Take it to the Bridge - somewhere in the Netherlands c 1690

Next up in the playtest scenarios was something involving an actual French army in the late 17th century, seeing as how they loved pikes and liked attacking people with them. Plus they are involved in most of the fighting going on. Mainly because they caused most of the wars.

Anglo-Dutch to the left, French to the right. The red French regiment are Swiss (actually they're English, but they have red coats, so they're doubling up in this game). Both sides need to take and hold the central bridge, having broken the other army. The stream is an obstacle but not uncrossable.

The cable for the cameras isn't as long as it needs to be, so even with and extension, it is still across the corner of the board as I try to get one camera at each end.

We had six players, and now it's been several days since the game I can't remember who was who.  Jon had the right French wing infantry, Steve had the French cavalry, and Richard the left wing infantry and artillery. I think.

Ian had the allied left, commanding the Dutch. I think Dave had the British and artillery, and Phil the cavalry on the right. Anyway, that's close enough. I may recall more accurately as I write this up.

Anyway, turn one, and the Allies are off first. They press forwards, and Phil wheels out to the right to try and get behind the French lines. Now I think about it I may Dave and Richard on the wrong sides.

The French respond with a whole line advance to try to get to the stream first.

The initiative flips the next turn, and the French go first. Or did they win the last turn and let the Allies go first so they could flip? Any how, they make the most of it and push up to the stream. (Sidebar here: The initiative system possibly isn't doing what it should at the moment, it seems, and so is on the list to review. Jon, in particular, has dissected the faults in it over in his battle report. For the moment my priority is to get the fire/melee/movement balance right).

For this game I had increased musket range and reduced the effect at ranges over 3". Beyond that you can only cause Disorder and not inflict casualties. Anyhow, noticing the increased ranges, Ian decided to open fire as soon as he could. As he remarked "Why Not?". Well, the reason why not is that Platoon Firing infantry with first fire withheld are really lethal at close range. Blowing the first fire at long range rather blunts that.

Next turn, and Steve throws his cavalry frontally into Ian's Dutch. Following Ian's example, Richard starts some long range infantry fire. Also, the French artillery fires but to no effect.

Steve's cavalry is seen off after some very effective close range fire. The French are otherwise holding the line of the stream.

More musketry breaks out, and the cannons continue to roar. On the Allied right there's a cavalry melee.

A close up of the Allied right, where everyone is getting very close.

Phil prevails in the right hand cavalry melee.

A firefight breaks out across the ruined bridge. The French are getting the worst of it.

On their left the French have crossed the stream. One of their Brigadiers has galloped across to give comfort and succour to the cavalry.

With a little bit of prompting from the umpire, Jon's Frenchies charge across the stream. It may be too late for the right hand unit who have come off worst in a firefight. I need to look at the factors as the French need to be incentivised to close with the cold steel in line with their doctrine. 

Pretty much a stunning success with the charges, as the British foot is pushed back. Those charged by the fresh unit are broken and thrown back in rout. The other unit prevails, but it is a harder fight.

On the French left Phil sends in a fresh cavalry unit to deal with Steve's men.

A wide shot of the action. Lots of smoke. Jon lets fly with a volley in preparation for a charge.

The only problem on this wing for the French is that they have very little to oppose Ian's Dutch infantry. Luckily for the French they seem to have anchored themselves to the stream, 

Phil wins another cavalry melee, driving the French back to their baseline.

Jon finally charges with his left hand infantry unit, led by his General, who goes down under a hail of fire. The French are held up here, much to Jon's chagrin.

Dave gets the charging bug and finally sends the Burgundian Regiment across the bridge.

With the British C-in-C on hand, the French assault is held up.

As the French transfer their right hand cavalry to the left to stop Phil's breakthrough on that wing, Jon is disappointed to discover that one of his French line infantry units is less up for it that he might like.

In fact, as we closed, the British were doing rather better than they might have expected in the infantry fights. Elsewhere the French had broken two British Regiments completely. On their left Dave was struggling to work out how to use his infantry advantage, whilst on the other flank Ian finally crossed the stream.

I called it a draw as the game could genuinely have gone either way. It was probably a game with too many players for the number of commands and I fear not everyone was as engaged as often as they should be. Being hands off means turns can take longer than expected as players try to get units exactly where they want them.

My main challenge at the moment is that either I'm not explaining things properly or the players do not think there's sufficient reward for using historic tactics. The Allies need to hold fire until the last minute and the French should be closing for hand to hand combat when on the attack. Musketry is for the defence as far as Louis XIV's army is concerned.

I have much to think about still.