Well, you learn something new every day. The Duc de Gobin on his excellent blog https://warfareintheageofcynicsandamateurs.blogspot.com/2025/12/neerwindenlanden-1693-with-battle.html recently fought the battle of Neerwinden, in the Nine Years War. I'd never heard of either before! Now, when I studied Renaissance history it all sort of petered out after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, while the European and Military history I studied at University was far more interested in the transition from the the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (and the various Wars of Spanish, Austrian etc Succession) along with the Revolution in Military Affairs so we rather skimmed over the late 1600s.
Anyway Louis XIV, decided to declare war on the whole of Europe by attacking the Rhineland in late 1688, and contrived to end up at war with Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire in what is apparently called The Nine Years War.
The campaign in 1689 ended up here at the Battle of Walcourt, which is in the vicinity of Charleroi, a popular place for battles. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Walcourt
Battlefield from the north, Walcourt is the fortified town bottom right at the confluence of the rivers. The Allies are closest to the camera having formed up for battle after their foragers encountered the French near the mill (top right). They are under the command of Prince Waldeck.
Fairly obviously this is yet another Dominion game. I bought this a while back to cover the Great Northern War and War of Spanish Succession, but it also includes no less than four battles from the Nine Years War.
This is an interesting period as armies are transitioning into proper 'lace wars' armies, but still have anachronisms like pikes hanging around. The rules themselves are very tailored to the period with very specific troop types and matchups, far more focussed than some of the much broader sets, and much better for it. It does mean you have to read them quite carefully to get your head around the differences from other sets, pistoleer cavalry in particular have some special rules.
Anyway, I'm using the battle scenarios from this, with the terrain modelled on the wikipedia articles and using my 2mm stuff.
Waldecks army, a right mish mash. The front line (L to R) we have Dutch/British charging cavalry including the Blues and Royals, rated as disciplined. In the centre are British infantry (elite, disciplined and commanded by John Churchill himself), and on the right are Dutch infantry (disciplined) while in reserve we have normal German/Imperial infantry.
Infantry units mainly fought with firepower in a linear fashion in this period, but many still had a contingent of pikes, so I did the infantry units with a front rank of musket elements and a single pike and shot element in the rear rank. These are all from my 2mm WSS collection, the Dutch and Imperial units haven't been out of the box for years. (You can just make out the orange and yellow rear bases of some of the Dutch and Imperial units).
The French under the Duc de Humieres, although Villars is also in attendance. Front rank L-R is three line infantry. Line infantry which start in the line get a bonus against cavalry, units which move up from reserve lose it. The reserves are pistoleer cavalry (fire first but at a disadvantage in melee, curiously they get a +1 on rallying, which makes them quite handy). Elite infantry (the Garde Francais) and then unreliable artillery. I mark elite units with attached light artillery and disciplined units with a small leader group. I haven't quite figured out how to represent unreliable units, I'll have to remember!
Both sides have an army HQ, camp with tent lines and a wagon element which I'll use to remind if they have used their rally attempt.
The French are rather up against it here as although they have a larger army none of the matchups are very favourable. Their infantry engage the Anglo/Dutch cavalry, their combat bonus vs cavalry negates the 'disciplined' characteristic.
Sadly they miss and are promptly ridden down by the Allied cavalry! They are replaced by the Garde Francais. I've pulled the bases apart a bit to remind me that they don't get the deployed bonus vs cavalry, having moved up from reserve.
Churchill and the British roll into the French centre now, routing them as well! The French didn't stand much chance against the elite, disciplined British.
The French cavalry reserve moves into the gap. These are pistol cavalry, who get a bonus against line infantry, as well as being easier to rally. I figure the French may as well use them.
Faced with their army collapsing, Humiers rallies one of the routed infantry units and puts it in reserve.
The French cavalry attack the British in the centre. This isn't actually a bad matchup given their bonus against line infantry, if only the British weren't disciplined as well...
Sadly they are, and the French horse go down in a hail of musket fire. The recently rallied French infantry take their place.
The Garde Francais try their luck against the Allied cavalry.
And are routed for their pains. Oh dear!
The French are forced to commit their final reserve, the unreliable artillery. I'm marking the unreliable status with some skirmisher figures (stragglers). If they pass their reliability test I'll take the skirmishers off.
The gunners open and fire and stand and fight! The Allied cavalry counter charges through the barrage.
The gunners miss and are ridden down. The French flank is turned now.
The French take their best shot and engage the Dutch on the Allied right.
Which results in mutual annihilation!
The Allies have reserves though, and the Imperial infantry fill the gap. The French are down to one unit now.
And on the Allied turn the cavalry rout them (with outflanking bonuses etc) and that is the end for the French.
