Malplaquet allied victory!

[dashing blade]

Two weeks ago,my unit tried to wargame Malplaquet. It was on a much smaller scale and we mostly focused on the righthand side of the field as seen from the French point of view. We used first edition BTLB rules,and even though many were new to gaming,let alone WSS gaming,we discovered how bloody the battle was!
How the hell the allies did it beggars belief, i know the casualties were high,but our game was a slaughter!
The de-brief afterward came up with the following questions
1. Are the rules up to a refight of Malplaquet and should we have custom built add ons for such a battle
2. How the hell did the allies keep going under that morale sapping fire?
3. Is it a modern condition that Officers and N.C.O's have a "Keep casualties to a absolute minimum" ethos?
4. Lucky dice throwing by French Artillery Commander (Lucky 6 Hailwood)

The debate continues,one thing is certain, modern warfare is very far removed from early 18th C battle

Any thoughts ?

[wdrenth]

Though I am not into wargaming myself, I find the observations you put forward interesting. Many years ago I played a computer game related to the battles of Quartre-Bras and Waterloo (it was called Fog of War or something, it was pretty detailed regarding orbats). Playing with the French, it was somewhat not too difficult to win at Waterloo.

As to your questions, will add some thoughts on 2 and 3:
2. Discipline, and professionalism of the Allied officer corps, would have played an important role.
3. The dictum "keep casualties low" is fairly recent I think. But, this may be a combination of the popularity of a war/conflict by the public, and military doctrine. Also, I can image that the kind of opponent should also play a role. For example, fighting a colonial war against warriors 'armed with fresh fruit' would allow less casualties than fighting a conventional war against a European state with state-of-the-art tactics and muskets/machine-guns/tanks.

And in the end, the popular depiction of 18th century battles as nicely dress-up armies shooting at each from short distances, and soldiers being noting but canon-fodder, must be based on some truth.

cheers,
Wienand

[dashing blade]

Many a true word spoken there Wdrenth! I think to be fair to our officers and NCO's they have that attitude of "use all available cover and wait for air support" Not an option in 1709!
Maybe a short video on the battle first rather than a brief brief as it were,would help with the 18th C mindset. Or a smaller game first,but as always ,time and other considerations take precedent.
And God save us from sharpened kiwi fruit!

[barr7430]

I will restrict my comments to issues pertaining to the rules. It is however difficult to comment intelligently on your comment as it is open to variable interpretation.
Are the rules up to a refight of Maplaquet or are custom built add on required.... What does that refer too? Where did you find the mechanisms not coping What custom built add ons?

I have fought Malplaquet with 4,000 28mm figures on a table 24 x 12 feet with 12 players and we got a result over Saturday - Sunday afternoon. We did not require any mods to the rules. It was 2nd Edition BLB but the core mechanics for much of the game were unaltered. If you give me a clue what you mean, I might be able to help.

[obriendavid]

I have fought Malplaquet with 4,000 28mm figures on a table 24 x 12 feet with 12 players and we got a result over Saturday - Sunday afternoon. We did not require any mods to the rules. It was 2nd Edition BLB but the core mechanics for much of the game were unaltered. If you give me a clue what you mean, I might be able to help.

And a very bloody battle it was, especially with a certain Mr Howe adding 13 brigadiers and his C in C to the butchers bill. all in a two foot space
As one of the organisers of the game I can confirm that we used the rules exactly as they came apart from a bit of jiggery pokery from Angus on the other table making up his own interpretation of Barry's rules which was quickly stopped once we found out what was happening.
Cheers
Dave

[obriendavid]

Just checked my notes and the only extra rule I included was for troops entering woods where they had to dice each move to see which direction they moved. This was only for individual battalions if they remained in line with other battalions then they were allowed to move straight ahead without dicing for direction.
Cheers
Dave

[dashing blade]

Barry,please relax, we always debrief and question everthing about the game. We have used BTLB before and enjoyed them. The rules were questioned by are least experienced players. Mostly why they couldn't move all their units at the same time and why the couldn't deploy a skirmish line! It's a highly competitive unit and bad losers and drink do not mix well. We, the umpires thought it worked well.
Please take comfort in the fact that the only thing we'd change is some of the players.