The second game that we had last weekend was a War of Spanish Succession battle hosted by our old friend Peter Dennis using his beautiful Paperboys miniatures.
The allies Alex Hewlett, Frank Bauer and Alan Perry were to defend a village on their side of the table and stop the French, Michael Perry, Frank Becker, Oliver Gommer and myself from taking control of the bridge at its centre.
Our very cunning plan was to pin the enemy's left flank using the Maison du Roi and use the greater part of our force to overwhelm the allies on the more open right flank.
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| This map is used with kind permission of Peter Dennis. |
Our plan actually worked...
Michael and Frank pushed forward at a fair old pace and forced Alex's British from their position on the river and then towards the village... Ollie laid siege to the village and eventually forced Frank's Anglo-Prussians to fall back.
My job was of course to hold Alan's Dutch at Mill Hill... I could have danced about in front of him firing my guns and making a lot of noise... this would probably have been fairly successful and a relatively safe option.... But!...
With the sound of battle and the sight of folded, torn and shredded warriors on the ground, plus the smell of burning paper in my nostrils... What was a fully inked general going to do?...
CHARGE!...
Its safe to say... Things didn't end well.
My beautiful Maison du Roi wait to move forwards...
Ollie's Franco-Bavarians...
Me... Looking splendid.
Michael and Frank's brigades.
Pont D'or defended by Franks Anglo-Prussians.
My cavalry join in the advance... A thing of beauty.
Only a small gun on a small hill... Hmmmm!
Tally Ho!... The Guard advance...
Things hot up along the river...
Ollie moves toward the village
I close in on Mill Hill...
Alan sends out his Dutch Guard... But I manage see them off... Hurrah!
Alex's British at Pine Hill...
Michaels Cavalry... bathed in sunlight.
As I chase the Dutch Guard out of their defences I am greeted by lots of angry men with guns and pointy sticks.
This is the high water mark of my advance...
The Franco-Bavarians cross the river...
The Maison du Roi are steadily pushed back with ever increasing casualties...
The dice gods were not kind...
But... I did manage to draw the Dutch out of their defences and away from the village...
As it turned out this gave them a lot more opportunity to shoot me and my men into pieces of confetti...
The dice gods were not kind...
My phone ran out of power at this point so you will have to imagine all the fun and games that I had...
While this was going on Michael, Frank and Ollie forced the enemy out of their positions and as it was nearly Beer 'o' Clock victory was declared...
I may have come out of the battle a bit tattered (some may even say dead )... But
I was on the winning side... Hurrah!
This was another fantastic game.. I am now looking forwards more than ever to get my own WSS collection onto the table...
Many thanks to Peter (and Maggie) for entertaining and feeding us all so well...
You will find a different account of this battle plus more about Peter's marvellous Paperboys here...
https://www.facebook.com/thePaperboysPage/
Also buildings and troops here...
https://www.helion.co.uk/browse-title-series-more/paper-soldiers/paperboys-on-campaign/european-buildings-28mm-paper-models-for-18th-and-19th-century-wargames.html
https://www.helion.co.uk/browse-title-series-more/paper-soldiers/paperboys-on-campaign/the-war-of-the-spanish-succession-paper-soldiers-for-marlborough-s-campaigns-in-flanders.html
https://www.helion.co.uk/browse-title-series-more/paper-soldiers/free-paperboys-downloads.html
All the best Aly
Lovely looking game shows how defective the thin little chaps are on mass 🙂
ReplyDeleteSorry that was effective not defective !
DeleteThey do look rather nice...
DeleteAnd by the way I was playing... defective is fairly apt ;-)
All the best Aly
Very nice looking game , those paper soldiers are rather well done .
DeleteThey are rather lovely...
ReplyDeleteAll the best. Aly
A fun report as always, Aly! Your writing was firing on all cylinders with your many “paper” soldier references. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan...
DeleteI managed to miss out a reference to 'pulped 'and a possibility that I could have blotted my copybook... There must be many more... ;-)
All the best Aly
What a wonderful game. It's hardly noticeable that the figures are two-dimensional paper given the hundreds of them deployed. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
It was indeed a wonderful game Stokes...
