Last week at New Buckenham Historical Wargamers we played a fictitious Seven Years War action using Osprey's Honours of War rules. The scenario was based on a "what if" hypothesis, in this case what if Duke Ferdinand had pressed the retreating French rearguard after the Battle of Minden.
The allies formed up with a Hanoverian contingent on the left, Brunswick and Hessians on the right and arriving through Lutterberg itself, in the centre, the British.
The French rearguard had turned and occupied two hamlets that guarded the entrances to defiles through the hills with a centre on the high ground between the two.
The ground in the centre forward of the British turned out to be boggy feeding into the stream in front of the Hanoverians. This led to slow advances in these areas.
The hottest action was on the Brunswick Hessian flank which resulted in heavy casualties for both forces before the Germans managed to gain half of the hamlet by games end.
The British, hampered by the ground and some tardy arrivals, bogged down in the centre and after their advance battalion was destroyed by French artillery fire contented themselves with watching their artillery engage with their French opponents from the safety of the centre high ground.
The Hanoverians meanwhile, after some long range musketry against the defenders in the buildings, advanced across the stream to be met by French grenadiers pouring out of the hamlet to counterattack.
At this point a French cavalry brigade arrived, but only to deliver the order for the rearguard to withdraw, resulting in the game being called.
The game was a French victory as the rearguard would have be enable to withdraw largely intact, only their left flank having taken any substantial casualties, whilst inflicting significant casualties on the pursuing allies.
more on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming
ponders nirvana.
