Last night the Wollongong Wargamers used Valour & Fortitude rules and 10mm figures to replay the Battle of Malplaquet 1709, from the War of Spanish Succession.
Peter had come up with a bath-tubbed scenario suitable for an evening's gaming. The wood of Sars was reduced in extent, and the French defenses were drastically reduced. Originally the woods concealed two lines of abatis and other obstacles; the open ground between was lined with trenches, breastworks, and nine redoubts. This was scaled down to just a pair of redoubts.
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Blenheim Palace tapestry showing the woods being cleared
of abattis by British Pioneers. |
Similarly, the orders of battle were reduced: on the Franco Bavarian side each of the three players had just an infantry and a cavalry brigade. The three attacking Allied players had slightly more units, as you'd expect given the challenge ahead of them.
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| View from Woods of Lanieres WNW to the Woods of Sars. |
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Now looking due West with the wood of Lanieres left foreground,
Aulnois right foreground and Woods of Thiery centre foreground. |
Peter opposite my position on the French left flank pushed his cavalry deep into my flank whilst pressing forward with his infantry through the Woods of Sars...
My cavalry covering that flank were outnumbered, but Caesar, commanding the French centre, quickly moved to support me with his cavalry...
We discovered our cavalry was facing the renowned British Royal Horse Guards - the Blues no less!
Bolstered by receipt of the Equine Breeding fate card, which would give an extra melee dice, Caesar went in anyway!
And vanquished those elite Gentlemen at arms!
Meanwhile my infantry was being hard pressed by British infantry and their Disciplined Musketry...
Emboldened by this triumph of arms, we went all out to tidy up and secure the crisis on our left flank:
The Allied cavalry was nicely tidied away, but that British infantry kept on coming - my infantry brigade was now down to one regiment in the field and my Gardes Francais in the redoubt!
Meanwhile, on the right flank, contrary to scurrilous camp gossip, the rest of army did do something...fired off at least one volley in the general direction of the enemy, I'm told.
However it was in the centre that the issue was decided - that damned British infantry ignored volley and shot to assault our centre redoubt. With the protection of the redoubt proving somewhat illusory the Gardes Francais had no choice but to accept the Honours of War from Messieurs Les Anglais...
And with that loss, and both of our flanks now under continuous pressure, we seceded the field to the victorious Allies...
Once again Valour & Fortitude rules provided a fast and furious game, and in this 10mm scale, as one of just six players, I experienced that feeling of being part of a big battle Royal! Thanks to Peter for coming up with a top scenario that generated a fun and furious game.
A lovely presentation, I like bath-tubbed games and the goal of fitting the game into a single session - a creation skill in itself. I think I have have said this before, but the one area of V&F that I am not keen on, is what I feel becomes the element of ‘card play’, while I do like the little bit of chaos and variety that they bring, so I have defaulted to just drawing a card at the start of the turn as required on the condition that it cannot be saved into my next turn. I.e. use it or lose it.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Norm. Yes Peter did a great job of allowing us to play this largest of battles in an evening - a feat even with V&F rules! Card play has grown on me gradually, since playtesting many of Sam Mustafa's games, and I do think the balance is about right with V&F, although your tweak might well be an improvement - and certainly easy to manage the hand!
DeleteA fine game there Ralph and good to see a bath-tubbed scenario to make it playable in an evening and on a 'normal' sized table:). By the look of it, the figures are from Pendraken? It certainly does show of the benefits of gaming in 10mm as it really does look like a big battle rather than a school geography field trip!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve very kind, and glad you enjoyed our opportunity to play a big game in an evening! Yes all Pendraken - we did start the set up with a battery of ex RISK game guns (which in my opinion paint up very well!) but they were replaced as more collections arrived...I have now sold off my 10mm collection now that Epic is headed for this era but yes it really was a grand scale feeling!
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