Tring Wargames Club: Big 10mm WSS Battle

Mark, Henry, Colin and myself had a big Black Powder War of Spanish Succession game at club on Friday. Using our 10mm armies a Anglo-Dutch-Catalan Confederation army faced up against a Bourbon Franco-Spanish force. The armies deployed in conventional fashion, infantry in the middle in two lines (each of two brigades) and a brigade of cavalry on each flank. I was a bit concerned that a wood on the French right flank meant that my second line could not be deployed properly until we had advanced and had the space to bring them up into position.

Things did not go well for the British and their allies. On their left flank (Henry) rushed aggressively across the table, but his cavalry failed to move leaving the infantry flank wide open and his limbered gun very vulnerable. I took a gamble and charged the gun with my French cavalry and managed to catch it before it could be unlimbered! In response Henry threw his front line of infantry and his cavalry into the French troops opposite. Unfortunately, his partner did not match his enthusiasm! On the Confederate rightt flank (Mark), the British front line got confused and retired to the edge of the table leaving the Catalan units in the second line advance unsupported across the table. His Catalan cavalry were slow to advance and just trotted forward, but to be fair Colin's Spanish cavalry opposite also failed to charge.

Henry's aggressive action had effectively pinned my command with nowhere to bring up my second infantry line. Trapped by the melee in front of them and the wood on their flank, they just had to wait until the front line had pushed the British back (or been broken themselves), before they could get into action. Much to everyone's surprise the British and Dutch cavalry, with their superior charge, bounced of the French Horse in confusion and two regiments promptly routed when the French reserve ranks smashed into them. The infantry fared in similar fashion, the French musketry closing fire was unusually effective and 3 British battalion recoiled, one of the routing. Then a second battalion routed when the French riposte crashed into them.

On the other flank the two cavalry brigades were funneled by a wood, so both could only fight on a single unit frontage. They spent the battle in a grinding melee, first one side gaining the upper hand, then the other, only to be thrown back in turn my the enemy's next rank of fresh troops.
The Catalans and Spanish opposite settled down into a conventional musketry duel, whilst waiting for the British infantry to catch up.

Back on my flank the British second line advance to plug the gap and routed one of my battalions that had broken through the front line. But just as they started to stabilise the situation, another round of fierce combat (or rubbish dice on Henry's part) saw the British cavalry quit the field, a broken brigade. With their flank wide open, Henry pulled a battalion out of the line to refuse the flank. But this stalled his attack and allowed me to finally get my second line moving. They smashed into the opposite end of the British line and routed another unit from the front line, which broke that brigade. Henry was now left with just one infantry brigade, pinned to their front by a French infantry brigade with another wheeling around onto his flank and a cavalry brigade circling around behind him! It wasn't long before they were in flight as well. With 3 out of 6 brigades broken, that was half the Confederate army gone and a Bourbon victory.

The situation at the end of the first turn. Note the novel Confederate manoeuvreing!

The French cavalry catch the artillery napping.

The view from the French side with the infantry of my second line bunched up by the wood on their flank.

And suddenly the British cavalry were gone!

Feeling a bit lonely with all those horsemen galloping around in front of them!

On the other flank the assorted Spanish take it in turns to advance and retreat in a gentlemanly fashion.

Other games on that night:
A Warhammer 40K game.