A First Game of Beneath the Lily Banners -War of Three Kings (4)

Major General Von Tettau throws a 4 (He can issue orders to half his units) and decides to regain the initiative.  He has volunteers probing for a fordable portion of the river, a couple of them have drowned and floated past him, never to collect their guinea alas. He needs to get the army across the river.

His cannon fire on the annoying Rapparees.

The 'Drilled' gunners throw 2 D8 scoring 4 and 4, they are at ‘Effective’ range (no pre-measuring n BLB) but it is a ‘New Target’ -2 and a ‘Dispersed’ one-1.  They will do better with their next shot.

Not without a little trepidation Von Tettau orders the Prince of Orange’s, stay- King William’s- pet cavaliers to perform a desperate action. They are to carry out a ‘Causey’ charge at the Jacobite gun.  This means they will not ‘Wheel’ and ‘Form’ line of battle.  There is no time for that.  Rather they will charge in ‘Column of March’ relying on skill, suprise and determination to carry the day.

The remaining Squadrons will support alongside the Danes.

The Duke of Berwick (he threw a 2 and can only issue orders to a quarter of his units) finds himself with little to do and gives orders to get more cavalry moving sends word for the Rapparees to harass the Williamite gunners.  On intuition, he orders up the Lord Grand Prior’s regiment. He begins to think of an infantry assault should the Williamites manage to get their troops across the river.

Both Commanders place their order counters face down and then reveal their orders. Berwick is amazed to see the Garde Paarde spurring towards the centre of his line. It’s some sort of feint, surely? 

Here’s what the Garde Paarde do.

They ‘Morale check’ upon receiving the order to ‘Charge’ and as they are ‘Veteran’ throw a ‘Signature Dice’ D10.  They score a 7.

The gain +1 for Von Tettau and +1 for being supported and so comfortably exceed the score of 5 needed to fulfil their orders.  Off they ride.

The Jacobite gunners are in no doubt about what is happening and must ‘Morale check’.  The gunners are ‘Drilled’ and so get neither a plus or minus when they throw a D6.  The score, a 3, means they will fire at ‘Effective’ range.  A score of 6 would have allowed them deadly close- range fire.

The Garde Paarde can also expect to take fire from the two Jacobite battalions, Antrim’s and O’Neill’s supporting the gunners. Antrim’s are behind hedges and so don’t need to ‘Morale check’ as the cavalry cannot reach them.   

O’Neill’s could, for all they know, be the actual target of the ‘Charge’ and so must test.  They are ‘Drilled’ and throw a D6 scoring a 6.

The Garde Paarde continue their ‘Charge’ and receive the artillery fire.  The gunners score a 3 and an 8 and re-roll the 3 getting a 5. The gunners need 5+ to hit.

-1 ‘Target charging Horse’

The Garde Paarde don’t count as a ‘New target’ because they have not changed their alignment to the gun.

The gunners have inflicted 1 casualty.

 O’Neill’s Foot give fire. They are ‘Drilled’ ‘Regulation’ Foot which is to say a quarter of the men carry pikes.  They have been ordered to ‘Defend’ the gun. Normally O’Neill’s would throw 3 D8 but this is their ‘First Fire’ so they use 3 D10. This they modify as follows:

+1 Dice ‘Shooters have defend orders’

-1 Dice ‘Target charging Horse’

As they will shoot at ‘Short range’ they will double their number of dice from 3 to 6 and hit on 5+.  They will also re-roll misses as the Garde Paarde are still a dense target.

O’Neill’s Foot score 1,2,2, 5,6 and 7.  They re-roll the misses getting a 2,6 and a 7.

O’Neill’s Foot have inflicted 5 casualties.

Antrim’s Foot also are ‘Drilled’ ‘Regulation’ Foot and have been ordered to ‘Defend’ the gun and so shoot using the same factors scoring 1,2,3,4,5 and 7.  They re-roll the misses getting 0,2,6 and 8.

Antrim’s Foot have inflicted 4 casualties.

