As promised. Here are pics of the game. The idea for the scenario was taken from CSG 'Scenarios for Wargames', Reinforcing a Town p.38 and loosely based on Battle of Landen (or Neerwinden). Our local game store puts on a 1 day event each year. It's primarily a 40k and card game tourny. We always put on something historical to show people there are other things out there. Last year we did Fontenoy and this year we decided to go big. 80% of my BLB collection was on the table. We had fun and that's all that matters.
Game start. Lots of French to not so many Dutch et.al.
The French close as a sheepherder tries to get the flock out of the way.
The French view of the approach. At the top we see a lone grenadier unit outside the village. (a 3B BUA) The French general learned a valuable lesson on how to assault a BUA and its not one unit at a time.
Meanwhile the horse begin to face off. The Mousquetaires de la Garde (my favorite and best painted unit) seen just off camera, top left, and the Danish Livgard on the road.
A view down the line.
Things get down to business. The Garde Suisse (just in front of Reg't Normandie) moved up over and down the hill into the Hesse-Darmstadt battalion without batting an eye. They then swung round and assisted the assault on the village. The Hessians were not finished merely deterred.
Meanwhile the horse were having a bustle. The French were winning most of the day but at cost. The Dutch were able to eventually reinforce and make a showing.
The Danish Livgard and the Mousquetaires de la Garde come face to face. Both units invoked the AoN charge, cheers of "Viva le Roi" and a clash of metal. The battle was hard fought and in the end it was the French who chased the Danes away.
The Mousquetaires de la Garde chase their foes, but victory was not to be for the Dutch Foot Guard had arrived and stopped them with a volley.
The horse battle had been won but it was too late. The Dutch had time to reinforce, the Dutch Guard and English Guard supported by a light gun and a frensh regiment of horse had arrived. This was more than a match for the lone French sqdn.
The fight for the village continues. This fight lasted well over 8 turns. It wasn't until the Dutch player decided that he needed more dice as his troops were loosing the attrition battle. He sent in King William. It was an unwise move. In the next turn of assault both King William and the brigadier had perished. We checked morale for the garrison who passed but as the game master this loss to me was too much given the period and I decided the entire garrison became shaken. The next assault the French were finally able to break the perimeter. (their 1st turn of victory) The fight for the village was over and in French hands but so bloodied they were the wind could have forced them out again.
The fight for the 2nd bridge was a slow affair. The Dutch player had sent a squadron of Austrian cuirassier over to charge the Dauphin Regiment. Oh, you don't see any cuirassier? Thats because the Dauphin shot them to a man before that got themselves organized.
The French never seemed to have any sense of urgency in taking this bridge crossing. They did finally get an upper hand here just as their right flank crumbled and were entering the village. The French commander seeing it may be a fools gamble to continue decided to withdraw.
A final shot, most of the Allied battalions were now shaken due to seeing 2 routs, the Hessians who routed and most drowned in the river and the Brandenburgers trying to get back across the bridge.
The French had 2 fresh regiments of horse on their left flank that went unused the whole battle. They could have assisted the right but sat idle. The French also could have taken the town sooner had he coordinated his attack better. Two battalions of grenadiers were wasted before they could be properly supported. (chalk that up to first time player and poor advice) The Dutch player completely ignorant of the period threw the king around like he was Thor. He paid the price.
Strategically the game was a loss for the French but both sides didn't have much fight in them by games end. Again it was fun and thats what we aimed for. All the 40k players were jealous of the board and a few would have rather played our game had they not been committed.