That was pretty much a historical result, the French launched numerous futile attacks and were eventually driven off with the loss of 2000 men to the Allies 300. I really liked those rules, they had a very, very different feel to the Pike and Shot set. It was a bit slow as I was looking things up but it very much felt like a WSS type battle, all rather cumbersome.
Having done it once, I gave it another shot, much quicker this time. The French attacked the Allied left and both sides bounced, while the British routed the French centre, who were replaced by the Garde Francais.
On this run the French managed to rout the Allied cavalry.
Then there was an inconclusive infantry pounding match for a few turns which felt very period correct!
Eventually it was the French right which cracked first. This matchup was 50:50 as both sides were evenly matched,
The French had already rallied one infantry unit and put it into the gap, but the Dutch routed the French left and they were forced to commit their artillery. Once more the French gunners stood and fought and both sides blazed away at each other.
The gunners didn't hang around for long though, and soon headed for the rear, their place taken by the French cavalry who would have to hold off the Dutch. The Imperial and French infantry on the other flank were meanwhile engaged in an inconclusive firefight.
After a while, the Imperials cracked, but Waldeck managed to rally them (indicated by the wagons) and they reluctantly marched back into the line, albeit disordered now. Shame the French cavalry are committed on the other flank....
After repeated charges, well, caracoles, the French cavalry had enough.
Rapidly followed by the French centre and it was game over.
That was a much more even fight, and I particularly enjoyed the firefights (I skipped over a few turns in the photos) as they were quite nail biting. I'm getting more familiar with the modifiers now too. Despite the armies supposedly being 'balanced' that was a good historical scenario. I can see how the French might win, they need their superior numbers to overcome their unit by unit inferiority.
Having done Walcourt, it was on to Fleurus in 1690 as Louis once more sent his armies into the Spanish Netherlands. Details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fleurus_(1690)
Battlefield from the north. Fleurus is off the top of the map, the Allied army under von Waldeck (again) is drawn up behind the stream near the chateau of St Amand in the centre. Top left is some place called 'Ligny', I cant imagine why anyone would want to fight a battle here... the villages of St Brice and Hippignies are on the left and right flanks of the Allied line respectively.
The Allies were in a strong position so the French army under the Duc du Luxembourg pinned them frontally and conducted a double envelopment on each flank, which rather took the Allies by surprise.
The Allied army, this time a mixture of Dutch troops and actual Spanish soldiers, defending the Spanish Netherlands.
L-R we have unreliable Dutch cavalry, disciplined Spanish infantry (getting the defensive benefit of the stream) then disciplined Spanish Cavalry. In reserve are another unit of Spanish infantry and some disciplined Dutch infantry. The cavalry on the left are unreliable as the terrain was much more conducive to Luxembourgs manouvre here and they were surprised by the arrival of the French.
And the French under Luxembourg. L-R disciplined cavalry (Maison du Roi etc?), unreliable artillery and then cavalry. In reserve we have more cavalry and two line infantry units. The French cavalry are all pistoleers.
Both sides have their camps and wagons, I'm using leader figures for the disciplined units and a stand of skirmishers for the unreliable ones.
The action opened on the Allied left as the French cavalry routed the Dutch in short order! The unreliable cavalry did stand and fight but were defeated by the better quality French.
Their place was taken by the Dutch infantry although they would count as unformed against cavalry having moved up from reserve, that was negated by them being disciplined.
The cavalry matchup was more favourable to the Allies on the right so the Spanish took on the French but the action was inconclusive.
The French cavalry went for the Dutch infantry while the Spanish and French fought it out (again) on the right.
The French routed the Dutch infantry too! There is something wrong with our Dutchmen today...
Their place was taken by some Spanish infantry. The cavalry battle on the Allied right puttered on inconclusively, neither side seemed capable of rolling higher than 4.
Now the French cavalry routed the Spanish infantry! A hat trick of victories. Once again the cavalry battle on the other flank was ineffectual - I imagine lots of riding back and forth loosing off pistols with plenty of smoke and fury but no actual result.
The French duly rode down the well defended Allied centre with a flank attack, and the cavalry battle on the right flank was again inconclusive. Reduced to one base, Waldeck withdrew and Marshal Luxembourg was the victor, as in real life.
That was another tense battle, but I didn't feel any great inclination to fight it again as I felt a bit drained by learning the new rules and playing three quite thought provoking games in quick succession. I may well come back to it again in future.
Well, I thought that was great. They were excellent games with a real period flavour and once again taught me something about a conflict I know absolutely nothing about (although Tim claims we have done at least one Nine Years War battle already with Table Battles). I'm looking forward to playing more of these and also the WSS and GNW scenarios. I was also really pleased to finally use the right troop types and nationalities for the various units instead of a load of stand-ins. I thought the three base infantry units looked quite good and the absence of woods on the battlefields (there were none marked on the wikipedia maps) wasn't too jarring as there were other features. The first combat use of my new 2mm fort as well!
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