The Garde Paarde can endure 12 casualties and has received 10 in this action and 1 previous from artillery.  They must ‘Check morale’.  They throw a D10 and score 2 which is modified by:

-2 ‘Unit has lost two thirds of its strength’.

The Garde Paarde is on 0 ‘Check morale’ and the gallant survivors head back to the bridge. 

The Duke of Berwick lets out his breath  and Von Tettau contemplates life in the Russian Service.

It was an audacious gambit and had the Jacobites proved less steady it could have succeeded.

The battle field now looks like this.

A First Game of Beneath the Lily Banners -War of Three Kings (3)

We left the Williamite Dragoons at the hostile end of the bridge.  Immediately to the west of the bridge is a bog and it’s full of Rapparees who intend to shoot the Dragoons.

Shooting

The experienced 'Drilled' Rapparees are ‘Loose Order’ troops in two groups, one of two stands and the other of one, and they open fire using a D8 ‘Signature Dice’ for each stand. The first group are at ‘Short’ range and the second at ‘Effective’ range.

Neither group will get the ‘First Fire’ bonus as they are loose order troops but because the first group are at short range they will double their number of dice .  To this they add:

+1 dice for being an All Musket unit

+1 dice for being armed with Flintlock Musket.

Because the Dragoons are currently a ‘Dense’ target the Rapparees will re roll any misses.

The first group throw for 6 D8 scoring a 1, 3, 5 and a 6, 7,8.  They need a 6 to hit and so get to re-throw three dice scoring 3,5 and 8.  They have inflicted 4 casualties on the Dragoons.

The second group of Rapparees throw 1 D8 for their single stand and+1 dice for being an All Musket unit+1 dice for being armed with Flintlock Musket.  They don’t double their dice because they are not at short range but they will re-roll misses.  They throw three D8 scoring 2,4,8 and re -roll two dice scoring two 6s.  They have inflicted 3 hits on the Dragoons.

The Dragoons do not return fire because they are not in ‘Line’ and so cannot shoot.  They have now lost 1 casualty to artillery and 7 to musketry.  They can only absorb 12 casualties (compared to the 18 of a three stand formed battalion of Foot) and now they are unlikely to survive the next 'Check Morale'.

Movement

The bottle neck at the bridge means that we have seen very little movement from either side so far.   

 

Movement can be variable in BLB and we are about to see a lot of it.  Let’s look at a few examples.

The deadly Rapparees in the bog wrought havoc and then moved out of harm’s way.  This is because it was their ‘First Fire’ and though they didn’t get the bonus of going up one ‘Signature Dice’ size they did arrive with carefully loaded muskets. Thus, they could shoot and move or had they chosen move and shoot.  

Only infantry using ‘First Fire’ can do this. Otherwise infantry can only shoot OR move.  

First fire is deadly if delivered at close range, accordingly it is to be horded like treasure or provoked at the earliest opportunity.  

The Dragoons ‘Morale Check’ and have had enough and are ‘Shaken’ and ‘Disordered’ and need to ‘Retreat’.  This does not require a ‘Move’ order.  Here, I may have made a mistake.

 

The Dragoons could have tried to ‘Retreat’ by pushing through three squadrons of Horse on a narrow bridge.  I thought that unlikely so I allowed them to ‘Retreat’ to their flank eastern side of the bridge end.   

The Garde Paard cavalry need to get off the bridge fast and then to wheel east to get out of the way of the squadrons following behind them.  Let’s see how they do it. First, they receive their ’Move’ order and can advance 6 inches as they are in ‘Column of March’.  This will take them off the bridge but will move them closer to the Jacobite light gun and leave them still presenting as a ‘Dense Target’. 

They elect to do so because getting the army across the bridge takes priority. The ‘Wheel’ could take place in the next turn and would reduce their move to 3 inches.

The Jacobite cavalry are keeping a close eye on their Williamite counter parts and two squadrons are ordered to ‘Move’. 

 

They too have to ‘Wheel’ and as they are already deployed in line of battle will make a half move of 2 inches.

 

Next time we will look at Movement, Charges and Close Combat starting with a suprise move by the 'Veteran' Garde Paard.