Beneath the Lily Banners - Encounter at the Ford

We've been working our way through the BTLB rules since I picked up a copy of the 1ed cheaply on the Lead Adventure Forum. The 3rd edition is on its way so it seemed like a good time to play some games and learn the basics whilst building up our armies.

We've played a few games over the last couple of months and really enjoy them. This edition suffers a bit from some information being scattered over different pages and the QRS as well as different systems for morale for horse and foot, but it's hitting the spot and I'm checking daily to see when the new book is out

So we threw some terrain on the table and got things going....

The Allied army and that of the Franco-Bavarians were advancing towards each other. Both sides has sent and advance guard to seize a key ford and as a result an encounter between the two was triggered. 

The Bavarian force consisted of two regiments of foot, a medium gun, squadron of cuirassiers and a squadron of dragoons. The Danes had three foot, 1 squadron of horse and a medium gun.  Two French regiments, supposedly supporting the Bavarians had gotten lost somewhere and would not arrive til the following day! - the post was late getting them back from the painters!).

The Danes moved quickly to occupy a small farm house and field closest to the crossing whilst they brought up their remaining troops. The Bavarians moved in line of march along the road to the ford, dispatching their mounted contingent to engage and cover their right flank. Their gun deployed in front of the ford and Rgt Spilberg to its right,  which d the cover of a hedge. Rgt Maffey moved behind these units to take up position on the right, but would be thwarted from doing so by the fast moving Danes,

The Danish unit at the farm came under fire from Rgt Spilberg and the now dismounted Dragoons, a galling fire which caused it to retreat after a stand was lost.by now the guns were firing and the second Danish unit was taking hits, however the gun crew were in range of Danish muskets and were starting to be picked off. Rgt Maffey was forced to halt, its men formation split by a hedge.

The dragoons now moved up and occupied the farm but Spilberg was taking hits from the Danish gun and could not reply since the Bavarian gun crew had all been killed. However two Danish foot had been forced to retire due to mounting casualties and the crisis of the battle had been reached.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Spilberg retreated from its position behind the hedge, it was well on the way to suffering 2 bases lost and the dragoons were still in place across the ford. Maffey was holding up and the Danes were becoming worn out. However the Danish horse had still not been engaged and launched a desperate change on the flank of Maffey. A one was rolled for Maffey's morale ....and it too was forced back. 

With both Bavarian foot regiments in retreat and the artillerymen killed there was nothing the dragoons could do and they had to mount up and retire as well, taking the in engaged curiassier with them. The Danes, though badly cut up, had secured the ford.

.........................

As we're still building up our forces we used some other figures for the Danes, just bluetacked to 60mm Bases. Each unit will have an additional casualty marker - a drummer, sgt or some other figure, to carry the hits of the unit. You can see the Bavarian ones here. All in all it was a great game, a good test of the rules and showed that not every battle has to be Blenheim! 

More games to follow....the French arrived yesterday