Fontenoy Mk Deux

This won't take long. The second run through of Fontenoy took less than 2 hours. This time I got the French set-up more right than in the first attempt. This would help the French resist the attacks on the redoubts and Fontenoy. Plus on another read through of the rules, I noticed something I hadn't before. Infantry who successfully defended defence works (i.e. passed a morale test) would force the attacker to recoil. Getting this would also tend to help the French. Now on to the game.

The Pragmatic Army would follow the same tactics as before, i.e. to stretch the front of the battle by flanking the woods with cavalry on their right, and bursting through the woods with infantry. The French would respond to the British infantry with more aggression. Specifically the British infantry, because they had 'Superior Musketry', so rather than get shot up, the French would close with cold steel.

The Anglo-Hanoverian cavalry near Vezon peeled off to their right, Ingoldsby's brigade (the one with the Black Watch) re-prised their attack on the Grassins, and the British dragoons tried to get out of the way of the infantry in the centre. Tried to, but initially not hard enough. It took a couple of turns to get them formed up in column to march out of the way without obscuring the guns. In the Twilight of the Soldier Kings rules, units have to pass a 'Action Test' in order to change formation or direction. The dragoons failed this first time, and even failed again when encourage by His Royal Highness. This held up the infantry, but no matter, it gave the guns time to get their range on the redoubt d'Eu.

Simultaneously the Dutch infantry advanced on Fontenoy and the right wing redoubts, whilst the Netherlanders' artillery fired on the village. Seeing the Allies send cavalry round to the right the French responded by sending a few brigades of their own to counter the threat, whilst the Irish brigade and a French infantry brigade moved to counter the British coming through the woods. This time the Grassins lasted a bit longer than in the original game.

The allied artillery was successful again inflicting losses on the French in the Redoubt d'Eu and Fontenoy. And after a couple of turns the Dutch foot were pouring volleys across the breastworks at close range. The first Dutch brigade suffered a loss themselves, and being classed as 'Wavering' (i.e. they could only take two hits) they were exchanged for the supporting brigade behind. This second brigade took their chance against the Swiss and charged in, but were repulsed (though without loss). Back outside the earthworks they reverted to musketry. Round to their left another assault went in on the redoubts. Here a back and forth struggle took place with the Dutch (again making use of the supporting unit) taking the redoubts and the guns.

Back at Fontenoy the Dutch were lucky in receiving very few hits at the hands of the Swiss and their guns continued to pound the defenders. After several turns the Swiss defence collapsed leaving a gap. Their place was to be taken by the reserve unit at the rear of the village. Whilst all this was going on the British infantry had closed with the French in the centre and one British unit peeled off to assault Fontenoy from the north east.

The Dutch infantry brigades, front left, have each suffered one loss, but the Swiss have been defeated. The British can be seen just to the right edge of the picture. Note the unit they face has already taken two hits.

View of the action in the centre

The French, led by the Gard Francaises and the Gardes Suisses, responded to the British advance by 

charging towards them to close quarters. This minimised the British advantage in musketry and so limited the chance of defeat. The close quarter action was to last for many turns. In fact right to the end of the battle. With guards on both sides, with supporting troops, losses mounted very slowly. Remember, 'losses' represented lowering of morale as much as dead and wounded. First to break was a French line brigade, but they were soon replaced.

Meanwhile, on the right wing the opposing cavalry finally closed with each other. The Hanoverians smashed into a unit of French horse and routed them immediately. Several further rounds of melee followed, with fortunes swinging back and forth.

'Snake Eyes' for the French meant that despite rear support, the unit suffered an immediate rout (which occurs on a modified score of 3). Bottom left of the picture can be seen the flank of the Irish Brigade going toe to toe with Ingoldsby.

By turn 13 the cavalry action took a turn in the Anglo-Hanoverian favour, with two of their units left facing one of the French.

The climax of the cavalry action coincided with the arrival of Richelieu and his reserves (4 cavalry and 2 infantry brigades). But our attention must turn back to the action on the Dutch wing. We left it with the Dutch in possession of the redoubts and on the cusp of entering Fontenoy.  French reserves poured into the village with the intention of ejecting the Dutch. This they did, but not without loss to themselves. A second 'hit' meant the removal of that Dutch unit. At the same time the dismounted dragoons counterattacked at the redoubts, flinging the interlopers out. With the imminent loss of another brigade in the village, the French commander sent the unit next to the dragoons over towards Fontenoy ready to shore up this sector should the British break through. The resulting gap in the French line tempted the Dutch cavalry to finally move forward. The French countered with cavalry of their own, sent from the unused mass in the centre.

To prevent being overrun on his left, Saxe sent more cavalry out to the wing. Their place would be taken up by Richelieu's column. The Maison and Gendarmerie were being held back to counter attack any breakthroughs.

After chasing the foreigners out of the redoubts, the French dragoons were in turn assaulted by Dutch infantry - and broke immediately! Then more bad news, the cavalry to the right of the dragoons were also routed by their Netherlandish opponents. It was then after 14 turns I remembered to check wing morale! This should be done when 50% of a command's brigades are lost. The check was now due on the French right, and overdue on the French left. Both flanks failed on the first test. Then utter disaster! With 2 of the 4 commands broken, the Army Morale had to be checked. This resulted in another immediate failure. Game over!

Grand Bretagne (+Pays Bas, Autriche et Hanover) deux, la France nul.
The butcher's bill: two French wings on the left, versus 3 brigades of the Pragmatic army on the right.

So why did the French lose again? And more quickly than before. Unlike the previous game, they got stuck in with cold steel much sooner. Therefore they suffered less from the British superior shooting. Luck must be part of the answer. The Dutch in particular proved surprisingly resilient - i.e. they kept throwing high in their combats. At the same time, the French cavalry suffered a couple of immediate routs (due to low dice rolling). I don't recall this happening to any allied unit. Then having two failed Wing Morale checks and the failed Army Morale check in quick succession, rubbed salt in the wound. I need to have a good hard think to see if there is anything else that I could do tactically from the French point of view. Maybe not get sucked into fighting so far forward on the left so the distance from support/reinforcements is not so great?

The question is, should I "go again" or should I play a different French v Cumberland battle next? Hmm! I might need more streams for that.