Battle of Malplaquet

Just when I was settling into decisions for next years projects it occurred to me that today, 11 September 2013 is the 304th anniversary of the Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Malplaquet fought between England, Austria, Prussia and the Low Countries on one side and France and Bavaria on the other. It was a battle that was famous for the commanders, John Churchill of the English (the Duke of Marlborough) and Prince Eugene of Savoy on the one side and Claude de Villars and Louis Boufflers on the other. Overall there were 86,000 in the armies of the Grand Alliance with 100 guns and and 75,000 and 80 guns on Bourbon side.

The Army of the Grand Alliance found itself at Malplaquet near the modern Belgian/French border. In the morning of 11 September 1709 at 9.00am the Austrians attacked with the support of Prussian and Danish troops. These were commanded by Count Albrecht Konrad Finck von Finckenstein. They pushed back the French left wing into the forest behind them. On the French right wing the Dutch under the command of the Prince of Orange, John William Friso, attacked to distract the French and prevent them from coming to Villars’ aid.

Later a decisive final attack was made on the weakened French centre by British infantry under the command of the Earl of Orkney. This attack occupied the the French redans. Allied cavalry was then able to advance through this line and engage the French cavalry behind. By this stage, de Villars was off the field having been wounded earlier so Boufflers was in command. Boufflers was leading the Maison du Roi and six times drive the Allied cavalry back before finally deciding the battle was lost and surrendering the field.

The victory for the Grand Alliance had come at some cost however with 21,000 casualties from within the alliance compared to 11,000 casualties on the French and Bavarian side.

Now I am torn again between the War of Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War. Of course, I could just do this as Imagi-nations. Oh yes, and I am still planning something with the Thirty Years War.

Rank and File - Hacking for the Great Northern War and War of Spanish Succession

Well, that's a long title!

Truth is, after one game of Rank and File, I felt really comfortable with them as a rules system for the Seven Years War (7YW). After a week of pondering them, I find I am feeling really comfortable with them as a rules system for the American Civil War. I can also see me using them for the Great Pacific War (if I can ever find those bloody figures). I'm not sure about them for the Napoleonic Wars yet.

However, if did occur to me that if they work well enough for the Seven Years War, they should work well enough for the earlier ways - namely the War of Spanish Succession (WSS - Marlburian Wars to the English) and the Great Northern War (GNW - Stora nordiska kriget to the Swedes; Северная война to the Russians). During this period there were a couple of innovations in Europe and a little anachronism in Northern Europe.

Amongst the powers engaged in the WSS the use of the plug bayonet had or was ceasing with the introduction of the socket bayonet from late in the 17th century. This meant infantry had a sharp pointy thing that they could also continue to shoot, therefore not needing pikes any more to hold cavalry off. In the north, the Swedes and the Russians both held onto some pike men in each regiment until towards the end of the GNW.

Artillery was more effective as I understand later in the 18th century but apart from the pikes and the possibility of the odd plug bayonet what really separated the warfare of 1700 to 1721 from that of 1740 onwards?

Now I am researching some more and looking at modifying Rank and File to suit one of my sorely underplayed and modelled favourite periods of history.

RIP Donald Featherstone

Donald Featherstone (born 20 March 1918 in London, died 3 September 2013 wrote more than forty books on wargaming and military history⁽⁽¹⁾⁾. I have a number of Featherstone’s books in my library under my mother’s house.

His books were probably the single thing most responsible for my generation developing an interest in wargames. My first two wargames were in the early 1970s when a friend invited my to his place to play a game or two. The first game was an American Civil War battle using Airfix figures and the second was an ancient battle (Rome vs Britons). Both battles used Featherstone’s rules that were included in his book, the War Game.

After the second game, the next book I went out and purchased was the War Game.

I would say that if H.G. Wells was the grandfather of modern wargaming, then Donald Featherstone was the father. Others have had a mighty influence on the early days of the modern hobby, the likes of Charles Grant, Tony Bath, Jack Scruby, Peter Gilder and Paddy Griffith amongst others come straight to mind. Featherstone, however, with his 40 books piqued our interests and then fed the fires of that interest with more books and the wonderful Wargamer’s Newsletter – a publication I eagerly awaited to come through the mailbox.

I shall dust off my old copy of the War Game over Christmas and sometime in the New Year, at least once, Roll a Six to Hit!

Donald rolled one on his saving roll!