Another change of subject, and a possible look at the next publishing project. Yes, it's back to good old Corporal John and the War of Spanish Succession, partly for a change, and partly to put all of my recently painted new Strelets units on the table.
I circulated the rules and QRS before hand, which raised more questions than it answered it seemed. And a situation map, so it was all clear to everyone. Hopefully.
As I said to the players beforehand, this may not have been entirely accurate.
It translated into the above on the table top. Lots of units, lots of lovely flags, "fluttering" in the breeze
The massed French cavalry on their right. Some freshly painted Airfix conversions in there. The pride of the Sun King.
And the Anglo-Dutch, cavalry to the fore, as per normal.
Turn one, and Phil, with the British, and Richard from Shedquarters West (joining us for the first time) with the Dutch moved forwards. Richard decided to with draw his cavalry behind a screen of infantry, which threw me a little bit.
The French (Jon on the left, Ian in the centre and regular Richard MNG on the right), responded by sort of shuffling forwards a bit.
On the French left Phil moved up his cavalry in an aggressive fashion. His artillery had already inflicted a couple of hits. Jon seemed a little non-plussed by Phil's aggression.
The Anglo-Dutch infantry advanced. Richard SW was moving his reserves into the centre, where he perceived some weakness.
The French left and centre moved forwards, whilst Richard MNG moved his reserve infantry up to cover his cavalry.
Jon withdrew his cavalry in the face of Phil's advance, and moved up his infantry reserve.
Phil went route 1 with his cavalry against Jon's infantry. This is a high risk strategy, but if it pays off then it can pay big dividends. Jon's infantry held firm, and passed their morale checks, delivering an effective volley at their attackers. Phil's general was killed in the onslaught (this was a bit of a nuisance - the Anglo-Dutch had 2 generals to the French 3, and although they're better quality that didn't compensate for being down 3:1 for commanders).
The armies close. Just bask in the glory that is a table full of 1/72nd soft plastic figures.
Phil's infantry close up to cover his reforming cavalry. They open fire, inflicting quite a bit of damage. These two units are my newly formed Strelets grenadier composite battalion and the same for the Scots Fusiliers.
Jon launched a desperate charge with his cavalry. The grenadiers welcomed them with a devastating volley.
The Scots Fusiliers were faced with some foot, and saw them off easily.
The battlefield is now wreathed in smoke. The firefight is now well underway. Surprisingly, the Dutch are being bested quite badly.
Having seen off the cavalry, the grenadiers storm into the next line of French foot (actually, under the rules they "Advance to Contact"), and break their opponents. Phil opts to pursue, which will take his infantry deep into the enemy lines.
Feeling he has the upper hand, Ian orders his infantry to charge (that's the yellow markers indicating the units are to charge later in the turn).
The Fusiliers also broke they opponents, and are driving them before them. This was all a bit of a muddle, to be honest, as I'm as bit rusty with the system.
On the French right, Richard SW with his Dutch is pressing hard, but little is going right for him.
He does catch one lucky break, and routs some French infantry with his support cavalry, but elsewhere his infantry line is throwing down its muskets and heading for the rear.
We stopped there. Due to rustiness and a bit of unfamiliarity it all took a little while to get going, and players not liking where I'd put the toys slowed us a bit so we didn't get as far as I'd have liked. It looked to me that the French right had a sizeable breakthrough, and the cavalry to exploit it.
Any how, we got quite a lot done, with some quite large armies. I'd have liked to have used more and had a wider table, but the camera angle doesn't really allow for it. The loss of Phil's general early on hampered him badly in respect of rallying Disorder off his troops, so he did really well to do the damage he did, and still be in the game.
There were a number of issues with how the rules played, which was down to a number of factors, and partly down to running the game on-line. Units got in a bit of a tangle, and I need to define deployment rules a bit more clearly. Ideally I'd transpose these onto squares, but there are some technical issues in the design that means that doesn't work as well as I'd like
Still, nice to get the new figures out.
Weathering the "Steele Storm" was about the best I could muster. Your game photos are terrific and a real pleasure seeing them in these close-ups. When Phil's commander went down in my opening and devastating volley, had I known rolling a '12' would unhorse him, I may have offered to reroll. The battle of the Two Richard's on the allied left was quite remarkable. No matter the outcome, one Richard comes out victorious.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I like your new blog format. Very clean presentation.
You survived remarkably well in the end. Killing the general was important, but no need to re roll. It's in there as a dice rolled risk and Phil knew it.
DeleteAs for the blog format I needed something to show the extra pages better, and this proforma seems to do the job. Much better use of space and width, so I can have bigger pictures! If you want to borrow any for a write up, feel free.
