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.

No game last Sunday, so here is something from a previous gaming day

I was due to play a game of Alien Squad Leader on Sunday but my opponent didn't turn up. Anyway, this at least gives me an opportunity to post about a game I played on a previous Sunday.

I've posted about my modifications to Sharp Practice before, and this game was another outing for those rules, with one or two small tweaks. 

The action took place in the fictional town of Dassendorp, somewhere in Flanders. The Anglo-Dutch army was marching south, aware of the threat of French forces marching north to capture the town. 

The Anglo-Dutch army arrived on the field of battle with a strong force of Horse and Dragoons, led by General Sir Edmund Melchett deployed on the left, the aim being to sweep round and prevent the French from outflanking the main body of the army, led by General Sir Rodney Watney-Mann.

However, the wily French commander, the Marquis de Saint-Sylvestre had stolen a march on Watney-Mann and his leading regiments were already inside Dassendorp.

Undeterred, the Anglo-Dutch Horse began to advance, as the woods opposite appeared to be free from French troops.

As the Horse walked across the open fields, their enemies emerged in strength. Foiled! This looked like a stalemate. Melchett halted his squadrons.

Sir Rodney led his main strength into the town, led by the Dutch Garde Te Voet. 

Realising that his left flank required reinforcing. he sent the Earl of Oxford's Horse and the Danish Fynske Regiment to support Melchett's now outnumbered brigade of Horse.

Saint-Sylvestre began to organise his regiments into a defensive posture on the southern edge of Dassendorp, holding the Gardes Françaises back as a reserve.

The Anglo-Dutch centre emerged from the streets of Dassendorp and deployed into line, supported by Fusiliers and artillery.

On the right, the 1st Foot Guards and the Queen Dowager's Regiment opened fire at long range against the French Horse and Dragoons arrayed against them, to little effect.

In the centre, both sides opened fire with artillery.

Things were hotting up on the right, the French Horse, led by the dashing Vicomte du Buisson-de-Cadouin seemed intent on pushing back the English Foot, regardless of the casualties they were receiving from musket fire.

Buisson-de-Cadouin charged in with the elite Régiment du Roi and, in the ensuing melée pushed the Queen Dowager's regiment back, causing many casualties and shock. 

It was beginning to look as though the battle would be decided on the Anglo-Dutch right, where the inexperienced General Willem de Rijsttafel was struggling to deal with the fearsome French Horse.

The 1st Foot Guards were the next to feel the effects of cold French steel, being forced to withdraw when charged while unloaded. 

De Rijsttafel was forced to gallop to safety with his staff as his infantry melted away.

The final act was a gallant but pointless charge by Melchett's brigade against the French right flank. They were repulsed by the Régiments de Lyonnais and Champagne, supported by the Régiment de Rohan Horse.

Interestingly, this was the first time one of these battles has given a decisive result, with the French army repulsing the Anglo-Dutch while suffering few losses themselves.

I think that the significant thing was the power of elite Horse against Foot, when the Foot unloaded in Fisticuffs. The way I have adapted the SP rules clearly gives the Horse an advantage in melée, possibly too much of an advantage, so perhaps there needs to be some further thought involved. As things stand, the Aggressive characteristic given to Foot regiments with pikes is negated if the regiment is charged while unloaded.

Anyway, it was a pretty enjoyable game, even though the layout of the table made things difficult for both sides.

My Nine Years' War Sharp Practice mods get a further revision

It's been a while since I've had a chance to use my nice Lurkio late-17th century French and Anglo-Dutch armies, which were the inspiration for my Sharp Practice mods, which were published in the TooFatLardies 2017 Summer Special.

Since first seeing these mods in print, they have undergone a revision and some resulting changes. This was a chance to playtest those revisions again and see how things could be tightened up and clarified.

I must say, in passing that I am really pleased to see that Lurkio is continuing to operate under the aegis of Simon Hall's The Wargames Zone. It did look at one point like the company would cease to exist, but happily these terrific 15mm figures are still going to be produced.

