The Battle of Lavington 1688

The Club new year "kicked off" with a what if scenario based around the dramatic events of October to December 1688 which saw the landing of Prince William of Orange at Torbay and the departure of King James II to France and the beginning of the Jacobite struggle that finally culminated on the bloody moor of Culloden in 1746.

Our scenario assumed James taking a more resolute position and galvanising his supporters, including a contingent of French troops to help put an army in the field to contest Williams march on London. The two armies have finally met on the open terrain in Wiltshire near the small village of Lavington outside Devises and the battle lines drawn up to decide who will where the Crown of England and decide the fate of a nation.

King James II

William of Orange

Battlefield set up
The troop plan is diagramatic giving a general layout of the forces

The Royalist forces found themselves out-scouted and set their forces up first under the gaze of the rebels. The Royalist right looked fairly secure with the garrison around Lavington. The centre was anchored on the small hill-Lavington knoll, and the few artillery pieces were evenly spaced across the centre left. The bulk of King James' cavalry formed up in the more open ground on the Royalist left-left centre, with the King and his Guard cavalry and French troops just left of Lavington knoll

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View of the Royalist lines looking towards Lavington in the top left corner

The Royalist garrison in Lavington with the camp behind

Lavington strongly held by Royalist troops, or was it?

King James' French contingent

The battle began with the Rebel cavalry and infantry advancing in the centre to meet Royalist cavalry. Both forces engaging in desultory artillery fire, with the Royalist getting the better of it and causing casualties on the Dutch infantry.

The French look on as the two opposing cavalry forces "lock horns"

The first cavalry clash in the centre went to William, with the Dutch elite infantry on the right background
seeing off the Royalist cavalry with devastating volley fire.

The first clash went in favour of the Rebels as crashing volley fire from the steady Dutch infantry emptied Royalist saddles.

Meanwhile on the Rebel left, the forces were happy to probe what seemed the formidable defences around Lavington and the Royalist camp.

The rebel cavalry started to probe the outskirts of Lavington

The rebel English foot looked on at Lavington. Did they know something was afoot?

With the repulse of the initial Royalist cavalry both sides prepared to raise the stakes in the centre as James threw in his heavy Guard cavalry, and William his elite Dutch Guard infantry.

Meanwhile the second round of action was building in the centre as William threw in his guard and more cavalry

Rebel cavalry to the right, William on the left oversees the Guard Infantry to his front.

King James ups the stakes in the centre by putting in the elite heavy
cavalry on the right to take on William's Guard Infantry-"game on"

A rebel Colonel looks on as the battle unfolds

King James' heavy cavalry are the victors in the centre and chase the Dutch Guard from the field,but at a terrible cost, their ranks severely depleted.

The battle in the centre was held in the balance for several turns as the two sides fought desperately for dominance. The Royalist cavalry eventually gained the victory but at a terrible cost and they were now a spent force. Both sides looked to their reserves, to "seal the deal". William brought up his last reserves of cavalry, whilst James committed the French infantry.

The centre is open and ready for exploitation, who would grab the initiative?

King James calls forward the French to push the rebel centre from the field and claim victory

The rebels play their next card and exploit dissension in the Royalist ranks.
The garrison commander in Lavington throws in his lot with
Williams forces taking half his brigade over to the rebel cause.

The centre of the field which had seen the heaviest fighting gradually moved in favour of the French infantry forcing the Rebels to consider other options. It was then that the Royalist lines were thrown into confusion as rebel sympathisers within their ranks threw in their lot with William's cause. The colonel commanding the Lavington garrison went over to the enemy taking half of his brigade with him and secured Lavington for the rebels.

However the loyal Royal forces were able to prevent any link up with the Rebel left flank and this cancelled out any advantage to William's army.

The final throw of the dice for the rebels, with their right wing attempting to get across the Lavington brook.

The final assault by the Rebels came with an attempt to force the Lavington brook on the Rebel right flank an roll the Royalist line up from their left. King James had kept a cavalry brigade back to cover any such attempt, and as the rebels came across the stream disordered, they were met by a furious cavalry charge that routed and chased the majority of them back.

Thus ended the Battle of Lavington. Prince William withdrew to Bristol unmolested, the Royalist army being too exhausted to follow up, and sailed for Holland in the January 1689. King James II secured the throne for the Stuarts and the course of British history was changed forever.

The rules used were Barry Hilton's "Under the Lilly Banners" which were new to many of us, but gave a fast moving game and were greatly enjoyed.

