Tuesday 13 March 2012

BLB2 - Test Game 3


Myself and Gentleman Richard got together for our last test game of Beneath the Lily Banners 2, before we unleash them upon the other Rejects.
During the last two games we didn't get a lot of infantry v infantry melee, so Rich designed a scenario where melee had to happen.
The French were defending a Medium sized built up area, classified as a 2B. To win they just had to hold the area and try and keep the English out. The French have a small but good quality army, while the larger English army is of lesser quality. The Commanders were rolled for, the French commander was a plodder, while the English commander was Competent.

The Initial set-up

 The French
French OOB
Commander General Charles de la Tour la Pin - Rating Plodder

Brigade Le Capeleir
Champagne, Rank, Elite
La Couronne, Rank, Elite
La Guiche, Rank, Drilled
1st Heavy gun, Position, Drilled

Brigade Florian
Bourbonnais, Rank, Guard
Col-Gen 1st Squadron, Dis-Mounted Dragoons, Bullet, Drilled
Col-Gen 1st Squadron, Dis-Mounted Dragoons, Bullet, Drilled

Brigade Ducrot
Gendarmes de la Garde, Blade, Guard
Chevaux-Legers de la Guard, Blade, Guard

The English and Allies

English OOB
Commander William III - Rating Competent

Brigade Ginkel
du Cambon, Rank, Drilled
la Caillemotte, Rank, Drilled
de Meloniere, Rank, Raw

Brigade Overkirke
1st Guards, Rank, Elite
Mackay's, Rank, Drilled
Churchill's, Rank, Drilled

Brigade Wuttenberg
Hessen-Darmstadt's Rank, Drilled
Trelawny's, Rank, Drilled
Leslie's, Rank, Drilled
Royal Scots, Rank, Drilled

Brigade Tilly
Coy's Horse1st Squadron, Bullet, Drilled
Coy's Horse 2nd Squadron, Bullet, Drilled
Langston's Horse 1st Squadron, Bullet, Drilled
Langston's Horse 2nd Squadron, Bullet, Drilled

French regt Bourbonnais

The 1st and 2nd Squadrons of the Colonel-General Dragoon Regt 

French regt La Guiche

 The English advance, all units in the first turn, but only 50% on turn 2. Churchill's regt, (in front of the town), start to take casualties from the artillery on the rear hill.

The French failed to move the first turn, but could move 50% of their troops on turn 2

Richard, the clever chap that he is, made up these markers for all his units.

We had a discussion as to how some of the Rejects would get along with the rules, we decided to make markers so they would all recognise, what unit was what, what rating they are, Guard, Elite, Drilled and Raw. 1-6+ for casualties, Dis-disordered, Mo-Morale and 1st-1st fire.

 Ginkel's Brigade advance towards the dis-mounted Dragoons, my plan was to attack the Dragoons, then try hold the Horse with two of the units and attack the town with the last unit

 Overkirke's Brigade moving to attack the town, on turn 3 Churchill's regt would end up taking a total of 4 casualties, with fire from the artillery and the town, while Bourbonnais in the town, lose 3 casualties


La Courrone in reserve, while their leader Le Chapelier hid's behind a bush.


The rear of the English lines


The French Dragoons take musketry fire and lose a combined 3 figures, while they fire back and cause 1 casualty on the Huguenot regt le Caillemotte, who only just pass their morale check.


Churchill's take even more casualties and fail their morale test and go Shaken, the yellow marker.

 Its now Turn 5, the English can move 75% of their troops while the French can only move 50%.
Du Cambon on the left fail their morale to charge, I should have charged la Caillemotte as well, but was a little worried about the enemy Horse not far away.


I decided to just go for it and charged Mackay's regt in! We were testing the rules after all. Bourbonnais in the town passed their morale and held their fire until short range, giving a devastating volley, gulp!

