Back from holiday and another Big SP playtest battle

OK, so the holidays are over now and it is back to reality. 

This game was planned before I went on holiday at the beginning of July. It is another playtest of my modifications for Sharp Practice so I can play big battles using my Lurkio 15mm late 17th century armies. This time, I was playing against another club member, Dick, who has an interest in finding some good Pike & Shot rules. We played out a simple encounter battle with Dick commanding the French and me in charge of the Anglo-Dutch and Danish army.

The battle was, as often seem the case a relatively inconclusive one, but the French definitely came out with the upper hand, with Anglo-Dutch morale plummeting due to losing a pretty monumental cavalry encounter near the centre of the table. I  am not going to give a blow by blow account, but there were some interesting points that emerged.

Anyway, the French arrived first, but the Anglo-Dutch managed to get most of their army on the table before any more French arrived.

The Anglo-Dutch centre-right seemed perfect for Horse.

Elsewhere the two Danish regiments of Foot slowly advanced. These troops do not have pikes, so need to rely on their plug bayonets to defend in melee.

The Anglo-Dutch cavalry began to advance strongly.

An English Dragoon regiment used their moveable deployment point to ambush a French Horse regiment. Rules for moveable deployment points are one of the things I want to change in the next iteration of these rule mods. I am thinking that only the unit that has the characteristic should be able to use them.

This Dutch Horse regiment braced itself for a volley that never came.

Elsewhere, the inevitable bottlenecks caused by moving past buildings hit the Anglo-Dutch.

The scene was set for the big cavalry battle that would decide the outcome of the game. Fisticuffs is the main area where I have issues with my modifications, particularly involving cavalry (including the use of pistols when charging or receiving a charge and the inability of Horse to counter charge).

The cavalry action initially favoured the Anglo-Dutch.

However, before long, the elite Régiment du Roi imposed itself upon proceedings.

The Anglo-Dutch left became a stalemate.

This was the crunch! The elite French Horse charged at the gallop, giving them a big advantage and defeated Woods' Horse (green facings) in a flank charge, causing them to withdraw with heavy losses and then took on Lumley's Horse (yellow facings) who were forced to withdraw, which put them within close range of concentrated French musketry. 

So, what did Dick think? Overall, he had positive words but also raised some valid questions about cavalry close combat. I have much thinking to do in this area, mainly to reflect on how mounted units can respond to being the subject of of a charge which doesn't totally disadvantage them but which still gives the attacker the bonus one would expect from the impetus of the charge.