Hooke's Farm AAR

Today's game was the second battle in our Succession Wars (lite, in that we only have 2 protagonists) campaign between France and Hesse, using the Maurice rules. The set ups were traditional and orthodox in nature, line infantry in the centre, cavalry and irregular infantry on the flanks. 

view from the French lines as battle is joined.

The central forces carefully joined the battle with both sides looking to maximise their numbers and bring the maximum numbers of muskets to bear. On the French left flank the cavalry engagement was initially decisively won by the Hessian forces with just one French unit left on the field. 

on the right flank, Hessian irregular infantry took the hill and farm and carried on some light sniping at the French which did nothing till the penultimate turn when they managed to Break a line regiment!

the french artillery successfully broke a Hessian cavalry regiment and sent them packing. 

The two Notables attached to an infantry and cavalry regiment found themselves without their respective forces after some brutal volleys and melee's, however both successfully passed their Hazard tests and will live to fight another day. 

the French commander in the bottom left of the picture can only look on in despair as his last line regiment that was engaged with the enemy found itself hugely outnumbered. 

As time ticked down (to the end of the Action Deck and a self imposed deadline of Herr Andrew wanting to get on the road back across the Pennines in daylight due to the changeable weather conditions) I decided that after a round of volleys and bayonet work that saw my 3 engaged line regiments reduced to one, that offering ones sword was a sensible idea. This was accepted. 

In the post-battle aftermath the French gained one Epic Point, Hesse gained 3. They failed to secure a point for causing Carnage- they broke enough units but needed to have kept a third of their own regular units unbroken. A third Notable saw the success of their forces and decided to offer their services to Hesse; thus Boris Katzenov, a Carpathian sellsword, will ride into the next battle. The French may have lost but as they had been allowed to march off the battlefield with honour intact, 3 line regiments were promoted from Conscript to Trained. The regiments of Grenadiers de France, Nassau Prince Louis and Saintoge are promoted and now make it a tricky decision for my next deployment- do they form the centre of the front line and risk decimation again or be like the Triarii of Rome and bolster the line from the rear, as befits wise old heads who know better? 

All in all, a bloody and entertaining battle to kick off 2022!