War of the Roses - Deus Vult playtest

Mike and Troy brought their fantastic WOTR era miniature to the shop for a playtest of the Dues Vult WOTR house rules I have been working on.

Mike’s Force	Troy’s Force
Main Division: Earl Wydeville Army Standard Dismounted Men-At-Arms Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Cannons Mercenary Division: Lord Stanley Welsh Spearmen Mercenary crossbow Currours Reserve Division: Lord Hastings Retinue Longbowmen Retinue Billmen Mounted Men-At-Arms Mounted Men-At-Arms	Right Division: Duke Somerset Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Militia Billmen Retinue bow Cannon Left Division: Lord Shrewsbury Dismounted Men-At-Arms Militia Billmen Retinue bow Mounted Men at Arms Northern Border: Lord Egremont Northern Border Spearmen Northern Border Billmen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen Mercenary Pikemen
As is the norm when playing a new set of rules, the game started slowly, owing to lookong up rules and confirming stats. But it only took a couple of game turns, before we had the system down. Deciding the order of your division activation and initiative proved to be simple and fun turn sequence mechanic.
	Troy used the Blacken the Sky rule for his archers, while Mike stuck with the double volley for his. Mike tended to ‘kill’ more figures, while troy attacks always forced an overwheling morale check. Though which method is “better” is still open to debate and I suspect it depends.
We tried out my house rule for cannons and while they worked, they do need some tweaking. Moving was a little difficult to grasp at first because you had to move straight and wheel about the center as different actions. You also had a variable “fast” move value, by ‘pushing’. Which meant each unit had to make a disicipline check to move additional inches equal to the check.
Eventually the battle lines closed, and we quickly learned that being disordered in DV is extremly deadly. A large unit of mounted MAA rode down a unit of disordered pikemen in a single attack. Though when not charging disordered units, the combat did go on for several rounds.
It also took some getting use to not attacking back after the other side attacked you. You had wait until you activated the unit to attack back back, so it was possible to be attacked twice before you could attack back.

The Battle of Kalisz, 13th February 1813

The main bulk of the French troops, commanded by Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, was concentrated near Poznan to the west of the Vistula River, while the VII Saxon Corps was marching to the town of Kalisz ... The shortest route to Silesia led through the city of Kalisz, one of the biggest cities in the Duchy of Warsaw. On the evening of the 12th of February 1813 Kalisz was occupied by the Saxon Corps, led by General Reynier.

VII Corps (elements) General of Division Durutte Brigade (-von Steindel) Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Liebenau Brigade Jarry 1st/132nd Line 2nd/132nd Line 2nd/133rd Line 3rd/133rd Line 6th/5th FA Rgt Brigade (- Sahr) Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Spiegel Brigade General of Brigade Zoltowski (Polish) 1st Bn/ 2nd Infantry Regiment 2nd Bn/ 2nd Infantry Regiment 7th Uhlan Regiment Cavalry Krakusi Reserve Artillery Colonel Hoyez II Foot Battery IV Foot Battery

II Infantry Corps Prinz Eugen Wurtemberg 3rd Infantry Division 20th Jager Regiment Murom Infantry Regiment Revel Infantry Regiment Chernikhov Infantry Regiment Light Battery 4th Infantry Division 4th Jager Regiment Tobolsk Infantry Regiment Volhin Infantry Regiment Kremenchoug Infantry Regiment Heavy Battery Cavalry (- Trubetzki) Dragoons Dragoons Prussian (-Upper Silesian Brigade) Depot/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment Garrison/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment Fus. Depot/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment 4/,Depot/Silesian Uhlan Regiment

 

It was a small game, around 500 figures, so Steve (4^th Div + Dragoons) and John (3^rd Division + Prussians) were the two Russian commanders, while Ken commanded the French side.

Under the cover of artillery fire John advanced two battalions of infantry to cut off the lone Saxon Grenadier battalion.

The Saxon Grenadier Battalion von Liebenau was what was left of the French Left, after the 3,300 horsemen of General-Lieut. Lanskoi Combined Cavalry Division overran the other battalions of infantry. Ken was able to bring the other Saxon battalion into line and awaited the Russian attack.

A few command rolls later the Russian attack had not made any real headway. Though the French seemed to be very outnumbered at this point. So to buy as much time as he could, Ken kept his troops in a defensive line waiting for the Russian to arrive, while his one battery started pounding the Russian infantry to its front.

Some of the Russian Dragoons arrived, but they had trouble crossing the creek and did not take part in the battle. So it was left to the Russian infantry to decide the battle. And just as the russians right was beggining to press the French left, the first of the Polish reserves arrived. 

However none of the artillery reserve had arived, and when the large heavy 12lb battery open up at effective range, as well as being back up by some desolutory musket fire, the lone French foot battery was soon put out of action.

But victory was again delayed as two regiments of polish lancers, along with a battery of French guns arrived to stem the gap created by the loss of a French battalion.

The repreive was only tempory as a polish battalion was charged by the russians and broke. This triggered the retreat of all units back through Kalisz while it was still in French hands. By not taking the creek crossing and the French holding out for so long, the Russian managed a minor vicotory.