Battle of Culloden Moor, 16 April 1746

Historicon 2019 PEL entry for Saturday 13th July 2019

Rules: Field of Battle 2

The final battle of "the '45". The Duke of Cumberland, pursuing the retreating Jacobite forces under Charles Stuart, had advanced to the Moray coast, east of Inverness. The Jacobites, reinforced by French regulars, awaited the arrival of the Hanoverian force on the now famous Culloden moor.


The Battle

 The Jacobites turn a Move card early on

.. then a second, and for the clans that move, get "stuck in", receiving largely ineffective first fire from the (obviously nervous) Hanoverian front line

the Hanoverian front line collapses and the Highlanders break through the second line, while fearlessly engaging the cavalry on this near (Jacobite right) flank

... the cavalry takes some damage, but holds, and the right of the second line despatches the opposing Highlanders

.. and with commendable discipline, changes face to threaten the flank of those aggressive Highlanders

the Hanoverian left holds, and the Jacobite Lowlanders and French regulars come up

Cavalry and Argyll militia holding the left flank .. Joshua Chamberlain, in another time and continent, would have been proud of them ...

Eyes right!

An Uncontrolled Charge card pits the Highlanders against the Hanoverian left 

.. with limited success

but the Hanoverian right has fled ..

however their left organises itself (such that a distant-future Gen "Rock of Chickamauga" Thomas would be impressed)

But losing the right, and only just holding here, a losing roll on an inevitable Army Morale card provided the coup de grace ..

Postscript

Special thanks, as ever to Peter Anderson for his photos for this, and the other games; and a special commendation to Ken Baggaley who gave up his place so that another gamer could play!

All participants received a cool roundel, kindly donated by Warbases .

Postscript II

Erik E, as Hanoverian CiC, has subsequently submitted the following, somewhat more detailed, report:

As with the previous game, Tim was kind enough to allow me to turn the cards and roll the initiative die as a pretend "commander" but this time for the government forces....opposite me was Brad with his mastery of the Jacobites.

The Hanoverians were ably run by Phil on the far left who's command of FOB2 was a great benefit throughout (especially when he would remind this commander not to engage when it was unnecessary!), Tim keeping an eye on us to ensure we did not double roll commands (well, those dots did confused the very nice gent next to me) and, as always, Peter was brilliant helping "J" (not certain should we write is name as he was under 18 years of age) as the young man did all he could during the eventful game.

With the government initiative wins, the Hanoverians did elect to go first and pulled their first few cards. Ah...Artillery Firepower Cards - but my placement of the battalion guns on the left had clearly been undertaken during the early morning rum rations! Sorry Phil!!! With that Brad made his draws and as predicted, his Jacobites obtain Move cards and their rolls were particularly spectacular on the left with 3 segments allowing a massive surge forward followed by "Move One Command Group" allowing another surge following by "Uncontrolled Charge" (you know, you just have to love those Jacobite turns when it works....

Our government troops discovered that the other battalion guns when contacted would be eliminated. Hmm....I had not helped my team mates out well with placement but hopefully we would get our chance....

Tim C replied: To be fair about the gun placing, to quote a certain Simpson, they were like that when you got there ...

A word about hiding those pesky Army Morale Points. Tim has a nice selection of rounded "beaded" glass (or something similar) material that have this decidedly satisfying sound when one or more hit together. Normally, during the game, it is important to keep the "fog of war" from the other side by hiding the stack of glass beads under a piece of felt, in our case, down by Phil's end of the table. As Brad's Robo-move cards and uncontrolled charges were realized and melees ensued, the Hanoverians began losing those Army Morale Points and that satisfying sound should be changed to "sickening" moments as "remove two", "remove two more" could be heard from "J"/Peter's side (right had side of the government) as five highland units crashed into the first line sending three back in rout. Only a 50-50 stand off with a dragoon unit prevented a severe drubbing.

With Brad paying constant attention to the initiative rolling and cards plus his own combat, the battle never slowed, though my attention was diverted to the center and "J"/Peter's unfolding near disaster as a nearly forgot about Phil creating a clear defense as government opportunity fire was followed by a series of "Infantry Fire Power" which helped the center by allowed Phil to devastate the Jacobites in his front (and that was THE satisfying sound of "glass beads" of Army Morale Points).

Meanwhile, "J" with Peter ensuring the rules were correct, was trying to mount any type of defense as his entire wing was being pushed back literally to the very edge of the board with perhaps over 2' of the far right side of the table empty of Hanoverian forces. With four Highlander units bearing down on his half wrecked second line, "J" used the fortunately turned "maneuver" card to establish a flank shot on a damaged Jacobite Highlander unit to see that one off, but still....three nasty ones were perfectly lined up....and I knew...oh yes...KNEW that Brad had to have one of those Uncontrolled Charge Cards in the four on the table he had not turned.

