Dettingen - Planning

In the previous post I mentioned that I had recently read Orr's work on Dettingen. Also I said that I had two possible scenarios in mind. These are:

1. What I call the 'traditional' battle - i.e. with part of the Pragmatic Army lined up facing Grammont's corps across the streams which run into the Main at Dettingen.
2. What I might term the 'grand tactical' situation at approximately 08:00 on 27th June.

The layout for scenario 1. would be straightforward with allied lines extending from near the Main to the hills on their right, and the French forces under Grammont opposite them, with French guns across the Main in a flanking position. Apart from the French guns on the flank, this would present a fairly traditional 'line em up' type wargame.

The grand tactical scenario would be based on the layout below:

Map from Dettingen 1743 by Michael Orr. Back rectangle denotes the shape of an 8ft by 4ft table with Twilight of the Soldier Kings standard scale. I need to adjust this to make better use of the space and show Aschaffenburg bridge.

The Pragmatic Army would have to decide how to deal with the French force blocking their path ahead of them, whilst taking care of the threat from the rear.  French formations to the south (right of above picture) would potentially cross the Main using the bridge at Aschaffenburg. There would be a race with the allies trying to beat the French to their front before they were enveloped.  Twilight of the Soldier Kings is good for this sort of grand tactical level of game, with rules for deploying armies from march column to line and vice versa.

I took this approach when I played Rossbach a few times nearly two years ago (see series of posts starting here https://horseandmusketgaming.blogspot.com/2022/08/rossbach-background.html ). 

Orders of battle have already been worked out. The two main sources I used were Orr and the US Army Combined Arms Center (Here Pragmatic Army and here French Army ). There seems to be all sorts of versions of the different army strengths around. Some just cover the forces that actually engaged on 27th June 1743, some seem to refer to the whole armies in the vicinity of Dettingen-Aschaffenburg and some possibly the forces in the whole SW German theatre. Here's a summary of some key ones:

Source	Army	Squadrons	Cav Numbers	Battalions	Inf Numbers	Guns	Total Numbers
Chandler, the Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough	Pragmatic	31		42		98	35000
	French	44		49		56	26000
Orr, Dettingen 1743	Pragmatic
	British	3 troop HG, RR HG, 2 H, 6 drag inc SG		3 Guard, 2 Fus, 10 line
	Austrian	2 drag		9 reg
	Hanoverian	8 reg cav, 5 reg drag		9
	British	10 reg		12
	Austrian	2 reg		9 reg	(Variable numbers of battalions)
	Hanoverian			4
	French
	Total	9 co of Maison, 3 cav reg, 1 drag reg, 1 hus reg		23 regiments
	Grammont	3 brigades		5 brigades			23000
USACAC
	Pragmatic	68	10200	40	24000		34200
	French	79	11850	65	39000		50850
			Troop numbers estimated on basis of 150/squadron and 600/battalion

Drilling down into the USCAC orders of battle the two armies muster as follows:

Pragmatic Army

			Austrian		British		Hanoverian		Cav	Inf
Formation	Brigade		SQ	BN	SQ	BN	SQ	BN	Bde	Bde
Right Wing	Wendt	Dragoons					12		1
	?	Line				3				1
		Scots Fus				1
	?							4		1
	Brunswick	Dragoons (Scots Greys)			3					1	Large, elite
		Guards				3		2
		Line						1
Centre (Hessen/Neipperg)	?			5						1
	?			5						1
	?					6				1	Large
	Salm	RW Fus				1				1
		Line		3		1
Left (Cumberland)	Campbell	Guards			6
		Dragoons			9				1
	Hawley	Dragoons			12				1
	Monroy	Line						5		1
	Pontpletin	Horse					4
	Diemer	Dragoons	10						1
	Hammerstein	Horse					6		1
	Launay	Horse					6
	'Loose change’								1
	TOTALS		10	13	30	15	28	12	6	8
	Cavalry		68	10200					11.3	5.0
	Infantry		40	24000
				34200

French Army

Formation	Brigade	SQ	BN	Cav Bde	Inf Bde
Advanced Guard	Dauphin		6		1	Large
	Berwick		5		1	Irish
	La Marine		5		1
	Garde		6		1	Large, elite
	Noailles		5		1
	Hussar	6		1		Tiny
1st Line	Grenadiere	1		1		Large Elite
	Noailles	8
	Mosquetaires	4
	Brancas	5
	Piemont		5		1
	Rohan		5		1
	Roi		5		1
	Navarre		5		1
	Royal	6		2
	Royal Pologne	7
	La Reine	6
2nd Line	Mestre de Camp	7		1
	Egmont	7
	Orleans		4		1
	Brancas		4		1
	Touraine		5		1
	Auvergne		5		1
	Carabiniers	9		1
	Dragoons	13		1
		79	65	7	13
	Cavalry	11850		11.3	5
	Infantry	39000				Brigades in italics = Grammont command
		50850

Total numbers of troops is really irrelevant for the Twilight rules and is just used for comparison to the totals given by other sources. And in any case, they are estimates calculated on the basis of 600 men per battalion and 150 per squadron. The key factor is the number of brigades, which are the basic manoeuvre unit in the game. To avoid too many different sized brigades I've merged some of the smaller commands from the historical orders of battle. For both armies the mean size of a cavalry brigade is 11.3 squadrons, and 5 battalions for an infantry brigade.

As is often the case with the way armies in this period deployed, the formal orders of battle were not exactly followed in the historical engagement. Orders of battle were often worked out well in advance of any actual battle, and represent a theoretical approach. In practice, the lie of the land and the tactical situation required adaptation. Thus we see Grammont's command being made up of troops from the Advance Guard, 1st line and 2nd line.

One final piece to work out is the number of guns. Only Chandler quotes specific numbers, and I have reservations about those numbers judging by the size of the forces and the numbers of batteries deployed by the French.

But all in all, I'm ready to set-up the table on Saturday.