Thanks to Chas, Nick and Vince for supplying the figures and setting up the game . Great fun

Jon



Sidi Rezegh - Witches Cauldron

Steve and I played the "Witches Cauldron" mission on Thursday night with the game based on a 7th Armoured Division Jock Column commanded by Brigadier Jock Campbell VC, occupying ground on the Sidi Rezegh airfield and bracing itself for the inevitable counter attack by the Panzers of 21st Panzer Division.

The Sidi Rezegh Battlefield

The Witches Cauldron has the defenders placed in the centre of their half of the table with two objective markers placed by the attackers. Once the defender has deployed the attacker dices to randomly deploy his initial forces to come on the table from the opposite edge or from either flank, with a 5 or 6 allowing a choice. The attacker can deploy up to half their forces with the rest coming on as reserves from turn 1. The defenders reserves cannot start testing before turn 3 and will arrive from the opposite table edge.

The Panzers are on the flank

The German placement die rolls produced fives and sixes allowing for the whole German force to arrive on the British left flank, the nearest to the two objectives and completely unhinging the defence set up. The two objectives were the building and sandbag emplacement either side of the soft sand area in the picture below.

The British set up with 25lbrs behind the infantry

The British position from the German perspective

Turn one saw the British ambush force (a troop of three A13s) immediately revealed (they have to be declared in turn one) and after a brief exchange of fire with the Panzers just as immediately dispatched.

The A13s in ambush are eliminated by the German tanks

The Panzers move in on the British Gun Line

The destruction of the British cruiser tanks left the 25lbr gun line as the main anti-tank defence to the infantry dug in on the airfield. These were supported by the infantry Boyes AT rifles. However the combined assault by the Panzers and Panzergrenadiers supported by the Stukas took its inevitable toll. Two of the guns were quickly neutralised for the loss of a Panzer II.

The Luftwaffe add to the destruction

As the battle waged furiously around the first objective, with the Panzergrenadiers seeking to drive off the British infantry and secure the ground, the British reinforcements appeared on turn 5. However the whole of the German force was on table at that stage and the German battery of four 105mm howitzers placed a smoke screen down to seal off the objective area from the onrushing Honeys.

The British reserves get smoked

With the objective taken in turn 6 and the Panzer IIIs in support of the two Panzergrenadier platoons, we called it a night.


The Panzers and Panzergrenadiers consolidate on the objective (the small round sandbag emplacement centre left)

Thanks to Steve for a fun game and "bearing up" whilst the God of Dice kept serving up the Afrika Korps fives and sixes. It just happens like that sometimes.

Jon

Fire and Fury in the American Civil War

Hi all,

In addition to our Malayan Emergency Game this month, Jack laid on a 28mm Fire and Fury ACW game in preparation for the "Big One" in December as our annual Xmas game where all club members can come together on one table.

This year Nathan is organising an ACW big game using Fire and Fury rules so to get things warmed up for December, I grabbed a few photo's of Jack's game.

Malayan Emergency

This months game was put on by Chas and featured a sharp little skirmish somewhere in Malaya during the Emergency 1948-1960 and gave us a chance to try out the "Force on Force" skirmish rules prior to our large Summer game where we plan to play a "Black Hawk Down" scenario.

The village, with the Mosque in the centre and the Police Station on the right

The scenario had a village police station threatened by a large gang of Chinese guerrillas who had infiltrated into neighbouring buildings and brought the police force under fire. This was all a ruse to cause the local military force consisting of Royal Marines and Gurkhas to come to the rescue and walk into ambushes planned on likely access routes.

  

The Police Station with the District Commissioner's Land rover outside

 The Police station was well guarded and their fire power had to be respected. In fact the initial exchanges of gunfire definitely went in favour of the Police. 



The centre of town saw heavy fighting

The neighbouring jungle provided plenty of cover for the guerrillas to move their forces and the first success for them came when one of the Marine patrols were surprised by a large force of the enemy. After initially debussing from their transport they quickly remounted but the fire from the Guerrillas on the exposed crew caused the vehicle to quickly reverse back up the road.

The Royal Marines were tasked with coming to the rescue

However the other patrol proved more robust and quickly debussed avoiding several booby traps along their route, including mines. They cleared the first main building and went on to clear the mosque.

The battle started to move towards the cross roads where the guerrillas mounted one last attempt at causing casualties to the police and managed to kill a couple of officers and shoot up a Gurkha patrol coming in over the river.

