King of the Hill

John popped by again to play with toys and I gave him his housewarming present and since horse and musket battles were on my mind I pulled out the Seven Years War stuff and we played a little game of DBA-x SYW.

We tried a slightly larger game with 15 stands per side and compensated for this by adding +1 t o the pip die (which I don’t think, at 15 stands, was entirely necessary – maybe at 18…)

Some Hill near a fort in new England… 1750-something…

SITUATION

The dastardly French are trying to take over the world or something…

SCENARIO

In addition to the regular methods of winning (loss of 1/3 of the force, or the General element, and more than the opponent) we said that if either side held the central hill unopposed for one full turn (two bounds) they would win.

FORCES

British Forces

Commander (Colonel Brown – Light Horse)
Artillery (Cannon)
Ranger Company (Jäger)
35th Regt of Foote (4x Musket)
76th (Highland) Regt. of Foote (3x Musket)
48th Regt. of Foote (3x Musket)

French Forces

Comander (Colonel Berteau-Liné)
Artillery (Cannon)
Indien allies (Warband)
R. de la Sarre (3x Musket)
R. du Languedoc (3x Musket)
R. de la Reine (3x Musket)
R. Du Guyenne (3x Musket)

THE GAME
We diced for who was attacking and, of course it was the French – villainous aggressors that they are..

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The British line defending Fort Saskabush.


The dastardly Frenchmen come to rape the horses and ride off on the women.


The opposing forces.


Both sides rushing to take advantage of the heights.


The steady British Grenadiers holding the right of the line.


As the French crested the heights the exchanged fire with the British and Scotts climbing them from the opposite side.


The light Ranger Company decided a pitched battle was no place for them to be and scarpered.


Unfotunately I don’t have a ranger casualty figure… so our dying highlander marks the last know position of the Ranger Company on the field of battle



Things started going downhill for the British (and Scots), quite literally. I got to use the dying Scotsman in an appropriate fashion, as the next stand to die was one of the 76th Regt.


Then I had to use the dying Scotsman (and one of the dead French!) as two stands of the 35th Regt of Foote were obliged to withdraw from the battle. The sun was in their eyes, looking up at the Frenchmen on the hill, which made them some thirsty. They retired to fetch their canteens, which they have left back at the camp.

(Things were looking REALLY bad for me at this point – having lost 4 stands, another loss would have ended the game!)


The loss of their kinsmen angered the Highlanders and the two remaining stands charged back up the hill and skewered many a Frenchmen on the ends of their bayonets and dirks!


The Highlanders were wildly outnumbered, but beat off a number of flank attacks from Regiment de la Reine – those dirty Frenchmen always trying to get around behind!!


The wild melee atop the heights.


The enraged highlanders killed another stand of Frenchmen, but it wasn’t enough…


The flanking attacks eventually took their toll and the British withdrew from the field of battle and gave up the fort (but not before spitting in the well…).

Wow… This totally got me fired up to paint a bunch more of these guys….

I realized after the battle that my Ranger Company (classed as "Jägers - essentially Psiloi with muskets) should not have been Knocked out by fire, but rather, should have fled 600 paces... ah well.. It's been a while since I've played...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

John’s interested in trying out some Dark Ages DBA so hopefully we’ll get a game of that in sometime in the next week or so.