Lifting the Siege of Lille - 4th September 1708

I managed to get up to the club again last weekend and put on a War of the Spanish Succession game using the Gå På rules.  Here's the brief:

On 13 August 1708 the allied army of Marlborough and Eugene began to besiege Lille. Eugene conducted the siege while Marlborough commanded a covering force. The French King Louis XIV ordered his armies under Vendôme, Burgundy and Berwick to link up and break the siege. Can Marlborough hold-off the French assault until Prince Eugene arrives with reinforcements or will the French lift the siege?

Here are a couple of photos from the game:

As it has been a while since I played and neither of the other two players had played before we got off to a bit of a slow start (not helped by some appalling dice rolls by the French).  In hindsight, given the lack of previous experience, I should probably have started with the forces deploying a little closer.  But everyone had a fun game even if we didn't fight the battle to a final conclusion.

The Battle of Ramillies, 1706

It having been an age since I had played Maurice by Sam Mustafa and a friend expressing an interest in trying them out, I decided to run a game at the club.

I found a scenario for the Battle Ramillies (the only one of Marlborough’s famous battles scaled for two players as opposed to four players - using the optional ‘Doubles’ rules).

The game was as fun as remember; however, whilst I had explained the rules I didn’t give my friend enough pointers on tactics as he was playing Marlborough and so needed to be pretty aggressive to win.

Here are a few photos from the game:

6mm War of Spanish Succession

One of the chaps from the club is keen on the War of Spanish Succession, so much so he has developed his own ruleset for it - designed particularly for his impressive 6mm collection.

Here are a couple of photos from the game:

Field of Battle - Spanish Succession

In my seemingly endless quest for a set of rules for the War of the Spanish Succession that (a) fits my preconceived notions; (b) suit my figure collection; (c) are good for multiple players and (d) are fun; I put on a game at the club using the Field of Battle rules from the Piquet stable.

My primary reason for trying these was I want to try out Vauban's Wars from the same publisher and these were suggested as appropriate for any associated field battles. 

Here are a few photos from the playtest game:

Views on the rules were interesting.  I liked the variability created by the card driven mechanism; however, one of the other players thought it introduced too much randomness.  I suspect we both have different tolerance levels and attitudes to uncertainty.  Let's see the reaction to Vauban's Wars but I would like to get these to the table again.

Twilight of the Sun King - Round 2

We decided to give Twilight of the Sun King yet another outing back in the days before COVID - this time something of a pick up game: 

The Battle of Casino 1705

Back in 2019 I set up another War of Spanish Succession game using Twilight of the Sun King.  This time it was the Battle of Casino in 1705.  You will see a number of units acting as proxies for the real units.  Here are some photos:

The Battle of Speyerbach 1703

Sometime ago, when we were allowed to meet at my local club, we had an other outing for my 15mm War of Spanish Succession figures using the Twilight of the Sun King rules for a re-creation of the Battle of Speyerbach.  Here are some photos of the game (please excuse the fact that quite a few units are by necessity proxies):

WSS: Prince Georg Infantry Regiment

And finally (for the Danes anyway):

WSS: Livgarden Til Fods Infantry Regiment

Another Danish unit:

WSS: Fynske Infantry Regiment

Another Danish regiment:

WSS: Jyske Infantry Regiment

Some more Danes:

WSS: Prince Carl Infantry Regiment

The latest addition to my Marlburian collection, this time some Danes:

WSS: Sjaellandske Infantry Regiment

Yes another unit of Danes:

Twilight of the Sun King

Back in May this year I put together a 15mm Marlburian game to try out the Twilight of the Sun King rules from the Pike and Shot Society.

These rules are unusual in that they combine all the action into the morale system, on the basis that it was the morale effect of firing and charging which was the decisive factor in the battles of the period.

It's an interesting approach which took a little getting used to but provided a fun game.  They'll certainly be making the short list of rules for this period in my search.

Here are a couple of photos from the game, apologies for the poor quality but I only had my phone with me on the day...