1600 – Something: Luxembourg

 As my loyal reader may recall, the Autumn 1605 campaign turn is drawing to a close. The final action is the French invasion of Luxembourg. As the French failed their GOOS roll, they have to face a host of the Luxembourg’s finest, drawn at random.

The final Luxembourg army consisted of 4 bases of cavalry, 1 light horse, 5 shot and 2 pikes. Quite a handy little army, I thought. The French were a single army themselves, consisting of their regulars: 4 cavalry, 1 light horse, 4 shot and 3 pike. Interestingly evenly matched, I thought, with the Luxembourgers being slightly shot heavy, and the French with the pike.

The terrain rolling favoured the defenders, with a handy hill in the centre of their line to defend. Above, the Luxembourgers are to the left, the dark-coated infantry on the hill with half the cavalry behind. The rest of the cavalry is refused on their left with only the light horse forward, while the rest of the infantry is on the right, nearest the camera.

I confess, I was a little concerned about the position, mostly because the infantry on the hill is a newly painted bunch who have never been in action before. Still, the idea was to have a cavalry trap on the left of the hill, so any advancing French horse could be charged in flank and downhill by the central cavalry. The idea was similar on the right, with the hope of trapping the French infantry in a hail of musketry.

The plans developed, somewhat slowly, admittedly. As you can see above, the French right was delayed by a lack of tempo points. The left did get going, and the main French infantry force ran into the predicted musketry barrage, so much so that the general brought up some cavalry to support them. On the far side, you can see the light horse has been exchanging shots as well.

I should mention that before this game, the tactical rules were subject to some minor revisions, which revealed that in the previous version, the move of light horse had been increased to 3 base widths, so they can tank around the battlefield more quickly, and, crucially, get out of trouble a bit faster. We shall see how it works out.

There was a fair bit of cagey manoeuvring. As you can see above, the French got their right wing moving eventually, but their left has fallen back a bit to avoid being trapped. On the Luxembourg side, their right-wing infantry advanced to try to trap the left, but will now fall back a bit to try to avoid a clobbering by the pike-heavy French.

In the event, the French decided to bite the various bullets on offer. On their right, the first line of cavalry stuck their heads in the noose, while on the left, the infantry got moving again, aiming at the Luxembourg right. It all looked a bit risky, particularly for the cavalry with a juicy open flank begging.

In the event, the Luxembourg general took over and charged in with his left flank cavalry. His own base has, as you can see, severely damaged the French, but the other has, remarkably, been bounced. On the right, the infantry are near to clashing. In the centre, the French second line cavalry are in the firing line, while their second line infantry are arriving in support.

It got a bit busy. On the French right, the damaged cavalry fled, pursued by the Luxembourg general and base. On the near side, the Luxembourgers attacked, securing victory on one flank with the musketeers, but not on the rest. Nevertheless, French morale was starting to look wobbly, although they survived. The bounced Luxembourg cavalry, by the way, has been withdrawn in front of their camp on the left of the picture to recover.

In the foreground, you can see that the French right has emerged victorious in the infantry battle. Two Luxembourg bases are fleeting, while the other has retired to a hill for safety. On the French right, the cavalry has been charged by the rallied Luxembourgers and is coming off second best. The remaining Luxembourg cavalry is creeping forward, looking for a target.

The French general, however, was not going to lose another cavalry base if he could help it, and led a base of musketeers into the flank of the Luxembourg general’s horse. The horse fled, but the general survived. This really is the point where the French began to scent victory.

The Luxembourgers fought on, however, thinking that their temporary cavalry superiority might count. But the French soon organised an infantry attack on the front and flank of the hill. In spite of fierce resistance and the reserve musketeers moving across to prop the flank up, the game was pretty well up for the defenders.

The coup de grace came on the French left with the flanking attack up the hill. While the pike in the centre were driving back their opponents, down the hill, the loss of another base pushed the Luxembourg morale to fall back. This led to their cavalry and light horse retiring from the field, so at that point, they decided that further resistance was futile.

That was, as a wargame, a lot of fun and intriguing. The French had a tough nut to crack, I think, and managed to do it by not over-committing. I did toy, for example, with charging the French cavalry up the hill at the infantry there. It might have worked, particularly with the large numbers of musketeers stationed there. After all, the Muscovites managed a few games ago. But discretion, and the fact that the Luxembourgers gained the tempo and moved back, suggested otherwise. Patience told, in the end.

As for the wider picture, the French are now in possession of Luxembourg, which means that the Spanish Road is in peril. I am not sure how the Spanish will respond. They are fairly thinly spread along the frontier. But the next campaign move is winter 1605, so I will have to wait until spring to find out.