Aughrim castle defended by the Jacobites |
By playing the Battle of Aughrim at home and taking 21 hours to do it we got a fairly good idea how it might run as a large multi player event. I chose it as one of the scenarios for our October weekender.
Several of the players attending had an interest in the campaign in Ireland and also had units painted up for the theatre. This was an ideal opportunity to get those troops on the table beside our own collections.
Jacobite soldiers in Aughrim village. |
Adrian took it upon himself to custom build an expanded Aughrim table. He went on my recommendation to expand both flanks by two feet to incorporate some extra features. The table turned out to be a magnificent piece of work. Some aspects were enlarged for scenic effect. Ade chose to make the Tristuan stream look more like a river mainly to accommodate one of Adrian's Walls wonderful resin bridges which was used as the Attibrassil bridge.
Move up! the dashing Jacobite cavalry |
He also built a lovely representation of the ruined Aughrim castle and used his range of crofter's cottages to create the village of Aughrim itself.
We represented every regiment and squadron one for one making about 51 squadrons (BLB sized), 55 battalions, 7 regiments of dismounted dragoons, 6 detachments of commanded shot and two garrisons together with 11 gun models.
The brave Danes push up the hill |
Our intention was to run the game twice, once on Saturday and then again on Sunday. My contingency if the game got bogged down or looked as if a decisive outcome would not be achieved was to use a 'time shift' concept which I will explain later.
I need not have worried about indecisive results!
Immovable? The Jacobites secure on Kilcommodan hill |
The Jacobite team was composed of three players in each run of the game whilst the Williamite team had four members.
Irresistible? The Williamite centre looking across the Melehan |
The usual hot spots developed as the games unfolded; The bog around the Tristuan stream, Bloody Hollow and the Causeway. It was clear that the players swapped ideas between game one and game two. A clear indication of this was the failure of 2 regiments of dismounted Williamite dragoons to penetrate the the bog through to the Attibrassil bridge in the first run of the game. In the second game they were deployed on the opposite flank and quickly traversed the Causeway to attack the garrison of Aughrim castle! This clearly was a recommendation from Ginkel #1 to Ginkel #2!
Enniskilliners on the warpath - Wolseley sweeps down from Urraghry |
The result on the first run of the game is hard to articulate without it sounding pre ordained. The Jacobites conducted a masterful defence from 1000 hours till 1820 hours parrying every thrust and blunting every attack. Williamite casualties were high and they were clogged up in all the old trouble spots.
St Ruhe... oh can this be true??? Stranger than fiction |
10 minutes to go before game end and Adam Hayes attaches St Ruhe to a shaky front line battlaion on Kilcommodan hill. Paul (Ginkel) say's let's fire a gun at that unit... yes you know what is coming... a hit (10 needed on a d10). Now, is the commander at risk (6 on a d6)... bloody hell! Officer hits chart - (1,2 or 3 required on d6).... It's a 2... Silence... From both sides. The morale checks then took away a huge portion of the Jacobite centre and a sure fire victory evaporated in 5 minutes. The first totally against the run of play went to the Williamites... Bloody Aughrim reproduced exactly. Poor Paul Patrick, Gerry and Adam.
These dragoons received a battlefield promotion to Elite status! |
Defending the causeway |
The pictures are from both games. Join us again to here about 4 runs of the Battle of Fraustadt over the 2 days, fast, furious and only once did history repeat itself!