On the Road to Denain - July 1712

We had another game of Beneath the Lily Banner last Saturday. This was our first “big” game, in that there were six gamers and one moderator (me). Some people  had a good time, some didn’t … kind of what you expect for the first play through with multiple people at the table.

The forces arrayed for battle, Dutch far side, French near side.

(Dutch commanders from left to right, Bob, Pat & Mike)

Each side had fourteen battalions of infantry, four squadrons of cavalry and three batteries. In hind sight I should have cut out a battery and at least three battalions of infantry per side. The French commander was rolled as a gifted leader, and was commanded by Troy, with Wes and John acting as sub commanders. While the Dutch commander, played by Bob, was rolled as competent; Mike and Pat acted as sub-commanders.

English in Dutch service from Bob’s collections (top), with columns of French infantry from Troy’s collection (bottom).

The French battalions advanced all along the front (they almost always had 100% orders), while the Dutch commanders kept the right flank stationary and attacked with the troops on the left .

A few Spanish battalions showed up to help the Dutch out!

The Dutch are making some headway, but the woods anchoring the French right, made it difficult for the Dutch cavalry to turn the flank.

The French had closed the distance and firing commenced all along the center of both armies.

An overhead shot near the end of the game, you can see on the left that the French cavalry is in the process of smashing the English horse.

Overall the game went as well as can be expected considering that most of the players had never played BLB2. As is the norm, there were a couple of game questions that the rules could not answer. But I am still very keen on the rules and look forward to running another game next month.

Beneath the Lily BannerGame Two

Bob and I had our second game of Beneath the Lily Banners this week. It was a slightly smaller game, in that we cut out a couple of infantry battalions as we wanted to focus on cavalry actions this game.

We each had four battalions of infantry, two squadrons of cavalry and an field battery ... again the British were Platoon fire for infantry and Blade for cavalry. While the French were Rank firing and Bullet cavalry. All units were classed as Drilled as well. Both Commanders were rolled as Competent.

 



The Battle
The start of the battle saw about half of each side advancing ... under the cover of long range artillery fire. The second turn saw our first cavalry clash (our last as it turns out!).

 

The bonus for being blade tipped the balance to the British cavalry who won the first round 5 to 3. We each reinforced the battle with a second squadron. Even so, as both sides were disordered, we each only rolled a couple of dice. 

 

The British still won, 2 to 1. This brought up a few issues (aka problems!) as the casualties inflicted eliminated the French squadron. With much reading we moved on through it, which resulted in the British squadrons overrunning the other French Squadron.

 

Bob now set out to send his infantry forward, ... that was the plan, but he had several bad turns for orders, so only a couple battalions of infantry advanced.

The sluggish nature of the advanace allowed the French Artillery to pour fire onto a lead battalion, eventually reducing it to half strength and shakey morale. By then though we each had two battalions of infantry blazing away with musketry.

The British cavalry had reformed and charged into a fresh French battalion, who issued their opening volley onto the foolish cavalry ... one hit was inflicted.  I though that was the end of infantry, but in the combat they managed to draw with the horse 3-3. Now reduced the horse only rolled one die, while the infantry rolled two ... and won 2-1! With the British Horse eliminated we decided to call the game.

After Action Report
While we still had a good time with the game, we did run into several issues/problems. While I do still like the morale checks we have to make, they did not seem to impact the game much. We must have taken over twenty five checks for various reasons ... and only had one unit become Shaken! Basically you need a 4+ to pass and it is real easy (especially in a small game) to get positive modifiers. The thing with casualties' is that they don't kick in until the unit is really starting to get beat up, so I suspect most units will simple be destroyed before they ever Rout.

The other issue that came up was with multiple units in close combat. There is some vague wording about it. the first is what happens to the reinforcing unit if the primary unit is destroyed? It implies that it is treated as a Lost Combat, but is that for the round or the whole combat? ie does it just take a morale check as normal or does it rout. Also what happens to the reinforcing unit if the primary unit is wipe out AND lost a number of combat rounds to auto Rout? Also are casualties spread upon all units or just the primary unit?

We also found that Cavalry is very brittle ... basically they have one good charge in them.