Lovely looking game and so nice to see all those plastic figures and conversions.
ReplyDeleteThey may not be perfect, but I love them. They put on a nice show too.
DeleteGood game! Lovely table. Besides "Strelets", what other pieces do you use?
ReplyDeleteThanks! The cavalry is made up of Airfix "Waterloo French Cavalry" with hat swaps from Airfix Washington Army who provide the rest of the infantry. The artillery uses Zvezda figures and some from IMEX as well as Airfix Waterloo French Artillery with hat swaps. I think there might be some RedBox figures hiding in their somewhere as well.
DeleteThank you so much. WSS is our current project. We are looking forward to the games. May I visit your blog?
ReplyDeletePlease, feel free to subscribe. There's quite a bit on WSS games going back over a number of years (check out the labels for "WSS"), and photos of figures that have been painted. I've had the Airfix figures converted and based for the period since the early 1980s, so whilst I love them very much, I am jealous of what is now available!
DeleteThank. We in Russia have little information about the War of the Spanish Succession, one hope for the Internet ...
ReplyDeleteWe don't have a lot about the Great Northern War! My Army of Marlborough was raised to fight Charles XII. There are good flags at Warflag.com. There is a good Facebook "Wargaming the War of Spanish Succession" group. Lots of photographs of painted figures about as well. It is also possibly to be too fussy over uniform detail!
DeleteFine!Here's my blog if you're interested.https://vvevit.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAlready found it and following it. Your figures are lovely. I have shared it around with a few people. Google Translate makes it possible to read and follow the entries.
DeleteOkay. Thank.
DeleteDear Trebian, can you share your army lists on WSS?
DeleteI would if I had some! Being British I tended, for the Allies, to paint up mostly British infantry units until I ran out of easily accessible facings and flags. Then I did the same with the Dutch until I got bored of grey. My cavalry are sort of the same. I have started on some Hanoverians now, basing what I paint on the Blenheim force lists: http://www.thewaroffice.co.uk/Blenheim/Index.htm . I may then add some Danish. I am not always that particular about the mix of different allies - I am more interested in the tactics being correctly represented on the table than getting the lace and buttons right. My French armies are all French so far - no Bavarian allies. I must be a great disappointment to people who take the period seriously.
DeleteIt's a pity ... I can't find army lists for WSS anywhere.
DeleteIt does depend upon what you expect to find. That link I put in my answer above has a very detailed order of battle for Blenheim, which is a good starting point. The armies are very simple in western Europe. Armies in battles are line infantry supported by heavy cavalry and artillery. An army might be 1/3rd cavalry to 2/3rd infantry, with a variable amount of artillery. For a game I usually group infantry in brigades of between 3-5 battalions, and have an artillery battery per brigade. Cavalry seems to be less formal than that.
DeleteI am not, generally, a fan of army lists, normally because you have to break them to deploy armies that actually fought.
We have little information about the national characteristics of the troops. I do not know how the Danes differed from the French., The British from the Bavarians. For example, the Irish - "Wild Geese" were tough, the British - shot well. I assumed that there are armн- lists that give characteristics to all troops.
DeleteAh! Yes - I see your point. I do not have any rules for the period with army lists in, but then I do not seek them out. If you do Facebook then asking the WSS FB group might be a good idea. I wouldn't be able to say how each country's troops differed. In my games French infantry are good at charging, Anglo-Dutch good at firing, everyone else is just average. For cavalry Anglo-Dutch have good discipline, the French have the best quality in their guard units, have more aggression when they charge, but are a bit more ragged when they make contact.
DeleteСпасибо, Грем.
Delete
Deleteпожалуйста
Dear Graeme, please confirm the colors of the English artillery ... The color of carriages and wheels is gray-blue and the color of uniforms is red, camisoles, stockings, general lags are blue, galloon is yellow. Not enough information.
DeleteThe artillery was run by the Board of Ordnance, not the Army, so the information is a bit different. You have the uniforms about right. Up to the end of the WSS it's a lot like an infantryman's. Red coat and waistcoat. Breeches and stockings are blue, cuffs are blue, facings and lace are yellow. I can't confirm the colour of carriages - I paint mine scruffy brown or grey so they look anonymous I can use them for more than one army.
DeleteGraham
Thank you very much, Graeme.
DeleteIt may be your translation software, but I'm a Graham not a Graeme. They're different names not spellings.
DeleteAn excellent looking game Graham. Always lovely to see Airfix figures on the table, along with the older and newer Strelets.
ReplyDeleteThe players soon found out that frontal charges against steady infantry are not the way to go!
Regards, James
Thanks! I like the way the different figures mix well together.
DeleteYes, charging steady infantry head on is not a great choice.