In this game at the club last Sunday, I took command of the Anglo-Dutch army while Brian commanded the French.

The battle was an encounter between the two armies on the outskirts of the (fictional) Dutch town of Grolschbeek. The Anglo-Dutch were first on the field, with a cavalry brigade moving sharlpy towards the Grolschbeek junction. The aim was to secure the right flank before the French could deploy.

Elsewhere, a regiment of Dragoons took up a position in the gardens of a manor house on the Anglo-Dutch left flank. The !st Regiment of Foot (the Royal Scots) advanced, flanked by two Danish regiments of Foot. The Nassau Horse protected their right flank as they formed a defensive line.

The French began to advance across the main road into Grolschbeek, with the Rohan and Villeroy Horse supporting the Languedoc and Champagne regiments of Foot.

The Dragoons waited, relatively secure behind some hedges with a cornfield forming something of an obstacle to the French.

The English Horse began to deploy on the outskirts of Grolschbeek, behind the advance of the Nassau Horse.

Things began to get crowded as regiments in column and the artillery began to emerge from the Anglo-Dutch camp. The Anglo-Dutch Captain General Lord Lymeswold was finding it hard to get his Elite troops into position before the French advanced.

And here come the legions of Le Roi Soleil, under the command of Maréchal de France, le Duc de Cabecou.

The Dragoons began to fire on the advancing Régiment de Languedoc, supported by the Danish Fynske regiment. Lacking pikes, I hoped that these troops would be able to keep the French at arms length and avoid any Fisticuffs.

The Nassau Horse, perhaps being uncharacteristically impetuous charged into the Régiment du Lyonnais, sustaining casualties and shock.

They were repulsed with losses after a couple of rounds of combat. Elsewhere, the Danes were firing on the French Foot, with the Royal Scots waiting until they had an opponent within close range.

The Régiment de Languedoc took a lot of fire, suffering mounting shock and losses, compelling them to retire due to excess shock. Realising that they couldn't outflank the manor house, the French Horse moved to advance across the Anglo-Dutch left.

Having seen the Nassau Horse fail, both Woods' and Lumley's Horse moved to within charge distance of the French Horse. Woods' regiment came under musket fire, picking up Shock.

The Royal Scots poured musketry into the French Régiment de Champagne.

Finally, the English Foot Guards and Artillery move up towards the fighting. Lord Lymeswold directing the advance.

From the French side, the Anglo-Dutch centre begins to look menacing.

Maréchal de Cabecou sent the Régiment de Fimarcon Dragoons towards the French right, as the Gardes Françaises marched in line to fill a gap in the French line caused by the forced withdrawal of the Lyonnais Foot.

On the French left, the formidable Horse awaited the English charge. On the left of this brigade was the elite Régiment du Roi, in blue uniforms.

The two combats were bloody, with both English regiments coming off worse. Lumley's Horse suffered 50% losses and were compelled to retire back to the edge of Grolschbeek and were soon joined by Woods' Horse. However, they still protected the town, together with the remnants of the Nassau Horse.

The Anglo-Dutch centre was looking strong, with the French unable to make any headway against the effective musketry of the Danes and Scots.

At this point we decided to call a halt, because we were out of time.

What had I learnt from this game? 

Well, firstly the rule mods definitely do work for these large-scale encounters, especially with the amendments made since I first wrote and tested them. Secondly, the game does seem to give a reasonable brigade level simulation as opposed to the standard SP skirmish games. One might say that it is "Sharp Practice, Jim, but not as we know it".

I am a huge fan of Sharp Practice and the Shooting and Combat mechanisms are simple and effective and do translate well to use with larger units.

One thing that I think needs to happen is giving each brigade its own Deployment Point rather than having a single one for the entire army, because that leads to massive bottlenecks early on which prevent troops from deploying. The Dutch Garde Te Voet never really got anywhere near the battle.

I have rewritten my rule modifications, adding some clarifications, so I hope very soon to play through them again.