Friday, January 01, 2016

Library Games - with a flavor of Spain

Another Library SHAKO II game, this time with red coats supported by death or glory Brunswickers.

one of my 'Eagles" that I use as a tabletop marker, in this case it was used as the deployment line

the table layout

deployment this time took a bit longer as there were some terrain discussions about both sides

the French held back a division of foot to arrive on turn 1

the Anglo-Brunswick force aligned with reverse-slopes

save for a few Brunswickers and the artillery which positioned so as to deal out as much damage as possible on the advancing French.
Right from the start an error appeared in the French plans ... we had discussed sending two divisions up the same line so as to hit the flank of the Anglo position, the problem was he also put his Dragoons in the same line for the start ...

the confused mass of foot and horse became disordered in the French flank

Anglo artillery could not reach the mass in trouble, though they did reach the first advancing division

more of the confused mass, as a division of foot pressed through a division of Dragoons

Anglo troops moved to be ready at the hill crests

while French forces surged forward

the leading division was clearing fanning out into the Anglo flank
A few turns passed in artillery fire and a few hand to hand encounters.

The French columns press onward, now clear of the horse

a wave of men rushes over the low hills

French Command

tip of the spear, thrusting towards the Anglo lines

French horse battery now run to the flank, opens fire at point blank range, wile Anglo artillery continues firing
The close-quarter battles had only begun.

overview at turn 5

the light cavalry commander with the skycloth backdrop

light cavalry force sweeps into the flank

at the same time the second division of foot slams into the same Anglo flank ... the test of the Anglo defenses was on!
table on turn 6

French Cops artillery was firing all game at long range, did not hit much

Anglo Command

The melee in full force
Still nothing had been decided, by turn 7 the outcome suddenly came into clear focus.

fully engaged, the Anglo defenses must hold

casualties mount as battalions of French foot began crumbling in the brutal hand to hand combats

still the French pressed on

light cavalry engaged on the flank, cut down by Anglo light horse

Anglo foot battalions delivered volley after volley until French units fled

the two sides light cavalry clashed, the French did not win out

masters of the field, it was the Anglo heavy guns that dealt out the bulk of the casualties, which led to damaged columns before they could close to hand to hand
The Anglo-Brunswick forces were the winners, though not by much.

Next game at the library will be January 23, 2016

2 comments:

David Cooke said...

Enjoyable read. Was it because of the delay that Allies won?

MurdocK said...

Dunno about the delay, as the French were not in any way able to muster enough to force off the Anglo troops and the Brunswickers had not even had a single casualty as of the end of game.

Nice part was a number of folks who came in to look closely at the miniatures and chat about the game.

We are getting to display more...