The British firepower soon got control of the situation and the guerrillas were forced to break off

Caution was the watch word with ambushes a constant threat

Chinese guerrillas in ambush

The learning from the game shows that irregular insurgent teams need to tackle regular troops in the open with as much firepower as they can bring to bear. The best guerrilla option were their snipers whose firepower was on a par with the regular troops.

The rules proved quick to master and should work well for our game next summer. Thank you to Chas for a fun game.

Jon



Battle of Camden 16th August 1780

Battle of Camden 1780

Following our two games of the Battle of Harlem Heights, we concluded the afternoon with the Battle of Camden scenario.

The map from British Battles.com clearly shows the historical outcome with the collapse of the American militia in the face of Tarleton's regulars leading to the rout of the American main force under Gates.



Map of the battle - British Battles.com

The forces set up as per Hold the Line with the only notable terrain being the swampy ground on each flank.

Hold the Line Scenario Map

The table set up based on the map above.

The British advance on the militia

This scenario is a straight forward clash of force with both sides looking to destroy enemy units and achieve 6 victory points for the win.



General de Kalb and the first Continental line

I think it is very satisfying when a game gives a very similar result to the historical events. As per the actual battle, the British forces took the initiative, and pressed the American militia on the American left flank. General "Granny" Gates struggled to control more than three of his units each move, reflecting his poor command attributes and found his militia soon in a state of collapse.

General Cornwallis with the British left flank

The American left flank collapse surrendered the 6VP required for a British victory and the game was concluded with a move to spare.

Tarleton commands the British right

This is a very difficult scenario for the American player, when following the historical set up, but then so it should be!

Jon

Battle of Harlem Heights, 16th September 1776

Continental Infantry at Harlem Heights

 This months club games featured an AWI clash using the "Hold the Line" rules from Worthington Games. The board game has a number of scenarios and with the availability of the new Holtz Mats Command Mat which follows the hex map in the game, the rules give a fast playable 15mm figure game.

Contemporary Map of the Battle

 The scenario we chose this month was a follow up to game we played in January, the Battle of Long Island. The Battle of Harlem Heights has the British advance guard under General Leslie ambushed by General Washington's main force. The Americans have the opportunity to seriously damage this force before General Howe can come to their support with the British main force. The map below shows the initial positions of the two sides. The three objective hexes behind the British advance guard give victory points to the Americans only and are shown on the game table as wagons and limbers of the baggage train. These together with destroyed units give the victory points for the scenario and both sides were looking to achieve 6 victory points in 20 moves.

We have adopted a few house rules to the basic game.

• To make the end of the game slightly variable, we multiply the number of turns by three to give a score that is reduced each turn by the roll of a d6. On average the game will last 20 moves but this may vary slightly either way.
• Casualties in the game would usually result in a base being removed (the number of bases in a unit indicate its morale). In our game the first casualty is indicated with a body marker and subsequent casualties by the little red dice next to the unit.
• The road in the game is purely for aesthetics and has no function in the game.

The figures are 15mm Poly Oliver, and baggage vehicles by Hallmark.

Hold the Line Scenario Map showing set-up

 The forces are moved and fought using action points a base number for the scenario plus a d3. The Americans start with a base of 3 whilst the British only have 2. This reflected General Howe's rather "laid back" performance in the battle and made things difficult when attempting to bring forward the British main force.

The Americans realised that time was of the essence and that they had to press their advantage early. We played the scenario twice and with different results. The second game was probably more of an illustrative game as both sides took stock of the situation In our second game the British Light infantry counterattacked the Continental line as it emerged from the woods and forced them back causing and taking heavy casualties.

The Americans ambush is sprung

The British advance guard under General Leslie

However General Washington in the center pressed General Leslie's flank, destroying the Guards battalion and forcing the British back onto their main force. In the first game Washington was killed in this attack on the Guards.

The British are forced back

General Howe and the British main force

The American's advance in line

 As the opposing lines faced off in the open fields, the firefight started to decide the eventual outcome. In the first game the Americans managed to just miss out on a clear win ending up with 5VP vs 1VP (General Washington killed).

 The second game was a more close run affair with the Americans coming out on top 3VP vs 2VP

Generals Howe and Leslie form the line to protect the baggage

General Howe attempts to bring forward the reserve

General Howe in the thick of the action

The final positions

Hold the Line is a great game with an excellent set of rules that always give an enjoyable wargame.

Thanks to Nathan, Ian and Steve H for a fun game

Jon