Steinkirk 1692 and Neerwinden 1693

 Continuing our exciting journey of discovery in the Nine Years War, today we visit Steinkirk in 1692 and Neerwinden/Landen in 1693 with Dominion of Marlborough and Peter the Great. For those of you who know as little about these battles as I do, wikipedia has decent summaries here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Steenkerque and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Landen 

As ever I'll be using my 2mm WSS stuff supplemented with some figures from other periods.

First up. Steinkirk, which was fought on 3rd August 1692. Following the Battle of Fleurus is 1690, there were two years of manouvre and siege warfare. In June 1692 Marshal Luxembourg captured Namur and took up defensive positions near Steinkirk, convinced the Allies would not attack. King William III however led the Grand Alliance in a surprise attack through dense woods. Both armies had around 80,000 men, which is pretty big really for Lace Wars armies.

Battlefield from the south, Steinkirk is in the bottom right along with the French camp. The main French position is along the stream which covers the left and centre and is fronted by dense woods. The right is more open.

The French have three line infantry in the front line, and in reserve are the Maison du Roi etc. A unit of elite infantry and disciplined pistoleer cavalry.

The Allies have two elite infantry in the front, with elite artillery on the more open flank who represent Wurttemburgs advance guard. All the infantry are unreliable(!) due to the dense terrain. In reserve they have another elite infantry, dragoons and sabre cavalry. These are all unreliable as well! I've used various additional stands to indicate the elite/disciplined/unreliable status of the various units.

The obvious Allied attack is on the right, but the action is indecisive. In the centre the French attack hoping the Allies will run away before contact (irl nearly all the Allied infantry was delayed and disrupted by the woods). However the Allies stand and duly defeat the French, the French Guard move up to fill the gap.

The French decided to use their rally and reorganise the the routed line infantry (I'm using the wagon to track rallies). I'm using the optional rule where units which move up from reserve cant fight on the same turn too. 

Next turn the Allied guns roar out once more, and miss! The French response is equally indecisive. The French attack on the left however.

That particular column had obviously got lost and is removed. Unreliable units which fail their reliability test cant be rallied either. Their place is taken by the Dragoons.

More action on the flanks. The Allied guns finally score a hit and the French right routs, only to be replaced from the reserve. On the left the Allied Dragoons run and are replaced by the Heavy Cavalry.

William manages to rally the Dragoons. Good, at least the Allies have a reserve again.

Just in time too. Wurttemburgs artillery has had enough and runs away, so the Dragoons take their place. Over on the left the Sabres stand and charge the French infantry!

Only to be shot down by musketry as they cross the stream.

The Allied centre attacks to try and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but is shot down in turn and runs. It is all over for William. A fairly historical result, irl the Allied left did well, but the reinforcing columns got hopelessly entangled and either didn't arrive at all or were ineffective when they arrived. As Wurttemburg raged to William, "if only the second and third columns had come up, we would have won!". Well, they didn't and William lost.

As usual I gave it another go.

The action opened with the Allied artillery in the right, which routed the French opposite. The French centre attacked and the Allied centre failed its reliability test and was removed.

The French Guard filled the hole on the right, while Luxembourg rallied his routed troops (indicated by the wagons). 

La Garde recule! The French centre and right are defeated. The rallied infantry occupy the right while the Guard cavalry take the centre.

The Allied artillery blows away the French right (again) and the French try the left hoping the Allies will fail their reliability test. Sadly they don't and the French are defeated here too. With his army down to one unit, Luxembourg concedes. On this occasion, the Allied columns did come up, most of them anyway, and that was enough to break the French.

That was a great scenario, I guess the large number of unreliable units makes it even more luck dependant than usual, but that is actually a good representation of the real battle. It was also a good learning experience for the ins and outs of 'unreliable' units.

Next up and last major battle of the war is Neerwinden (or Landen) in 1693. Following Steinkirk, war weariness was setting in for both sides, principally the costs involved. Louis XIV launched attacks into Flanders, the Rhineland and Catalonia, recognising that peace talks were inevitable.

On 29th July 1693, Luxembourg with 80,00 men managed to catch William III with just 50,00. Rather than retreating, William dug in to a strong position around Neerwinden. 

Battlefield from the south. There are rivers on both flanks and Neerwinden is in the centre just below the stream branch. irl the defences extended across the entire Allied front, but the scenario only has them on the centre and right.

The Allies have almost everything 'in the shop window' - elite infantry on both flanks and elite artillery in the centre. The units in the centre and right are also disciplined, which I've shown with entrenchments. In reserve is an unreliable Sabre Cavalry.

The French have a larger army. L-R, line infantry, discipled pistol cavalry, unreliable artillery. In reserve are two more line infantry and a pistol cavalry unit. I strung the allies out in lines and had the French in columns as they are attacking.

None of the matchups are great for the French, but they have more troops so need to attack and get lucky. They attack on the left which is indecisive, but the Allies attack on the right (obviously) and the unreliable artillery run away. They are replaced by more French infantry.

The French attack on the left again and are routed. The Allied centre attacks and routs the disciplined cavalry! That isn't looking too good for Luxembourg.

To add insult to injury the French fail to rally anyone.

The French attack the left again to no effect but at least survive. The Allied centre however sees off the French reserve cavalry.

There is a brief ray of hope when the French (finally) rout the Allied left, but the reserve cavalry just move up to fill the gap and with just one French unit left, it is an easy Allied win.

Historically this was  hard fought battle but eventually Luxembourg broke through the Allied centre to claim a win, but both sides were too exhausted to follow up. This scenario certainly looks an uphill struggle for the French, but lets try it again and see how we get on.

Off we go again. The French attack on the Allied left is indecisive, but once again on the right the unreliable gunners run off without firing a shot. The gunners are replaced with infantry.

Next round the French attack on the left is routed, and the fleeing troops are replaced with another infantry unit. In a shock development though, the Allied centre opens up and is routed by the French cavalry! (on a 6!). Well, that changes things, as the Allies hardly have any reserves...

The unreliable cavalry reserve gallops forwards to plug the gap.

As Luxembourg rallies his men for one more try.

Unsurprisingly the Allied cavalry runs away in the face of the Maison du Roi, leaving the centre wide open.

The Allied right tries to save the day...

As William fails to rally his routed centre.

But the French cavalry ride down the Allied left.

And it is game over, Luxembourg has his victory!

The odds are really stacked against the French in that one, I'm not surprised Luxemborgs army was exhausted by its real-life victory.

Well, that is the end of the Nine Years War scenarios, and now I know fractionally more about European history than I did before. I really enjoyed those battles, I found these rules to be the most enjoyable of the Dominion games I've played so far, possibly because they are so period specific? They are structured far more like DBA/DBM with specific modifiers for specific trroop types and less like the more generic categories of the Ancients and Pike and Shot sets, and far better for it I think.

There seem to be an astonishing 12 battles listed for the WSS, including  the more neglected theatres like Italy and Spain, as well as the Great Northern War scenarios. I'm really looking forward to playing through some/all of these, but they will have to wait a bit while I try out some of the other Dominion sets.