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.