Oudenarde 1708

This week the Wollongong Wargamers refought the Battle of Oudenarde from the War of Spanish Succession. Yours truly on the left as the French Marshal Duc de Vendome - yes he of the famous 'place' in Paris - and David on the right as the Duke of Marlborough:

Actually, as with most of 'Corporal John's battles, the amazing feat was in his administration, concentration and force marshalling prior to the battle!

Nevertheless, the battle itself, fought over difficult, cut up terrain, is fascinating, if challenging, to replay. 

The battle, fought with 10mm figures largely from Pendraken, and our tried and tested Valour & Fortitude rules, was organised by Caesar who did all the planning and scenario work. There was much bath-tubbing: each of the four commanders: Marlborough and Eugene, Vendome and Burgundy; had just a very large Infantry brigade and Cavalry brigade, for a total of four brigades per side.

Above: initial deployment from the French perspective. Deployment space was limited!

Below: the Allied deployment from the British perspective. Note the massed batteries covering the centre of the table which is the only open approach!

My initial plan was to hold my left with the minimum of troops and smash most of the infantry into the right flank between Shaerken and the woods. Both cavalry brigades would hook around to the extreme right flank. 

Unfortunately this meant stripping away half of Burgundy's infantry and force marching them across the table. Well its not like he was going to do much anyway, if history was anything to go by!

The gallant French Regiments funnel into the meat grinder...

And their replacements, sorry, reinforcements, march across to join them - La Morte ou la Gloire!

Unfortunately, this narrow gap I chose for my main effort was precisely where David had stationed the British Foot Guards! Probably Morte then...

My French cavalry were facing less redoubtable opponents and gave a good account of themselves:

However, having managed to occupy Shaerken and pour musketry into the flanks of the Guards, even they began to give way slightly, and slowly, painfully, the Lily Banners were carried forward towards Oudenarde...

But it was too little, too late...as night fell the battle was but a bloody stalemate. Thanks to Caesar for organising such an enjoyable game and for David for being such a courteous yet challenging opponent!

Dennewitz 1813

 

Continuing our quest for manageable sized 1813 games that can be played in an evening, we looked at the opening moves of the Battle of Dennewitz as a smallish scenario:

With the Prussian deployment area constricted by dense woodland, Daniel the Prussian commander got to decide which side would start deployment. He chose French. We then deployed Brigade by Brigade. The Prussians seemed to deploy fairly evenly across the area, I concentrated on my right as the Prussian artillery brigade looked to dominate my left:

We rolled to see who would start and with a cry of 'Vive L'Empereur' the Eagles were hoisted and the troops stepped off:

According to plan I pushed an infantry brigade out as far to the right as it would go. I was nervous of the masses of Prussian cavalry opposite, Landwehr National Cavalry notwithstanding, so gave them plenty of cavalry cover. Rather than disrupt their formation they stopped short of the Agger stream: 

My plan was not race to get into Dennewitz at all, but with the first move and an nice empty road stretching in front, it seemed rude not too...

Daniel's Prussian cavalry used the gap between my infantry and their supporting cavalry to menace my infantry and unlimber some horse artillery right in front of them. Forming square was an obvious solution, charging the horse artillery with infantry was not so obvious but just as effective!

However, with an astute application of combined arms tactics Daniel assaulted one of my squares with infantry. These somehow survived the onslaught!

Whilst initially all had seemed quiet on my left flank, Daniel's second large Infantry brigade started deploying against the western face of the town. The fire from my massed battery had not been sufficient deterrent!

However, assaulting prepared troops in a stone built town is never a good idea, particularly in a battle of attrition. My garrison withstood all assaults, albeit with some very lucky rally dice, whilst the Prussians were failing Fortitude tests regularly...

With my lovely, dashing regular cavalry...

twice as effective as the Prussian Landwehr cavalry, it wasn't too long before the Prussian horse had also been written down, and the Prussians withdrew! 

However, to be fair and in the interests of siting this skirmish within the whole Battle of Dennewitz, it should be noted that in achieving superiority of force on my right, I had completely denuded my left apart from the Gunners. In a larger game it would have been ripe for a deep outflanking move. Perhaps an interesting starting point for a larger all-day game...