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.

Preparing for Fontenoy using Might & Reason

Gaming has taken a back seat over the last few months and my postings have suffered as well.  Hope to get more active as the New Year rolls out.

First off we begin planning for a re-fight of the Battle of Fontenoy from the 1745 campaign by Maurice de Saxe.  Instructive as a battle since de Saxe 'forced' the allies to attack him in what he felt was a strong position in order to relieve the siege of Tournai being conducted by Lowendahl.  Even though the strength of both sides were similar on this battlefield, the French had the larger army in the theater and acting on the strategic offense they called the tune.

There is plenty of readily available source material and orders of battle for this conflict and the very detailed map by Obscure Battles blog shows the positioning down to battalion and squadron level:
https://obscurebattles.blogspot.com/2017/09/fontenoy-1745.html

The only feature of the battlefield not highlighted completely by this view is the low plateau that the French established themselves upon which the map below shows much better.

Also it should be noted that the ends of the Bois de Barry between the two Redoubts d'Eu had been cut down as abatis to clear the fields of fire from both redoubts onto the plain of Vezon.

Our approach to the Might & Reason rules makes one significant change to the written rules.  Each 'unit' in our armies is a 'battalion' on a single base 60mm x 30mm for all foot cavalry and artillery stands.  Thus an infantry unit is a battalion (600-800 men) while a cavalry stand is about two squadrons (300-400 troopers) and a battery is about 8-12 medium or heavy guns.  We do not model smaller battalion or light/very light canon models but MAY add an additional firing die for infantry so equipped.

With this basis we can play many battles such as Fontenoy on a battalion/squadron basis on a single table.  Here is an example from a test game we played last year:

Four players with about 60 battalions and 100 squadrons per side and it took us 3 hours to come to a conclusion (French making a fighting withdrawal with about equal losses to both sides).

M&R gives some advantages to Anglo/Hanoverian armies of the period in both firing and combat but not overwhelming (an added die or two in shooting and a reduction to the 'flanking' penalty) while the French get a slight advantage in strength point recovery (can recover up to their original SP total while others can recover only to original minus 1 SP).

The chief issue for the Allied players at Fontenoy is how can they beat an equal sized army in a prepared position when there is no option (or time) for a flanking operation? 

Next posting we will look at the leader ratings and OBs for this battle.

Tercios again TYW German Catholics versus Later Spanish

We have continued to play with these rules as the hidden orders and reactions to same offer a lot of unusual situations and the numerous dice rolls for shooting and fighting lead to surprising upsets at unexpected times.  We do not play with any of the leader traits and or conditions as that seems too cumbersome and everyone seems to pick the very same traits for their leaders, so why offer options that no one will ever likely want to select?

The terrain was a area of rolling hills and a small farming town with the local lord's chateau on the hills above.

The Spanish on the left with three late tercios in their center and cavalry on both wings facing four Catholic League classic squadrons  in two pairs.  All troops were Veterans so little to give away between them.

The Catholics brought their own right wing cavalry forward to stall the advance of the Spanish and in this were successful as one tercio was 'detailed' to help their cuirassiers 'see them off'.  This action occurs at the top of the next picture.

Meanwhile the Spanish mounted arqubusiers and a shot unit tried a similar maneuver on the Spanish right flank as seen at the bottom of the above picture.

Neither side was successful in this endeavor and the fight came down to an exchange of fire and push of pike in the center.  The Catholics had the advantage of two large heavy batteries supporting their foot and combined with their fire and some good rolling of firing dice all tree tercios were eventually driven off the field which basically ended the battle.

Next time the Spanish will reconstitute their forces and take a defensive position of some strength and a reinforced Catholic army will see if they can drive them from the area before winter sets in....

Another game of Tercios - Full of Inopportune Moments

We got together to try another game of Tercios, featuring two TYW armies in a small attacker/defender action.  The Mercenary mostly Scots against some TYW Imperials.

The opening setup shows the Scots preparing to move down from the heights to engage the Imperials.

An initial bad positioning of one of the two P&S units for the Imperials was rectified by their moving back into the walled fields near the center of the picture.  Fortunately on the second turn the Imperials won the initiative and were able to complete this movement without alarm...

The Scots placed all their cavalry on their left wing (foreground in the pictures) and hoped to drive the fewer units of Imperials foo and away from their two infantry units.

Here they come down the hill in turn 2.

The Imperial artillery was in fine form, shooting up the Scot infantry unit at the top of the picture and it was driven off the table eventually by combined fire of the infantry and artillery of the Imperial left flank.

The crux of the fight was the several advances by the Scot mounted arquibusiers against their Imperial counterparts.  The fight went back and forth, casualties went against the Scots on more than one occasion by a tie or a single loss so they had to bounce back, take some fire from the Imperial foot and Dragoons and then try to advance again.

Eventually the Scots had to pull back 2 or 3 of their mounted units to reform them (take off wear points) and with their attack stalled and their infantry facing one on one odds, the commander wisely pulled back to maneuver the Imperials out of their position by a clever flank movement overnight.....

We do enjoy the use of the unit order cards provided in the rules as you have to give some thought to when to activate each unit for best effect.  Even so sometimes the dice fall against you at inopportune moments and although you caused 6 hits the opponent promptly rolls off 5 of them making you the loser in a 1 to 2 loss situation.  C'est la vie...