Battle Report - Prestonpans

Hello Folks,

So this past week a few of us gathered at Duncans for a bit game put off by Ed. It was to be the Battle of Prestonpans, the heroic Jacobites would get the opportunity to murder some English, who doesn't love that?

Me and Duncan ended up with the Jacobites, they have big axes and nice blue hats, and Stan and Bruce commanded the English. The cavalry is just for show they are guarding against off board stuff so we don't command them.

Here is the initial starting points, lots of Scots ready to fight somewhat less English. The English have a gun for every guy, but less commanders and are not well prepared. Our guys have lots of commanders and not so many guns, but axes swords and anger.

Not to waste any time we surged forward, and the English had to shake out and reform there lines to try and stand for the battle. With some many commanders it was allot easier for us to keep everyone moving.

Not interested in wasting time my guys surged straight into a great punch up. Duncan decided to take some time and deploy into a line. My thinking was that as guys die there will be space for the next lot so no problem.

The attacks went rather well for us, the fire during the charge did some damage, but half my units became aggressive and gave more then they took. Allot of the English units fell back in disorder. On the other flank we took some fire but nothing major. The yellow cubes seem stand out allot, they are bad.

Next turn I drew a 2 so we had a bit less commands to work with, Duncan kept working on his line, and I doubled down on charging. If anything this round went even better.Some of my units are getting worn down, but they are having good fun stabbing guys in the back!

I think at this point the English artillery woke up, and absolutely murdered a unit, and musketry was starting to add up. We then drew an event card that some English colonel was ok and helping the fighting on our flank so that was giving a bonus to the English on my side, but to little to late.

Next turn I kept pushing in, the red coats are really boxed in and trapped, even the bonne prince is starting to get into it. The grenadiers shot a volley and routed a unit outright, but no big deal, I just moved some less important guys in front of them. After the artillery fire the scots on the others side started to advance as well.

Now we have all the Scots in a big fight, I am kind of cleaning up if we are honest, but allot of my guys have died as well, so there is a big danger of loosing momentum and the grenadiers are still standing there dealing out death. We got another big event this turn that put the French observers into the game! Bad news if your wearing a red coat.

The battles on Duncan's side went pretty well, the weaker English militia was pushed back, but the lines did a good job of shooting and stabbing it seems and there was not a huge amount of Scots left. I am still chasing down the English and trying not to be in front of the grenadiers. Rolling consistently well so the damage is adding up. The artillery is plugging away at the french, but its close range terror is not repeated and they aren't doing so much at long range.

A low angle shot so you can really see the murder, allot of blue hats and no so many red coats. At this point I decided to charge the grenadiers with 2 units and the bonnie prince.

This went about as well as could be expected, basically almost everyone died in the fighting and the stragglers fell back, us into the field, the grenadiers into the town.  At this point we called it as almost all of the English except the grenadiers were fleeing or dead. But we lost quite allot of our best troops as well, mainly it's the weaker guys that we have left.

Was a very fun game, quite the production as usual. Enjoyed the play of the axes and swords and the more standard musketry army. The English players may have a more dim view though I guess hah. Leave for them to add their comments below.

Thanks to Ed for organizing things.

Quick Edit, special close up shot of the Bonnie Prince himself!

Thanks;
Mike