being entirely on the center of the field. The Prince of Orange attacking on the allied right with the Prussians attacking on the left. The center of the table being left clear for Orkney and the English. Facing them were the redans and field works erected by Villars the day before the battle. Accordingly these redans had a freshly built feel with disturbed earth all along their carefully crafted fronts. The gaps in the line were crossed by wooden plank bridges and screened by caltrops and cheaux de freise. All in all the scenery was quite stunning.
The battalions of foot were small with just eighteen figures apiece and based according to the rules in use - "Black Powder". However with so many small battalions on the tabletop the overall effect was quite dramatic.
They had ignored the massed cavalry of both sides (apparently if the Allied center reached the redans then the horse would appear). Equally they also ignored the effect of the allied artillery overshoot into the massed French horse on the higher ground behind their center (not required for this particular game). Nor could I see the massed Allied batteries that dominated the center right of their line.

As for the show I felt it lacked "presence". There were a number of good looking games but there seemed to be an atmosphere of apathy around them all. It was very hard to get get any of the demonstrators to talk (is it the responsibility of the game organiser to approach the interested viewer or the interested viewer to ask their questions first? - discuss).
The one exception for me was the always entertaining Bluebears game. Neil & Phil have boundless enthusiasm for their game and are extremely knowledgeable on their chosen subject - sometimes feeling like a cramming session for Mastermind. But a warm welcome and a fun game await any who care to join in. Well done guys.

Spending wise it was a poor show. Remember I told you about a rash purchase (as yet unseen here) at Triples? well I added to it at Partizan - watch this space all will be revealed this month. I also picked up a set of rules for the Great war that I'm hoping will solve some of the debates at the club over the current rules. I was unhappy with the price - £10 for a set of rules smaller with fewer pages than any of the current crop of wargame mags, even if it is full colour, still feels steep to me. Especially when the author continues to apologise for not including suggested organisations and the like for a "lack of space".

I got to talk to Bill from Musketeer. He apologised for the lack of progress on the Russians but then given recent events in his life I can understand the delay. Equally I can understand the desire to produce a range that is selling well - the 1938 British Civil War - rather than a staid line like the GNW. Progress is promised though (roll on Triples 2010!).

Wars of the Roses

Just a small game on Monday night - my two battles (aided by some impetuous Irish) taking to the field against Mark and his two battles (with some Flemish mercenaries added in).

Using the club rules as always, which are a mix of Armati - using their fighting and firing ratings, and Piquet - using their card based command and control mechanism. The rules stretch to a whole three pages and whilst not to everyone liking within the club they work well and give a fun game with a definite result guaranteed.

This game had some forty units, approximately 1,000 figures, and was played out in a little over two and a half hours.

As for the result - it went Marks way. Decisively.

We, my Son and I, were hampered by having little in the way of command points hardly ever rolling over 6 on two D5, whereas Mark seemed to roll over average more times than not. we chose to close quickly since if Mark was rolling high he was in a better position to use his points to shoot us down. So with that in mind the fighting units of the duke of York steamed in to the fray.

Initially we had the upper hand and seemed to be pushing the enemy back. Even the Irish managed to cause a hit on the knights bearing down on them.

Alas this was just an illusion. In a single turn we lost the Duke of York, his retinue of household knights, to units of archers, most of the Irish and a unit of bills. The next turn saw De la Pole fall to the enemy and that was the high point of our turn!

No commanders and units on the verge of breaking and the writing was on the wall. Mark vanquished on of the battles in its entirety and took two thirds of the other with it.

Whilst we utterly defeated I can honestly say that the game, as always, was great fun. So much so that I can't wait for the Perry plastics to be launched and to get my hands on a few boxes for another battle.