Campaigns in Libraria: The Battle of Ginsing Farms 15 February 2014

It seems that Martin was under the weather. Andy and I concluded that it was the Molson Flu - that's our answer and we're stickin' to it, no matter what excuses/lies/propaganda/half-truths Martin comes up with. We decided on a medium small Imagi-nations game of about 120 points each which gave us each a tidy little force. I had 8 infantry battalions, 2 grenadier battalions, 1 irregular light infantry battalion, 2 dragoon regiments, 1 irregular light cavalry regiment, 2 medium gun batteries, 1 heavy gun battery and 2 generals. Andy's force as similar with some more infantry including militia and no light cavalry.

 We faced off with a forest in the centre of my deployment area and the gin-sing farm to my right. Andy had a good-sized hill in his centre and a forest to his left. There were terrain pieces off to our right/left/northside of the table, but since we didn't go there, they're not worth reporting on.

I advanced with 6 infantry battalions, 2 grenadier battalions, a medium gun, and the heavy gun on my left. My dragoons, the light cavalry (the Franistan Shilitars in their first appearance on the table, as brief as it was), two infantry battalions, and a medium gun on my right. The Saxe-Bariton Jägers held the forest in the centre of the line.

Andy's Frankenschweiner legions on the centre hill

Hellduzer's gin-sing farm viewed from the North. Shanton's Dragoons are riding by for reasons that will be told later.

Artillery opened the ball, but proved to be less than effective. Andy's dragoons attempted to turn my left flank, but were discouraged by the turning of Grenadier battalions Hohn and Pooka to menace him. My line battalions soon got into a firefight with Andy's troops and we ended up in very close firing range. My medium artillery battery came into action as did one of Andy's mediums. This was the first time our artillery came into close range! It made the action a bit more bloody until the batteries began to lose crew... which cuts their effectiveness.

The troops of Frankenschwein show their discipline in linear tactics.

The Freedonian left flank from the enemy's perspective - Dragoon Regiments Shanton and Scungili with a medium artillery battery backed by two battalions of infantry.

The Frankenschweiner dragoons, artillery, and -in the background- Kleinvolk militia

The Freedonian infantry on the left flank - Regiments Luzurne, Gibbs, and Hoch-und-Deutschmeister, a medium gun battery with Grenadier battalions Hohn and Pooka in support.

Freedonian heavy artillery - dealing righteous death to all the Elector's enemies!

The Frankenschweiner dragoons attempting to turn my left.

The Shilitars attempted to flank Andy's left and made a mad dash into the woods on his far left. They met his dragoons and were routed! No surprise there; irregular class 1 cavalry in their first time on the table vs. regular dragoons? I'm surprised my Bashi-bazooks didn't catch fire before I took them off the table! My dragoons attempted to charge. Regiment Shanton failed to charge while Regiment Scungili ran willy-nilly (that's an actual command in the Electoral army) into a unit in square. Lesson learned. The "Sea slugs" routed but later recovered. Andy's dragoons came around the flank this time and routed one infantry battalion, made Shanton's dragoons fall back, and wiped out the medium gun battery.

The ill-fated dragoon charge. Regt. Shanton with General Lebo holds back while Regt. Scungili attacks a square. It was their fire time on the table and had to try to get them to do SOMETHING!

A bad photo of the Franistan Shilitars as they sweep in to attack the Frankenschweiner rear.

Frankenschweiner artillery... slowly becoming a grand battery.

Simitar vs. broadsword - The Shilitars melted like butter in the sun.

On my lift, as the infantry lines exchanged volley after volley, Andy's hovering dragoons charged home against the rear of 2/HuD... and it was gruesome. They had no room to redeploy into square as this would bring them closer to Andy's infantry nor was there time to turn them around. All I could do was shift 1/HuD down a bit to keep the breakthrough from hitting them. My grenadiers came up fast to plug the gap as 2/HuD disappeared in a flurry of swords and horse crap. Andy brought a grenadier battalion off the hill to menace the right flank of my brigade so I countered the move by bringing the Jägers out of the forest. They were a distraction at best and soon broke under artillery fire and scampered back to the safety of the woods.

The Frankenschweiner's infamous destruction of 2nd Battalion, HuD.
Oh, the pain!

The Saxe-Bariton jäger make nasty faces at the Frankenschweiner grenadiers.

My jumbled left flank as I attempt to bring fresh troops into the battle.

I soon discovered that I had lost 30% of my force, but could not negotiate an army withdrawal as the rules allow, so I conceded the game. My right was a shambles and "them-what-make-it-so" were coming to make mincemeat out of my left. Time to leave. Besides both of us had some things to do and we can blame the curfew.

I really get a kick out of these games. The rules - Warfare in the Age of Reason - work well for us and we can be all sorts of creative with our regiments' uniforms and names. Andy is far more regular than I. My infantry uniform is based on Russia in the SYW although I have two battalions in the Swedish blue-and-yellow. The light infantry, sepoys, border troops, and combat engineers are a crazy quilt batch. The hussars and light cavalry are fanciful while the Dragoon are based on Prussia/Russia again. The cuirassiers are actually based on the Austrian cuirassier's armour when fighting Turks. It looks like a throw-back to the Thirty Years War with cuirass and lobster helmet. My artillery is very Austrian. 

We intend to try this again next week. Better luck to me!

Frankenschweiner infantry in square.

Regiment Luzurne marches into trouble or glory. You decide.
The majority of our troops are 20mm figures from Frying Pan & Blanket - a nice little range I'd recommend to anyone who games Horse & Musket in 20mm.

An air-borne shot of my dragoon brigade

Grenadier Battalion Hohn -with the red-brown gaiters- advances

The major feature of Flat-Tree Hill on my far left was this copse of trees.
For a while I worked for a fellow who moulded his own figures and sold them in his shop.
I got these out of a scrap box one day.

Hence the name "Flat-Tree Hill"