10mm WSS, Cutt's assault column, the game.

Having set out the troops for the assault on the village of Blenheim here we go with the refight. Now baring in mind that I have adapted David Browns General de Armee rules to the WSS period maybe I had go through the fairly small changes first.

1) Movement is movement in both periods though artillery can change formation or move making it that bit harder to manoeuvre them about.

2) Naturally all things skirmish have been removed.

3) Squares are still there (as they were at the time) but a discipline test must be taken to form if cavalry are within 25cm [15"] whereas in the Napoleonic set it was only 15cm [9"]. This forces the unit to change formation when the cavalry are that bit further away. It is of course more advisable to keep lines of infantry on either of the units flank thereby encouraging the linear tactics of this period.

4) British cavalry use the 'cold steel' rule vs the French caracole (pistol shot) cavalry, giving the British cavalry a +2 in the charge. The French have a limited fire capability before contact is made.

5) Infantry vs infantry, I made it more difficult for them to charge in as the brigade needs three ADCs to do so whereas in the Napoleonic version it only requires two. This means that it is very much more difficult to send a whole brigade into the assault, you must wear the enemy down by fire first, even then in the infantry charge results a unit is more likely to halt and fire rather than actually charge in. They can still do it but again I tried to make firepower more important.

6) With firepower, platoon firing British, Dutch and some German state infantry get both an extra +1 combat die and fire on the superior volley fire casualty table compared to the rank firing French and Bavarians. As you will see from the write up below I based the French on a greater depth but narrower frontage to the platoon firing British etc. This means over a brigades worth of front the French have two extra units firing. I needed to compensate the better platoon system but not make them supermen, seems ok so far.

7) Dismounted dragoons and all cavalry are classed as small units, this makes them more brittle and discourages frontal charges on infantry units.

I think that's about it. The game;

Cutt's column begins to cross the Nebel stream still out of musketry range of the French.

Blood's British artillery.

The third brigade swings right to flank the village with cavalry support.

I won't go into too much detail but even given the fact that the French were throwing particularly good dice, the British infantry battalions suffered considerable casualties with gaps starting to apear in the lead brigades ranks.

Without actually re-fighting the engagement(I will leave that for another day) Palme's British cavalry broke the French Gendarme cavalry and chased them from the field allowing the flanking force to continue to envelope Blenheim.

In the face of this the French heavy battery withdraws.

Following the mauling of the first Brigade, the second Hessian brigade moves forward to take its place in the line.

A few shots of the brigades in front of the village, gaps again appearing with one Hessian unit actually routing.

Finally the closing photographs, the British/Hessian assault has ground to a halt and more French units are moving into the village from the rear.

Now keeping in mind that I still have the third British brigade (composed mainly of Hanoverian infantry) to complete, they would be following up the first and second line to pressurise the French in the village. The French would as they are now doing, draw into Blenheim more reserves from the centre of their position thereby leading to defeat.
Though only really testing the firing mechanisms I felt that the game followed history reasonably accurately. Blenheim was a tough nut to crack and cost the British so much in the initial assault that Marlborough decided to surround the mass of French troops in there, mask them and win the battle in the centre. I think that given more even dice (typical when your trying to test rules for the first time) more pressure would have been put onto the French, though they did suffer quite considerably.
Next time I will re-fight Palme's cavalry squadrons vs the French Gendarmes.
See you then.
Dave.