This. Will. Happen.

After some fits and starts, and a hiatus of more than a year, I have taken the plunge on the 18th century rules that I abandoned in what for me was close to a hissy fit in September 2021. At that time I was trying to get the pike/bayonet bit to work properly and playing around with the Jacobite campaigns and it was never satisfactory. Instead I went off to the Russian Civil War, and wrote "It Rolls for Ivan" which were published after a protracted period of time (for me) mainly due to Real Life getting in the way. 

Some people I wargame with wondered why I wasn't using squares for what is essentially linear warfare. The slightly prosaic answer was that I didn't have squares big enough to fit the units. The answer to this problem was obvious, as you'll see in the pictures, and once I'd realised it, I sat down last Friday and quickly amended the "From Pike to Bayonet" playsheet to take account of the transition. The change over meant that the slightly fussy movement rules had to be simplified - no bad thing - and I had to deal with things like square occupancy and unit orientation within the grid. Most of this was straight forwards (hah!) as I'd addressed the issues with several sets of rules before hand, although I hadn't sorted out all the nuances by the time we were ready to play. This was partly because, controversially, the Monday Night Group has moved game nights to Monday, so I'd lost a day in my normal game prep cycle.

Anyway, I got there eventually, and was joined by Richard and Chris K in Shedquarters and Jon and Will on line.

So we have a reasonably well balanced encounter battle between the Austrians and their German/Dutch allies and the Franco-Bavarians. This should give me a decent enough baseline for rule testing and development.

These are the Austrians. They have a cavalry brigade - cuirassiers to the left, hussars to the right, dragoons in the middle - and an infantry brigade behind it. The front rank of infantry have battalion guns.

Their allies have an infantry brigade with a  mix of Hanoverians, Prussians and Dutch infantry, screened by Dutch & German state cavalry. I think those are Hessians and Wurzburgers on the right.

The Bavarians put on a fine showing, with their dashing looking cavalry.

And finally the French, a mix of old and new figures.

Jon commanded the Bavarians, with Richard as his plastic-pusher and co-commander. 

Will had the Austrians, with Chris K as his colleague. The game opened with the classic artillery exchange to no good effect, except that Jon did hit some Austrian cavalry.

As the guns thundered, the German/Dutch cavalry picked up speed, showing no fear of their French opponents.

When the troop qualities are revealed it isn't looking too clever on the side of the Germans and Dutch.

The Dutch take a hammering in the melee and rally back behind their infantry. The French decline to pursue them into the muskets and bayonets of their infantry supports.

Up Will & Jon's end the Austrian cavalry charge home, sneakily sending their hussars round to attack the flank of the Bavarian cavalry. Cue brief discussion on the need for ZOCs etc in respect of the Bavarian infantry at the back who are at an angle.

 

The Austrian infantry halt and deploy their battalion guns.

Before we can resolve the Austrian/Bavarian cavalry scrap, we need to catch up on the French/Dutch face off at the other end. In a desperate hack and thrust melee Chris' cavalry brigadier is unhorsed and succumbs to enemy action.

The Dutch cavalry break and are pursued through their gun line by the rampant French horse (NB I have got the pursuit sequence wrong here).

At the other end it's a bit of a mixed bag. The Austrian cavalry brigadier is killed in action and his unit breaks and flees. However, the Austrian cuirassiers to their right break their opponents, and chase them towards the table edge.

The hussars have little effect on the flank, and Jon's Bavarian horse hold on.

Jon then counter punches with a volley from his foot, and his victorious horse fall on Will's exposed flank.

The Austrian horse collapse and flee into the woods.

With his cavalry off in pursuit the Bavarian brigadier looks a little exposed.

Phew! It's all been a bit hectic. Time for a brew up and a short break.

The Bavarian horse are finally routed by the hussars, and flee behind their infantry. The hussars scramble back out of the way of the oncoming infantry.

Finally the infantry start to open fire in earnest. Surprisingly it was the Frenchies, who normally trust to the bayonet (after all, they invented it).

Their luck seemed to be in. When they finally launched a charge, the Prussian infantry defensive fire  (only needing to roll 3 or more to hit) was spectacularly ineffective.

  

Unsurprisingly, the Prussians turned tail and fled.

The centre of the table was soon wreathed in smoke, as volleys were traded.

The German/Dutch wing looked to be crumbling.

More infantry head for the base line. These are Hanoverians.

The Austrians were more resolute, and held their opponents at bay with sustained musket fire.

A quick view from behind the Bavarians, as we drew the game to a close.

Time was getting on, so after 3 1/2 hours of not too intensive play we called it a night, and had a brief wash up discussion. The feedback was overall very positive, with a lot of helpful observations. I have the usual page of notes to work with, and several ideas buzzing round in my head. The game was a relief as I feared an awful car crash that would prove to me that squares wouldn't work. That was not the case. The group want to have another go next week, having started to get to grip with how the game works.  

Right. That's next Monday sorted.