The Seven Years War, Honours of War, 28mm

The decision to make this an all-cavalry battle was all down to laziness. I hadn’t planned the game, and so rather than looking out a mixed force for both sides, I just grabbed the cavalry boxes. Actually, they weren’t all cavalry – one of the boxes had Legions in them – small formations of both cavalry and light infantry. So, the footsloggers were there on the sidelines, but primarily this was all about free-wheeling, hard-charging cavalry, doing  what they do best.In this game, both sides had around 8 cavalry units of 12 figures apiece, plus a Legion of 6 cavalry and 9 light infantry, and a second light infantry unit without the horses. Each side – french and Western Allies – was divided into three brigades, with one coming on at the start, and the other two appearing afterwards, their arrival governed by the throw of a dice. The battlefield was as you see above – an ideal arena for a cavalry ‘stramash’! The first to arrive was an Allied brigade of the Hanovarian Freytag Legion and the Briedenbach dragoons, plus a unit of Hessian jaegers and Prussian ‘Death’s Head’ hussars. The french had two hussar regiments (Bercheny and Royal Nassau), the Chasseurs de Fisher (a Legion) and a light infantry unit — Clermont Prince. That’s them up above, advancing past the roadside calvary, led by the Compte de Bercheny. Both sides advanced towards each other, with Sean showing commendably aggressiveness – partly because his leader von Grothausen was classed as aggressive. That’s them above, spilling onto the table, after passing through the village of Berndorf, on the road to Corbach. The Freytag legion led the way, but after an initial sally they was sensibly content to act as the anchor, and let the cavalry following behind them do all the real fighting. One of the problems with a French army is that they look great, but often they’re slightly less effective than their opponents. My leader was ‘dependable’, but the other two cavalry brigade commanders were  most decidedly not. Also, French hussars and dragoons plus the Legion cavalry are classed as ‘inferior’, while the Allied ones were regular. Hessian cavalry  – a brigade of two of regiments of them – were even classed as ‘superior’! This is my probably the grounds of my excuse for what followed. It started well enough. The Nassau hussars sent the Freytag Jaegers’ horse and foot running back to the cover of a hedged field – but my pet unit the Bercheny hussars clashed with the Briedenbach dragoons, and within a turn both units were forced to retrueat, with 4 ‘hits’. That pretty much set the tone for everything that followed – one French setback after another..My second brigade (above  at the back) were led onto the field by the red-coated  La Reine Dragoons, supported by two line cavalry regiments – Bourbon-Busset and Talleyrand. They arrived in time to stop the Allied dragoons and hussars from finishing off non Fisher’s green-coated horsemen and e Clermont-Prince light troops,  who were screening the rallying of the Bercheny hussars. the trouble was, the Allied reinforcements arrived too. These were the two good-quality Hessian regiments (Leibregiment and von Pruschenk) led by General Urff. They rode on at speed and caught La Reine at the halt, and one of the French dragoon regiment’s two divisions retreated, and the other one was forced back.  That blew a big hole in my line, but at least the Leibregiment were forced to withdraw and lick their wounds, which lessened the pressure for a turn or two. I brought up Bourbon-Busset and Talleyrand (white with red facings above), and charged in, with the red-coated french dragoons supporting them. It could have gone either way, but my dice rolling let me down, and although von Prushent was forced to retreat with 4 hits, Bourbon-Busset was routed, and Talleyrand retreated, with 4 hits of its own. If you get 5 hits you rout. So, it really wasn’t going well – and then Sean’s last brigade arrived! The already battered French dragoons tried to hold the line, but it wasn’t to be. One division of them was charged and routed by the newly-arrived Hanovarian Hodenberg regiment, while another arrival, the British Inniskillings forced the other French dragoon division to retreat. The routers ran through the Talleyrand regiment, and it too was forced to retreat. So, that’s the scene above – the French cavalry running for the table edge! All though, wasn’t completely lost. Some of my first brigade still remained, and the Bercheny hussars had recovered their morale, while the light infantry were still in  the game. As I kept failing the arrival roll for my third brigade though – with two ‘superior’ royal regiments in it – it was just a rearguard to protect the routers. So, at that point I ceded the game to Sean – he’d won a very convincing victory for the Allies, thanks to his elan, aggression and luck!That by the way, is the red-coated Inniskilling Dragoons, followed by the Hanovarian von Hammerstein regiment – Hessians behind. 

Tags: Honours of War