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.
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!
I really enjoyed that, your opening photo presentation as always is splendid and it was nice seeing this 10mm collection out. I am liking the idea of smaller forces representing the armies, I know it carries the term ‘bath tubbing’, but I prefer to think of it as a theme since most of what we do is so repreresentative anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely game there Ralph and form a period not often seen gamed, or so it seems to me. The 'bath tubbing' works really well and as Norm has mentioned above, our games are always representations anyway. As long as you can get the flavour and feel of the battle, then that's fine with me:).
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