WSS - Game 2

Back at the club - and the 6mm War of the Spanish Succession (Marlburian period if you want to be Anglo-centric). Again, Nick and I faced off - approximately 150 points each. As I left bases in the box, I realised that I must have had a fair bit of a points advantage in the first game, at least 15 or so, which was at least a 10% edge.

Nick was featuring as 'tired general' coming directly off a flight, so I grabbed the club terrain tiles, tried to make the terrain interesting, and gave him choice of long edge on the 150cm x 90cm table. (5 x 3 foot).

Opening

British are on the left, French on the right. The British have loaded the flank with German firelock brigades, their horse are concentrated there as well. On the British right, a small village obstructs a straight forward fight.

View from the British Right

The French have horse (well in 'Horse, Foot & Guns' - 'Pistols') massed on their left, and a lot of foot.

View from the French left

 The 'thin red line' in the distance, you can just see French dragoons and foot on the French right.

View from the British left

In front of the British you can see a sunken lane, which became a key feature.

French Left

The French left never really got into the game, struggling with enclosures and buildings.

French Centre

The French centre, lovely flags and detail by Nick. I really like the way he has varied the officers and drummers positioning to add colour and movement. I will be stealing this idea when I do my own French army.

And the engagement is on!

At the far end the German firelocks are pushing through the village on the French right, the British assault on the sunken lane is in full swing, and in the centre, Marlborough is having to reposition brigades to shore up his centre, after Blood's regiment is blown away by a close assault (the brigade routed and could not be rallied).

The French defenders of the sunken road, dragoons and firelocks..

The sunken road was backed by a wooded hill. This created real problems for the British. Their horse charged the dragoon lining the road - which we treated as an 'ELF' or linear feature that added a bonus to the defenders.  The dragoons then returned through the woods and started taking potshots at the Horse. Unable to respond the horse were withdrawn and two Irish brigades brought up to try and displace the defenders.

Crunch point

The French assault has stalled in the centre with heavy casualties from the British foot, while the defenders of the sunken lane have a problem with German firelocks turning their flank (foreground). A brigade of French dragoons entered the village to try and hold up the Germans, but were bundled ouy and forced to withdraw into the woods.

British assault the lane with infantry backed by Horse

 This became an expensive proposition for the British.

The end

Casualties in the French centre caused Villars to end the engagement while in the foreground, despite being outnumbered, the French dragoons still hold the woods as the British cavalry reform behind their screening infantry.

Overall, another cracking game. The French firelocks really struggle against the British/Dutch infantry that are superior in a firefight. The French left never really got into the game, and the French dragoons did sterling work on the French right.

Not sure what the answer is for the French. In some respects they have command advantages (they have an Army HQ as opposed to the Allies 'Command Party' so they have a much greater command radius). Massing of artillery, use of heavy artillery, and pressing all along the line, using the press forward to get into combat might even things up a bit.