The Battle of Bagatelle

A minor but memorable fight.

Mid game, the French skirmishers have been having a hard time but the 3rd Battalion is moving forward with plans to demonstrate the effectiveness of a column charge against a unit that has already taken 50% casualties.

Unfortunately for the 3rd, the Erbprinz Regiment instead demonstrated the effectiveness of artillery close support, a tight formation that allows a player to complete a cycle quickly (and thus getting in more shots), lucky card draws, and steady troops (ie ones that roll high for morale tests and in melee). 

On the far flank, the combined operations plan appeared to work better. Skirmishers and artillery fire had worn down the Highlanders and British artillery. The French Hussars sacrificed themselves to distract and tie up the British Dragoons while the French Infantry columns struck hard (ie had decent movement and combat rolls.) The colour party was all that was left of the Black Watch and it was forced to retreat to safety.  

The newly formed, white coated 40th Infantry was hit in flank by the Greys but calmly formed square, saw them off and resumed their advance.   A handful of the Hessians were all that barred their way but these soldiers fought to the last man in a fierce fight that saw both commanders fall in the melee. (They both rolled a 1!) 

It was enough, as the day drew to a close, the Emigres, Jaegers and Greys were all still disputing the crossing while the French had run out of men and daylight, not to mention card cycles.  A victory for the Duke of York. (Not that he was anywhere near the battlefield).

The game was played using A Gentleman's War and homecast 40mm French Revolution figures. (all conversions from SYW castings) using a scenario from One Hour Wargames. The scenario calls for certain units to become active on a particular turn and also has a time limit. Since AGW doesn't have set turns, I have struggled with meshing the two approaches but this time I counted cycles for each side and that worked like a charm. I'll try the same approach with a CS Grant or Stuart Asquith scenario next time.

 

Rushing to the Front

 These patriotes were so keen to fight the enemies of the Republic that they rushed into battle without waiting to be issued washer bases or uncase their colours.

The fighting has ceased at nightfall, before they saw action, but will resume in the morning.

Stand To!

Time to exercise the troops. The 1794 Battle of Boxtel is similar enough in a vague, generalized way, to the "Blow from the Rear" scenario in One Hour Wargames.  In any case, river crossings, widely spread  "columns" (adhoc divisions), and sudden flank attacks were all common features of the fighting in Flanders.

Of course, once I started deploying the French I realized that the 2 skirmisher units I had counted were actually a single unit deployed as detachments. So, the 4th French infantry unit has now been assembled and primed. Battle will begin once they are painted and varnished.

What Storm?

 Is that it?? I think we've been passed by, no refill of the well, only a few gallons in the rainbarrels, no trees knocking down power lines...OK that part was fine by me. The rain was enough to discourage outside chores so my 1st Coalition column now has six table ready units. 

The Hessians (blue coated infantry) started life as a NQSYW Charge! Company but with a possible future home as Brunswickers in a revived AWI Northern campaign setting which didn't and won't happen. (1758/59 Louisburg and Quebec are back on the menu instead, now that the 30's are gone).  

Hesse-Hantz Erbprince Regiment screened by Jaegers. 

I couldn't turn up anything about Brunswick troops with the Duke of York in Flanders but there are frequent mention of Hessians so I figured if I'm changing their heads I may as well rebrand them. I don't have many sources for uniform but it didn't take long to find a picture of a Hesse Darmstadt Erbprinz Regiment with yellow facings and bicorne. Now, for those who are not Charge! afficienados, an Erbprinz regiment featured prominently. Done! More digging came up with a Confederation of the Rhine era flag for the Erbprinz so I did a rather crude rendition of that and the  revised regiment is on parade, shiny and ready for action.

An Apology and a Heads Up.

I was killing time yesterday, checking my blog reading list and so on, when it occurred to me that it had been ages since I had last been notified of a blog comment that needed approval. These are comments that have either been tagged as potential Spam by the system or were made more than three days after a post was published.

 It took a minute to sort out the new version comment approval tab and figure out why I hadn't received, or at least seen, any notices. To my dismay, in addition to several dozen Spam comments, there were about two dozen actual comments, some as old as July. Ooops! So, I went through, approving and replying. All caught up now. 

I have now made a note to myself to check the list daily and I apologise to all those who left a comment on a page or an older post and did not get answered or at least published.

Facing the camera are two members of the von Riedesel regiment.

When the new Prince August SYW moulds came out, I wanted to support them but had absolutely no place for Prussians and the like. My compatible armies were for Fontenoy or North America or else fictional. I decided it would be easier to do some Quebec/Saratoga campaigns American Revolution units than to start on Prussians. That didn't get far but now that I am recruiting for the 1st Coalition, it seemed to me that they would be close enough to fit, except for the hat which looks VERY old fashioned. The chap with the silver head is testing to see if he looks suitable in a bicorne, an easy way to add a unit with a minimum of work. Looks to me  like an easy way to make it 6 vs 6 units and avoid a surplus unit hanging around eating rations and grumbling. 

Over the last few days, preparations for the approach of another Hurricane have taken precedence over other activities so there is not much to post about. These days, power outages seem to be the inevitable result of having a Hurricane or even a Post Tropical storm  blow through so if I disappear for a few days, fear not, all the hatches are battened and we will be hunkered down, snacking and reading, maybe even playing a game, until the power is restored.

Frost warning for the morning, tropical storm warning for the afternoon. Ohhhkay. See you on the other side.