As promised..
Shameless plug; All terrain boards, farm and wood templates were made or painted by me. The marshes and trees were ebay. Figures are a mish mash of companies Dixon, Reiver and Front Rank etc and painters to include Barry, myself and others
A good time was had by all participants, to include me who this was his first ever go at Game Mastering.
Game start left/center; Historically the ground was scattered with hedges and narrow. It was not cavalry friendly. To represent this we merely added two small wood copses which effectively divided the board into three sections, left, right and center. It also restricted horse to some extent.
Game start center/right; The French had historically well reconnoitered the ground the Duke did not. The marshes near the river were completely passable to formed troops. A die decided if the French reserve would arrive in the marsh or elsewhere. Both in the playtest and here, they did arrive in the marshes, as happened historically. The rest was not so easy.
Fast forward in the game; The marshy area to the right of the farm was due to an in game 'event'. We only used 3 events during the game. The players liked them as long as it wasn't happening to them.
The French lost a sqdn of Gendarmes to an event as well
Battalion Normandie show yet again that it is not wise to charge raw dragoons into elite foot frontally. This did not end well for the horse.
The French exploit; Gendarmes de Berry easily rout the raw unit they are fighting but are all but destroyed in the pursuit. That left Col-General and a brittle brigade to roll the left. Not an easy task as it was reinforced by three reg't of horse and the garde headed this way as well.
Center close up; At the bottom we see the Savoy garde and two other battalions moving to bolster the right. A better choice would be to turn left and divide the French defeating each flank in detail. We will never know as the game ended here.
This is as close as the French came to the farmhouse during the game. When we play tested it it took 3 turns of assault and the French could not take it.
The French had some initial success here but numbers began to tell. This is game end (turn 10 of 12) shot, there was plenty to fight for yet but time ran out. What can't be seen in this pic is the Savoy Garde making their way to bolster the section.
