Having painted my French VSF army it needed a battle. And having read over on thewargamswebsite of the 1000 years war between the French and English I decided that this was a perfect idea to borrow.
I needed to update my VSF rules as well. I wanted to show that the VSF inventions were not always reliable so I added a Kaboom table - when a VSF vehicle or ray gun rolls a 1 on its activation dice it needs to roll on the Kaboom table - anything from no effect to Kaboom!
I also modified the cavalry rules so they did not shoot but were better in close combat.
So onto the battle.
The French have to take the non-descript Belgium crossroads from the English as part of their never ending quest to capture Brussels.
The French are coming from the bottom of the picture while the English at the top are occupying the farmhouse in the centre with an Infantry company, their cavalry and artillery on the left, BattleBalls in reserve in the centre and a Infantry company holding the woods on the right.
The French plan is to get their artillery to the hills on the left to bombard the farmhouse, protected by their cavalry also going to the left, their tanks to move up in the centre supporting two infantry companies to attack the farmhouse and the remaining infantry to occupy the English infantry in the woods on the right.
End of turn 1.
The French cuirassiers has lost a base and the English lancers have moved up.
At this point I realised the French needed some more troops so they got reinforcements on turn 2.
End of Turn 2
The French have advanced for the assault while the English lancers and Battle Balls have moved forward also.
End of Turn 3
While the French artillery struggled to deploy on the left, the English Lancers have destroyed one of the French cuirassiers squadrons, the Battle Balls and French tanks are trading shots, the French infantry company is getting targeted by the defenders on the farmhouse and the rest of the French infantry are slowly moving up.
End of Turn 4
On the left the French artillery has deployed but the English lancers have destroyed the second cuirassiers squadron. The French infantry company in the centre needs to redeploy to face this threat.
In the centre a French tank rolled poorly on the Kaboom table and went up in smoke, only to be joined shortly after by a English Battle Ball which blew up as well!
The French infantry are still struggling to get their act together,
End of turn 5
A better turn for the French, the English lancers are driven off before they can do any more damage from concentrated fire from the French artillery, the remaining two English Battle Balls are destroyed by accurate fire from the French tanks and the French infantry on the left get themselves organised and start their attack.
End of Turn 6
The French assault on the farmhouse goes in but one French infantry company is destroyed. The British company defending the farmhouse also takes some losses. The French tanks move up.
On the right the French infantry attack towards the woods, trading shots with its British defenders.
End of turn 7
The French have captured the farmhouse and the English general has ordered the retreat. The French tanks are unopposed and the defenders are outnumbered and have sustained heavy losses.
End Notes.
A fun battle played out over three evenings. I didn't expect the Kaboom table to give the results it did with both sides losing one vehicle. The new cavalry rules worked out OK, the French losing the two close combats due to poor dice rolling - the curse of every newly painted army.
