WSS: Beneath the Lily Banners 2nd Game

Here are a few photos from a solo game of Beneath the Lily Banners I played last week:

The game began with the French defending and the Allied forces attacking.  The French decided to use their cavalry on the right wing to sweep away the Allied horse.

Unfortunately, due partly to the classification of the horse (blade vs bullet) and some rather awful dice rolling the French horse came off rather badly.

The British advanced and poured musket fire into the French front rank and whilst the French charged forward to try to break the Allies they were unsuccessful and the melee saw the French front line collapse with the Allies having sufficient reinforcements to take advantage.

I managed to identify and correct some of the things I wasn't playing quite right in the previous game (mostly allowing morale modifiers incorrectly).   I am getting the hang of the rules now but I'm not yet convinced they'll be the rules of choice for this period for me.  For two player games I'm still more interested by Maurice and I'd like to try out another set for multiplayer as a comparison.

First Play: Beneath the Lily Banners (2nd ed)

As our next War of Spanish Succession game I decided to try out Beneath the Lily Banners (2nd ed).  Whilst we kept the same terrain as the previous Maurice game, we decided on more of a straight battle - so we evened up the forces and redeployed them.
Lenin retained his deployment from the previous game but I laid my troops out in a more traditional line (since there wasn't an objective to defend).  Once again infantry in the centre and cavalry/dragoons to the flanks with Lenin's artillery on the hill and mine dispersed between the infantry.

As with Maurice the game began slowly as we both got the hang of the rule mechanics.

Then Lenin decided to throw the dragoons on his right forward to try to outflank me.  Then he began to advance his infantry in the centre whilst we exchanged artillery fire.

I turned my dragoons to face the flanking threat and advanced my infantry to meet Lenin's.  The centre rapidly descended into a musketry battle with neither of us wanting to move into melee without a clear advantage.  With the British having the platoon firing advantage this wasn't exactly a plan designed to favour my side unfortunately!

Despite slowly taking casualties, our infantry morale held and we both decided to call a halt to the game for a rules post mortem.

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We weren't quite sure what to make of the rules as we liked some elements of them but had a real concern that something wasn't right.  Obviously the order mechanism provides some interesting challenges (especially if your dice rolling is as unpredictable as mine) and some of the period elements made the game interesting (platoon vs rank firing) and it was clear that they would suit a multiplayer game more easily than Maurice.  But our overall conclusion was that I was doing something wrong with the moral rules as with the casualties being suffered from musketry we would have expected it to be easier for the units to fail their morale.  I fully intend to persevere with the rules and I am planning to set up another game and have another run through the rules to work out what went awry prior to our next proper encounter.

First Look: Beneath the Lily Banners (2nd ed)

Having read through the first edition of Beneath the Lily Banners (BtLB) which I have had for quite some time, I thought they looked like an interesting proposition for my 15mm WSS project; however, a number of articles on the second edition indicated they were not only improved but were also clearer and better explained.  So based on that and a recommendation from Ray over at Don't Throw a 1, I decided to pick up a copy.

The rules are intended to cover the period 1660 to 1721 and can be used for either small engagements at 1:5 or larger ones at 1:40 ratios.  In the latter an 18 figure unit (3 x 6 figures) represents a battalion.

As I haven't played the first edition of BtLB properly I can't do a fair comparison between the two editions; however, the second edition is certainly thicker!  It's a full colour softback with around 117 pages (including some adverts), in a two column format.  The text is interspersed with various photos - mainly of lovely 28mm figures - some of which are annotated to explain the rules along with a few line drawings.

The rules are broken down into 11 sections, followed by some optional rules and events.  This is followed up by sections on the Great Northern War, Eastern Wars and King William's War providing various adjustments for those theatres.  A scenario, Steinbeke July 1692, follows along with sample armies, a painting guide, bibliography and roster sheets.  The rules also come with two separate double sided quick reference sheets (they aren't two copies of the same QRS).

The rules are well laid out and the explanations seem pretty clear.  The rules work on a simultaneous activation basis so placing orders is required.  You dice against the ability level of your commander (from Plodder to Gifted) to determine how many units you can order each turn; however, there is a mechanism to avoid being unable to order anything for more than a single turn.  The section on fighting in built up areas is a nice addition and something that is often skimped on in other rules and the random events provide a nice flavour (although these can be omitted if they're not your cup of tea).

Overall these are very nicely presented and look very interesting.  I am looking forward to actually trying them out on the table and see how they compare to Maurice.