Ramilles 1706-rehearsal

Last night we had a surprise guest,in the form of Charlie Wesencraft,who arrived to see how we would be playing the big game we are putting on in October.Charlie was in tremendous dice throwing form,to the point where we thought that,apart from Paul, he was also in league with "Dark Forces"!!!!!!
The idea was that we would fight the main Infantry part of Ramilles,to see if any "nasty surprises" were thrown up-luckily there weren't!!-but we played the game through,showing Charlie the mechanics of our simple rules.
I only took a couple of photo's,not wanting to spoil the surprise of the whole game before the event,which will probably involve 12-13 players,each with a command of either infantry or cavalry or a combination of both,and ,hopefully, a C in C for both sides.

This is the hand-out that both sides will be given,showing initial troop positions,after that it will be up to the C in C of each side to decide on a battle plan,issue orders to their subordinates,and play the game to its conclusion.-The illustrations are taken from the superb book on Marlborough's armies by C.S.Grant,and the map is taken from a small book on Marlborough's campaigns called the "Discovering" series(of which I have many!)

The series was published in 1973-look at the price!!

I thought that the two following photo's might be of interest......

This is a 2lb cannon ball from the early 18th century,possibly from the 1745 Jacobite uprising,bought, complete with a plinth commemorating the opening of a hotel in Teeside!!

Can you imagine that coming at you at a rate of knots,smashing limbs and bodies?-horrendous!

This is a shot from the game last night-Charlie was in command of the Irish,defending Ramilles,he took on all the troops that Dave threw against him,and beat everything that was thrown against him!!-this looks like Dave had won the fight in the town,which he did-but only for one move!!-he was then ejected!!

This shows a grand attack coming in from both Paul and Dave,which Charlie and I managed to beat back,once again mainly due to Charlie's uncanny dice throwing!!

Another shot of Charlie's defence of Ramilles-excellent wargaming-on the day it will be spectacular to say the least!
Roll on Thursday,another rehearsal,but for Border Reiver this time!!-it's all go,never a dull moment.