A Battle for Ireland AAR BLB2

Another BLB2 play test as we try to get the best from this set specifically designed for the period.

This time a divisional sized meeting engagement in Jacobite Ireland. 

The key grievance up to press has been the very short movement rate meaning that much smaller tables are required and no real pre contact manoeuvre as there is simply no time when moving at 4 inches per turn.

We have tried doubling movement which worked reasonably well. This time Chris wanted to try strategic movement so units could move 16 inches a turn until they were within 16 inches of the enemy, allowing a lot more manoeuvre pre-contact. Then drop back to 4 inches for foot as per the rules.

Fairly equal forces, Steve as the Jacobite had a Brigade of Irish Guards and a brigade of poorer troops with two regiments of horse with blade, he had a light gun as support.

I had two brigade of drilled troops, one all shot Danes the other regulation Huguenots. I also had one gun but with a master gunner and two regiments of horse, one blade and one bullet.

Rolling for initiative both Steve and I got a 1, no movement at all from either side, not an ideal start. I do like some command and control restrictions but I do find that BLB2 can be too widely varying.

Next move Steve gets a 10 and moves his whole army, I get a 5 and move just half. We close on each other fairly quickly with the extended movement but the table is too tight for us to do anything except march straight forward.

I roll another 5 and the other half of my army can catch up. Again not ideal

Steve pushes his cavalry slightly further forward and I angle my horse to charge his.

Too late Steve charges my Huguenot's, my volley is poor only causing one casualty, Steve wins the first round of melee and I stand so we go straight to a second round which Steve wins again and my foot leg it, the Jacobite horse pursue and cut the unit down to a man.

Not the best of starts.

I now have Jacobite cavalry rallying to my rear, whilst Steve has the worry of Williamite Cavalry to his rear.

Having taken two turns to move my gun into effective range and another to deploy it, the Irish guards have advanced to effective musket range. I fire my first shot, being cannon even though its very short range I am minus 2 for my first shot and do very limited casualties. In return the Irish guards volley the gun getting a plus one for first fire and wipe it out. Not ideal.

Steve reforms his cavalry to face mine and I do the same, I have also reformed my rear foot unit allowing me to volley Steve's cavalry in the flank and reduce their already low number.

The majority of our foot are now in range of each other and halt to engage in a sustained firefight. Its almost impossible to fail morale from casualties inflicted from musketry which is weird because most of my troops cant charge home with Steve's due to their quality. So it becomes a case of who will die to the last man first.

I try an all or nothing charge on Steve's horse, I win as they have already suffered lots of casualties but I am down to half strength on both squadrons so now of limited use.

My right hand Huguenot unit has been under sustained fire from a battalion of Irish Guards and another of average quality foot. I have my other foot unit in line but these guys are down to one third of their original strength and still passing their morale.

Steve now has 2 foot units down to half strength but they cant fail their morale so its ok. Still feels odd. My own very badly mauled unit is now very much at risk of failing so I attach my commander in chief to stiffen them.

I push my horse into the gap where my gun was to give the Irish Guards something to think about, not that they can do much against them but I cant use them for anything else.

My almost gone unit has passed its morale with the plus three provided by the C in C, it is down to three D6 needing sixes for firing, so whilst still on table should be pretty useless, except, I manage to throw a triple 6!

Awesome but again as the Irish Guards cant really fail a morale from musketry it doesn't really change anything.

The return volley kills the remaining French down to the last man.

So the game is not lost yet with my right flank holding its own but the left flank is well and truly shot.

The game has highlighted that strategic movements can speed things up and allow us to use a bigger table, although that didn't work with tonight's battle field it could in future, but it has also really made us scratch our heads at the morale structure. Steve's view is that we abandon BLB2 now as there is too much that doesn't work for us. I am still on the fence and Chris feels they still work for small games but not for the larger ones we need for Great Northern War and Ireland.

I am tempted to see what we rescue with changes to morale but these would have to sit with changes to firing and ranges too alongside the changes already to movement so........

We will see what the new edition of the rules bring but may decide to start from scratch.

Watch this space. Thanks for stopping by.

AAR Rear Guard Action after the Boyne

We were keen to get Chris's late 17th century stuff on table again so he organised a portion of his now formidable collection for a game in Jacobite Ireland.

This assumes James had managed to cobble together some of his retreating Jacobites for a rearguard during the retreat from the Boyne rather than buggering off and leaving his army to its fate (The Irish referred to him as James the Turd for a reason).

Steve would command 4 squadrons of heavy horse, 9 regiments of foot including 3 of guard, 2 medium guns and 2 dismounted companies of dragoons in a skirmishing roll.

Trying to slow him down I have also 4 squadrons of horse, 6 regiments of foot, with 2 being guard, a light gun and a company of skirmishing dragoons. Chris warned me before the off that the Jacobites were outnumbered and outclassed so no expectations and very much a playtest for some units and rules not yet used.

Rules for this period we use Pike and Shotte with some amends particularly for the foot. 

So a few shots of part of Chris's lovely 17th century collection to set the scene.

Steve pushes his central Brigade of Guards forward to take on my line, I am almost immediately in trouble with my right hand regiment coming under fire from one guards regiment and 2 medium guns.

Move one and I am already dis-ordered, oh dear!

I charge the Jacobite Cavalry and Steve counter charges. Steve's morale save bonus sees him win the first round of melee, he follows this up with sweeping charges (Break through's essentially) All four of my squadrons are defeated and forced back with two of them dis-ordered. These will be unable to counter charge next go. We realise at this stage that pushing squadrons forward as supports is counter productive and doesn't really give enough of an advantage, they are much better kept in reserve to throw in later.

