Great Victories - Part 1

I've been playing around with Dominion Of Malborough And Peter The Great over the past couple of days. I'd tried a few Great Northern Wars battles, and they were OK. But I decided to have a go at some of the War Of Spanish Succession scenarios as well,  using my GNW figures, naturally.

I really enjoyed how they played out, so I thought that it would be fun to try a series of linked games. Not really a campaign. Just some linked games.

Malborough's victories at battles of Blenheim (1704), of Ramillies (1706), of Oudenarde (1708), and of Malplaquet (1709) ensured his place in history as one of Europe's great generals, and there's a scenario for each in the rules. So I decided that I would play them through in order against Mrs Kobold, swapping sides after each game. I would give the winner points equal to how many units they had left at the end - the loser would get one or zero depending on how badly they did.

Mrs Kobold has only heard me waffling on about the Dominion series up until now, so for last night's session I started with a fifth battle to get her used to the rules. I chose the prelude to Blenheim; the July 1704 Storming of the Schellenberg.

Here's the view from behind the Bavarian defences. I use small stones to mark most traits, or paper earthworks to show units in defences. Malborough and his allies have their infantry to the fore. On their right is a formidable fortress with elite artillery in defences.

The Bavrian right was where the battle opened, and it developed into a sustained brawl (both units destroyed each other which I chose to interpret as them being caught up in a sustained fight that would last until the end of the battle). We both moved up foot from the reserve to support the action there.

(I used the option slow reserves rule, where a sector in which you've deployed reserves can't be chosen on your next turn).

The artillery on the Bavarian left pounded away at successive Allied attackers.

Despite a breakthrough in the centre it was their failure to subdue the Bavarian artillery that defeated the Allies.

So with an understanding of the rules Mrs Kobold was ready for the first battle. And it's the famous one - Blenheim.

This view from behind the Franco-Bavarian positions shows the initial setup. On the right is Blenheim itself, whilst the rest of the French forces are represented by artillery backed up by some foot and formidable numbers of cavalry. The Allies have all of their foot to the fore and a strong cavalry reserve.

The scenario relies on the Allies being able to force the Nebel and take out those Franco-Bavarian artillery units. Mrs Kobold, as the Allies, found that hard to do, but did eventually manage to push through in the centre, only to face massed French horse.

She also neutralised the defenders of Blenheim. Things were looking good.

But the French cavalry in the centre proved unstoppable, and the Allied reserves were not up to stopping it. Malborough and Eugene were defeated and I picked up 4 points for the French. Mrs Kobold got 1 for Malborough.

We swapped sides. I was confident Lady Luck would be with me and that I would be across the Nebel in no time.

She wasn't. My attack on Blenheim stalled. And the Franco-Bavarian centre and left also held back Malborough and Eugene.

Prussian horse (probably) was sent to support the failing attacks on Blenheim. They didn't help.

The French right held against all-comers and whilst the Allies were starting to make inroads in the centre, the Franco-Bavarian reserves were holding them. The Allied left collapsed and the unsupported army was defeated.

Malborough lost even more badly this time, with Mrs Kobold picking up 5 points to my 1.

So after the first of the 'Great Victories' Mrs Kobold is on 6 points to my 5 and Malborough is on a paltry 2 points to the French 9.

We called it a night after that, but Ramillies beckons the next time we sit down at the table.