Friday, November 5, 2010

More Korbach Pictures


Opening set up on a 24 ft long table. French on the left, British on the right.

Here are the rest of the pictures that I took at the Battle of Korbach. Both sides had nearly identical armies with respect to cavalry, artillery poundage, grenadier battalions, a guard battalion each, etc. Early in the game, the British seemed to draw the first fire initiative cards, so they drove off the first attack of the Irish/d'Eu Brigade on the British right flank. Both French battalions took a hard pounding, but they refused to run away. They backed off the hill to regroup, and then came on again.

In the center, a British grenadier battalion and the 3rd Buffs were gradually whittled down by long range round shot from a battery of French 12 pounders. The French artillerists had first destroyed their British counterparts in a whithering counter-battery fire. With no artillery in the center, the British infantry had to fall back out of range - they could not contest the attack in the center without artillery.



British left flank is anchored on the Watch Tower Hill. The 8th Regt of Foot occuppies the tower, a battery of 6-pounders deploys on the road, and the the 11th Foot is to the left of the guns. These are both Stadden figure regiments. The rest of the brigade (3rd The Buffs and the Black Watch) deploys behind the ridge.


The British right wing guards an Ian Weekley wind mill.


Irish regiment Bulkeley (in red) and Regt. d''Eu (in white) advance towards the windmill to open the attack. These are Capitulations figures from France. They are supported by Les Gardes Francaises (Surens) in the second line and by the Saxon von Bruhl cavalry and the Arquebusiers de Grassins.


Brent calculates the damage that he is about to inflict on the British.


Closer view of the Bulkeley and d'Eu regiments, after they have been thinned down a bit by British musketry.


Regt d'Eu took a pounding, but kept coming back to fight the British defending the windmill hill. A squadron of von Bruhl Saxon dragoons advances to attack the depleted British infantry. A run of initiative cards and jokers in the French favor allowed them to win the fire fight and drive off the British right wing brigade.

Meanwhile, over on the Watch Tower Hill, the French were advancing in the usual way and grinding down the 8th, the 11th and the Black Watch, in rapid succession.


A bunch of bad guys in white coats overwhelm the British defending the Tower Hill. The 8th Regt of Foot is about to get wiped out when the French either get the first fire card or play one of their two jokers (joker cards trump the opponent's initiative card)


More Bad Guys surge over the ridge - French regiment Auvergne (right) and the 11th Regt of Foot (left)


The 8th and the 11th Foot both rout from the devastating French volleys. Now the Black Watch (Suren figures) move up from the reserve to plug the gap.


The 3rd (The Buffs) Regt of Foot advance with the Highlanders. Their fate is best epitomized by the chap in the front rank on the right end. Note that the French Auvergne Regiment is barely touched even after engaging in an earlier firefight with the 11th Foot.


The Grenadiers de France (2 btns of them, actually, one is not shown in this picture) move in to administer the coup de grace to the British left and center.

The British had one last gambit to play: their reserve of a converged grenadier battalion and the Regt. of Foot Guards. The grenadiers advanced into the French meatgrinder and watched half of their number fall to the ground before they could even fire their muskets. The Foot Guards, seeing this, wisely opted to fall back and cover the retreat of what was left of the British army. It was an overwhelming French victory.

5 comments:

  1. As always, very nice!

    Any chance of taking a few photos next time from a lower angle, so that the painted sky/cloud background seems like the true background?

    Good stuff!

    Lord Ashram

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  2. Many thanks Jim for taking these good photos, writing informative captions and posting it all.
    Respectfully,
    Bill

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  3. Lord Ashram: good idea. See Bill Protz's Campaigns in Germania blog which also has pictures of the game. Bill positioned the camera as you suggested and it looks good.

    Jim

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  4. And don't forget the massive cavalry scrum on the French right, which saw the French eventually victorious. Capturing two standards and routing a British battalion that was hit in the flank. So we contributed to the victory, and all the horse flesh made for fine eating that night!

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