In the summer I won an auction on E-bay for 2 English civil War Armies and the seller very kindly sent me an additional free army of Scot Covenanters. I decided to use these for an army to use with the excellent "Maurice" rules by Sam Mustafa and so they became my early eighteenth century Jacobite Army.
In Maurice your Army is made of units adding up to a 100 points, There has been quite a bit of discussion on the official Maurice forum of how to portray the Jacobites, I decided to make a list as below
Two national cards La baionnette and En Masse 15 points.
4 highlander units at Elite status 38 points.
4 Lowlander trained units with 1 base of pikes each 24 points .
1 French Trained Infantry unit. 6 points
2 Scottish Cavalry Conscript units 8 points
1 French Cavalry Trained unit 6 points.
2 Artillery units 3 points.
The thinking behind giving the Highlanders Elite Status was because of their reputation of being argubly the most ferocious fighters in the British Isles and also to counter this I restricted them to formations of en masse and column. When Researching the Jacobite army they seemed to have very little cavalry, but due to the 3:1 ratio rule in Maurice I decided to give the Scottish cavalry, conscript status and to make the numbers up by having a French trained cavalry unit as well.
My Jacobite Army with My Commander on the right and the Objective marker to the left on the picture.
In order to get in the mood in using my new army and for a bit of fun , I borrowed a Kilt from a friend from work, the day before the game. I thought it would be a good idea to see if it fitted ok and so I just put it on and was just asking my wife if my arse looked big in it, when some of my Spanish friends called around to take me to a local bar. With no time to change (the lads are only let out for a hour a week) I made my first public appearance a bit sooner than I had thought. However we had a great night and after a few beers my Spanish improved dramatically although my Scottish accent left a lot to be desired. The problem was I woke up with an almighty hangover and vague memory of organising a Scottish themed fiesta at my house a few days before Christmas.
Me, complete with Kilt and hangover (observe the narrowing of the eyes), prepared for the battle with dice ready in the Sporran
We played at Jose's house and I played against his English Army, he won the initiative and decided to defend, so I formed up for attack with my highlanders in the middle in the first line and my low landers on their flank and making up my second line. My cavalry were deployed on my right flank.
Jose drew his army up into two lines as well, with his objective placed automatically in the town.
My cavalry wing were helped by the notable Michel Georges who gave a +1 attack modifier to my horse.
My Highlanders began their attack however I had forgot about the rules of which units can move in a force in only the same formation and my lowlander units were left behind.
The English elite infantry units leveled their muskets, I used my "fire first" card but with little effect and the English fired with deadly effect.
I managed to rally one unit but as soon as I steadied one unit another volley would hit them, my right hand Highland unit broke under the heavy fire.
Caught in no mans land there was nothing else for it but for my Highlanders to drop their muskets and to charge with a little luck they might get into close quarter combat.
My left hand unit was the only one successful and managed to push the English back.
The Highlander charge was finished with all the units broken, An English unit that was over confident had strayed near to my second fresh line and one of my lowlander units charged and broke it.
Whilst both side centres halted and reorganised, I saw a chance to unleash my cavalry on his artillery. I charged and managed to take out one of his units.
Jose countercharged with his cavalry an broke my cavalry and I was now only 1 point away from my army morale breaking.
Just a our centres began to engage once again, Jose used a "Death of a hero card" and my army morale collapsed prematurely thus ending the battle in Joses favor.
Even though I didn't win, I enjoyed the game very much, The main problem I had was against the heavy firepower from the British units with all their rerolls etc, also using the cards more effectively for close combat. Hopefully next game should look more like Prestonpans instead of Culloden.
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