On Thursday I had the pleasure of hosting what for me is an ambitious WSS battle - 5 players, quite fussy terrain, lots of troops.
The scenario was based on one I had played before; Franco-Bavarian force (commanded by Marshal Marsin) occupies a key position on the only road capable of getting the Allied siege train (confiscated from Ulm) into position to lay siege to the important fortress at Landau. The Allies send forward a force which includes Imperial, British and Hessen-Kassel troops, commanded by Karl Thüngen, to chase Marsin away.
Marsin has 4 brigades; Thüngen has 6, but 2 of his are delayed. At the outset, Marsin has a slight advantage in numbers and a strong position on a ridge overlooking the road, while the Allies' advanced troops are stomping onto the table up the road and through an adjoining wood; when the Allies' delayed brigades arrive, they will have overall superiority, but will have to get themselves sorted out quickly to bring this advantage to bear.
JBM and Jon were the Franco-Bavs, and Chris, Dave B and Dave C had the Allies.
The French side adopted a very aggressive "defence", going for the enemy vigorously to disrupt them before the reinforcements became involved.
Starting positions. On the Damebrunnen ridge opposite, the Bavarians are on their right flank, based in and around the village of Weißkirch, and the French on their left. On the near side of the table, Austrian troops are advancing along the road and in the farmland on both sides of it, while the (extremely red) British are moving forward through the Binningwald forest. The stream which is visible - the Pfefferbach - is a minor water-splash which is not expected to slow the advance down very much
The action commences, and the Franco-Bavarians are straight out of the stalls!
Withers' British infantry in the woods - the French are coming across the table at them, and there is a major cavalry fight breaking out on the right of the picture...
... as you see here - Henry Lumley's British horse (red cube) getting involved with De Broglie's French lads. The Brits did well initially, but lost momentum rather
Bavarians on their right and in the centre making rapid progress with their attack
The British foot are still in the Binningwald, but by Turn 4 the Allied reinforcements arrive - more Austrian cavalry on the flank (Cusani), and the Hessian infantry (Wilken) on the far side of the wood
General Tourouvre gets as far as the British-held wood - splish-splash
The battle took a while to build up to full fury, but then it finished quickly. Here Jon sends the Wolframsdorf Cuirassiers forward in the decisive attack, with General Weichel; they eliminated a further Allied Cavalry unit and a battery, and the game is won...
A couple of extra pictures: here you see a detachment holding part of Weißkirch - my "detachment" rule is a straight copy of the "garrison" rule from C&CN - the troops here are one of the companies from my siege spares. They were pleased to get a bit of fresh air, but they had a very quiet time
And here you see a fine publicity shot of Marshal Marsin and his staff going in with the Bavarian attack - this must be one for the engravers
It was a smashing, jovial evening - I had to leave markers and a few extra counters around the place to help me remember where we were up to (bad form if the umpire loses the plot), but it was really very enjoyable. As ever, my sincere thanks to my colleagues for their company and good-humoured preparedness to "muck in", as my Preston grannie would have said, and their ability to cope cheerfully with the residual shortcomings of what is still an evolving rule set.
Thank you, gentlemen!