Honours Even

Needing to get a game in I was able to persuade my long time opponent Mark to bring his forces from the Maritime Powers to face my Louis XIV French for a small game yesterday.  so many thnaks to him for helping me to break a gaming drought.

Between us we fielded over fifty battalions and 100 squadrons of horse (somewhere around 2,700 figures all in).

The field was edged by a deep river on the left, crossed by a ford and a bridge, and some earthworks on the right atop a slight ridge.  In between two small woods almost divided the battle in to two halves.

The left hand side of the battle initially saw both sides desperate to get their horse into action and try and force the enemy flank.  The clash of horse swung both ways throughout the day.  At first the English had the upper hand sweeping two regiments of French heavy horse from the field in quick succession.

As the English rallied to recover their status the French threw in the reserves, three regiments of Dragoons.  This time they had the upper hand and forced the English from the field. 

As the horse fought for dominance the infantry advanced to their duty.  The English were forced back by the French and were, by the close of the battle, back on their start line as the French held sway over the left hand half of the battlefield.

Things were less clear on the right for the French. 
Deciding that trying to weave around the earthworks was not in the plan I had deployed the french heavy horse reserves in the center of the field.  The English had, however, deployed their heavy horse along the earthworks.

This move by the English allowed them to push a regiment of horse to the extreme right of the French line, forcing the Germans there to turn and face them.  At the same time the English horse moved forward.  Now threatened by two enemy units the Germans stood firm.  In the face of this determination the dutch horse on the extreme right baulked at closing home, however the English showed no such inclination and crashed home.  Several rounds of fierce combat ensued, even causing the English to throw in the last of their reserves, before the Germans had enough and ran.

Further toward the center the French were finding it equally hard going.  The Guardes Francais had advanced and despite several telling volleys could not make an impression.  Indeed falling below half strength they too left the field leaving the center left held by the Guardes Suisses alone.  these too fell back towards the security offered by the French horse reserves and the artillery being rapidly dragged to the center to hold the line.

But even the reserves were going to be needed soon as the English advance continued.  Closing the gap several English battalions were now close to punching through the French lines.



Into the breech rode the massed squadrons of the Royal Carabineers.  Smashing through the first line of English they pushed the enemy back and gave the French time to reorder their lines.

Even as the French foot reformed the English now put their reserves into the fray.  Advancing on the French were, in line, the English & Dutch foot guards in unison.  Behind them the remaining allied horse reformed.

Fortunately dusk was not far away and a hastily established firing line of French and German battalions posed a sufficient threat to hold at bay the aggressiveness of the enemy.