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.

Killiekrankie with BLB

Another game with Chris trying out Lillie Banners. I am yet to be won over but open minded.

Chris had already had a solo game of Killiecrankie, the battle between Jacobite Highlanders led by Bonnie Dundee and the Government army by General Mackay.

Chris wanted a proper re-fight so has the exact units engaged in the same formations and locations they started the battle in, so three regiments of green troops holding the centre of the line.

Lovely figures.

First thing to note is how close we start, less than 2 feet apart. This is one of the things we have been doing wrong in the past, movement is very short so tables need to be very narrow.

So I don't know a huge amount about this battle so forgive my errors here. The British outnumbered the Highlanders by at least 3 to 2, with a fair number of veteran units present. Mackay. The outnumbered Highlanders flung themselves down a fairly steep hill, taking heavy casualties from the first volley, including John Graham, Viscount Dundee they crashed into the Government lines and destroyed three quarters of the army pursuing the remnants till midnight.

A historical refight does not bode well for me as the Government commander.

The game starts with the Government artillery, leather guns that aparantly fell to bits on the day, firing and as historically immediately ceasing to work. Fab, love History I do!

The highlanders begin to descend the hill, they have movement bonuses built in as highlanders but a further bonus for the scenario to reflect coming down the hill so typically moving at double the usual rate of advance.

The only thing I can do is decide if I am to receive them in six ranks or three. Three gives me increased firepower which is pretty much my only chance of stopping them so for all except two units in the centre of raw recruits I line them in three ranks and wait for the tide to reach me.

Not all the Jacobites are clan, two units of all musket troops, below is Cannons Irish regiment.

On my extreme left a unit of Grenadiers anchors the line, decent troops but few of them.

As the Highlanders howl down the hill the Government troops hold their fire, 8 inches is effective, its going to be tight. Beautifully painted figures by Steve who is about to smash them with the highlanders.

Behind the foot I have two troops of very poor locally raised horse. On the day they ran away without firing a shot, lets hope my dice are better.

The Highalnders are mainly Reiver castings I believe and suitably dynamic.

As the Highlanders close the regulars unleash volleys all along the centre and right of the line. Casualties are inflicted but with the exception of the extreme right not enough to check the Highland charge.

I charge my horse through the guns at the Jacobite horse and we have 4 Melees to resolve in the centre and centre right.

The left is still un-commited as Steve didn't roll enough orders to charge these forward.

All 4 Melees are lost the Highlanders are far too strong with over double the dice in combat. As green troops all 4 automatically rout after 1 lost melee, there goes the centre.

The Jacobite cavalry bounce straight from the Government horse onto the gun and destroy the crew.

Less than an hour into the game and its already lost beyond any rescuing, all that remains is to play it out and see if I can redeem myself anywhere.

Mackay ponders leading the remaining squadron of green horse past all the running infantry and at the Veteran Jacobite cavalry, pretty sure that wont help much. The Jacobites charge the foot before he gets the chance.

The Jacobite Horse scatter  the fleeing infantry and cut them down.

The Highlanders do the same and pursue the fleeing Government foot and annhialate them.

My remaining two regiments on the right have held and carry on firing at the Highland shot, but the clansmen are now on their flank.

Here come the Highlanders to finish off the regulars.

As most of my army is on defend orders I can only move one unit, I push the Grenadiers to the flak to try provide supporting fire to the line troops on my left, the Highlanders charge them and wipe them out.

On my right the Highlanders charge the flank of my regulars and route them. Just one unit remains on the right. Interestingly the same unit that survived the battle intact historically.

Mackay leads the remaining green horse at a regiment of Highlanders with predictable results. 

Still Mackay survives and may just outrun his infantry to escape. He may though have trouble catching up to his fleeing cavalry.

My left has two regiments facing two of Jacobites but with highlanders and Jacobite cavalry behind them and in front of them its not worth carrying the game on to see how long they can last.

Its a bit desolate in the centre with the remaining Jacobites nothing left to do except looting the dead.

On my right the first of the regulars breaks leaving just the one intact regiment. 

So a historical result almost exactly as it happened on the day. You would have to take that as a win for the rules. On a personal note I am still not getting to grips with the rules and struggling with having to start so close together. I am yet to play a game I have enjoyed, but then I have yet to play a game I haven't been trounced so that may be a large part of it.

We plan to try a couple of Great Northern War games, it will be great to get the collection back on table after so many years.

I really hope we can get to a point where BLB are working for me and enjoyable, I would love to love them, maybe it just needs a bit more time.

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.