Battle of Fouville 1706

Last night saw only Paul and I playing,but yet another terrific game! I enjoy the games we have that involve a lot of initial manoeuvering-and this game certainly had that-then an almighty clash!!

As usual,the scenario and table before any movement-Paul picked the French,and was handed a bit of paper telling him that the Bavarians on his right flank were almost "mutinous" and he had to throw a dice every move to see if they would follow his orders-oh dear-this provided us both with laughs and groans!!

This shows my overall position,with the Austrians in the foreground-My battle plan was to hold on this flank,but attack "vigorously" the Bavarians,hoping to drive them away and occupy that flank,ready for Paul's Irish to attack.

My attack begins-Paul threw his dice and 50% of the Bavarians stood still and refused to move but the rest moved forward and fired,and beat my regular British troops-what's going on???
However I managed to drive his cavalry backwards-hurrah!!

Paul's left flank troops are drawing near,but he had to traverse a wooded hill,which took quite a long time to do,which gave me time to re-align a gun battery and prepare my British troops on that flank-meanwhile,my Austrians are,not wisely(!) moving forward to take on the French-this was not a good move!!

I had to take my cavalry away from the French line,because Paul had retired his cavalry(I'm retired you know!) and replaced them with infantry,and I didn't want to lose them!
Paul then opened up with everything his French had and decimated my line-woe is me!!
In the background you can see my British troops being victorious against the Bavarians,who,eventually,left the table,but not before inflicting significant casualties against my two flank regiments-this was to have disastrous results later on!!

This shot shows my Austrians in all kinds of dis-order,but my British are ready to repel the out-flanking attack from my right(the wooded hill)-In the background the Irish are just beginning their advance-I had to quickly re-arrange my line to match them-would I be in time?

The Irish advance and open fire on my stretched line-Paul's dice throwing was back to "normal" and I suffered badly-say no more!!!-I was under so much pressure now,that if I had been a bunch of grapes ,I would have turned into a glass of wine!!!
Paul was also developing an assault upon the town,moving his left flank cavalry into the centre-despicable man!!

Then it happened!!-one of my Bavarian-weakened regiments broke,had to retire,and left an ugly hole in the British line,this was quickly followed by two more regiments breaking-double woe is me!-Paul massed his cavalry for a grand assault against this flank,but we called it a day(!) after 14 moves and the time was 10.30-and some people have to go to work(work? ah yes I vaguely remember the term!!)

One last photo for Paul to "gloat" over-Austrians in full retreat,and the town about to fall-look at the time,maybe one last,last photo.........

Big gaps in British lines=defeat,but not dishonour!!
This was a great game,and well played Paul-roll on Sunday,probably Ancients,and,Brian might make an appearance-we hope so.