 Meanwhile on the English right flank, that had been a little left out advanced and gave fire, Trelawney's fired at La Guiche behind the hedge and took 4 casualties but received 3 back. While both Hesse-Darmstadt's and the French Champagne took 3 casualties each.


With the threat of the French cavalry I unwisely decided to move my Horse around to 
the left, look at the mess I made???

 As they charged in Mackay's took 4 casualties....ouch!!!
And a double ouch as they lost the melee as well, taking another 7, yes 7 casualties to 2 for the French. But Mackay's were made of sterner stuff and easily passed their morale test.

Turn 6 saw the French Horse charge into la Caillemotte who just managed to move their pikes to the front to receive Horse, but failed to fire. I should have taken the charge as I was and fired....big mistake!!!


The previously shaken Churchill's regt regained their composure and charged into the melee, with the brigade leader Overkirke attached.

 In a hard fought slog, the French were pushed back, taking 5 casualties, while the two English regiments took 1 casualty each. So the English were now in the town!!!

 Poor la Caillemotte's get battered by the All or Nothing charge from the French Guards.

They died to the man!!!!!
But the French Brigade leader became a casualty, I eagerly awaited Richards throw 
on the casualty chart, he threw a 6??
The result was " The men see a bullet pass through his hat and he lives. This unit can upgrade their
quality one level for the rest of the game as they are led by a Son of Mars"
Oh Bugger!!

The loss of le Caillemotte's regt caused a disaster on my left flank as one after the other, de Melonaire, du Cambon, the 1st Guards! and the artillery all failed their morale and went Shaken, but it couldn't stop the final defeat of the French in the town, in the next melee the French lost again and were pushed out of the town, giving a victory to the English, sorry no pics of the final victory, my camera decided to run out of batteries!!!

We both learned a lot from this game, and I've sent 2 questions onto the League of Augsberg's forum, hopefully we'll get an answer nice and quick, ready for the next game!!
Cheers
Ray and Richard


56 comments:

  1. Good one, Ray! The markers are a great idea, but as you do not remove stands until half the unit is gone, then you need to go to 9 on the marker.

    Btw, i replied to yer reply.

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  2. It does Justin, just put a stick on +6 then another on 3 and there you go..9!

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  3. It looks like your test games are going well Ray and that you're having a good time developing this. I like the house in the town and your flags always look nice on the field.

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  4. Great looking game Ray. Nice photos.

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  5. Good report Ray. Agree the markers are a good idea and look smart.

    Do you think the Rejects are ready for the rules?

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  6. Very nice batrep, great pics too, thanks for sharing!

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  7. What a pity not to have pictures of the end, even if the French have lost!
    "Longue vie au régiment Bourbonnais"...
    Very nice report, Ray! Great photos and figs!

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  8. This was a fun read, Ray. Seems to me you Gents had a great time bouncing dice and directing units of troops. Speaking of which, the troops are nicely painted and adorn the battlefield very well. The markers are a creative touch: they look good on the table (the color doesn't compete with the rest of the board, but rather blends-in). "Hiding in the bushes" and "Son of Mars"...I'm going to meditate on this for awhile.

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  9. Great update. Love the detail!

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  10. Good game...looking forward to having a go of this at some point [returning the hint!]

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  11. Great write up, some lovely pictures there. Not played Beneath the Lily Banners, but it sounds like a quality ruleset. How long did the battle take to run?

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  12. Looks good, thanks for sharing!

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  13. Great battle report and some great pics too. Those little card markers are a great idea.

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  14. Well, we lost... Again. But at least we did it with panache sacrebleu! Good batrep Ray, and looking forward to read some more

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  15. Nice report. Those markers are a great idea. Thanks for pointing them out, I was going to ask about them.

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  16. Very nice looking game - would love to have played... the marker idea is genius and I may well rip it off and claim it as my own for Regimental Fire and Fury games where tracking a host of factors is onerous in the extreme....

