Fontenoy Test Game 1 - Decision Time

We have reached the end pulse of turn four and the Anglo/Hanoverian line has exchanged fire and combat with the first French line (Gardes and Aubterre brigades) while the Dutch have assaulted Fontenoy twice to no great effect yet.  A possible decision point?  No, neither side had yet achieved any real advantage but here is what the lines looked like at the end of turn 4:

Before Fontenoy the Dutch can not gain any traction and are taking losses at around two to one.  Their artillery is screened so not of use to them and the French get saving throws on any hits (saving about half of the time with a 4,5, or 6) and the Dutch have to simply take the hits as they are out in the open killing ground.  The Dutch can not force their second line battalions into the fight yet as some of their first line units though damaged are still in the front.

The allowance of one die for artillery impact from each of the three redoubts may have been too small, perhaps a 2 dice (or half of what we allow a regular battery firing) would have been a better approximation of how well these small guns could have fired when in a protected area and closely supported by fresh forces.  As it is their occasional hit is not making a large impact.

On the top edge of the plateau the first British line has not yet breached the sunken road although most of the French Garde battalions and their Aubterre Brigade units have taken 3-4 hits and are close to being removed.  The British Guards are almost shot away but they have a strong number of line battalions closer to Fontenoy along this line so may be able to continue the advance.

Turn Five and the French roll 24 control dice to the British 12.  So the French can add command dice and re-roll combat result dice all day without fear of falling out of dice.  The British will have to struggle to save wherever they can to counter.

But the British win the Initiative for the turn and make two decisions.  The first is to storm ahead with their British troops and try to break into the French position.  The second is to call off the attack on Fontenoy and try to rebuild the Dutch forces after they retire beyond three base widths.

The situation in Fontenoy shows this is the best that the Dutch could have done, they lost nine of 21 battalions outright and the few still in the close contact zone all have some casualties. They are a base 6 strength (like their French neighbors) but taking a minus 2 trying to club their way forward in combat is too much to expect of them.  Here are the respective casualty piles for the Dutch and the French:  9 Dutch to 2 French battalions plus the 2 batteries lost earlier in the game.

The British do surge forward and taking advantage of a couple of breaks in the French line and the fact that they had the initiative which allows them to pick the direction to move across the table in combats, allows them to erase the remainder of the French Gardes and the Aubterre brigade with little cost to their units. 

Here is the picture of the line at that point.

The British crown the sunken road and move their second line forward to cover it in its entirety.  But, you can see there are no reserves to the second line and the cavalry is weak and far away.  The French second line (the wild geese of the Irish Brigade) are ready to continue the fight and the French still have a complete second line behind them and then three lines of cavalry as yet untouched.

The village of Fontenoy will soon be taking enfilade shots across the British line as will the redoubts d'Eu which are still manned and ready for the fight.  One can see why Cumberland had to make the best of a bad situation and retire before the strength of the position and de Saxe's deployments.  Our Cumberland similarly decides to withdraw while still strong enough to hold off any French counter attack.

Total losses for both sides is heavily weighted down by the loss ratio at Fontenoy.  Elsewhere both sides killed at about a 1 to 1 ratio.  The first French line of 10 battalions is gone, but so are the British in their front line of 9 battalions.  There is not enough time left in the day to redeploy artillery to the threatened areas and if the French cavalry are able to break into and through the British second infantry line the entire Anglo/Allied army would be at risk of losing their retreat route back through Vezon.

Interesting replay with some things to consider about weather Might & Reason really shows that it can provide a good and simple rules solution to this period.  I'll have more to add to that in the next posting.

Fontenoy Test Game 1 till first contact

The first time test game we will run with the rules out of the box as regards command, combat and victory conditions just to see if the rules end up providing a reasonable approximation of what transpired historically or even if the result makes sense given the situation.

The Allied side with a 'Good' General (Cumberland) only gets 2 command dice per turn but given the largish commands (all the British/Hanoverian foot is in one command for example).  They are able to get BOTH the Anglo/Hanoverian and the Dutch contingents to advance at the same time so as to make a concerted attack on the French position.

