Sun King Wargame

Hello There! I recently played a Sunking game around a friends and used some new rules Adrian had found to see if the flavour of the game could be retained but the game speeded up.

Here is the table set up. We were also fortunate enough to have Chris also join us for the days game. The French were on the right and the allies on the left. The aim was to push the allies off the ridge which ran most of the length of the left side of the board.

The lower, or French left flank, consisted of a large cavalry battle which was helped by the allies having two large units of cuirassier.

The French forces included French Guard Cavalry. I have not usually had an awareness of the period but it is a time of great transition including matchlock to flintlock, pike to plug bayonet to ring bayonet and changes in drill. This leads to units having different capabilities, depending on what years the combat is set in.

 

In turn here are some of the allied cavalry who advanced to contact, to allow them more space to manoeuvre.

On the upper part of the board, or French right flank there was a wooded area which his some hussar.

Each cavalry and infantry grouping had a commander who could influence meleeing and morale.

 

There were a number of items that broke up the table surface but which does not affect the movement or visibility over the table. this was mostly trees but here is one of the haystacks from my Tunnies Terrain resin range of scenery items. I can be contacted for the sale of these items, either painted or unpainted.

Here is one of the French artillery pieces. Artillery was not very mobile during this period and had to either start limbered and remain where it unlimbered or remain were it was at the start of the game if unlimbered.

The French troops approached the high ground and a long battle progressed to try to push the  allies off the ridge. The cavalry battle on the French left wing finally led to the collapse of the allies and the opening up of the  flank to exploitation by  the French cavalry against the defenders on the ridge.

Here are those pesky cuirassier which had a number of advantages including acting as a denser formation and a larger unit. What a pain they were! Over on the French right flank the hussars were not able to charge  formed enemy units, being more equivalent to Cossacks than formed troops, however they caused many problems  with their presence preventing deployment of troops in the area.

Overall the game was very enjoyable and with good company. The rules had the benefit that a single dice throw could decide two outcomes. For example melee decided the result of the melee and the actions of the winner and loser and casualties. 

This speeded the game up and maintained the flavour of the period as well. The rules used were converted from a set that were used for a board game so that the movement rates needed to be converted from hexes to inches, otherwise the conversion was seamless.