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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 8:41:00 GMT
Please look into my Scenario for a map and the OOB. honoursofwar.com/thread/247/dettingen-1743 (the map at the top!)
Last Weekend we played the game.
I had the honour to serve as de Noailles. A friend (French artillery reenactment - perfectly to handle the large batteries at the Main-river) had the command first before de Naoilles arrived and had to Play the chaos of the French under Grammont.
My wife had the role of Arenberg and the command over 3 brigades of Austrians including most of the allied artillery. Our nice friend from Mannheim had the role of king George.
First impressions after the heavy French artillery Bombardement started: 

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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 11:59:59 GMT
The Maison du Roi under the personal command of de Grammont charged into the leading british Brigade under Cumberland. Cumberland fought well but both of his regiments had to retreat. The mousquetaires du Roi had to retreat too but the gendarmes and Chevaulegers de la garde were destroyed and inflicted some damage to the Regiment Berry behind them.

At that Moment Arenberg commands all his troops of the allied Center Forward and outside of the Wood. Surprisingly the good General Howard refuses with the best allied Units, Pulteney's and King's Regiment.

King George wanted to see his cavalry on his own wing in action and send them forward. My subordinate and myself thought: outch! Our light artillery of Duras' Brigade was still limbered!
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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 12:19:04 GMT
One problem was now, that our brigade Navarre was to far away to be of some use to repell the allied advance, which was not really stoped by the Maison du Roi. D'Estrée'sbrigade of horse get some damage and the regiment de Berry had to fall back, leaving the cuirassiers du Roi later alone in front of the hanoverian muskets of Monroy's brigade.

The gardes francaises had to advance but were hold because the austrian medium artillery was nearly in canister range. But the Austrians showed no Intention to stop and advanced in all their glory. Neipperg wanted perhaps to get all the honours for himself - no wonder as both of the other lines of battle stayed in the woods.

Just in time the French artillery under Duras unlimbered and could fire into the advancing pragmatic right wing. V.Wendt was clearly furious to get his regiments in combat! The own hanocerian artillery was masked and the finest regiments of the hanoverian army - Schulenburg and Borch - stood to far away for intervention in the next act. We had one advantage more: the morass at the right of the pragmatic wing. This terrain hindered the use of all allied cavalry here.


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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 12:29:22 GMT
Now everything hapened very fast. First the first unit of Wendt's Brigade was destroyed and brought much of confusion into the ranks of the Schulenburg-Regiment. Next the second Regiment charged into the Clermont-cavalerie and now the French get the upperhand. Perhaps they had to retreat but the allied cavalry had to fall back too. The poor Regiment Schulenburg charged and was shot to pieces, loosing finaly the mellee.

In some minutes his majesty had to see the desaster of most of his right wing.

In the center Neipperg decided to attack. His Grenadiers and the Regiment Wurmbrand (Standing in for the Regiment Geisruck - looking nearly the same) charged and were destroyed, but could destroy one of the gardes-bn.s too. The other bn. of Gardes Francaises were too weak now to stay and were send back behind some advancing line infantry, who had only to save them!
At the left allied wing one of Hammerstein's regiments of horse was drestroyed by our cuirassiers du Roi. Finally additionaly our Navarre brigade crossed the Forchbach to deal with the advancing masses of pragmatic horse and foot.
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Post by stevej on Nov 27, 2017 12:57:42 GMT
Wonderful looking game!
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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 13:01:49 GMT
Another view of the mostly destroyed pragmatic right wing: 
Finally Noailles (myself) arrived at the battlefield. I recognized that my subordinate did very well during my absence and even without the moral help of the Maréchal de France!
We decided that I would command now our right wing and right center including the heavy artillery and the Maison-Du-Roi-, Navarre-, du Roi- and Gardes Francaises brigades. There we were still confronted with a large mass of allied cavalry and infantry while the center saw the quiet effective austrian artillery.
The allied masses at our right. Arenberg still made no use of his fresh Brigade of dragoons (Styrum had green cuffs and red coats and was therefore looking just like british cavalry) under Diemar.
I ordered my last bn. of gardes to fall back again and again in front of the advancing british and austrian artillery. Now Howard maybe thought that they lost too much of time during the process of advancing with his typical and much feared pletonfire. Or maybe the French canister did their work too well. Therefore he ordered his regiments to charge in and Pulteney's was beaten and had to fall back while the King's Regiment hold his ground but was done fore after another round of mellee.

A view on the pragmatic center. Note that the Brigade under Salm still is in the woods! Grammont continued his work at our left wing, advancing with everything he had by his hands. The brigade under Duras was very effective although splitted at the wing and in the center (Grammont always had luck and the isolated bn.s get the orders if it was necessary).

A view on the center. Not much left of Neippergs former glory. His artillery is still in place and Grammont did'nt commanded to charge 3pdr.s (perhaps because the player is an artillerymen). In a distance you may see the last large charge of the pragmatic masses at the Banks of the river Main.

Cumberland ordered a final Charge into the Navarre Brigade. Hammerstein's Leibregiment charged one bn. of Navarre. But now at last! the Maison du Roi entered the battle again charging into the flank of the heaviely supported hanoverian horse. The Queens dragoons charged into another bn. of Navarre but were destroyed too only later.
Now after 4 hours of hot fighting (and several bottles of beer and some portwine - recommended for wargaming with friends!) the pragmatic army declared the defeat. They lost 9 Units - the French lost 2. Although the left wing was still intact and 3 brigades (Diemar's, Salm's and Monroy's) had done nearly nothing, the chance to win was not realistic. We had still 2 brigades intact on our left eager to roll up the rest of the allied flank.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.
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Post by damnitz on Nov 27, 2017 13:05:31 GMT
Thank you.
I have to say that my subordinate picked up the rules quiet fast. First he said that the dice are to important but later he saw the real advantage of the game. It was his first game with Honours of War and even our player who had the english played only some games before with us (sometimes really successfull).
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Post by Keith on Nov 27, 2017 16:50:20 GMT
Thank you Damnitz for a fine contribution to the forum. Very interesting indeed.
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Post by damnitz on Dec 20, 2017 16:13:37 GMT
Thank you Damnitz for a fine contribution to the forum. Very interesting indeed. Thanks, Keith.
I hope to get a refight with me as old king George on next year's anniversary in june.
Would it be better to post it here or in a Special thread? What do you think?
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Post by defoix on Dec 22, 2017 11:57:39 GMT
Huzzah! Excellent battle and report Damnitz
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Post by leman on Dec 31, 2017 16:48:57 GMT
Great stuff as always. I am beginning to find the WAS an intriguing prospect which I may well use my 6mm collection to do.
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Post by adamus on Dec 31, 2017 22:37:15 GMT
Well done Damnitz on the game. Been a while since I have attended my SYW stuff but games like this are making it an itch I need to scratch very soon. 
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Post by damnitz on Jan 3, 2018 13:45:49 GMT
Great stuff as always. I am beginning to find the WAS an intriguing prospect which I may well use my 6mm collection to do. Great idea. Perhaps perfect for a small side step. With 6mm it's a lot easier to put such large battles like Lauffeld at the table. I wish you good luck with your project. I assume that you will inform us how HoW worked for you gaming the WAS.
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Post by johnq on Jan 3, 2018 17:20:11 GMT
6mm WAS, now there is a good idea!
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Post by williamoftiberia on Jan 24, 2018 19:04:47 GMT
An excellent selection of photo's and AAR, thanks for posting.
W.O.T.
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