Wilsons Hospital Ireland 1798 AAR

For tonight's game Chris Charlton had brought his wonderful 1798 Irish rebellion collection. I have not played a "proper" game with these yet and Chris has only had 3 outings so far.

These are all Trent miniatures wonderfully painted by Steve Shann and the game was held at Steve's house. Black Powder with very few amends, the main one being fire before moving.

I also brought along my fortified manor house for its first game, doesn't look much like a hospital but never mind.

This loosely based on a historical action. The United Army of Westmeath was besieged in the demesne of Wilson's Hospital. A Farnco Irish force under Humbert diverted from its march on Dublin to gather much needed reinforcements from the Westmeath troops. The Crown forces under General Lake historically destroyed the Irish comprehensively but we all know that wargames don't always go the same way so with a load of really terrible Irish accents we were off.

The Westmeath forces at the hospital had two brigades all pike armed and supported by a small skirmish screen. Whilst the Franco-Irish force included two battalions of French and one of French trained (Kind of) Irishmen, the rest again being Pike armed. The Franco-Irish had two guns and no cavalry.

The crown forces were a mix of Fencibles, regulars and the mercenaries of Honspechs mounted rifles. Generally much better armed and trained than the Irish but not as good as the French. The British forces were split into three brigades including 4 units of cavalry and two batteries of guns.

I took the vanguard, a combined light battalion, a unit of Fencibles cavalry and the Homspech mounted rifles who had the "Bloodthirsty" special rule. Apparently these Germans had a pretty horrible reputation for brutality.

Steve commanded the rest of the Crown forces marching onto the table.

Chris Flowers had the Westmeath boys in the hospital and Chris Charlton the Franco-Irish army.

Mark couldn't make it but we still ate the cakes he left last time. Thanks Mark!

Chris's historical write up is below as are the army stats for all the troops involved.

The Irish went first with Chris splitting his Franco-Irish Force to push the Regiment Irelandais and three units of pike at my advance guard whilst the French regulars supported by the guns and two more pike blocks advanced on the main British force.I got my light infantry forward and into cover quick sharp with cavalry on either flank. The Legion Irelandais charged my light infantry whilst the large pike unit charged my mounted fencibles. After a furious melee the partially trained Irish were destroyed, the Pike though had the furious charge special rule allowing a re-roll of all misses along with long spear which negated my charge bonus. The Fencibles did very well to hold the Irish to a draw in the first round.

The Irish Pike units had the special rule forcing them to attempt to charge whenever they could, I am not entirely sure that they were historically quite that enthusiastic but it made for an interesting game.

To my left Steve got a gun and his first unit lined up ready to try hold back the veteran French, whilst the rest of his force dilly dallied ont the table edge unable to get moving apart from a single light dragoon unit trotting along the road.

Next turn and an ineffective volley and the French smash into the Crown forces and drive them from the field.

My German cavalry charge a unit of Pike and force them to retreat, a sweeping advance and both units are shaken forcing the mounted rifles to retire but the Irish break. A further pike unit charge my light infantry who are also now shaken and force them to retire whilst the large unit fights another round of melee with my fencibles and forces them back too. All three of my units are now shaken and although we have destroyed 2 out of 4 Irish units the remaining two are in good shape.

On the left flank a unit of pike are in speculative charge range of the dragoons on the road, a die roll sees them roll low enough to reach the dragoons and off they go catching them in line of march. Steve does well to hold them but his remaining British regulars and still unwilling to get forward.

His second unit of light cavalry however capture the combined grenadier battalion in skirmish order. They manage to form u to receive the charge but are unable to get off a closing volley and lose the subsequent round of melee and are forced to retreat.

The British regulars form a new line to receive the victorious French regulars whilst the Dragoons finish off the French Grenadiers .

To the left the Steve's second unit of cavalry have seen off their Immediate threat and broken the pike unit and his second brigade of foot and marching forward but so are the two brigade's of Irish pike.

Chris Charlton's large unit of Pike charges my shaken light infantry and the ferocious charge re-rolls prove decisive and my foot are broken. Leaving me with two units of shaken cavalry I am unable to rally.

The French hit the British regulars and are held to a draw which is the best that can be said at this stage in the game.

As the Irish charge the British guns from the flank taking the first one out and are now poised to fall on the two units of regulars who are still in column of March. AT this stage General Lake realises that he is not going to be able to rescue a victory from the day and orders the remnants of his force to retire in good order leaving the Franco-Irish forces in possession of the field and celebrating a famous victory.

 A really fun game which the Black Powder rules handled very well indeed. The Irish felt a little too robust to my mind but then I did lose so maybe that's just mildly sour grapes. The figures are gorgeous and we are talking about using this as the basis for a demo game in the summer at the Newark Partizan show.

Thanks for the game gentlemen I will see you all again very soon. Perhaps a chillier winter game in the frozen East next time.