Re-fight of Oudenarde

This forum section is open to posts, questions and comments on conflicts between the end of the Great Northern War and the start of the French Revolution. So, Austrian Succession, SYW AND AWI affecionados .. this is for you!
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Sir Humphrey Rtd
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Location: Blackpool

Re-fight of Oudenarde

Post by Sir Humphrey Rtd » Wed May 07, 2014 10:56 am

At the beginning of April I posted that myself and a few fellow masochists were planning to refight Oudenarde at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke.

Well the refight was last weekend and here is a quick précis of the action with a few of the better pictures (really must learn how to better use my camera).

It was decided that rather than use the standard rules and OB's we would complete the re-fight using Beneath Lily Banners and rework the OB's.
The other change made was that each sub-commander (there was 10 of use) would be responsible for their own command ability rolls, with Eugene and Marlborough to use their abilities to override the sub-commander. This also allowed for introduction of the "donkey award" for the commander who threw the most 1's for the command ability rolls over the weekend.

The centre has a 28 foot by 15 foot table available with over 2,500 figures available for War of Spanish Succession. We used the standard map for the re-fight that can be found using the link below.

http://www.wargameshc.co.uk/index.php/t ... day-centre

So over the next three days (roughly 18 hours of wargaming) the action came thick and fast.

Overall the forces Allied 66 regiments of foot and 56 squadrons of cavalry and for the French 64 regiment of foot and 40 squadrons of cavalry. I know this was the wrong way round but we had exhausted the French figures available at the centre so the call was made that some of Burgundy's forces would still be straggling to the field.

As could be predicted the Allied Advance Guard under Cadagon (12 Infantry Regiments and 6 Cavalry Squadrons) started the attack on the French Advance Guard (14 Infantry Regiments and 6 Cavalry Squadrons) quickly taking Eyne by Assault and threatening the flank of the advance guard.

Argyll's column (16 Infantry Regiments and 12 Cavalry Squadrons) quickly moved to support Cadagon forces, with Eugene lending a hand with command ability scores and quickly took the villages of Grunwold and Schaerken.
Campbell Moves past Eyne.jpg
Campbell Moves past Eyne.jpg (53.39 KiB) Viewed 7129 times
During this time the Vendome's first wing of troops with the support of the French Reserve Cavalry (16 Infantry Regiments and 18 Cavalry Squadrons) had advanced to try and slow the allied advance, this led to a cavalry battle that raged in the centre of the field for the best part of a day and a half.
French Cavalry Advance.jpg
French Cavalry Advance.jpg (50.07 KiB) Viewed 7129 times
So at the end of Saturdays play the allies had advanced in the centre and Vandome's 1st line had taken position Herleghen and Schaerken, with rolling cavalry battle being fought in the gap between the two villages.
Vandome's 2nd line(14 Infantry Regiments and 4 Cavalry Squadrons) had secured the village of Diepenbeke and taken up position between the Boser Couter and Schaerken.

The allied 2nd column under Lottum (24 Infantry Regiments and 8 Cavalry Squadrons) had taken position opposite them, with Overkirk (14 Infantry Regiments and 6 Cavalry Squdrons) replicating the flank march this time of the Boser Couter to threaten the French flank. The allied German Cavalry wing under Natzmer (24 Cavalry Squdrons) was swinging in on the allied right flank to threaten Syngem.

And where do you ask were Burgundy's forces - they were still making their stately progress over the first six foot of table and had yet to arrive!

And so we adjourn to a local hostelry to discuss the day's action.

The picture below shows the state of play first thing on the Sunday morning with the majority of the action still being in the centre of the field.
Action in Centre and right wing.jpg
Action in Centre and right wing.jpg (162.2 KiB) Viewed 7129 times
The cavalry action has started to slow in the centre, mainly due to the rapidly diminishing French cavalry!! By the end of the day only 2 squadrons survived out of a total of 19.

But the French centre was bolstered by the arrival of Burgandy's left wing (13 Infantry Regiment and 8 Cavalry Squadrons) to take up position Heurne.

On the French right flank Lottum starts his assault supported by Overkirk's Dutch Cavalry. The two French cavalry regiments on this flank do not perform well, in the first engagements they lost both melee's and in the subsequent turn when they had a chance to charge the disordered Dutch cavalry, one refuses to charge, while the other decides discretion is the better part of valour and retreats behind it Infantry, damn those 1's.

Lottum's artillery set up and start long range fire on Vandome's right wing infantry and mounts an assault against Diepenbeke. The first assault were repulsed but the second carried the defences. This is where the rot set in for the French right wing! One of the French infantry regiments routed after coming under fire which led to the garrison in Diepenbeke to also rout. On the left of Diepenbeke a couple of regiments had been shaken under artillery fire and these units decided to join in the general rout of the Infantry.

This was just in time to stream past the initial arrivals of Burgundy's right wing (14 Infantry Regiments and 4 Cavalry Squadrons) , where two of the regiments shook and an artillery battery decided it would be a good time to retreat!!

So the last action of the day took place with one of Burgundy's cavalry regiments to charge the Overkirk's Dutch cavalry - who keeping to the theme of the weekend were promptly overridden.

At 5:30 on the Sunday where did we stand, the French Right wing was in retreat, the centre starting to be surrounded, replicating the outcome of the battle.

So what would I change if we did this again?

While making Burgundy a Plodder accurately reflected the original battle, I would make him competent in future just to give the French more of a chance as over 50% of Burgundy's forces did not really get involved. With the Gardes Francais having a picnic at the back of the battlefield!!!
Also I would also consider some form of "march move" to be able to bring forces into play when outside an "engagement" range.


All that was left was to make the "donkey" award for the commander who had rolled to most 1's on their command abilities for orders and that dubious honour went to yours truly.


So we adjourned to the local hostelry for the evening, starting to plan for next year and a return to Napoleonic's and a re-fight of Waterloo using Grand Manner rules. Also it was agreed that the player who commanded and lost the French Cavalry in the centre over the last 3 days would not be playing the role of Ney in that battle!
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