Holding Action

I got out 'Simplicity in Practice' again the other day. I'd had a few thoughts about random events that I wanted to try but to be honest by the time I'd set up the game I'd decided they weren't really going to work, so I just played it straight.

I ran the first action from Grant's 'Scenarios for Wargames' - a holding action where one side must hold a pass against a numerically superior foe for the length of a wargames day, which I decided would be a nice 15 turns. The Russians drew the short-straw, and defended, with four foot, some dragoons and some artillery.

The attacking Swedes, with six foot, two heavy cavalry, a unit of light cavalry and some guns, came on via two roads, but ended up bottle-necked in a village.

The cavalry pushed through first, and began to form up.

The Russian artillery opened fire as they did so.

The Swedes moved their horse to face the Russian left, and formed up their foot against the right. More foot began to form up in the centre.

The Swedes put a bold cavalry attack together. The Russian artillery kept it under a steady fire.

As they closed the Russian foot joined in as well.

On the Russian left a firefight broke out between two forces of infantry, whilst the Swedish cavalry charged on the other flank, but were easily repulsed.

The attacking Swedes on their left were taking a fair number of hits as well. Things were looking good for the Russians; over halfway into the engagement and their opponents were already looking shaky.

On their right the Swedes withdrew their horse, and brought up their infantry reserve.

The Swedes tried a charge on the other flank, but were thrown back.

The Swedes went in on the other flank, and with more success. The artillery threw them back, but the Russian foot retreated, and the Swedes had made their first breakthrough.

Back on the other flank musketry did what cold-steel couldn't. Although the Swedes were battered they had worn down the Russian defenders, and two units were lost on the same turn, leaving a huge hole in the Russian position. Victory was now well within the Swedes' grasp.

And they seized it! They pushed forward rapidly and soon the Russians were down to three units trying to fend off attacks from all directions.

The Russian dragoons did manage a charge into the flank of some Swedish foot, but they were thrown back. The Swedes turned and a few volleys finished off the dragoons. 

The Russian troops broke and ran, with one last unit of foot holding the road through the pass. It was charged by cavalry ...

... and broke.

Although battered the Swedes had won a victory, clearing the pass with three turns to spare. Initially things looked really bad for them, as they lost a couple of units without inflicting much in the way of casualties on the Russians. But they slowly wore their opponents down, and once they'd created a few gaps the Russian position was lost.

In fact the extremities of each hill should have been rough terrain, which would have slowed and hindered the Swedish attack a lot more, so I'm not sure if I didn't give them a little bit of an edge. But it was a good game regardless.