This is when the adult at the left hand side of the table reminded the supposed "army" commander that he did have a job to do. Yep....I got rather caught up in all the excitement you know! Phil was smart and observant enough to come down and remind me that "we have two Army Morale Points left, just don't attack them in your front"....

See that nice "MELEE" card had just turned up and Brad's center Lowlanders had empty muskets and the government player to my left (sorry, I really wish I could remember his name) was trying so hard to fight Brad's constant attacks off that I gave him the "Tactical Advantage" card and said "yeah, go get him". That is one of the FOB2 moments when you just forget your job.

Needless to say, beat him back, we lost the two army morale points....

Sorry Phil....

But, it was Brad's turn to flip his four cards. That was it, we were done for clearly. No AMP and most of our units were unloaded as the bulk of our "infantry reload" cards had already come up so we were in a pickle. Brad's first card was the "Army Morale". Yes, they still had glass beads. But...Phil whispered down "they can't have many..it is really close". Hmm...he really should be in command....

So, the obligatory roll for officer casualties and how often does anyone ever roll a "1". And then it happened.

The Jacobite commander of the right who has three Highlander units ready to deliver the death strike on "J"s last stand rolls a "1". His leader goes down and his force is "out of command" - thanks to Peter for keeping us straight on how that rule worked! 

..

IT was the moment...it gave the government time and a chance as..

Brad pulled "MELEE", "Uncontrolled Charge" and "MOVE" as his remaining three cards. 

The first melee card resulted in two of the first line center foot routing back to the table edge, but that was not as helpful as it seemed as the uncontrolled charge went in against a fresh second line with fully loaded muskets. Both Phil and the gent to my left had particularly good rolls and Brad just had one of those moments and, I think his name was Eric, had a dry spell as their units lost AMP so badly that not only were they out of "glass beads" but the government force was "up 1 AMP!".

We were at the end of our decks and had to reshuffle (thanks Tim for catching that I couldn't do so), which meant that all possibilities were back in play! It is from this point in the game that it is a bit hard to recall in which order the Jacobite or government forces had an Army Morale point...

"an"?

Yes..one. Each card turned would frequently find one army with one glass bead/AMP. I lost count after 35 cards. Where Phil and the other side were keeping the AMP, there was no one bothering to keep them hidden...it was too fluid. 

Each combat or opportunity fire that caused even one UI was nerve racking. Army Morale card would be turned, but that side had one or two AMP. Lull cards were more critical as winning even that one card could result in an Infantry fire power, uncontrolled charge or the Army Morale...all could be devastating depending on the swing of the AMP.

Brad's movement his lowland forces in the center came very close to victory. He happened to turn a Lull card and the government won the die (the Jacobite army is saddle with a large number of Lull cards). It just happened, that an "Infantry Fire Power" card turned for the Hanoverians. When the smoke cleared, the government forces were up, I think, five or six glass beads (if Phil reads the blog, perhaps correct me on my memory!).

Brad then turned his next card, and it was the Army Morale. The left and right hand side of the table were still working on what they were going to do with their next efforts when Brad and I rolled the die each. A "10" for the government and "8" for the Jacobites if I recall correctly.... and with that it was over.

It did not seem to have been a "win" or "loss". I envisioned a battle where the Jacobites having moved the government forces and bent their army back on itself, ended their day and probably walked off the field of battle (2) a few at a time. No run..No rout. The government forces, too exhausted and too shocked by what they witnessed. No pursuit. No cleansing the highlands. 

Two armies that just punched themselves out as I see it.

As a game, this was a fantastic and epic event. The players were superb and the young man to my right (so well helped by Peter) never complained once while taking an absolute drubbing and kept doing his best to make something of a defense. Phil was great as the command and the best at helping with the rules explanation (wish I could recall the gent to my left) and the folks across the table seemed to enjoy themselves from what I could tell. Brad was fantastic as the Jacobite commander and was a laugh a minute when he had an evil plan which always helped the flow of the game. Also, and this cannot be emphasized enough, not getting distracted is such a huge boost to the game when you are rolling initiative and turning the cards it should not be underestimated.

Tim was perfect and kept on top of my errors (especially when I confused rules from other systems...err...sorry about that) and maintains a level of enthusiasm and energy that I could only wish to emulate.

As always, thanks to those who put up with my inevitable poor hands and distractibility and hope to see as many of you as possible at 2020.