French Ordonnance vs Maximilian Imperials

 I've been lucky to get four or five games in over the last few months and this might be the last one for a while- so it was gonna be a good one.

Ross's early 16th Century collection is spectacular. He has a vast, beautifully painted collection of Swiss, French Gendarmes, Landsknechts, Argoulets, Pavisiers, Burgundian Knights, German Knights, Italians of the same, arquebus, crossbow etc etc...all the stuff that makes that period so fascinating!

Putting his French on the table to fight his Maximilian Imperials, we knew it was going to be a bloodbath- loads of pike and heavy knights....

Seven Years War- Another Day , Another Scenario...

 For this game I took one of the old Table Top Teasers by Charles Grant and translated it to our rules and tabletop. This time there was no difference in quality of troops or commanders. Both sides had a Dashing commander, a Dependable commander and a Ditherer! (based on the command structure of Honours of War) As the vanguard of their respective armies the forces were composed of similar (identical!!) troop types.

Each side had six line infantry battalions, one light infantry battalion and three regiments of dragoons- all of the same quality. I am sure that this was historical....both sides exactly equal!!

The Teaser map from 1978. I added a couple of hills near each objective.

More Seven Years War - with no more dithering and no more bad die rolls!!

 After our last game, which was enjoyable despite the poor French performance we went for round two.

Another scenario was decided on as Ross and I were too traumatised to play the same one after our (French) Foote commanders refused to move. Paul was keen to give it another go- but we went for a scenario : Multiple objectives.

This scenario required the defenders ( French) to have their forces deployed at various points around the table ( see map - Zones A,B and C) and the attackers ( Austrians- Zone Z) to be deployed in one area. The town itself was worth two points and each hill (three: X,Y, Z) was worth a point each.

My sketch for deployment

The deployment and the arrows indicating the direction of advance for each side:
 Blue /French, Red/Austrian

The French defense was randomised and was split across the three deployment zones. Under the Honours of War rules the French infantry and cavalry ( Heavies especially) are inferior ( or just slower) than the Austrians. So using the point system, the French had quite a few more troops- but much poorer quality even though wisdom states that the attackers should outnumber the defenders.

Seven Years War Scenario: poor generals and bad die rolls

With our Seven Years War /War of the Austrian Succession armies nearing completion, it was time to give some of the available troops a run through. Paul had rebased his lovely Minifigs Austrians ( that once belonged to Ross three decades ago) and Ross' French were put through their paces.

We had decided that the usual head-to-head stoush really didn't cut the mustard as it lacked any forethought and didn't give us the ability to use our brilliant tactical minds ( sure..whatever). Scenarios were what was called for and we went for one called 'exposed vanguard'.

Paul and Chris were the Austrians.
Ross and I played Ross' French.

The scenario was only five turns in length and was fairly straight forward. A small vanguard of Austrians (three battalions and 1 battery) were holding a series of low hills on the far side of the table- closer to the French deployment zone the bulk of the Austrians ( 5 battalions of Infantry , 1 gun and 3 Cuirasssier units) had to get there to relieve them before they were swamped by the attacking French ( 6 Battalions of Infantry , 2 guns, 3 Dragoons and 2 Line Cavalry).  

Using the Honours of War rules, the Austrians had superior Cuirassiers, superior guns and standard infantry. The French were inferior Dragoons, standard Line Cavalry, infantry and guns but were a bit slower moving under the 'national' characteristics.

What topped it off, was the fact that the French CinC was 'Dithering' as were his senior infantry commander and his dragoon commander.

The Austrians were all Dependable except one who was 'Dashing'.

These classifications make for interesting gaming as players must roll each turn to see how each Brigade will respond.

Now the scenario was based on the French being about one and a half turns from the hills and the Austrian relief forces were 3 infantry turns away- depending on die roll.

And that's where the title of this post came in.  The French infantry 'dithered' for two turns in the first three, the French artillery rolled three ones in a row....'sigh'......whereas the Austrians tore across the table, in Turn 2 getting a double move in fact....it was basically obvious that the French weren't doing any real damage to the vanguard and by the end of turn four the French commander was facing a firing squad.