Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames
Malplaquet, 1709
Refought in June 2009
Here are a few more photos of our huge Marlburian game, which involved over 3,500 figures, from almost a dozen different collections. Granted, many of these were old Minifigs (nicknamed "munchkins"), which were dwarfed by more modern figures. there's nothing worse than having your Front rank unit of British Foot guards shot to pieces by a regiment of French "munchkins", but then that's the nature of the hobby. I lent my modest force of 8 Dutch battalions to Bob Lauder, who spent the entire weekend throwing them in suicidal charges against the big redoubt pictured above. He eventually captured it too, only to encounter the next line of field fortifications, lined by fresh French infantrymen, with levelled muskets...
For my part, I doubled as the Earl of Orkney (commanding the British), and as the Duke of Marlborough. My sole command decision was to decide where the flanking force appeared, and then to unleash the Allied army in an all-out attack against the French earthworks. I kept them as a reserve, then advanced them on the Sunday, where they fought a long, drawn-out firefight against Charles Grant's French "munchkins". These private little battles were repeated all over the battlefield - Peter and Andrew Nicholson fighting Barry's Hilton's French in the Bois de Sars, Chris Henry's French against Roger Donaldson's Dutch in the woods on the opposite French flank, and Bob's fight to capture Kevin Calder's French-held redoubt.
Of course, what I hoped would be a glorious storming turned out to be a brutal slugging match, with piles of casualties all round. Count Lottum's Prussians (commanded by Adrian Howe) managed to lose three senior commanders (including Lottum himself) and 12 brigadiers. This is even more remarkable in that he only had three brigades in his force! His French opponents Dave O'Brien and Dave Imrie thoroughly enjoyed themselves! In fact, Adrian and Dave Imrie never moved from their two adjacent chairs all weekend (see below) - the ultimate little private battle!
Peter Nicholson (pointing above) waged his own private guerre psychologique against Barry, bomabarding him with inane rules queries. The caption to the one of Peter pointing should be "is this one supported?", a question he asked about a hundred times! In theory he was supported by his brother Andrew (white shirt), but as the younger sibling rolled appaling initiative dice all weekend, he wasn't much help. Colin Jack (sitting next to him) helped out until late Saturday afternoon, when his own flanking force appeared - arriving on an extension table. In the end Barry Hilton managed to hold him off while fighting a woodland rearguard action against the Nicholson brothers' Imperialist hordes. This "walk in the woods" lasted all weekend!
Over on the far flank, the defences were never really tested. Chris' French stood firm, and repulsed all Dutch attempts to capture their position. the hidden battery of four big positional guns fired into the Dutch flank (just as it did historically), and as a result poor Roger (the Prince of Orange) never really stood a chance! My own firefight against Charles (who doubled as Marshal Villars, or "Vile Arse") was ultimately more successful, apart from the shame of having my best units shot to ribbons by "munchkin" Frenchmen...
Finally, there was Marshal Boufflers ("Bouffant"), played by Dale Smith. He commanded the French Guard, and the cavalry reserve. He launched the guard into the fray, only to have them recalled by the orders of the King. He was so reluctant to comply that the Allies lost patience, and rode down two Guard battalions who bizarrely marched off in line, exposing their backs to a tidal wave of Allied cavalry. the game ended with an almighty cavalry scrap, although if truth be known we were running out of time when both sides unleashed their horse. Casualties amongst the cavalry were greater on the Allied side, but then they had a far larger number of squadrons, and were faced by enemy foot as well as horsemen. It would have been nice to have fought this part of the battle to its grand conclusion, but after 16 hours of gaming over two days, we'd all had to pack away our toys. The biased umpire declared it a marginal French victory, but I'm not so sure. the French were cracking when the game ended - a story I'm sticking to!
The best things about games of this kind is the sheer spectacle of them. Our Malplaquet was certainly spectacular - a real game to remember!
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