The Press of Battle

The Batrachian Army of Observation finally pressed so far into Soweiter League territory the League was forced to react. The invasion is on!

The League sent out a force under General von Bluster to block the advance of the Batrachian forces commanded by General D'Zastre.

Order of Battle

The Soweiter League

• The Mayeux Musketeers


• The Saxe-Urquhart 86th Highlanders


• The Jingleheimer-Schwartz Musketeers


• The Heisenberg-Hasenpfeffer Hussars


• The Waldorf Waldjaegers


• The Ballyfoole Light Artillery

The Batrachian Observation Army

• The King's Musketeers


• The Queen's Musketeers


• The Musketeers de Limbourg


• The Wild Geese Chasseurs


• The Poupon Dragoons de la Moutarde


• A unit of Pandours du Pinque acting as light infantry


• Medium artillery from the province of Bombardy

Both commanders sent cavalry (the Wild Geese Chasseurs, in the case of Batrachia) towards the pass to the southwest (I'll post a map when I get a chance). The rest of the Soweiter League's army headed for a hill dominating the western edge of the battle to block the advance of the rest of the Batrachians. Meanwhile the Batrachians sent a small force, comprised of the King's Musketeers and the Pandour light infantry along the road northwest to try to catch the League's forces before they had deployed (but failed to get there quite in time). The rest of the Batrachian forces headed west, to attempt to break past the League's forces, or, failing that, to attack the League's forces and force a passage.

The situation after a a few hours. The League's forces are on the left (west), while the Batrachian forces are a bit more scattered to the right (east). The cavalry battle just south of the western hill has just about played out. The League's forces have just finished arraying their lines for battle. The Batrachians are still getting their forces in place.

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On the mechanics and such - I used (or rather, mis-used!) Jeff "Bluebear" Hudelson's Tricorne rules, and Scenario 18 "A Hasty Blocking Position" from C.S. Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios (with forces reduced due to space limitations and lack of enough units). The table is 2 card tables butted together, with a cheap flat sheet draped over them. This gives me a rather small table and restricts the width especially (could be critical in this scenario, but then again I'm using fewer forces). So far I've played 11 turns (but I messed up and have only done one round of movement, fire, and melee each turn rather than one for each side). I also forgot to roll average dice for movement, but I think it still worked ok. I'm sure I mangled many more rules. The cavalry melee has gone back and forth for several turns and mounting casualties, but I figure the casualties could just repersent loss of fighting power, not neccesarily dead and wounded. No matter - it's been fun so far. We'll see how it goes before I have to take it all down.

I would like to come up with a little bigger table (4'x6' probably; couldn't fit much more in my back room) for future battles. Maybe a couple of pieces of 3'x4'plywood to start, maybe braced with wood around the edges, maybe hinged with a piano hinge. Or I could try playing on the floor... anyway, dreams for the future.

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Today I received an order from On Military Matters (fast service!) - going old school, I bought:

• Charge! (which I've never read!)


• The War Game Companion


• Scenarios for All Ages


• Battles with Model Soldiers (Featherstone)


• Battlegames issues 14 and 15