Beneath Lilly Banners - Incidents at the Battle of the Boyne Part 2

I did consider calling this post "Playing with myself in the garage again" - it probably would have increased the view count but might have put off some of the people I actually want to attract to my blog! 

As it is ANZAC Day on Tues 25 April, I took Mon 24th as an annual leave day, giving me another 4-day weekend - yay! The weather forecast seems to be pants till Tuesday, so no walks or garden chores - oh dear, how sad, never mind! Today after a cafe coffee with the wife, I set up my 2 x 2 table for the second of the 4 Play mini scenarios based on incidents at the Battle of the Boyne - "Flashing Blades"

Once again, with the exception of the Dutch guards, I had to substitute all the troops involved! The Protestant infantry were all Dutch WSS regiments and the Catholic cavalry were Danish WSS - I chose a red coated unit for the Elite Kings Lifeguard (I noticed after I got them out, they are actually mounted dragoons, but I let it go - I am not that anal/OCD!)

I have to put a disclaimer here - some of the following images are not great. the lighting in our garage when its crap weather outside isn't the best - and my phones screen seems to be on its last legs, so I could not really see how the pics would turn out till I loaded them onto my lap top - bit like the old days when you took a picture on a film camera, and you did not know what it was like till a month later when the film was printed for you!

The first image was timed about 1110 and the last 1230, so roughly an hour and a half to play out solo.

Very dodgy image of the initial set up - Dutch Foot Guards to the left of the line (unusually, now I think about it!)

Two squadrons of Tyrconnells Horse on the Catholic right opposite the Dutch

The Kings Lifeguards with The Duke of Berwick and Patrick Sarsfield

The Williamite forces, from the left - Gard te Voet (as I just read the scenario again now, I realised, these should have been DANISH Garden til Fods...which I actually do have - BUGGER!)

Regiment Funen

Regiment de Caillemotte (French Huguenots)

Regiment de Cambon (as above :))

Ready for the off

The cavalry activated three of their four squadrons and advanced 12" (I decided not to scale the distances back to cm this time, just to see how it went)

The Williamite infantry, fresh from a dooking in the icy cold waters of the Boyne, shuffled forward (one unit activated). In the second turn, the cavalry only managed to activate one unit, so the Tyrconnell squadron that failed to move last time, trotted forward to fill the gap.

In the third turn the infantry activated half their force, the cavalry ALL of theirs - in we go! Tyrconnells two squadrons charge the infantry to their front, The Guards elect to shoot as they come in and scored two hits, removing a base (I decided just to do that, even though Mr Hilton would prefer me not to - its just easier to keep track and less clutter of recording hits - its also easier for me as I don't have the figures based as per the BLB protocols, so I can remove "parts" of bases, effectively!)

All units passed their morale tests (to make and receive charges) with flying colours, and the calculation for the first close combat was 4 x D6 to the infantry, 7 to the cavalry, needing a 4 5 or 6 to hit. The cavalry won 4 to 3 so the casualty table of a win by 1 is 2 dead attackers and 3 dead defenders.

The Guards rolled 5 for their morale test after combat, which was a pass, without even adding the extras for being guard, having support AND having the commander within 12"! Not so the cavalry, who were down to 1/3 of their original number and were not elite - they broke off combat and retired (they routed actually!)

On to the second charge. The Regiment Funen's colonel had held his fire, allowing extra D6 in the melee phase - the dice here were 5 for the infantry and 8 again for the cavalry.

The infantry rolled very well but again, the cavalry won by one - so casualty count was the same as last time - 2 off the attackers and 3 off the defenders, both units passed morale tests and the melee continued.

I guess the above is what the rules want to avoid - after the second round, which the cavalry won by 1 again, the infantry were at half strength (still looks ok in my opinion) but the cavalry were down to one third (and now only amount to a single base)

On the subsequent morale test, the doughty Williamite infantry passed again, but the decimated cavalry had had enough, and joined their colleagues heading for Dublin (or wherever...)

Turn 4, I ignored the fact that half the cavalry force was now broken - perhaps there is a force morale test I should have taken, but I wanted to carry on with the game - so the Kings Lifeguards both charged! Both infantry units rolled poorly for the test to receive and stood, shaken. The result in the melee dice was 3 for the infantry and 10 for the cavalry! The first squadron won by 6! This caused 2 losses to them and 8 on the Regiment de Caillemotte - but the stubborn Huguenots passed their test and stood!

 In the second round of combat, D6 were halved, so it was 5 -2 in favour of the cavalry. This time, they won by 3 points, the cavalry lost another two and the infantry another six I think but again, they stood firm!

The very staunch Regiment de Caillemotte before the final combat, which they won. The cavalry squadron ceased to exist and the infantry were down to a single stand of three from the original 18 figures! That is what religious zealotry can do for your morale!

The final combat between the second squadron of Lifeguards was more one sided and the Regiment de Cambon were less motivated than their neighbours, failing a morale test badly after losing the initial round of combat, they bolted rearwards, towards the River Boyne!

At this point though, I decided enough was enough - the Lifegaurds might have been able to take out the few survivors of the Regiment de Caillemotte, but even as winners, they would lose another two figures, and they had little to no chance of prevailing against the right wing of the infantry force, who were both still in reasonable shape after seeing of Tyrconnells Horse earlier in the fight.

The infantry had obviously been left in a position where they could advance at least one unit to the halfway point, so the game ended here with a win for the Williamites!

What I am currently painting - Warlord plastic ECW donated by Rick.

Why a picture of two books? Well, they were on the table under the base cloth as the higher ground the cavalry started on, so I just took a superfluous pic before putting them away after clearing the table!

I really enjoyed how that played out once again, so look out for part three of this mini-series in the near future! There is also a similar set for the Swedes in Russia, so that will be on the cards too!