Tim hosted a playtest of this battle of the Jacobite rebellion that he is going to GM a Historicon later this year, and which is also likely to be the Falkirk Club's game at Claymore in early August. Unfortunately I have waited a few days to write this up and as my phone is kaput at the moment I don't have any photos. This is going to be my memories of the game rather than a blow by blow account. I promise a better write up after Claymore!
I took the Hanoverians which were split into 2 groups - one in the town (my extreme right on the long table edge) and the other loosely grouped outside of it. They included the famous piper Donald Ban MacCrimmon. In the real battle he was captured by the Jacobites but later released as he was so respected that the Jacobite Pipers refused to play until he was let go. In our game he bolstered the unit he was with and was able to survive the battle intact.
The main terrain feature was the River Don which started a few inches in on my left flank (long table edge), curved a bit towards towards the centre and exited on my right flank (short table edge) a few inches form my opponents base line. The apex of the curve was on the centre line where a bridge provided a crossing. Roads from each side converged on the bridge and each road started with a Jacobite force which needed to cross the river to get to the town and to engage the government forces. A third Jacobite force approached down a road which crossed the river at a bridge opposite the town. Phew - I hope that makes sense - a couple of photos would have been much simpler and clearer.
The expected crux of the battle was the race for the bridges. If the Jacobites could get over they should have the numbers to overwhelm the Hanoverians, but if the Hanoverians could block the bridges the Jacobites would have difficulty deploying and would be at a severe disadvantage. Field of Battle is form the Piquet stable so movement relies on drawing move cards and winning roll offs by sufficicnt to maximise movement so either result was very possible. The Jacobites were restricted to the roads on their side of the river to represent the treacherous ground and poor light, but on the Inverurie side there were no such restrictions.
The battle started at 4 pm so it was fought in very poor light - Tim restricted musket range to 4 inches to reflect this. The Jacobites had the early luck and swarmed over the bridge on my left with my guys being a bit slow to react. At this stage I even considered a retreat into the town but was advised by Tim that this was not a practical option.
My force in the town was also slow to react but eventually made up ground to confront the Jacobites who had crossed the other bridge. In the centre the battle was see sawing without a great deal of damage being done but on the right the Hanoverians tore into their opponents just about wiping them out. This had a severely adverse effect on the Jacobite force morale and as one or two units took damage on both sides in the centre they were suddenly in the position where with the correct card drawn and a lost dice roll off their army would break. Sure enough the luck remained with me and I was able to achieve a rather unlikely victory.
Sorry for the slightly chaotic and rambling post. It was a really fun game and to me represented the inherent unpredictability of a battle fought by quite small forces in difficult conditions rather well.
If you attend either Historican or Claymore please drop by. It is just Tim at the former but we will both be in Edinburgh.
I took the Hanoverians which were split into 2 groups - one in the town (my extreme right on the long table edge) and the other loosely grouped outside of it. They included the famous piper Donald Ban MacCrimmon. In the real battle he was captured by the Jacobites but later released as he was so respected that the Jacobite Pipers refused to play until he was let go. In our game he bolstered the unit he was with and was able to survive the battle intact.
The main terrain feature was the River Don which started a few inches in on my left flank (long table edge), curved a bit towards towards the centre and exited on my right flank (short table edge) a few inches form my opponents base line. The apex of the curve was on the centre line where a bridge provided a crossing. Roads from each side converged on the bridge and each road started with a Jacobite force which needed to cross the river to get to the town and to engage the government forces. A third Jacobite force approached down a road which crossed the river at a bridge opposite the town. Phew - I hope that makes sense - a couple of photos would have been much simpler and clearer.
The expected crux of the battle was the race for the bridges. If the Jacobites could get over they should have the numbers to overwhelm the Hanoverians, but if the Hanoverians could block the bridges the Jacobites would have difficulty deploying and would be at a severe disadvantage. Field of Battle is form the Piquet stable so movement relies on drawing move cards and winning roll offs by sufficicnt to maximise movement so either result was very possible. The Jacobites were restricted to the roads on their side of the river to represent the treacherous ground and poor light, but on the Inverurie side there were no such restrictions.
The battle started at 4 pm so it was fought in very poor light - Tim restricted musket range to 4 inches to reflect this. The Jacobites had the early luck and swarmed over the bridge on my left with my guys being a bit slow to react. At this stage I even considered a retreat into the town but was advised by Tim that this was not a practical option.
My force in the town was also slow to react but eventually made up ground to confront the Jacobites who had crossed the other bridge. In the centre the battle was see sawing without a great deal of damage being done but on the right the Hanoverians tore into their opponents just about wiping them out. This had a severely adverse effect on the Jacobite force morale and as one or two units took damage on both sides in the centre they were suddenly in the position where with the correct card drawn and a lost dice roll off their army would break. Sure enough the luck remained with me and I was able to achieve a rather unlikely victory.
Sorry for the slightly chaotic and rambling post. It was a really fun game and to me represented the inherent unpredictability of a battle fought by quite small forces in difficult conditions rather well.
If you attend either Historican or Claymore please drop by. It is just Tim at the former but we will both be in Edinburgh.
Games 53
Rules played 22 New 9
Places played 8 New 0
Places played 8 New 0
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