A Birthday Battle of Beneath the Lily Banners

The day after my birthday, I made the trek to Austin for a game of Beneath the Lily Banners with the Great Hall Games crew, and my best friend Evan. I'd cooked up the scenario a week ago, and Lance thought it sounded solid. The outnumbered Franco-Bavarian army, through superior generalship and daring maneuver, had managed to catch the Dutch and their British lackeys before their armies could combine. Stronger than either individual force, but weaker overall, the French left a token force (commanded by me) in place to pin the first army down (Randy), while the majority of the French and their Bavarian battle buddies (Evan and Wayne) moved to crush the reinforcements rushing to aid their beleaguered friends (Commanded by Lance and Biff, though Lance was called away before the game even started, due to a family emergency. All thanks to Lance, for lending us his beautiful minis to use, and we wish his wife a speedy recovery.)

Wayne, in the colorful shirt, commanded the French infantry and artillery. Evan, bottom right, only arms visible, commanded the French Cavalry and Bavarian infantry.

The French main force.

Lance/Biff's troops, British and some German minor principality forces, realize that They are our main target, not Randy's army.

The aforementioned Randy's army, at the other end of the board.

He formed his cavalry on his right flank, and split his infantry to march around the woods.

Close up on some British infantry, because damn that's a good paint job.

My blocking force facing Randy's army consisted of 4 battalions of Infantry, three regiments of Cuirassiers (seen above), 2 of Dragoons, and one of Bavarian Hussars (worthless).

When I initiated my cavalry charge, I rolled quite poorly, and 2/3 of my Cuirassier shock cavalry went from good order to 'Shaken,' halving their close combat dice and getting them utterly slaughtered right off the bat.

A few turns in, and my casualties are really starting to add up. The French line infantry (seen to the right of the photo) kept barely hanging on, slowly getting whittled down by the English and Dutch foes.

The British cavalry cuts through the French Dragoons like a hot knife through butter, and move towards the village anchoring my left flank.

A view from the British side of the river. All my infantry had, by this point, lost at least a third of their effective strength. But their job was to hold the enemy long enough to crush the Other allied force...

Which was going rather well. Evan's good dice rolls and natural cavalry elan made short work of his English/whatever foes, driving them back and slicing deep into the infantry columns behind them. Meanwhile, his Bavarian infantry summitted the hilltop and began to deploy into line, while the beleaguered allied army rushed a few infantry battalions uphill to meet them.

Here you can see Biff's infantry attacking the Bavarians atop the hill, while the French cavalry (right) pushes deeper into enemy lines.

Meanwhile, on Ben's end of the table, the British push into the village and my remaining forces begin to withdraw. But help was coming! A full brigade of fresh French forces had turned from the attack to help shore up my failing lines. (See the road, leading away from the village)

Evan's Bavarians making short work of their foes, begin turning the enemy flank.

Since the store was close to closing, we decided that night had begun to fall, ending the day's battle. I'm pretty sure we ruled that Biff's army had taken a severe pounding, and was in danger of being overrun. However, the holding force had taken far greater casualties than had been hoped, though they weren't wiped out. Overall, I think a tactical victory for the French, though not the overwhelming strategic win we'd been hoping for.

Maybe the next time we play, we can pick this up again sort of where we left off, determine what forces remain, how many reinforcements the depleted units would have gained, and see if the French can survive the counter-attack of both forces? Or maybe the partially mangled French army drives Biff's troops into route, but then has to turn and face the nearly un-touched Anglo-Dutch army under Randy's command?