We played the 1759 Battle of Bergen last night, using our own Esprit rules after a lengthy hiatus. In the actual battle a large mediocre French force under de Broglie defeated the piecemeal attacks of Ferdinand's smaller but tougher Allied army. Since we hadn't played in a while I decided to umpire. I thought Tom should have the small Allied force and Bill the larger French force.
The actual battle should have four times the number of units we fielded – and a table four times the size. We may revisit this with Volley & Bayonet some time in the future. The Allies had 8 battalions and 4 cavalry regiments, instead of 12 brigades. The French had 12 battalions, 4 cavalry regiments and two batteries, again with units standing in for brigades.
The French started with Lorraine's 6 battalions holding the walled town of Bergen and the sunken road running north from the town. To their left rear was de Castries with 3 battalions, 4 cavalry regiments and the two artillery batteries, all in column. On the far left were 3 battalions of green Saxon foot and a regiment of decent Saxon light cavalry.
Facing Bergen was the Erbprince's advanced guard of 3 tough Brunswick battalions and the British Guard cavalry, along with Ferdinand. On his far right was Luckner with a unit of Hessian jaegers. Tom had the major advantage through hindsight of knowing the town was full of French infantry. He waited for the rest of his army to show up before launching an attack. In the meantime, Bill marched the Saxons forward to line the high ground overlooking the woods in front of his left and center. The Saxons overshot their mark and Bill ended up ordering them to retire. I think the rules should be amended so that a player can say a force will advance to a terrain feature and stop once there. While the Saxons dithered in confusion, Luckner's jaegers moved through the woods and lined the west side.
In the center, Bill moved his artillery on the central hill behind the sunken road. He put his lone light infantry battalion into the north end of the sunken road. The center force had two other battalions of infantry – none came forward to support the guns.
Around Bergen, a desultory duel of battalion guns broke out, causing some disorder on both sides after several turns. Then Tom sent two Brunswick line units forward into the orchard. They got into a firefight with the French battalion there and then charged. The French unit routed after a savage fight. Tom then committed his Brunswick grenadiers and the two line battalions rallied. About this time the British cavalry marched over the hill to their front in column. They discovered the French artillery across the way was in range, first as their two esprit markers were shot away and then again as two disorder markers sprouted on them.
Meanwhile the jaegers began firing on the flank of the French light infantry in the center. Tom got lucky and put two disorder markers on them in as many turns. Bill's Saxons came forward and tried to evict the jaegers from the edge of the woods. The Saxons were green and hard to coordinate. One battalion closed and was driven back. Before the second line could attack the jaegers rallied. The second line came on and was defeated. The jaegers were stalling the whole Saxon wing. The jaegers were fighting at musket range, their rifles forgotten. It didn't make much difference since the Saxons were usually attacking them. Perhaps muskets were appropriate since this unit is standing in for a brigade. There wasn't a whole brigade of jaegers in Ferdinand's army.
After 6 turns of the game, the jaegers were holding the southwest corner of the woods against the Saxons, the French light infantry in the sunken road had two disorder markers, the French artillery on the hill had no supports and Bergen was under musket and battalion gun fire from two Brunswick battalions.
Tom moved second on the 7th (11 AM) turn and launched an all-out assault. Prussian Dragoons charged the light infantry in the sunken road, backed by most of the troops who had just arrived a couple turn earlier. A battalion of Hessian grenadiers moved on the left of the Dragoons. The Brunswick infantry stormed Bergen. Bill now threw some mediocre dice. The French light infantry routed and Bergen fell.
Tom then got the initiative on the 11:30 AM turn and pushed his attack before Bill could respond. The dragoons roared on into the French rear and rode down a French battalion in column. The Hessian grenadiers got into the sunken road, got disordered by French artillery fire and then charged up the hill and overran the unsupported guns. More supports crowded forward to bolster the attack.
Bill then deployed his reserve cavalry. Since he didn't use the extra movement for committing reserves, they were in a column of deployed regiments. He deployed one battalion behind the village facing the Hessian grenadiers and then managed to get them moving forward. They took a volley and attacked. Again, mediocre dice saw them defeated. Bill got the initiative on the noon (9th) turn and said he would call a retreat. Tom said he'd let him go. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I had Tom roll for the Prussian dragoons who were pursuing near the French supply lines. If they stopped pursing and wheeled, they were in a place to do serious damage. They rode off the table, intent on chasing washerwomen and looting the French camp.
I didn't check the time carefully, but I think we played 8 turns in a little over 2 hours, about 15 minutes per turn. Since each unit was standing in for 4, I multiplied losses by that. The French lost 5,400 troops, 16 battalion guns and 32 position guns. The Allies lost 1,200 troops.
I had thought the Allies had a very tough job ahead of them. But Bill hadn't played these rules in a long time and he never got his defensive line together, especially in the center.
Bill asked that we stick with one set of rules for a while. I see his point of view and feel his pain. But I'm incorrigible and have two other sets of rules to try out. I'll settle down by the end of the year to only two sets. Maybe…
