The Corlears Hook Fencibles played a hypothetical Marlburian battle using Twilight of the Sun-King last night. We recently discovered we'd been playing the game wrong. Our units passed through each other with abandon, except on page 5 it says units may not interpenetrate. So we played the game with that in mind. The French had over 27,000, the Anglo-Prussians over 28,000 troops. The Allies had two brigades of elite infantry. The French had two brigades of elite cavalry and four brigades of raw infantry. Bill commanded his French while Tom commanded the Allies with me as his cavalry subordinate. There was an un-fordable river on our left, a couple fields in our center and a difficult stream on our right. For this scenario I had declared the fields as difficult terrain for cavalry and guns but clear for infantry. Tom got to use his brand new Essex general in a four-horse coach. The sight of this elegant vehicle in the midst of the fighting generated numerous laughs.
Tom decided the narrow space between the fields and the stream was not promising cavalry terrain. I was to take three of the four cavalry brigades on our right across to our left and fall on the French cavalry there. Then I would roll up the French line. Of course, on the first turn, the lead two brigades didn't budge and the others piled up behind them.
Once it became clear that our right flank cavalry was shifting behind our lines, the French advanced. Their cavalry attacked before our right was fully prepared and over-ran an artillery battery. But then their lead cavalry brigade came up against two infantry brigades in square. The cavalry was shot up and dispersed. Tom pressed forward slowly in square, backed up by a single brigade of British cavalry.
Meanwhile my cavalry on the left flank tangled with the French cavalry opposite. The French had two brigades of elite cavalry up front, with two regular brigades in support. One of the elite brigades was led by their cavalry general. I couldn't make any impression on them while my cavalry failed the odd morale check here and there. I threw in a couple brigades from the other flank when they arrived, to no effect. A couple of my cavalry brigades routed. Infantry started to engage in the center and one of our brigades went about. We were down four brigades to one and were getting nervous.
Then instead of his usual high rolls, Bill rolled the average dice equivalent of snake eyes. A cavalry brigade facing our right broke and the wing commander leading them went down. A few turns later he rolled another one in the center and the army CO was gone. Since we count dead officers as broken brigades, this nearly evened up the score. Bill was generally rolling high on morale tests but failing a lot of his action rolls. The French were tough but maneuvered sluggishly.
Now I sent my reserve cavalry brigade in column and their wing commander through a gap in the French line. I hoped they would pull the French support cavalry out of place and I might be able to make headway against the elite cavalry. The brigade failed to deploy for two turns in a row. One of the French support brigades about-faced, wheeled and charged them before they deployed. The other brigade remained in support. My cavalry took a hit but then deployed and beat the French brigade in two turns.
In the center a Prussian brigade in square was fired on and charged. These heroes passed an amazing number of morale tests. Meanwhile we discovered the raw units in the French center. Bill had overlooked them – a couple had probably tested as regular troops already. Bill's run of luck on morale rolls now went south and a number of French brigades broke.
The big cavalry fight saw Bill's last support brigade sent off to deal with the threat to his rear. They duly routed my brigade. All of this allowed me to get a single hit on one of the elite brigades. I had two brigades left – of seven, and had only accounted for one French brigade. In the center, Tom's attack ground on, spearheaded by his two brigades of elite infantry. The French left and center came unglued.
Bill had more than 50% of his units routed and he had to take an army morale test. He passed, and then knocked out a couple of our brigades. We were still shy of the 50% mark. We then routed a couple more of his units and he failed the second army morale test. That was a good thing since we were getting pretty close to our breaking point.
We had played 19 turns (representing almost 5 hours of combat) in just about three hours, a little under 10 minutes per turn. French losses were some 8,000 troops, two generals (including the CO) and a battery. We lost 5,500 troops and a battery. We were one routed brigade away from an army morale check.
Not allowing units to interpenetrate made a difference, but not quite as much as we anticipated. Next week we plan on trying these rules in the Seven Years War and will allow some limited interpenetration.
looks at a multi-period building.