I am really keen to try a game with a scenario and multiple people ... While I know it will bring up other issue we will have to work through, it will be more entertaining to have a reason to attack/defend then just to "test out" game mechanics. :)

Beneath the Lily BannerWar of the Spanish Succession

Bob M. and I put out his 28mm War of the Spanish Succession figures onto the gaming table and had our first game of 2^nd Edition Beneath the Lily Banners last Friday. I was keen on playing an “old school” system, after years of playing Black Powder. Bob would play the attacking Allied force, while I commanded the French. 

Below is the order of battle we used, all troops were drilled unless otherwise marked. The Allied foot was rated as Platoon Firing, while the French foot were rated as Rank & File Firing. Allied Horse was classed as Blade and French were classed as Bullet. We rolled for our Commanders ability, and Lt General Ross of the allied army was Skillful (up 1 level), while Lt General De Vivans was Competent (no modifier).

 

British: Lieutenant General Ross   Brigade Brigadier General Sabine 4x Foot 1x Elite Foot 1x Light Gun   Brigade Brigadier General Borck 2x Foot (Dutch)   Regiment 2x Horse

French: Lieutenant General de Vivans   Brigade Brigadier General Mirabeau 5x Foot 1x Elite Foot   In Redan (under Defend orders) 1x Foot (Raw) 1x Field Gun   Brigade (reserve) Brigadier General Nangis 4x Horse

Bob’s objective was to drive the French off the table, while having to pass under the guns of a French field battery on their left flank. I had to hold on until the French Cavalry reserve arrived.

 

 

 

Turns 1 and 2

Bob was able to roll pretty well for orders and most of his force advanced. The French guns did manage to cause a couple of causality on the lead Dutch battalion.

 

Turn 3

Bob was able to advance 75% of his troops, while I only had 50% of my troops active this turn. I decided to move up some battalions on my right flank, while most of the British, less the cavalry and elite battalion advanced toward us.
 

This movement brought us into extreme musketry range … and of course we both decided to let lose our initial volleys’ from several of our battalions J, we both managed to inflict several hits. The field battery scored several more hits on the Dutch battalion and these were beginning to mount up for the battalion.

 

Turn 4

Alas Lt General De Vivans did not cope well with the close proximity of the enemy, so he focused on his center battalions and had them move to close range musketry. The French commander was also getting a little nervous as his cavalry still had not arrived; fortunately the allied Regiment of Horse remained in the rear.

 

More fire was piled onto the Dutch battalion and it finally routed from the continuous artillery fire. Light casualties sprung up along both lines of infantry, as most frontline battalions were now in effective or close range.

Turn 5

The French cavalry arrived … and promptly held steady. The lead English battalion was Shaken last turn by French musketry fire. Noting this, Brigadier General Mirabeau rode over to his center battalion and personally led them in a charge to drive off the English battalion. Firing continued to ply back and forth along the battle line as Brigadier General Sabine attached himself to his battalion which was under some difficulty. As the French Battalion steadily marched toward them, he calmly issued an order to hold their volley till the last moment…

 

Close Combat

Round one saw both sides fight well in the initial clash, with the French just getting the better of the English, 3 to 2. Each side now reinforced the combat by adding in a fresh battalion, but the shaken status of the English started to tell as they lost the round 4 to 2. The English were on the verge of routing when Brigadier Sabine was felled from his horse … but miraculously he stood back up and dusted himself off without a scratch. His troops rallied around him and fought on! Round three saw a draw (2 to 2). The French so sure of victory beforehand, were now a little nervous and tired from the ongoing combat as the casualties mounted. Round four saw again another draw (2 to 2) and alas the French had enough and retreated from the combat, their “easy victory” left behind them!

 

 

We stopped at this point as we had accomplished most of what we set out to game that day. The only thing we did not get to was a cavalry charge/combat.

 

Overall I had a good time and will play BLB again. There were a few issues that needed to be resolved, but only the hits/stands issue is important to game play. It took some time to adjust to the slow pace of the game, infantry only moves 4” a turn! And you need to be much more careful and precise when placing and moving units than a game of Black Powder.

 

I think our next game will be a multi-player per side scenario, but don’t foresee adding more troops as 6ish units per player is plenty.