War of Spanish Succession - the Easter game

For our Easter game we reverted to a favourite period of the War of Spanish Succession in 28mm using Beneath the Lilly Banners. The scenario is from Miniature Wargames 431 and concerns a combined British/Dutch force trying to capture the road to Lutzingen, defended by a combined French / Bavarian force. The defenders have a hill and some emplacements covering the road. The large wood is impassable.

The Setup

The British / Dutch deployed with their right flank refused and held by an infantry brigade. In the centre was a further brigade and some cavalry, whilst on their left were their final infantry & cavalry brigades.

The British of the right flank

 

British cavalry in the centre 

The Dutch ready to attack the hills

The French deployed on the right of their line with two brigades of infantry and two of cavalry. The defences were occupied by Dragoons and the Bavarians deployed on the left of the line.  



The French hold the high ground

 

The Dragoons and Bavarian cavalry

View of the Bavarian position

View from the French guns 

During the briefing the British commander on the right flank misheard who he was facing and thought he was facing a force of Barbarians. So briefly Conan was leading then attack.
  

Conan the Bavarian

The Battle

In the centre the French began a cautious cavalry advance against the outnumbered Dutch while on the opposite side the Bavarians began their circumnavigation of the woods. The British / Dutch were initially on the defensive.

French cavalry move forward to attack

Bavarians begin their long march

The Dutch seeing they were outnumbered held-back with their cavalry and advanced the infantry into a flanking position to fire into the French horse. This proved successful as they were able to halt one of the French cavalry brigades and so even-up the numbers for the coming cavalry battle.   

The Dutch infantry occupy the woods

British advance against the redoubt

The cavalry battle in the centre proved pretty even with both sides routing a few of the enemy but themselves pushed back. This is pretty typical of BLB cavalry melee - a far bit of luck is involved and normally forces cancel each other out.

In the centre the British toiled forward under musket and artillery fire towards the redoubt. This was  looking fairly ill-fated until the British cavalry were able to rout the Bavarian horse from the field and support the assault. 
 

British pushing forward

Bavarians long march continues

British horse rout their opponents

 

The British line-up for an assault on the redoubt

 In the final act of the game the British launched themselves into the redoubt and pushed the outnumbered Dragoons out.
 

French guns pour fire into the advancing British

Tally ho

The Bavarians finally get into position but too late to affect the game

Up and at um

The redoubt falls

The objective is secure

Conclusions

An impressive and somewhat unlikely win for the British / Dutch, especially as towards the end of the game a quick head-count revealed that Marlborough was so certain of victory he'd left an infantry brigade in the box, thus ensuring he was outnumbered!