Here are some shots as they close the gap and into close musket range:

The effects of long range artillery are minimal as an occasional hit here and there do not slow down either of the main lines closing.  In fact once they get within long range musketry range (2 base widths per the rules) they are able to shoot and then assault the exposed artillery and force it to make an emergency evade roll.  This resulted in 2 French batteries being destroyed, one in front of the French Guards line and one in the fortified village of Fontenoy itself.  Surprisingly there is no benefit to the artillery to being behind works when taking this check that we could find.  It also is typical of what we have seen in M&R games, nobody even attempts to re-deploy their guns when the enemy line approaches so the guns are going to be lost but they are left in place in the hopes of causing close range hits.

If you place your guns in your line of troops it is almost a guarantee of opening an exploitable gap  when the guns run away.  If you place them in front (as was the almost universal practice during the period) they are simply removed via the artillery reaction check or pass through the line in an evade and are lost to you for a few turns.

In our test game 1 the French ended up with the initiative on the turn after the British and Dutch had advanced into long range musketry fire distance (2 BW) and promptly fired all along their line with scant results.  The Dutch troops assaulting Fontenoy took a few hits the British line hardly any so when they in turn fired they were replying with one die per every 2 strength points PLUS another 2 dice for the British/Hanoverian volley rule.  Fortunately for the French their shooting was equally bad causing only a few total casualties.

In the next turn the Anglo/Dutch troops climbed the slope and into close range musketry range (1 BW) and fired first with similar effect.  The French returned fire with equal ineffectiveness.  So unlike the reported battle results where the first French line was almost destroyed in the allied initial volleys, here both sides were shooting into the air for all intents and purposes.

In the following pulse the allies tried a direct assault across the front.  This was a mistake and it seems they should have spent another turn at volleying since none of the French units opposite them had suffered more than a random hit or two.  By going in with the assault the British especially squandered their volley extra dice and got nothing for 'charging in' that might lead them to double the scores on the awaiting French.

I should also point out that the troops in Fontenoy were getting a saving throw on a 4,5,or 6 for any hits made by the Dutch as they were protected by the works there.  In the turn the allies charged in the Dutch lost four units by being doubled by the French and only got one unit over the works when they charged the French battery and destroyed it on the artillery reaction roll.

Here is the cluttered view of the situation at Fontenoy.

The one Dutch unit that made it over the works is in the center of the right of the picture and they are already stopped by the French reserves stationed in the town.  They will also count as flanked if the French attack to drive them out.  But, they also will count as flanking the French foot on either side on them if the Dutch have the strength to charge in again with the remains of their first line.

I should point out that we did not allow units in the second line to advance into gaps in the first line as units were removed.  While this is the common action most wargamers would take, it runs counter to the principal that the commander of the second line was there to ensure his troops were kept in hand and serve as a reserve for the first line (and in M&R to keep them from possibly becoming 'flanked' by the enemy).  It is another example of what we expect to do as gamers that dosen't have a lot of historical justification in our opinion...

Next posting will see the further exchange of fire and combat as the Allies try to force their way into the French position on the slopes and in the town.

Preparing to play Fontenoy - the Allied forces

My buddy finally got together with me an brought with him a further large box of French forces for the battle and I was able to finish the French deployment by adding in the five stands of Carabineers to the last line of cavalry plus make a couple of slight modifications to the French setup around Anthoing - specifically placing the foot brigade and the dragoons directly behind and supporting the three small redoubts between Anthoing and Fontenoy.

Next the allies are deployed, the Anglo-Hanoverian in two lines of foot with all the cavalry (both British and Hanoverian) massed to their rear around Vezon village.  The Dutch also in 2 lines of foot with all its cavalry massed to the left facing the Anthoing to Fontenoy line.  There is little the cavalry can do at this stage until the infantry clear the towns or the redoubt lines so they have to sit outside artillery range and watch.

