Wars of Succession: The Best Marlborough Simulator Around

Eugene in Mantua at the end of 1701. He's already beat the pants off the French in two battles and taken Modena

I think Wars of Succession may be the best game AGEOD has ever produced, despite having some "fit and finish" issues. Granted, I'm biased toward the period, but this game takes the best of the new features introduced in Wars of Napoleon, discards what didn't work, and marries it to what did work in games like Thirty Years War  and Rise of Prussia.

In Da House - Mollwitz (BAR Volume IX)

Received a week or so ago, but just posting now because I'm lazy.

Fontenoy 1745

After several weeks playing the hypothetical Melle scenario from BAR Fontenoy, David and I set up the Fontenoy historical scenario from Vae Victis' The Victories of Marshal De Saxe. to play on our next gaming night.

Battle of the Boyne

The Danes cross the Boyne

(Continued from here) By noon, the tide has dropped enough to make the crossing at Yellow Island practical. The Danes swarm across the river, led by Fodgarden's battalion and Württemberg. The Clare Dragoons put up a fight though - enough to kill Württemberg! While the Danes have gained a toehold they haven't cleared the shore yet, and the embattled Irish dragoons hold on.

Battle of the Boyne: The First Two Hours

How I've felt the last two weeks

Mid-April, and I managed to catch the flu. So, unfortunately I haven't been well enough to play much of anything until this weekend. Yesterday was a trip up to Chicago, so today is the first I've been able to get back to playing Lilliburlero. I played several turns and realized I'd forgotten a couple of important special scenario rules, and decided to completely reset. So, tonight you just get the first couple of hours of the battle - but they were pretty action packed!

An Outsized Impact: Battle of the Boyne

Lilibulero - The Oldbridge Scenario

The Battle of the Boyne has had an outsized impact on the history of Ireland, considering that it wasn't a particularly bloody or decisive battle.

Rossbach: The Battle

11:30 and Frederick is on the move

I hinted that the Prussians had made a subtle, but serious error in my previous post. In this entry we'll see what they did, and how that combined with another unfortunate happening led to a surprising outcome at the Battle of Rossbach.

The League of Augsburg

The map for Nine Years, a strategic/operation simulation of the war

After I wrap up Rossbach, I'm going to take a break from the Seven Years War and return to an ealier time. Namely, the Nine Years War, fought from 1688 to 1697.

Rossbach: Prelude

Rossbach: Prussian initial approach and retreat. Because Frederick might have been aggressive, but he was no fool.

The battles of Rossbach and Leuthen in 1757, during the Seven Years War, are like something from a movie.

How Not to Be a General in the Age of Reason

This is maddening to watch.

Arrived This Past Week

Nine Years - The War of the Grand Alliance  by Compass Games and Napoleon's Quagmire from OSG. More pictures of the games in play coming.

HtL:Chotusitz with Bob

It took a cautious seven turns for my Austrians to close with the Prussian right in preparation to attack Chotusitz

Bob Ellis and I got in another round of Hold the Line: Frederick's War today; this time the second battle of the First Silesian War, Chotusitz. This game seesawed back and forth and was very tense right until the end. Bob and I played this time with all of the advanced rules except attacker morale checks and facing, which added a nice bit of chrome to the game. Despite the simplicity of the rules, this game continues to impress us both with just how well it seems to portray the period.

More Books

This weekend's haul from Half-Price Books. The one clipped off in the upper right is Chandler's The Military Maxims of Napoleon. I'm most interested/excited though in the book in the center, Conserving the Enlightenment, a scholarly work on the early French engineering corps.

The book on Marlborough is a little light, but it has some nice maps and seemed like something I could give someone as an introduction.

Hold the Line Frederick's War

The Prussians trying to reorganize into a more effective offensive formation while the Austrians rally their center

Had a great time today playing Hold the Line Frederick's War from Worthington Games with my friend Bob Ellis via Vassal.

Pike & Shot Reading List I

My recent posts on the Early Modern era and associated games have lead to some requests for book titles on the period. Since I've read pretty extensively on the subject recently, I have a pretty good list. Recognizing that not everyone wants to dive into this the way I have, I've pulled together what I think are some good introductory titles.

Walcourt 1689

The results about halfway through the game, being careful to take my own advice and "wait for the guns."

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Battle is Joined

Warfare during this period certainly is a methodical affair. It takes Cutts from 12:30 until 2:00 PM to get his leading brigade across the Nebel and launch the first assault on Blenheim. Despite support from the battery next to the village and all three battalions of the famed French Navarre regiment holding the front edge of Blenheim, Rowe's men charge the barricades.  Their combined fire shatters the 1/Navarre, eliminating it. Return fire disrupts a British battalion.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Anglo-Allied Setup and First Turns

Now for the Anglo-allied setup. Again, this is a quasi-historical setup. The commands ("lines" in game terms) are composed of roughly the right mix of units, and are in roughly the right places - as far as anyone knows. For a future game I will probably use the positions as illustrated here for what may be a more historical setup.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: French Setup

The Great Leaders series from now defunct gaming publisher Moments in History is a series of two games covering Marlborough's four great victories during the War of Spanish Succession, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. I'm about to start a the Blenheim scenario. In this scenario the Franco-Bavarian army sets up first. The above is an overview of the Franco-bavarian position. I've gone with a more-or-less historical setup, both because I prefer historical setups and to test out the game mechanics with a known deployment.

The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough

Currently reading. I'm developing a real fascination with the period of warfare ranging from about the end of the English Civil War through the Seven Years War, and the accompanying period of history.

I grabbed a used hardback, but for those interested in an electronic copy, there are several resources available.

For an excellent breakdown of one of the more famous battles during the period, Obscure Battles does their usual great job.