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  17. Great looking game, thanks for all the pictures!

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  18. Good report Ray, it certainly was a good struggle. The Rejects should love these rules - if they can handle the frustrations as well. What is it you think worked best with the rules in this game? I think the fight for the town and the diminishing effect of musketry seemed to provide a real period flavour.

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  19. I think its going to be interesting watching the guys trying to come to terms with their army NOT doing exactly what they want it too! I thought the attack on the town worked excellently, it was a very hard slog, which it should be, but it wasn't impossible. I was pretty worried over the casualties from musketry after the first round of fire, but the second round was quite ineffectual, due to the losing the first fire effect. I was quite pleased with your cavalry charge and the way it slaughtered my poor Huguenot regt, Note to everyone, don't let your infantry be caught by Blade horse!! It isn't very nice!!!

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  20. Excellent report. I really like that new marker -- seems very clever and practical without being intrusive on the table top.

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  21. Nice looking battlefield and entertaining report!

    Christopher

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  22. Great report! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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  23. Great to see all those lovely new units in action.
    Tempting me to give BLB2 a test run................

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    Replies
    1. You may as well, you seem to own every other set of rules!!

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    2. Oh I own BLB2 just not tried them yet :-)

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    3. LOL!!! How did I know you were gonna say that???

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  24. Nice looking game! I quite like the marker system...

    Curt

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  25. Good thing you went through the test run then o.o

    It also gets me every time I see these well built cities.. and a giant chair just past the horizon. It's awesome.

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  26. You certainly get to play some great looking games Ray! Great report too.

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  27. Lovely pictures, great looking game

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  28. Great looking game. I really like the unit roster markers your friend made. Great idea!

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  29. Great report. Excellent pics, lovely minis and terrain, and as always, very well written, too. I love that "Son of Mars" result.

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  30. Brilliant report, great pictures and I got a real feel for the game. Tops Sir, Just Tops

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  31. Great lloking game there Ray! thanks for sharing.

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  32. Great recount of the action! It made me feel like I was there but with out the pain of leaning over a table moving figures for hours!

    (camera batterys dying is my all time pet peeve!!!)

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  33. great looking game, Ray



    http://generalwildescivilwarinminiature.blogspot.com/

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  34. Oh my gosh, I love the little house. So cute. I know I'm not supposed to say something is cute on you wargamer dude sites, but that is too cute.

    In answer to your question, habanera is a hot pepper. So yummy. Love them. Num, num, num.

    Cheers and boogie boogie.

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  35. Beautiful looking game, Ray - excellent post - any amount of this will be most welcome!

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  36. great looking game - with some great scenery and models

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  37. Looking real good! And I really love the markers!

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  38. Thanks for a realy good AAR and good looking gaming table !

    best regards dalauppror

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  39. Nice battle!! Now, I am being tempted by Nine Years War period... oh, hell...

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  40. A really interesting battle, Ray, with a very good AAR. This rulebook is really good.

    Best regards.

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  41. Ray, what base sizes are you using for BtLB?

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  42. Hi Al,
    The bases are 35mm x 30mm for infantry, 40 x 40 for cavalry and 30 x 40 for artillery. The frontage is the first number on all three.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. Do you make your own 35x30's or buy them (and, if so, who does them)?

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    2. These are all bought from Warbases, here's a link:

      http://www.warbases.co.uk/

      They sell most sizes of the shelf, but for the 35x30, they made them up for me, they're relatively cheap and a quality product, highly recommended!!!

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  43. They look marvelous! Can you direct me to uniforms and units of the monmouth Rebellion please. I have just bought some North star soldiers and am wondering if I cn use thier dragoons fr this period?

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  44. That’s not really a really huge statement,I enjoy the topics you created. If you wish to pre order that toys or anything from the PIJ. .I just ordered these consoles at PIJ! I’m excited! I’m going to have these in week! http://bit.ly/saintseiya

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