Above is the British deployment in two lines that just about match the French deployment between Fontenoy and the Bois de Barri.  The Hanoverian battalions (4) are on the left of the second line.  The cavalry massed to the rear.

The Dutch facing Fontenoy with their cavalry closest to the camera.

The leaders for the Anglo-Dutch army were selected as for the French so that major commands have an associated General, often commanding 12-20 stands.

Duke of Cumberland	FM Konigsegg	Sir John Ligonier	Prince Waldeck	Cronstrom	Ingoldsby
AVG	POOR	GOOD	POOR	AVG	POOR
-1	-1	+2	-2	-2	-2

Earl of Rothes	Hessen-Philipstahl	General Bland	General Launay	Sir James Campbell
AVG	AVG	AVG	AVG	AVG
0	-1	0	-1	0

Sir James Campbell ended up as a 'spare' Lieutenant General who accompanied Cumberland and the figures for Konigsegg and Waldeck served merely as convenience markers since the CinC (Cumberland in this case) is the leader who rolls for command dice and distributes them directly to commanders of forces.  I don't see this as an issue in the rules since even in polygot armies with multiple nations providing contingents some one was supposedly 'In Charge' and that general's ratings (Great, Good, Average or Poor) determines how many Command Dice they are awarded in the rules.

In our game de Saxe is rated Great and gets four dice each turn for command dice rolling, while Cumberland gets only two as Good.  Bad enough for the allies but if Cumberland follows the historical record and accompanies the British contingent, the allies gets shorted on activation rolls due to the distance away Cumberland gets....

Here is the panoramic view from them French side as their five lines of troops await the battle.

And here in our first test battle is the advance of both the British and Dutch contingents over the first few 'Pulses'.  In our next posting we will discuss the advance into combat and the results that came out of them as per the use of the Might & Reason rules.

Preparing to play Fontenoy using Might & Reason part 2

One of the many issues with playing a fairly large battle with individual units all being present is at what level should Leaders be introduced?  While many rules these days have 'Brigadiers' for every 2-3 base units this is partly because they have typically less than a dozen battalions present to move on the table.  These might be called 'Brigades' or 'Divisions' or some such but they seem too artificial for me.

The French army of the period expected Generals commanding brigades to oversee somewhere around six battalions or a dozen or so squadrons.  These are often not to be confused as tactical commands (as in you bunch go over there and do this) but rather simply administrative groupings to keep the line of battle in order.  At Fontenoy the French entrusted the command of tactical groupings to the various Lieutenant Generals who were held at Headquarters and directly assigned troops for a particular action.  The Obscure Battles map shows clearly the commanders assigned out for the French army.  The Comte de la Mark, for example was tasked with the defense of Antoing and was assigned a mere five battalions and a number of light guns.  The LTG Chabannes, by contrast was assigned the French Guard of six battalions plus the brigade Aubeterre of four more battalions (1 Aubeterre and 3 from the Swiss Regiment Courten), to cover the gap between Fontenoy and the Barri Woods.

Going with the Order of Battle we have come up with the following commanders for the French at the start of the battle:

Comte de Saxe	Marquis d’Herouville	Comte de Clermont	Marshal d’Estrees	LTG Chabannes	LTG Lutteaux	LTG Vauguyon
GREAT	AVG	POOR	POOR	AVG	AVG	AVG
+2	0	-1	-1	0	0	0

LTG Montagne	Duc de Richelieu	Comte de la Mark
AVG	POOR	AVG
0	0	0

These are shown with purported values for their skill level and abilities but most have been 'written in' as Average and no plus or minus since the listing in the M&R rules simply doesn't include a lot of French leaders of the War of the Austrian Succession.  The author admits that there is a lot of scholarship still to be done to try to identify and rate many of the French generals of the period but that is a separate thread altogether.

So, having determined where to place leaders and their ratings we can see how the battle field might look with the French army deployed for battle on the morning of 11 May (New Style).

Hopefully you can click to enlarge the photo.  The river Scheldt would be to the top left (just off the table) with Antoing at the top left, Fontenoy in the center of the French deployment and the Barri woods on the left.