WAS Encounter

[Westbury]

In some ways the War of the Austrian Succession is a more interesting period to game than the traditional Seven Years War, their is a wider range of protagonists, there are some damm big battles and the armies are more balanced.
Our WAS efforts concentrate on the Piedmontese theatre where you have plucky Piedmont, ably assisted by Austria resisting the Bourbon alliance of France and Spain.
In this game we had Piedmontese & Austrians holding a crossroads and it's associated villages against an advance from the north of the GalloSpan army.
The Piedmontese fielded 12 foot battalions and 4 horse regiments plus a battery of guns while the Austrians fielded 8 foot battalions and 3 horse regiments plus a battery of guns; the two villages were occupied by a brigade each, 1 Austrian and 1 Piedmontese, both cavalry brigades were sitting reserve as the other foot brigades marched on.
The Spanish fielded 10 foot battalions and 4 horse regiments plus 1 battery of guns all deployed facing the allied left and centre left village while the French deployed 12 foot battalions facing the allied right and centre right village with their cavalry marching on; their guns were deployed on high ground to the rear out of range   

[jambo1]

Great looking game, got to agree the WAS can be a very interesting period, uniforms tend to be a bit more colourful as well.

[Westbury]

A bit like the real life Blenheim the French got sucked into attacking a village to the exclusion of all else, but more of this later.
The battle started with a general advance all along the line by the GalloSpan forces; on the right the Spanish cavalry advanced in support of their national infantry who were heading towards the road leading to the villages while their guns fired fairly ineffectively at the distant Piedmontese, the Walloons & Irish, in a separate brigade headed towards the village itself; the French sent one brigade toward the other village but held back the other in favour of allowing the cavalry through - this proved to be a costly mistake 
The allies advanced their left hand Piedmontese brigade towards the road, where they would eventually face off to the Spanish, but as they had cunningly left a gap in their deployment their cavalry started to advance through this with the intent of flanking the Spanish right; on the southern and eastern roads the marching Piedmontese and Austrian brigades headed towards the crossroads for the inevitable traffic jam 

[Westbury]

Some photos went missing there 

[Westbury]

The first real actions were inevitably cavalry.
On the Spanish right the commanding general, conveniently on a hill  , galloped down to his cavalry commander and said the Spanish equivalent of "never mind supporting the infantry, get over there and see off those Piedmontese!" which initially they did. First blood to the GalloSpans. On the left the first French cavalry regiment (Bourbon Bussett) launched itself at the Austrian infantry holding the edge of the village who were too stunned by the audacity of the French to fire and after a brief melee fled to the rear (where they later rallied) but it did leave a gap to be exploited. Second blood to the GalloSpans.
 

[Westbury]

As in most battles the tide took a bit of a turn.
In the centre, the Austrian column claimed right of way and managed to get a battalion out of the western end of the village and into line just as the Walloon Guards came up, it wasn't pretty but it did mean they might buy enough time for the rest of the brigade to file behind them and form some kind of line of battle. The Piedmontese brigade, having waited it's turn, deployed along the road, effectively linking the two villages, undisturbed by the larger French brigade north of them who were soley focussed on taking the village.

[Westbury]

Now things took a turn for the worse for the GalloSpans.
The victorious Bourbon Bussett took fire from the Austrian guns and from the village that briefly shook them which was long enough for the waiting Austrian cavalry to receive it's orders to counter attack and that's exactly what they did 
The cuirassiers charged Bourbon Bussett and not surprisingly saw them off. Their pursuit sent them hurtling into Commissaire General (I think) who just held and were reinforced by another French unit (never reinforce defeat!) but the Austrians were on a roll (literally  ) so chewed up the whole lot and pursued them down the road seriously degrading the brigade's morale and that of the nearby infantry.
Not to be outdone, the following dragoons (usually not that good) were inspired enough to launch their own charge into the rallied but weakened Bourbon Bussett who just didn't have the numbers to stand and fled which saw the pursuing dragoons crash into the already demoralised and disordered infantry who folded and ultimately routed en masse, an unmitigated disaster.

[Westbury]

While all that mayhem was going on the rest of the battle carried on.
On the Piedmontese left the rest of the cavalry brigade sorted itself out enough to stop the Spanish cavalry from exploiting their earlier success and threaten the advancing Spanish infantry although a well played volley soon ended that threat  Ultimately both cavalry brigades ended up behind their respective infantry, essentially blown.
The infantry struggle along the road up to the western village see sawed back and forth with units falling back, reorganising and coming back to the fight. By the time night fell most of the Spanish were spent as were the Walloon Guards (who had done the bulk of the fighting against the messy Austrian deployment) and so were the left wing Piedmontese but the village itself was held steadily by a brigade of Piedmontese Swiss and the two battalions of Irish were not going to be able to dislodge them.

[Westbury]

This was now nearly all over.
The French brigade attacking the eastern village finally ejected the defenders from half of it but 6 battalions (not all of whom were actually used) had been wasted on just 2 Austrian battalions and when those French looked around them all they could see was fleeing cavalry and foot.
At this point we called it. The crossroads were firmly held by the allies and they had 2 brigades completely untouched. The GalloSpans had 2 brigades fleeing the battle field and the rest of the army was in no fit state to carry on. Austro Piedmontese victory 
 

[Westbury]

As always we had a post game dissection.
The allied plan of holding back the Austrian cavalry and striking with the Piedmontese worked great on the Austrian flank but eventually came unstuck on the other flank although the Spanish were left as knackered as the Piedmontese.
The success of the Austrians went far beyond expectations; the French attacked on a narrow front (1 regiment wide) so were always numerically outmatched against the bigger Austrian regiments who also benefitted from the 'rub of the green' (the random aspect of the rules is quite contained, it was just that at critical moments the Austrians got the maximum plus and the French the maximum minus). On reflection the French commander should have held back his cavalry and let the 6 battalion strong brigade take on the 2 Austrian battalions flanking the village and then just shoot down the Austrian cavalry if they tried to interfere. The other 6 battalion brigade that threw itself against the village would have been better employed just firing into the village and bring up the redundant artillery to add weight to the fire.
We agreed that the Austrian foot column that snaked along the road had been dammed lucky to get one battalion into line and hold the Walloons; ultimately the Walloons saw off 2 of the Austrians but were too damaged themselves to do anything else.
A good game and congratulations to the Austro Piedmontese.

[AdamPHayes]

Great stuff and lots of excellent painted minis. I do love the WAS, my Knights Books for Wargames, Battle of Dettingen book got me interested in the period at an early age.

[MaleGriffin]

Great looking game! Thank you for sharing!

[Emir of Askaristan]

Nice to see the WAS getting some attention, especially the Spanish.

[Frostie]

Very nice collection, thank you for sharing

[has.been]

Yet another good show Ian (& Dave?)
The buildings, are they 'new'? and
who makes them?