Monday 9 July 2012

Marlburian game 8.7.12.

For last night's game I took the Ancient battle of Thapsus 46BC and put an 18th century twist on it,changed the terrain a bit and gave the opposing armies the same objectives as their ancient counterparts,ie. capture or hold the town,depending which side you are on.
Paul commanded the Allies (Austrian and Dutch),Graham commanded the "English", and I took command of the Franco-Irish army.
The map and scenario are shown below,the Irish,although behind entrenchments,were heavily outnumbered,and the "English" should have stormed the defences and rolled right over them-this was not to happen!!

Below is a general overview of the whole table,in the foreground the "English" are in their starting column,ready to assault the Irish,whilst in the background the Allies and French face each other with equal numbers.



This gives a good impression of the daunting task the English troops faced.


Allies and French troops before the battle started,a difficult approach for the Allies,who decided to "stretch" my lines with a combination of inf. and cav.Pauls left flank gun battery did considerable damage to my right flank inf. during the whole game.


This shows the magnificent and frightening attack being put in by the English,against my ,now, weakened Irish troops,however a couple of good dice throws for musketry and gun fire saw Graham's troops stop and finally collapse altogether!!


Paul starting to move his inf. and cav. towards me,my gun placed on the hill blasted away at his infantry and caused real damage which would prove useful later on when morale was checked.


Fire-fight! Note Paul's cavalry attacking my centre,in column!I counter charged and beat him back,I then followed my success and this proved to be the catalyst for a massive cavalry melee,with both Paul and I feeding in extra squadrons until all of our cavalry was involved,a spectacular sight.


Graham's troops being held at bay by a handfull of Irish,I sent reinforcements as quickly as I could from the town, but they had a long way to travel, and I thought at this stage my fate was sealed,however the English commander and his troops saw things differently and decided, after a last charge by the Grenadiers,to call it a day and go home.I don't think the Allied commander was very "chuffed" at that!!


Go on Grenadiers,you can do it-oh no you can't!!!!!!!!!


The cavalry melee,first stage,the melee swung both ways, and I'm sure that both Paul and myself were confident ,that,if we put a couple of extra squadrons each into the fray,we would win,in the end the Allies won and my centre was deemed untenable,however the town was yet to be taken,which was the whole objective of the game!


What a glorious mess!The French cav. have just about had it in this shot,we took morale and my cav. all decided to go home.


This was the end of the game,which was played in good spirit,we decided that a draw was the logical result,I was happy with that!!

Roll on next week.























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