Beneath The Lilly Banners game

As planned had a game using Beneath The Lilly Banners with the Duc at his using his Wars of the Grand Alliance kit.

Much smaller game than I had set up and more in keeping with size rules designed for methinks.

We rolled for sides and I got a fierce of Englísh units to face the Ducs Jacobite Irish.

As expected we had a few discussions about the rules with the Duc enjoying the period flavour but thinking they were not as slick as some other sets.

We had only one problem with rules with regard to exactly how and when some Morale Tests are taken  such as a unit tests if it loses a melee but also if reduced to 1/2 strength but only one test is taken per step so we did not know which had prescendence if any. 

This only mattered as the reduced strength test had more severe outcomes.

We could not find an answer but went with the more severe test as this seemed most reasonable.

Otherwise the rules went smoothly enough.

In BLB the horse Squadrons being only 6 figures strong a very brittle and the English lost several to their counterparts.

Highlight of game for me was a Squadron of bullet (as opposed to the more potent blade types) charging into an Elite unit of Jacobite foot who tried to form into Defence Against Horse with their pikes but failed. 

This left them disordered and then shaken with casualties by the English horse.

The horse then proceeded to beat them each round of melee until they routed even though the Squadron was wiped out in process.

We made a small mistake here in that the Elite foot should have auto routed after 3 rounds of melee losses which may have saw a small remanent of the victorious horse survive.

Next up for us will be Panzer a Grenadier Deluxe which the Duc has just purchased.

Jacobite Irish

English opponents 

The glorious charge

Beneath The Lilly Banners some action.....

Managed a few turns today with quite a lot of action ensuing.

Good flavoursome set of rules for the Lace Wars period but I suspect I rather more units than optimal on table.

Large Cavalry melee 

French foot Brigades advance 

Austrian horse try to force centre

Strong French numbers face them

Dutch horse advance 

Dutch foot suffer serious delays crossing fields and village

Austrian foot support their Horse formation in centre

Rough terrain a real obstacle in this period

Austrian unit Shaken by Artillery fire

French Garde and Irish Brigades advance

Overview of the battle

Beneath The Lilly Banners solo try

As I have a game using Beneath The Lilly Banners 2 booked with Duc De Gobin this weekend I decided during prior week to set up a War of the Spanish Succession solo action with my 10mm stuff to try to learn rule basics.

Sadly time has been limited but at least it looks the part.

Plan to try several other rule sets (no doubt a plan doomed to failure !) for the period such as Piquet Cartouche II, Field Of Battle II, Die Fighting II, Captain General, Black Powder and Twilight of the Sun King.

Combat Commander again

Played another scenarios of this most excellent game with my Dad.

First up was last scenario from the Normandy pack with Polish troops trying to stem flow of Germans through the Falaise Gap.

We then began revisiting the Stalingrad pack playing the first two scenarios.

One being on the road to Stalingrad and the second a bloody fight for the Grain Elevator in the city proper.

A different feel to these urban scenarios with Rubble and nice twists to Melee and Sniper useage.

General De Brigade Deluxe game

Played a game of General De Brigade Deluxe today at Stephens using my Prussians against his French.

We used points system (1200pts aside) and the random terrain generator both of which worked fine.

We both knew the rules would be tad slower than most of recent sets we have used but are drawn by the overt Napoleonic flavour of the rules.

And so it proved all went smooth enough overall but we really struggled with a couple of key concepts in relation to if or when units can split their fire vs multiple targets and then trying to apply the same to Skirmishers firing.
We just could not discern a definitive answer in rules as written (I have posted queries on the GDB forum).
Either its not clear in rules or we are dense or missing something glaring obvious ?

Otherwise however we managed to get the system rolling along nicely.

The rules are more involved/complex than Black Powder, Field Of Battle and such like with more formations and unit sizes combined with Orders system and so on.

However basic systems of shooting (above query not withstanding), melee and morale are all fairly straightforward.

Highlight of game for Prussians was when French Empress Dragoons charged my Horse Artillery who promptly evaded leaving the Dragoons exposed to a flank charge from close range by my Prussian 3rd Dragoons.
The charge was conducted from so close a distance the Empress Dragoons had no time to react and failed their Test To Stand in dramatic fashion Routing instantly.
The 3rd Dragoons then rode after them Dispersing them completely (ie removed from table)
A well won and glorious Battle Honour bestowed !!

We need more play of GDB to sort out our queries.


Prussian Brigade advancing in Column of Companies

Central Prussian Brigade deployed

Prussian Cavalry Brigade ready for the off

French arrayed in distance

Prussian left flank again

Two units of French Dragoons (Empress version on right)

Prussian Cavalry steals a march on right

Whilst Prussian foot occupy the Domed Church as French occupy the large Farm

The Empress Dragoons in a predicament as Uhlans attack their comrades

One of our queries: at who and with what can these Skirmishers fire ?

Prussian 3rd Dragoons have cleared the field of Josephine's favourites !