The defence of Saint Augustin

I found myself with a few hours to spare and thought that it would be nice to pit the forces of Volgar against the five Duchies.  Time was limited; though, so I thought that rather than use my usual mash up of the War game, which takes time to prepare, I would turn to another favourite of mine, One-hour Wargames by Neil Thomas.

One-hour Wargames are a very simple, but excellent set of rules that really do play in an hour or under.  Within the pages of the book, you have a set of general rules that are then tweaked to give some period feel.  Are they for everyone?  Probably, not, but they allow me to have a fun game on a 2` by 1.5` table in a very reasonable amount of time.  As well as the rules the book has thirty scenarios in it, so after a roll of my d30, all I had to do was set up my table and get playing.

The Battle

Queen Dragomira Zedwitzové was still fuming over the last defeat that her forces suffered at the hands of the Confederation of the Five Duchies, and she decided that the only way to save face was a punitive raid on the town of Saint Augustin. 

The Queen turned once more to Theodoric Von Martinez, he was ordered to move with all haste and seize the town of Saint Augustin, relieve it of all of its valuables and return to Volgan territory before the Lord Warden of the Five Duchies could respond.  Unknown to queen Dragomira, the Lord Warden, Philippe Le Duff, had already started to mobilise forces in the area.  The only question would be whether Robert du Ouestbourg could hold Saint Augustin long enough for the rest of his forces to arrive.

The army under Robert du Ouestbourg

Initial forces.

General - Robert du Ouestbourg

The Duchess du Burgoyne`s own Fusiliers – Col.

De la Côte D'or

Mont du Château Chasseurs - Col. Van Beorg

Reinforcements

1^st Bn. Ouestbourg Regiment- Col. Wadoux

2^nd Bn. Ouestbourg Regiment -Lt Col. Delforge

Maison Dieu regiment – Col. Bricourt

Capel – le- Ferne battery – Cap. Le Bigot

The army under Theodoric Von Martinez

General – Theodoric Von Martinez

Fouksten Highland regiment – Col. Huss

1^st Bn. Dijl Regiment- Col. Joannou

2^nd Bn. Dijl Regiment -Lt Col. Carras

Feweszem regiment – Col. Chomski

Sytynbon lancers – Col. Dragos

The sound of the approaching, Volgan force spurred Robert du Ouestbourg into action.  He sent the Mont du Château Chasseurs forward, to the orange orchards, to harass the enemy, while the Duchess du Burgoyne`s own Fusiliers fortified the town ready for the upcoming battle.

The first shots of the battle erupted from the orange tree orchard as the Chasseurs peppered the 2^nd Bn of the Dijl Regiment, but Von Martinez wouldn`t be distracted by the Mont du Château Chasseurs.   The general ordered Lt Col. Carras to deal with the skirmishers while the rest of the army matched on Saint Augustin.

Ignoring the protracted firefight on their left the Volgan infantry marched at a steady pace towards the waiting Duchess own Fusiliers in the town.  While, on their right Colonel Dragos, and his lancers swept further south ready to intercept any reinforcements that might appear. 

As if on cue, the Capel – le- Ferne battery, and the 1^st Bn. Ouestbourg Regiment arrived on the battlefield.  The battery quickly unlimbered and started to fire at the approaching infantry.  Col. Wadoux moved his infantry to protect the artillery battery.

Colonel Dragos spurred on the Sytynbon lancers repeatedly slamming them into the waiting infantry, but even the elan of these fierce mounted troopers could not break the iron discipline of the Ouestbourg regiment.  The brave stand of Col. Wadoux`s men allowed the artillery and the fusiliers to pour all their firepower into the Diji regiment.  Col. Joannou encouraged his men through the storm of lead even as they dropped around him.

After a ferocious melee the Sytynbon lancers finally ran down the Ouestbourg regiment, and Von Martinez directed his infantry to concentrate their fire on the fusiliers in the town.  Col. De la Côte D'or stood calmly at the front of his regiment extolling them to stand their ground.  But at this moment of triumph for Von Martinez, the 2^nd Bn. Ouestbourg Regiment, and the Maison Dieu regiment took up their positions.  The Ouestbourg regiment moved to protect the Capel – le- Ferne battery, and the Maison Dieu regiment joined the fusiliers in the town.

The arrival of the reinforcements put pay to any hope that Theodoric Von Martinez had of taking Saint Augustin.  He skilfully screened the retreat of his forces with the Sytynbon lancers, but he wouldn`t be able to hide his defeat and the loss of the 1^st Bn. Dijl regiment from his sovereign.

 After action thoughts

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to play a game against an opponent for the first time in a long time.  My opponent made skilful use of his light cavalry, the Burgoyne Hussars, to tie up two units of my infantry and then took apart my remaining forces piece meal.  It was a good afternoon of play, but I will not be including that battle or the results here.

Why would I ignore the results of an enjoyable game?  There could be a lot of reasons; perhaps I want to keep control of the narrative that is slowly building up here, maybe I am a sore loser, or I may not have kept good notes of what went on.  All of these could have some truth to them, but the real reason comes down to why I play games.

A lot has been written by much more eminent people than me about the joys of solo wargaming.  Donald Featherstone expounded the merits of solo wargaming as things like the freedom of ideas, and time that a solo wargamer has on their hands.  These are indeed some of the benefits, but after my game the other week I was struck by the main thing that I get from solo wargaming and wargaming itself.  

I play games to see a story unfold on the table.  This desire for narrative leads me to name units, generals, and regimental officers.  I like to see how a unit`s history develops over the course of play.  If you take away these elements then I lose interest in the game, and I may as well just play a computer game.  Here is where I saw the stark difference between myself and my opponent, for them the game was a tactical challenge.  They wanted to show their skill at out manoeuvring me and winning the game.  Whether or not a regimental officer was killed did not really interest them.  Now, I am not criticising my opponent for their reasons for playing a tabletop game, it is just not the reason that I play.

Does this mean that I won`t ever play games against other people?  Of course not, but I get the most joy out of playing games solo.  If you have not tried it before I recommend that you give it a try, you may be surprised by how much you enjoy it.