Battle of Appelfeldt 1673

Well now the dust has settles and I have had a chance to take on-board rules suggestions and improvements I thought I'd sort out the figures boxes and run through the casualty returns etc.

The Battlefield, French to left, Spanish / Dutch to right

Well it as a close run thing, the Spanish / Dutch armies were required to hold their lines whilst the French army's aim was to exit the tabletop by carrying the enemy positions.

The French army broke when the  elite 'Maison du Roi' brigade was routed in the centre after an epic struggle between the Swiss Guards & Dutch Guards of van Hussen's brigade. It was the Dutch Guards that held out longest, albeit with only 3 remaining damage points when their Swiss adversaries broke!

The French had already lost Guerette's Brigade on their left flank as they assaulted the Spanish lines - they routed a couple of turns prior to the centre. It is worth noting that both Spanish Brigades - Raventos & Laura, took significant casualties (General Laura himself being killed) and were close to breaking themselves. It also has to be said that Marchette's Horse brigade was untouched as it supported Guerette's attacking Foot, largely due to its unwillingness to move!

On the French Right Monmouth's brigade fought off an aggressive attack from McKay's Scots brigade which was its-self supported by Muller's brigade. Muller's troops began to engage with Montal's French brigade late in the game but to little effect.

In detail casualties in terms of Damage points was as follows:

Casualties/Original Strength

FRENCH ARMY

CinC Conte de Vicque (Rupert), 3 x Army Batteries                                                          12/45 DPs

Monmouth's Brigade (Phil),  3x Regts Foot                                                                    119/170 DPs

Maison du Roi (Rupert), 1 Foot Regt, Musqueaires & 2 x Gendarmes                          186/194 DPs

Montal's Brigde (Rupert),3 x Regt Foote                                                                          52/190 DPs

Guerette's Brigade (Steve),4 x Regts of Foot                                                                  210/220 DPs

Marcheterre's Brigade (Steve) 4 x Horse Squadrons                                                          0/100 DPs

                                                                                                TOTAL                            589/919 DPs

SPANISH ARMY

CinC Raentos (Mike)

Raventos' Brigade (Mike), 2 x Regts Foot, 1 Horse Sqdn, 1 x battery                              77/160 DPs

Laura's Brigade (John), 4 x Regt Foot                                                                               79/240 DPs

                                                                                                TOTAL                              156/400 DPs

DUTCH ARMY

CinC William of Orange (Nigel) 4 x Army Batteries                                                          25/60 DPs

van Hussen' Brigade (Nigel), 3 x Regts Foot, 1 Horse Sqdn                                           170/230 DPs

Muller's Brigade (Mark / Andy), 3 x Regt Foot                                                                60/170 DPs

McKay's Brigade (Mark / Dave), 3 x Regt Foot, " x Dragoon Sqdns                               83/200 DPs

                                                                                                TOTAL                             338/760 DPs

Coldstream Guards in Fire fight with Scots of MacKays
Foote and a supporting squadrons of Dragoons

Overall the French had approx 900 Damage Points (DP) whilst the Allied Spanish & Dutch had about 1000 DPs between them. it was always going to be a tough ask of the French to win this battle but they came close - witness the 'squeaky bum' time when Laura's Spanish brigade was directly intervening to support their Dutch neighbours...

Regiment d'Anglais supported by Lord High Admiral's Foote in firefight with Dutch Foote,
who are in turn supported by MacKays Foote.
Note: Brigade Commander Duke of Monmouth & Colonel John Churchill leading the English lines.

...in hindsight / historically this did not happen and so I need to make this limitation clear in future games. If the Dutch Guards had broken it might have taken the rest of van Hussan's brigade with them leaving a big hole in the Allied centre.

So there it is - hope you enjoyed it, another 28mm spectacular to follow later in the year, once everyone's fingers have healed!

Thoughts on why 2mm

2mm’s, and why I do them., other than I can’t be arsed to spend hours/weeks on painting 6 blokes that no one can see on the table once they get 2 or 3ft away.

First of all, I would like to think that the gang are willing to try anything new, possibly controversial, or downright silly, but hopefully provides a bit of entertainment or pleasure on a Friday night, amongst the general guffawing, buffoonery and man talk.

So what are my reasons for down-sizing to 2mm -

Storage – no, I’m not saying have the Imperial Guard in a trouser pocket or the Army of Northern Virginia in a man thong (I like to keep them warm, but salty..they must have served near the sea)..no lugging boxes up and down lofts, cupboards, several trips back and forth loading/unloading cars at the venues. I have an Austrian Corps, artillery, cavalry in an old tape cassette box, and room for another level or two.

Cost –  dirt cheap..nuff said

Painting – once you have sussed out a way to do this, its dead easy and quick..grey under coat..I tried black once but it looked like a burnt match and couldn’t see anything (!)

Trousers first, coat, dab of flesh for face then hat. Thin lines drawn across figure strips, virtually dry brush. Detail not relevant (cos there aint none!). You are not trying to make display models, but playing pieces.

This brings me nicely onto the next bit..why 2mm?

Example of a wonderfully painted 2mm army - helpfully supplied by Nigel!

Whatever the scale, period, scenario, our figures represent a given number of men, covering a given area of ground. For example, 24 Napoleonic infantry are supposed to represent a unit of about 500 men strong. The same goes for 9 cavalry figures for a 300 strong regiment. They are placed in a town area for instance, with a couple of buildings, which represents a given area of a town or village. A hill model represents one or several contours, that never appear as several ‘steps’ up to the top. Do you see what I am getting at? I’ve never seen a WW2 tank the same length as a street in a town, but there it is on the table!

So, whatever the size of the unit, in whatever period, they are just playing pieces, as are poker chips, chess pieces, draughts etc.

These 2mm toys I have been doing are just playing pieces. Not highly detailed models that look great close up, a short distance away or on a display cabinet.

Where was I? Oh yes..

Size of table – One can have a reasonably sized game on a 6’ x 4’ table, with enough room behind players to get past without causing a standing Mexican wave when players have to make room for someone to get past. Also no crawling under tables, none of us are getting any younger. My first game (oh no I hear the cry) will be on a table that size.
Larger games can go on a 6x6..

I like to think this scale is a hybrid between war gaming as we know it, and a board game. We quite happily play with board games on our trips away. This could be a 3D version of a board game!!

Article by Dave Vallance