DeleteYou very quickly forget that they are two dimensional...
All the best Aly
That has got to be one of the most outrageously attractive games I've ever seen, Aly. Puntastic, too!
ReplyDeleteAre the plans for the amazing buildings purchasable, per chance?
Best regards
WM
I think what really makes it is the consistency of everything... houses ,trees, troops and defences all made from paper...
DeleteYes the buildings are available...
https://www.helion.co.uk/browse-title-series-more/paper-soldiers/paperboys-on-campaign/european-buildings-28mm-paper-models-for-18th-and-19th-century-wargames.html
All the best Aly
Paper soldiers? Goodness, you'll be using plastic next! 😉
ReplyDeleteI think you may already be ahead of me on that one... ;-)
DeleteAll the best Aly
Lovely looking game .... very tempting to go down the paper avenue, just been looking at some very nice Russian card buildings. I keep seeing your friends art popping up everywhere now I recognise his style. My kids have numerous books with his illustrations in, and very nice they are too.
ReplyDeletePeter is a very talented and prolific artist...
DeleteYou will see his work in a lot of the Osprey books and on the covers of Warlord and Perry Miniatures box sets.
All the best Aly
A great looking game all those paper soldiers look splendid. Did you use the associated Paper Boys rules for the War of the Spanish Succession?
ReplyDeleteYes we used the Paperboys rules...
DeleteI have put a link up to the page on Helions website...
All the best. Aly
A fantastic looking game, Aly. I have a gaming colleague who also takes orders to distract the enemy in the same manner as yourself - Charge!
ReplyDeleteHas playing the period in paper stoked further enthusiasm for your own Marlburians?
Hurrah!... I am not alone...
DeleteYes I am itching to get my toys on the table...
All the best. Aly
A very interesting game. The Paperboys look amazing, and the Paperboys rules for this period work really well with the large armies we used on the day - far better than with just half a dozen units. Aly's dice luck on the day was truly awful, I think he only threw one 6 all day.
ReplyDeleteThe "unknown" of this reply is Alex on the British right flank. Outnumbered, outgunned and truly pulped!
DeleteHi Alex...
DeleteIt was great fun...
And you are quite right the Paperboys work really well in large numbers...
I don’t know how peter has the patience to cut them all out...
Ah!... The mystical ‘6’... I have only ever seen a few...
All the best. Aly
Most enjoyable report; thanks. I've started building Paperboys armies and your post reminds me to get a move on so I can finally enjoy my own big impressive battles like this!
ReplyDeleteIt’s a pleasure David...
DeleteAs I’ve already said it’s the cutting them out that holds me back...
Although Peter’s new stuff looks very exciting...
All the best. Aly
Yes, I know what you mean - I'm being very slow at it. But I'm sure once I get into the swing of it it will beat my abysmal record in painting figures! And the cost for huge armies (apart from the effort) really appeals to the Yorkshireman in me... ;-) I just wish Peter would slow down the production of new Paperboys as I shall never catch up. I now have 11 books plus some of his downloads and I've barely begun the one book. But posts like yours help inspire me to keep at it! All the best, David.
DeleteA most amusing narrative indeed. It's a shame this was not the Japanese/Korean game you could have used origami on them.
ReplyDeleteWeaponised origami... now there’s a thought...
DeleteHello. What could be the type of uniform for the french FonBeauzard Dragoon regiment and the Spanish - Waals Beauzard cavalry regiment in this battle ?
ReplyDeleteHi...
DeleteAccording to C S Grant the Fon Beauzard Dragoons are in red coats with Yellow facings .
Walls Beazard is not listed in his books... I have unfortunately not got much in the way of information on the Spanish army... something I must correct at some point.
All the best. Aly
Thanks for your information about the dragoons. It is not easy to get information about the uniforms of the Spanish/Walloon regiments. The were cuirassiers with HQ in Brussel. Greetings Rene Boezaard
Delete