The Seven Years War, Black Powder, 28mm

Having seized some of Dougie Trail’s Seven Years War collection, in reparations for him losing my Russians in a nightclub (don’t ask), I thought I’d use some of them in a Black Powder game, up in Orkney. This was a two-player affair, with two brigades of infantry (3 x 16 figs.) and one of cavalry (2 x 12 figs.) per side. The French army included a German and an Irish battalion, two guns and a small skirmish unit of chasseurs, while the Allied battalions included a Hessian, a British and a Hanovarian contingent, again supported by the same number of guns and jaegers as the French. The aim was to re-acquaint ourselves with the rules, and to try out some amendments, designed to better reflect the era.Basically, if you moved an infantry unit more than 4″ (half of our scaled-down regular movement) then it couldn’t fire. This made both Chris and I move very cautiously when we were within musket range (12″) of the enemy. The game began with me advancing my Allied infantry on the left flank, into an area of open heathland surrounded by small woods. Over on my right I held back, with my jaegers ensconced in a farmyard, supported by a Hanoverian battalion and a gun battery. Chris responded by throwing his men forward on his left, where he now enjoyed an advantage in numbers, thanks to me sending the bulk of my force over to my left. His chasseurs occupied the small wood in the centre of the table, and immediately began making a nuisance of themselves, taking pot-shots at my Hanovarians.The clash over on my left was something of a non event. A Hessian unit lined up with a French one and blazed away at each other, but when Chris tried to move his other two battalions forward he rolled a “blunder”, and was forced to retire two moves to the rear. With his troops thrown back to the table edge I sent my Highlnaders forward to charge his gun battery, which they captured thanks to some terrible dice throwing for canister fire from the French. Then my luck ran out. The two French battalions moved forward slightly, and opened up a long range fire on the highlanders, supported by the jaegers firing from the wood. This forced a morale test on them, and I rolled a “3” – enough to break the unit. My attack had now stalled, as two of my other battalions were now disordered, and so they couldn’t advance.Things were going slightly better over on my right, as I swung my second battalion of highlanders round to catch Chris’ German infantry in the flank. This, plus close-range fire from my guns, my jaegers and a Hanoverian battalion were enough to break the enemy unit. So far, honours were fairly even. The cavalry clashed, but the leading French unit – the Becheny hussars – were eventually forced to retire by the British light dragoons. Both cavalry brigadiers regrouped, and sent their heavier cavalry forward. however, the expected clash never came, as the battle was decided over on the far side of the field.It seemed as if the French were on the ropes, but then everything turned around. First of all, my second unit of Highlanders standing near the crossroads were broken by the fire from those pesky chasseurs. Then, in the same turn, long-range musket fire from the Irish and their supporting French battalion caused another morale check on my Hanoverian unit to the left of the small wood. I rolled a “2”, which was an immediate break. So, in the space of three turns I had lost three of my six infantry battalions, while the French had lost one battalion and a gun battery. I didn’t have the troops left to continue the fight, so we decided to call it a day, and award the victory to the French. Chris played well, but his battle-winning unit was those chasseurs. Next time I’ll make sure I deal with them before I take on the enemy’s main line!

Tags: Black Powder