A First Game of Beneath the Lily Banners -War of Three Kings (2)

A first game is about learning how the rules play so this post won’t be a blow by blow account of the action.  Instead there will be a cameo of each phase of how a turn of the game plays out.  As I'm playing in 15mm all BLB distances have been halved.

Command

Young James Fitz James (Duke of Berwick and Jacobite Commander) and old Major General Von Tettau (Williamite Commander) both throw a D10 to see how many orders they can issue.  Movement is simultaneous so no one goes first.

Von Tettau needs to get his men across the bridge as quickly as possible.  He orders his artillery to deploy on the near side to cover the crossing, his dismounted Dragoons are to rush across the bridge followed by two squadrons of Horse and his Danish Foot Brigade.  The rest can follow once a bridge head has been made.  Let’s see how he gets on.

Von Tettau is a 'Competent Commander' (so no pluses or minus) he rolls a 7 on a D10 which means he can move three quarters (lets round up to 8) of his 10 units. He places his order tokens by the units he wishes to move.  Normally these would be placed face down, for a simultaneous reveal, but as it’s obvious he needs to get across the bridge he doesn’t bother.

The Dragoons get to the far end of the bridge with the first squadrons of cavalry close behind them.

The gun deploys, it is a 'Light' gun and still limbered it moves out of the column and to the river edge to its position for the game.

The rest of the Williamite column save the rear two units moves up.

Artillery Fire

The Jacobites also have a 'Light' gun. It is deployed and sighted on the bridge the Williamites must cross. The Crew are ‘Drilled’ and well supported by infantry. The gun commander decides it is worth a shot at the Williamite dragoons. The range is 10 inches which is extreme range (no pre-measuring in BLB).

 Here’s how it works:

The gun is a 'Light' and so starts off with a throw of two D8.  Heavier guns get more dice.

The Dragoons would normally be a 'Loose Order' target and so would reduce the gun’s score by -1 on each of its two dice scores. But, the Dragoons are packed together in 'Column of March' on a narrow bridge and so the gunners will re-throw any misses.

The range is extreme so the gunners will lose half their dice.  They throw a single D8 hoping to hit on a score of six.  Their first throw is a 4 and misses.  They re-roll as the 'Target is dense' and get an 8.  The Dragoons have lost a man.

There is cavalry directly behind the Dragoons and so we test for them being ‘Shot Through’ by throwing any dice and scoring an even number as a hit.  It’s a 4, and now the cavalry has a casualty too.

The gun commander is well pleased at trying a long shot. Let’s see how the target units react.

Morale Checks

The Dragoons and the Cavalry (it’s the Dutch Garde Paarde) have both taken artillery casualties this turn and so must check their morale.  To do this they roll their ‘Signature Dice’ and add or subtract appropriate factors. Let’s do the Dragoons first, they are ‘Drilled’ and so roll a D8.  They score a 4 and to this they add:

+1 for being supported

+1 for the presence of Von Tettau on the other side of the bridge.

This gives a final score of 6, one more than the 5 they needed so they carry on.

The Garde Paarde are ‘Veteran’ they throw a D10 and score 5 adding to it each of the + 1s the Dragoons got. 

 

The advance continues.

The next post will look at Movement, Musketry and the one after that Charges and Close Combat.