Blenheim in 10mm

[WFGamers]

We played Blenheim, 1704 yesterday with the Twilight of the Sun King rules - http://www.wfgamers.org.uk/resources/C18/Twilight/ToSK.htm. Two players a side, one novice and one experienced player a side. We were using 10mm figures and some makeshift terrain. As we didn't have all the correct figures some units stood in for the real ones.

It was a interesting game. The Confederates (the 'British') choose to avoid attacking Blenheim and Oberglauheim, the 2 fortified villages, and instead pile everything through the gap between the villages. Meanwhile the Bavarian Elector on the Franco Bavarian right had decided that he was going to counter attack Eugene's Imperialist facing him. The odds on this flank are fairly even and the Elector was an experienced player facing a novice 15 year old Eugene.

This meant that the French in the gap, commanded by an novice, between the villages were quickly in a lot of trouble. They launched some spoiling attacks but couldn't stop the Confederates establishing themselves across the stream, despite the Confederates often struggling to actually get across.

Meanwhile the Elector's and Eugene's troops both advanced toward each and met in the open. The young novice player playing Eugene then took a big risk. He sent part of his infantry (the Danes) to screen the enemy infantry. The remaining infantry (the Prussians) intervened into the massive cavalry fight that was developing between the opposing forces. This drew in the French cavalry reserve in the centre but the presence of the Prussian infantry was proving decisive in the cavalry action & the young Eugene was slowly getting the upperhand.

It was probably at this point that both Franco Bavarian commanders made the 'mistake' that would cost them the game. Both left most of the forces in the two fortified villages in those villages, rather than move some out to intervene in the ongoing combats. This in particular doomed the French in the gap between the villages.

The French did eventually realise they needed to move out of the two villages and indeed did some serious damage when they did so. But it was to late to save the game. The Imperialist broke through their opponents and combined with the loses on the other flank it was enough to break the Franco Bavarians.

I managed to take a few photos, but mainly from the start.

[Red Sveta]

That looks good. I have been planning to expand my 10mm wss for polmos rules. How do those rules you are using there compare to polmos?

[WFGamers]

Thanks Red Sveta.

On the rules the Twilight set is the equivalent of the 'Obstinate and Bloody Battle' part of the Polemos WSS rules. i.e. it is aimed at doing the big battles. They have a similar philosophy but done in a different way. Twilight probably has less detail and aims more at getting the overall effect. In Twilight for example there is no 'combat'. Units in 'dangerous situations' just take morale checks. While bombardment in Polemos is a test, while in Twilight it is an automatic thing that is just done.

I am afraid I haven't played the Polemos set enough to go into more detail but I would say that this all adds up to the Twilight set being a quicker game and probably with less players needed to do a specific battles.

[DintheDin]

I love 10mm scale and that was a really BIG game!
A pity that we can't enjoy many more photos, must have been enjoyable and thrilling! (envious emoticon) 
Thanks for sharing!

[WFGamers]

I will add a few more shots to this message but we were too busy playing to take more It was a great game and pretty close

This set of rules are for big battles. This battle was set up before the others came but it was 2 players vs 2 players. Two of the players were novices so we had to go through the basics of the rules with them. It took 4 hours explaining and playing time to finish.

Most historic battles are 1 player a side and playable in a similar amount of time. You could play this 1 vs 1 but that would take more than 4 hours.

[DintheDin]

Amazing beauty! With 10mm one can easily represent linear formations of the period and create a game with massive armies on a table of logical dimensions -and easy to handle the battlegroups as well!
Years before I had painted 10mm ACW Yanks and Rebs the size of two Army Corps each, we had several years of enjoyment playing almost all the famous ACW battles, but now I have not the time to repeat this with WSS/SYW (I have already completed a big 15mm SYW French army).
So,
I remain,
Admirer of your 10mm grand scale historical battle! 

P.S. Any more photos, more than welcome