Our last game saw my dad and I fight a Marlburian/War of Spanish Succession game using Blackpowder rules with some amendments for this period. Last time out I was defeated using the British in a very closely contested game, so this time I used the French, however the end result was the same and I was defeated, although comprehensively this time by my dad and his British. I started the game well and caused a lot of disorder and casualties amongst one of the British centre brigades, especially from my first volley fire but I couldn't quite get the final casualties to break the brigade. However this did not last and I suffered from having some very inept brigadiers (we randomly rolled their levels before the start and I rolled an arlarming number of 1's resulting in over half of the brigadiers been of a level 7). This really hindered my attempts to rally my batallions as they were for the best part within 12 of the enemy meaning I required a score of 6 or under on 2d6, and this really didn't happen at all despite numerous attempts, in contrast my dad managed to rally his troops when they were on the verge of becoming shaken, this is vital in Blackpowder games. I lost my French cavalry early meaning I had to turn my Bavarian brigade to oppose the threat on their flank from the English cavalry, this enabled my dad to attack my centre with 2 brigades against my one which unsurprisingly I lost. On my right flank I had no cavalry opposing my Dragoons but I was unable to get the three regiments to move (yep a command value of 7, thus dropped to a 6 as well when he fell casualty) so could not exploit the facing Austrain brigades flank. When I did get them to move i was reckless with them and wasted the brigade and got them pretty shot up. So despite not been the greatest of performances from me we both enjoyed the game and as usual Bkackpowder was fairly ruthless at times and it was a nice looking game to, I think it is a very attractive period to play.
French Currasiers in support of one of the French infantry brigades.
Despite drawing a map of our deployment, My dad deployed a mirror image opposite me with his Currasiers in support of a central infantry brigade, father like son! Two brigades of English cavalry Another central English infantry brigade and artillery The initial advance of my French centre saw me take the centre of the table The Irish brigade occupy the church on the right flank The Austrain brigade await on the hill opposite the advancing Irish and (quite stationary) French Dragoons 4 battalions of French infantry led by the CnC advance towards the hill line Once they reached the high ground they engaged in a fire fight with the English centre Somewhat unfortunately after I managed to shake a English infantry battalion they were forced to reteat, This opened up a clear path for the Austrain Currasiers to charge into the French infantry who after a dismal stand shoot reaction turned and fled opening a rather scary looking hole in my battle line with two more regiments of Austrain Currasiers lurking very menacely in the background With the French cavalry been quickly dispersed the Bavarain brigade had to turn from the centre to face the threat of the English cavalry The English line starts to move forward as the French centre starts to waver under some very aggressive artillery and musket fire The Bavarian brigade becomes stretched as it is attacked on two fronts, however they dug in and held their ground The French Currasiers managed to move into the alarming hole in the French infantry line and managed to quell the threat from the Austrain cavalry although it left the currasier brigade on the verge of been broken After a few rounds of failing to rally points of their morale the Irish brigade is broken after seemly having the upper hand against the Austrians Enough is enough for the FrenchGeneral and he orders the French centre to retreat after the brigade is devastated from the English cannon fire in particular which resulted in two battalions flee from the battle field The final position, the yellow markers under the brigadiers represent a broken brigade, basically I had lost my entire right flank and centre.
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