The Battle of Kesseldorf with Peter Laing Figures

      My wife had to work all day Saturday, and after that her friends at work were going out to dinner then a movie. She wanted to go along, so I had 13 hours of time to kill. By the time I finished the work around the house and gave Jerry his playtimes, a good portion of the day was gone.

   One thing that bothered me about the HEROSCAPE marsh tiles were how glossy they were. Of course, being water, they should be shiny. However, as I want to use them as land pieces and the flash on the camera sometimes glare when used, I decided to coat them with matte clear paint.  I took the time to do that yesterday.  I also wanted to get a game or two in. The first batch of hexes were enough for a board 8x8.

    The first game was fought between Peter Laing Picts and Romans. I used my "no brain" rules. I took no pictures of the battle hence no battle report. The Romans finally won a hard fought battle.

     I was going to stop at that point and went to watch TV. However, there was nothing on and so decided to go back and work on a wargame project. As I was cleaning up, I came across a HOLD THE LINE SYW scenario sheet that I never put back in it's binder. I decided to play it out. I pulled out my Peter Laing WSS figures and did a quick game. The battle fought was the Kesseldorf scenario.

The Prussians are the white figures, the Allies are red. The first couple of moves I didn't use arrows to show movement; at first I wasn't going to post this game. Yellow arrows show Prussian movements and attacks; red arrows show Allies movements and attacks. In this game I rolled for initiative and used an average dice to determine how many units could move that turn.

The Prussians capture a village. Note: I was still playing on the smaller board and condensed down the battle some.

The Prussians force one unit to rout two hexes.

The Allies retake the village.

The Allied cavalry drives off one Prussian cavalry unit.

The Prussians counterattack with another cavalry unit...

...and overruns the Allied cavalry.

Allied infantry fire drives back the Prussian cavalry. One Prussian infantry unit is wiped out.

Prussian artillery and infantry fire routs one Allied infantry unit.

The Allied general is in danger of being captured. Another Allied cavalry unit comes forward to protect the Headquarters.

An Allied infantry unit is pushed back by the Prussian cavalry. In it's followup attack, the Prussian cavalry wipes out the Allied cavalry. The Prussian infantry forces the Allied infantry out of the village.

About this time I started thinking of how the battle was to be decided. In the scenario, the Prussians needed 6 Victory Points; the Allies, 5 VP.  At this point the Prussians had 4VPs, the Allies only 1VP.  I was using strictly lost units as VP. While the Prussians had more VPs, their units had suffered heavily.

Once again the Allied HQ was in danger of capture. The Allies brought up another cavalry unit to protect it....

...and manage to drive off the Prussian cavalry. The Allies also retake the village and eliminates another Prussian infantry unit.

The Prussians roll a 5, and makes the most of it. The Prussians recapture the village and wipes out the infantry unit garrisoned there. The Prussian cavalry drives off the Allied cavalry. In it's followup attack, it tries to capture the HQ, but fails. The Prussian cavalry at the top of the field charges the artillery on the ridge; it manages to force it to retreat. In it's followup attack, it hits the other battery on the ridge. they kill one artilleryman, and forces the battery to retreat! Another Prussian infantry attacks a weakened Allied infantry unit.  It wipes that unit out. The Allies have now lost 6 units, and they have lost the battle.

A closeup of the Prussian cavalry who cleared the ridge of Allied artillery. I was so impressed by their charge that I marked these horsemen for their bravery.

For a quickly set up game, it was an enjoyable way to spend the night. I might use these HOLD THE LINE scenarios for other periods. I also enjoy these figures. I might have to mold some and paint them to represent SYW armies, even if the uniforms aren't right for the period.