Raid on St. Michel - Game 5 - "Heading Home" - set up..

..and here's another bunch heading home after
a bank raid

...as I was reading through my old campaign diary for the "Raid on St Michel" mini campaign (5 linked "teasers" by Charles Grant and Phil Olley...) I suddenly noticed that there was no game report for the final battle of the campaign...

I hoiked out my ancient and now slightly battered copy of the campaign book and read through it; for some reason, lost deep in the midsts of time, we never fought it - so the campaign conclusion remains undecided...!

For those with an interest the previous campaign battles (four of them) can all be found at the top of this page on the War of the Spanish Succession blog [click here] but in summary a British raiding force (who represent the forces of the Vereinigte Freie Stadte or VFS in the campaign) has marched deep into French territory (representing the forces of Lorraine), captured the treasury from the town of St Michel, and are now heading back to the border and safety just as fast as their feet will carry them..

In the previous game (no.4 - a hideously lopsided affair) the British failed to halt the French flanking force from re-taking the bridgehead so effectively the route home is now closed..  the British will have to fight through if they are to get the treasury across the river and home safe..

The first complication is to make head and tail of my previous casualty returns so I can figure out what the orders of battle are...

First the British then:

All the forces left over from the battle of St Michel (teaser no.3) which as the write up showed, was the death of the British cavalry - DG is very light on horse..  just a half squadron of cuirassiers..

I'm going to make one change, and that is to allow the British an extra transport piece - they will start with 3 wagons..

I'll also allow DG to consolidate his regiments, to make them more effective..

Next the French...  these comprise the forces left over after the previous battle, and in addition the French cavalry from the Battle of St Michel are shadowing the returning British force so can also expect to make an appearance:

Hmmmm...  much more evenly balanced!

Battlefield is as follows..  the French main force deploys this side of the road, the British columns arrives on the table in the far corner - behind the church. The French cavalry shadowing force arrives on the road to the right (theoretically on move 4, but I may make it dependant on a dice roll after move 4)..

Victory conditions; the British have to get two thirds of the treasure across the bridge, the French must stop this. Both sides need to ensure that their forces are not completely destroyed - so no sacrificial blocking by the British.. 

Promises to be good fun...  not sure when we'll fight it but I'm already looking forward to it!