Replaying that battle with the proper number of units per side with almost any set of rules makes it clear that the allies had a tough road to any sort of a chance of victory.
By 1746 Cumberland and much of the British contingent was back in Britain, trying to bring an end to the 1745 Scottish uprising and the French were having their way in Flanders. De Saxe often sent multiple columns of troops out on sweeping maneuvers in advance of and around his area of operations and his skill in drawing them all together on the day of battle confounded his enemies on many occasions. This also occurred prior to Roucoux and gave the French an almost overwhelming advantage in troops at the battlefield (stated as 120,000 to 90,000 or thereabout).
At Roucoux, the allies (British, Dutch and Austrians) were hoping to keep the line of the Meuse river open to themselves by protecting the city of Liege, while also covering the Dutch homelands to the north from any French incursions. They were dependent on a series of bridges over the Jaar river to the north of the battlefield and their deployment and actions were determined by this dependency. With the Meuse behind them and their line of operations off to a flank they were in an unenviable position to say the least.
We will once again try using the Might & Reason rules to re-fight this action to see if they do give a reasonable result when using actual orders of battle and representing each unit on both sides appropriately on the table. Our next posting will include the order of battle for each army and how it would be deployed using the M&R rules. Of particular interest will be how to represent the 'brigade attacks' that de Saxe used on the villages defended by the allies as this has been a difficult task to model in a number of rules. More on that point after the OBs are prepared.