I fire my first volley back at Steve and get a bit of luck. Unfortunately his dice are on fire and he saves nearly all of them.

Another volley from Steves guard and another unit dis-ordered and forced to a moral test, which it fails and retreats.. The Guard have platoon firing giving them an extra Dice, my Guard also have this but I only have the two battalions. Nice rule to give a bonus to the better troops.

Unfortunately I have attached my commander to this unit to try remove some casualties, he is mortally wounded and removed from play. 

A further cavalry charge sees all of my horse driven off and my flank wide open, although Stevs Guard and Huegenots on the Williamite left are still only just getting into action, my left is in tatters already.

Steves cavalry now charges the flank of my foot and not surprisingly wipes them out, with one unit gone and another shaken the brigade is deemed destroyed and all three regiments along with the gun removed from play.

On my right Steves foot our now getting going and his first volley yeilds, yes you guessed it, four sixes. I save just one, the unit is dis-ordered by a six so in a little trouble.

At this point we call it a night and a comprehensive Williamite victory, well done Steve.

With 2 thirds of the Jacobite force destroyed and half the Williamites yet to be engaged a resounding victory to Williams forces and no Doubt James is galloping off to leave more of his Catholic subjects in the lurch.

Good fun game, cavalry wasnt really what we wanted in terms of gaming and compatibility so Chris will be looking to tweak this for future games, but overall great fun and what a lovely collection.

Drumnadrochit 1746 First Sharp Practice for the Jacobites AAR

 So we finally have enough (More than enough of some as you will see) for a game with the 1745 collection.

Using the majority of both our collections Chris set up a pretty big game by Sharp Practice standards abd went with all units deployed on table to get things going quicker.

The Jacobites started with two clan regiments each of 3 x 10 figures with one leader and 2 x 24 regular formations, one of Royal Eccossais and one of Irish Piquetes. They also had a light gun.

113 figures, pretty impressive.

The Hanovarians started with 3 formations of 24 foot supported by 2 guns, a 16 man formation of black watch highlanders and 16 man formation of cavalry.

114 figures. Just outnumbering the Jacobites.

Chris and I commanded a Highland regiment and regular formation each whilst Steve and Chris Flowers had the Hanovarians.

First out of the blocks were Chris's highlanders charging straight at the massed infantry deployed across their front.

Chris made the guns commanded by any officer within command range so first card out for the Hanovarians saw 12 dice from the first gun, predictably this devasted the oncoming highlanders, the second British card saw more artillery fire and the first volley from the British and Chris's highlanders were reeling back in disarray before anything else got moving. 

This little vignette of a Hessian grenadier with Edinburgh urchins is a charming charity set painted by Chris.

The return fire from our lighter gun does a small amount of damage but nothing to write home about.

Undaunted my Highlanders continue to march forward. 

Chris's are not stopping this side of Inverness at this rate.

The Government reserve now begins to move into position (yes a quarter of our force gone and they haven't deployed their reserve yet) 

Meanwhile my Highlanders take two blasts of cannon fire and I pull them back to try a different approach.

The Royal Ecossaise are marching across the hill on the left masked by woods in a hope to get close enough to cause some damage.

Taken as a whole things are not looking too good for the Jacobites. 

Another hit to Chris's Highlanders as the Irish march past them and they are off again.

One group of Ecossaise break off to protect my flank while the rest line out to prepare to fire into the govornment forces.

My Highlanders have pulled back, the shock only effects forward movement, I hope to get them up the flank to support the Royal Ecossaise but I cant get the volume of shock down enough to get any reasonable movement.

Chris's Irish meanwhile have opened up on the Government line, at last the Jacobites are inflicting damage, however one formation against two supported by cannon is too one sided to last.

Realising the Royal Scots are exposed I realine them so they line the edge of a small wood facing the government highlanders

My first group of Scots has fired at the highlanders with little effect, the gun firing in return did rather better!

With the Highlanders very badly mauled its down to the regulars to shoulder the burden and the Irish prepare to trade volleys and buy us some time.

The light gun continues to add its less lethal support.

Chris's highlanders will clearly be playing no further part in the game.

Its unlikely that mine will with 3 inches of movement coming off every roll. They are doing their best though.

The Irish are now taking almost the full force of the British command and casualties and shock are mounting alarmingly.

My Royal Ecossais now open a volley onto the Black Watch and damage quickly mounts, at last we are in the game.

Unfortunately the tenacious Irish have taken too many hits and the formation breaks with the left hand group forced back.

Things are looking pretty bleak.

My Ecossaise have forced back the Black Watch and the Hanovarians lose their first Morale point, but nobody is coming to support the Scots regulars and Chris has wheeled his gun to rake their line.

As the gun and Black Watch fire together (their commander can command both) a huge amount of shock builds on the Royal Scots and the right hand unit is pushed back.

This depletes the last of our force morale, no doubt the stout Ecossaise surrendered whilst the rest of the Jacobite force fled the field.

As a first run out we learned a lot. The sides need evening out, too many guns which are devastating. The Highlanders need to be able to move quicker. Pre deployment speeds things up and gives a more traditional game but massively helps the defender, who in this case outnumbered the attacker.

A fabulous looking game even if a bit one sided. I am certain we can still make SP2 work for the 45, better luck next time