Sunday 4 December 2022

Warburg 1760 - the Christmas Bash

Assembling once more for a long game, in the fine traditions of the Christmas Bash (with an Indian meal at the end) the members of the Wobbly Warchest greeted each other once more in John's bunker.

There is no truth to the rumour that the the French players brought some national delicacies, in terms of stinking cheese, in order to psychologically undermine the Allied players... (but it was quite whiffy)...

Warburg 1760 is a Seven Years War battle, seeing a clash between Du May's French and Spoercken and the Erbprinze's British/Hanoverian contingent. The French have seen some success in Hesse, and it is time for the Allies to turn a strategic flank...

The finest Calvados brandy; purely medicinal of course...

Rules used were Koenig Krieg 2 (2nd edition 1986 Frei Korps version (with addition of material from the full blown US published original 2nd ed.)), with some excellent amendments, to suit group play and general sensibilities, from our Umpire Stephen.


Figures are from the fantastic 15mm 7YW collections of John & the 2xSteves. 
No figures were harmed (though some may have been splashed by beer) in the making of this blogpost.

The French right, with 3xBrigades on the ridgeline, skirmishers in Warburg itself, and some out of command horse elements defending the flank along the line of the Diemel River all day long. Though these troops were a bit of a glass hammer themselves, they acted as an effective anvil against British and Allied troops - who would take Warburg, then lose it. The tragedy is that I held a Brigade of troops (albeit poor morale) on the back of the hill, when they might have been used in the centre/left  -  where John got his nose bloodied by Allied charges and very accurate musketry.

Allied assault starts to go in on the French right

French horse on the left

Swiss troops in the French centre - who would be mauled and battered by Allied cavalry and infantry all day

Allied troops advancing in the centre

'Les voici mes amis. Tenir! Vous devez Tenir!!!'

The French centre and left will be bloodied - no question

It's quiet down by the river, where Allied horse will sit at the Warburg bridge
, looking sternly (very sternly) at their French counterparts sitting across the riverbank...all day long.

Though, on the French right, Warburg will change hands a few times. 'Pour La Gloire mes Amis!!!'

A view of the battlefield - you can see the ridge on the French right, the bloody crucible in the centre; what you can't see yet are the thousands of Allied horse, assembling just off camera, in a suitably sized box...


John points out the problem...

Musketry duels in the centre - where the Allies do not hold back.

'Cavalry sir...Mon Dieu!' The Allied right starts to flood with horse.

A view of French centre and left. French troops move and bend as required, in order to stem the tide.

Things remain relatively quiet on the right, bar vicious fighting for Warburg itself, some skirmisher actions and hard looks from each side. The British troops here hold back, not attacking toward the ridgeline ...just yet. This helps delay a brigade of reserve French troops, which might have moved to centre.

The centre becomes a desperate fight.

...and the French left becomes a war of manoeuvre, against very effective British musketry and rapidly approaching Allied horse...



BREAKTHROUGH!!!   Allied horse flanks and destroys Swiss troops in the centre.

...even as the Allied assault goes in at centre and partially on the French right


Tension ...as ranges are checked, and firing arcs verified ...

*sighs* 'quiet on the river today, eh Pierre?'

Desperate action on the French left

On the French right, at the ridgeline, a staring contest moves to its 2nd round...



The French left - Allied cavalry emerge in wave after wave from the treeline, west of the woods


It's not going to end well...

Allied might in the centre

View from the Allied centre - a tough nut to crack - but with continued pressure from the horse on their right, it just might work...

Staring contest over, the Allies start also to clear out skirmishers on their own left...

...also with a second demonstration against Warburg


Freytag's skirmishers ... 

French cavalry suffer horribly on the left - shot in the back, trampled by numerous allies - and bloody good dice rolls

French infantry move to the centre. There is only one option remaining now. Hold the line of the river - and buy time for the horse to cross it. Thereby, the French can form a secondary defensive line.
'Retournez à la rivière ! Retour à la rivière !'

'Hold ! Damn your eyes!!!'

Yawn... at the river crossing on the the flank, what could have become the crucible for desperate action becomes a holding pen for dice and markers. Ahhh, the vagaries of war.

No such peace on the French left

British attacks on the right, as they finally get onto the ridgeline, however...

By this stage, three French brigades were broken and one (or two) British. It was time for Army Morale rolls - which ended up resulting in a withdrawal for both armies. They had bloodied each other (some more than others ;)  ) and decided to call it a day.

A great game in great company as usual. There might even have been some (minor) discussion of rules mechanisms, which hardly ever happens. ;)



15 comments:

  1. Nice to see some of the old Dave Allsop designed FK15 (now QRF) figures on the table. If only their Hungarian infantry weren't so weedy!
    Neil

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    1. Thanks Neil - aye there are a lot of Frei Korps on that table :)
      The biggest concern I remember for Frei Korps figures was the risk in terms of dropping something - brittleness may have been a feature at the time...

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    2. Dave Allsop! His 15mm Napoleonic designs in the early days of Old Glory are still some of my favorites. Having very few FK15's in my collection, I did not realize he designed figures there too.

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    3. Ah yes, the sharp detail but brittle metal. Not unusual for many to arrive without bayonets. There were rumours Cameron used printer's ems for casting! High tin content anyways. I remember ankles being a weak point and the metal "squeeking"!
      Jonathan, Dave Allsop designed the FK15 and Platoon 20 ranges. His designs replaced earlier sculpts, some of the early 20mm possibly being his as well as they show his style (discontinued Sovier MR). The later 15 and most of the 20mm are his. After leaving NI, he co-founded Hotspur doing all the design work. These were sold to FAA (Figures Armour Artillery) and later Old Glory as Combat Miniatures (now owned by Stonewall). He also did some 1/87 moderns for CMSC.
      He then emigrated to the USA and designed for Old Glory before his tragic sports car accident.
      Neil

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    4. Neil, thank you for the Allsop history lesson. Such a shame that we lost his talents so soon.

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  2. Darren, this is a fantastic looking game. When you posted your teaser in the previous post, I pulled my copy of VV156 down from the shelf to have a look. Where did you gather your OBs and battle details to compose this action?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan - we all enjoyed it immensely.
      Interesting question :
      My understanding is that Stephen took a lot of the research from the 'Battles of the Seven Years War' supplement for Volley and Bayonet (Volume 2: The Strategic Flanks).
      It's also my intent to fight a few battles from this, with V&B itself in the coming months.

      The advantage in the way Frank Chadwick has written the scenarios in this excellent book, is that he has broken the brigade (the V&B element) down into its constituent battalions in the OOB, so that they can be used for other rulesets (KK2 in this case).

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  3. Replies
    1. Aye - and still only about one-third of what I had :O

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  4. A splendid looking game with all those units spread across the tabletop.

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    1. Thanks Peter. It's a great spectacle when we do these big games.

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  5. That's a great way to start December! I've got KK on my shelves (and Der Grosse Koenig and Feasting Krieg) but never played the.

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    1. Steve has made some amendments to suit the group games we play - an excellent set of rules I think.

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  6. Superb looking game and great report. I love KK and this version. Lovely to see it gamed.

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    1. Thanks Richard. We are liking it more and more. Really so far ahead of its time for a set published originally in the 80s.

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