Prestonpans - The Wargame

With the scenario described in yesterday's post, we set about recreating the Battle of Prestonpans using Sam Mustafa's Maurice rules.

The first few turns were, unsurprisingly, fairly uneventful with the Jacobite player manoeuvring his clans to form a single force whilst the Government artillery began to chip away at the Camerons under Lord Lochiel.

The Situation at the end of Turn 10

The following turns saw the lines staying fairly static as both players attempted some sly shenanigans with a flurry of events. Firstly, the Government drew Keppoch of MacDonald out of line using Confusion and forced the Jacobites to waste a turn (and a Retrograde card) to bring them back to their original position.  Luckily for the Jacobites, the Government gunners appear to have fled by this time, as they failed to find their target for several turn in a row, allowing Lochiel to rally his men whilst the Rogues! Do you want to live forever? card was stolen using Captured Intelligence.  

Emboldened by the capture of Sir John Cope's private documents, Bonnie Prince Charlie used his ill gotten gains to make a rousing speech to raise his own Army Morale by 2, and lowering the Government Army Morale by 1 in the subsequent turn with Death of a Hero (perhaps the summary execution of the poor aide entrusted with the stolen portfolio!).  Meanwhile, frustrated by his artillery's lack of success, Johnnie Cope proceeded to move Gardiner's Dragoons from their right flank position to form a larger cavalry reserve in the centre.

By turn 26, the positions showed very little change and both players had a full 10 cards in their hands.  With the first deck almost exhausted, now was the time for action.

Over his next two turns turns, the whole Jacobite line surged forward to within charge distance, avoiding most of the artillery bombardment.    Avoiding a Volley phase on the Government turn by playing Firefight, the Jacobites were primed to complete their charge, although with the (inevitable) play of That's not on the map, the Jacobite left flank would have to slog through a patch of just-discovered marshy ground to reach their foes.

Knowing that he had to soften up the solid Government line to have the best hope of success in the Combat Phase, the Jacobite player opted for a Volley Phase in his turn, hoping to maul the redcoats sufficiently to reduce their return fire.  In the event, both sides played Deadly Fire to enhance their volleys and the phase ended with their respective right flanks pretty chewed up by the experience but with both army's left flanks relatively intact.

Throwing everything into the charge, the highlanders hit the now fragile-looking red line.  Both players used cards to get +2 on their combat resolution and the highland Clanranald was further hampered by the play of Attack Falters.

Turn 31's Combat Phase was sheer slaughter, with the Government losing 3 regiments to doubled die rolls (the a la Baionnette advantage allowing the Jacobites to re-roll combat dice came up trumps, turning mediocre or losing rolls into battle winners).  Now reduced to an Army Morale of 5 and with a fragmented line, Johnnie Cope's situation looked bleak. The remaining units of both sides ended the phase looking extremely battered, with the possibility of crippling losses during the next Volley Phase.

The end of Turn 31 - the skulls represent Disruption Points on units.

Playing his 2nd Firefight card, carefully held back for just this situation, the Jacobite player again prevents a Volley Phase in the Government turn.  With no sizeable force within reach, Sir John Cope is left with only being able to rally his right flank Picquets, before moving himself over to his left flank in the hope of bolstering this in the face of the next Jacobite attack.

Deeming discretion to be the better part of valour on this occasion, Prince Charles opts not to have a Volley Phase and successfully rallies most of his clans.

The end of Turn 33 - things do not look good for the Government

In the next Volley Phase, the Jacobites seize the initiative using First Fire and deal cruelly with the regiments of Murray and Lascelles, breaking both of them and causing the Government player the loss of another 5 Army Morale points - enough to break the army and send the survivors fleeing towards the dubious safety offered by the walls of Preston Parks.

Conclusion

This was another enjoyable and satisfying battle.  The decisive highland victory mirrored the real-life battle in result, if not (at first appearance) in the swiftness of the outcome.

However, if you look at the game as a whole, the real fighting took only 4 of the 34 turns to resolve, the rest of the game really being a matter of both sides engaging in a little preliminary sparring but primarily cycling the card deck to build up a good hand for the forthcoming battle phases.  The Jacobite player was particularly successful in this respect and it contributed in no small part to the decisive nature of the victory.  Without the use of cards allowing him to control the Volley Phases for the vital turns, the battle would certainly have gone on much longer and could have had quite a different outcome.

From my point of view, the game has vindicated my belief about how highlanders should be represented in Maurice but mainly it is a major endorsement of the robustness and flexibility of the Maurice system itself as we have, uncannily accurately, recreated the historical outcomes of two battles, both of which use a force which is certainly not a mainstream 18th Century army.

A big hand for Sam Mustafa for producing another superb and hugely enjoyable set of rules!

The Battle of Prestonpans 1745 - Another Scenario for Maurice

Following on from my previous posts, I finally got round to sorting out a Maurice scenario for Prestonpans, the first Jacobite victory of the '45 rising.

My basic idea is to test whether the Maurice rules can effectively deal with highlanders without the need for additional house rules.   We were pleasantly surprised that our Culloden scenario replicated the historical outcome but now it was time to see if the Jacobites could actually win a battle.

Researching the orders of battle was a bit more challenging than for Culloden.  Firstly because the battle is less well known and documented but primarily because most readily available sources seem to vary quite a bit on the clans and regiments who were there.  Most, however, agree on the numbers involved (pretty equal with the Jacobites being slightly outnumbered) and, in the end, I again plumped for the order of battle from Stuart Reid's superb Like Hungry Wolves as I've previously been impressed by his research, reference to primary sources and analytical approach to the battle of Culloden.

Another problem was rating the troops involved as the battle involved very little actual fighting ... the highlanders charged and the Government troops ran away!  However, it is well known that the Government regiments (both horse and foot) were not well-drilled and the Jacobite army at this point consisted completely of ill-equipped and ill-disciplined highlanders so I felt it was appropriate to rate everyone as Conscript Regulars.  I made one exception for Lord Ardshiel's Stewarts of Appin as they were recognised as more disciplined within the Jacobite ranks and so I rated them as Trained Regular.  The government guns that were present were insufficiently manned to start with and, in the event, the few remaining crew and civilian drivers deserted them, leaving two officers to man 10 pieces!   To allow for the possibility that the brave officers could compel their gunners to stand, I represented the guns with a single stand of Artillery but hobbled it with the Stationary Batteries rule to represent the lack of civilian drivers to move the guns.

As in the Culloden scenario, the Jacobites have the En Masse and a la Baionnette! National Advantages, but this time the unfortunate Government troops get nothing.

Government Army

C in C: General Sir John Cope
3 x Conscript Regular Cavalry 
8 x Conscript Regular Infantry 
1 x Artillery
Army Morale: 12

Jacobite Army

C in C: Prince Charles Edward Stuart
10 x Conscript Regular Infantry
1 x Trained Regular Infantry
Army Morale: 11

The Jacobite player starts with 8 cards and the Government player with 4.  The Jacobite player has the first turn.

The armies are both quite small for a Maurice game but this should make for a more decisive battle, which seems fitting for Prestonpans.  In common with the Culloden scenario, there is no objective - the army who breaks first has lost, if night falls before this the battle is a draw.

Initial deployment is as below.   The Jacobites are in blue and the Government in red.  The board is 48 x 48 Base Widths.

Incidentally, while I was doing some research online, I came across a link for the Battle of Prestonpans Trust Schools Visits Programme featuring the following photo:



Using wargaming as an educational tool - brilliant idea!  No prizes for guessing who's side they're on!

Look out for the Prestonpans battle report tomorrow.