Beneath Lilly Banners - Incidents at the Battle of the Boyne Part 3

 The third and final scenario in the three part mini Battle of the Boyne trilogy is called " Last to Leave" and concerns one of the many rearguard actions that were fought by King James' troops to prevent his retreating army from being overrun and destroyed by the victorious Williamite troops.

Once again, I set up my version of the table, substituting every unit for a WSS one. As I only have one Dragoon regiment in my collection, I substituted the dismounted dragoons with musket armed infantry!

Once again, some of the lighting in these images isn't great but hey, its a garage!

View from behind the Jacobite lines on Donore Hill. Some of the scenery (the walls to be precise) was purpose made in the 24 hours leading up to the game.

A view from the Williamite lines, looking south towards the Jacobite defensive position on the slight rise.

Lord Dongan's Dragoons on the extreme right of the Jacobite position

Lord Clare's Dragoons. lining the wall of Donore cemetery

 Un named Commanded Shot unit to the left.

And finally, Hugh Sutherlands Horse

On the Williamite side, the units are, on the left, a squadron of William Wolseley's Horse

 Then, Albert Conynghams Dragoons

William Wynne's Dragoons

And on the right, another squadron of William Wolseley's Horse

The white marker is to remind me the unit should be ten, not nine, strong, I will remove the marker when these units suffer their first casualty.

In the first couple of moves, the Jacobite's stood implacably as they watched the enemy advance slowly towards them across the uneven, bogey ground. Meanwhile, the Williamites reorganized, moving the left-wing horse over to the right, to reinforce the other wing, whilst the dismounted dragoons advanced obliquely towards Donore Hill.

Hugh Sutherlands Horse watch the developing attack.

The first shots were exchanged between Wynne's Dragoons and the commanded shot. Meanwhile, seeing how the Williamite deployment was developing, Lord Dongan's dragoons were ordered to advance off the hill and pivot to their left, to bring Conynghams under fire.

As each unit came within range, the Irish meadow resounded to thunderous volleys of musketry. Half the commanded shot in the orchard were cut down, despite having the benefit of soft cover. The combined return fire of the Jacobite dragoons also made some holes in their opponents' lines.

As the smoke cleared, the Williamites stood, rooted to the spot, as if temporarily unmanned by the galling fire (they rolled a 1 and got zero command actions this turn!) Their opponents, however, seemed equally non plussed, with only one unit maintaining their composure (they rolled 2 and only had a single order) Another volley roared out, but as the smoke cleared, it was obvious the Lord Dongan's dragoons had snapped off a nervous shot, as no effect could be discerned on the nearby Williamites (they rolled 3 dice but got no hits!)

As the Williamites congratulated each other on the poor marksmanship of Dongan's men, and the Jacobite's seemed to lose heart, it was Wynne's dragoons who now seized the initiative, advancing to within effective range of the commanded shot above them on Donore Hill. A crashing volley rang out, but this time, the soft cover of the fence and hedges came to the Jacobite's aid, and not a man fell!

The lull on the field evaporated as quickly as it had appeared, and both sides exchanged volleys, as casualties fell left and right amongst all the foot soldiers.

Meanwhile on the Jacobite left, Sutherlands Horse perceived the advancing Williamite dragoons had an exposed flank, and with a wild Irish yell, they charged down from the hill intent on destruction. However, the Williamite horse of Wolseley's first squadron was already in motion with a charge of their own, and the two opposing horsemen clattered into each other before the Jacobite's could reach the exposed foot soldiers. Seeing an opportunity, the second squadron of Wolseley's cavalry moved forwards and joined the melee, swinging the balance in the Williamites favour and after a bloody struggle with sword and pistol, Sutherlands men were broken, the majority lying dead on the field as the victorious troopers of Wolseley's squadrons reined in, to reform and catch their breath. 

Whilst the horse had been battling it out on their right, Wynne's dragoons, impervious to their close brush with disaster, finally wiped out the last of the commanded shot, and advanced up Dunmore Hill.

Lord Clare's Jacobite dragoons in the cemetery reacted to this advance, but as they did so, an enormous volley crashed out to their right, and looking down, they perceived that their colleagues of Dongan's troop had just been grievously wrecked by the firing from Conynghams.

Wynne's Dragoons storm onto Donore Hill, with the victorious Williamite horse to their left rear and Conyghams dragoons to the right

Lord Clare's regiment turns to face the direction of the threat.

Wolseley's Horse reform after their exertions

Final situation as the Williamites prove the winners again. Seems like Great Britain may be destined for a change of ruling dynasty and a Protestant Ascendancy?

Well, another grand little scenario that I enjoyed playing out. FYI, this game was played with the "new" version of the rules - I worked out I have V1 and V2 of BLB and it is V3 that uses the D6 D8 D10 etc for different troop qualities. However, I also found three double sided, laminated BLB QRS in one of my drawers, which turned out to be from V3, so on the assumption that most of the core rules won't have changed, I played the game using the V1 rule book (about thirty pages instead of a hundred and ninety in V2) but using the different dice, depending on the quality of the troops (in fact, as they were all "Drilled", they all used a D8, needing a 6 for a casualty if firing). They got extra D8 for being drilled, having flintlock muskets etc, but in many cases the number of firing dice were halved due to either the range being over effective (8") or the target being in cover - in general, most units rolled between 2-4 D8 each time they fired.

There were a couple of turns where not a lot happened, as both sides rolled quite poorly for activations, although strangely, it seemed to balance out, and when the Jacobite's got a 10 allowing them to activate all their units (when the cavalry attempted to charge the dismounted dragoons) the Williamites rolled an 8, meaning they could activate three of their four units. Things might have been a lot different if Hugh Sutherlands horse had managed to hit Wynne's dismounted dragoons, rather than coming face to face with the charging troopers of William Wolseley (I don't know, but probably some kind of distant relative!)

I do have some more of these 4 Play scenarios, but the later versions seem to have suffered from "scope creep" and be larger affairs on a 4 x 4 table, which I do not have - however, having played these three games, I can see how I might be able to split the 4 x 4 games into two or three 2 x 2 ones, so I may well have a go at that, although next solo game, I think I will try my theory that the "Devil to Pay" rules would give a good solo encounter, and pull out some different troops to have a play!

In the meantime, I have a large scale FtF game in the offing this coming Sunday at Barrys place, when my Napoleonic Portuguese will be in action alongside Spanish and British allies in a Peninsular stoush - should be fun, I hope!