The Battle of Lachlan's Cross: The final turns

Turn 17- Both sides, thoroughly exhausted, are able to do little. However, the Black Watch close with the Royal Ecossais who fight desperately to hold the ridge.

Turn 18- Mordaunt's 2nd Foot use the bayonette to break through the French line, destroying a battalion of infantry and a battery of artillery, then wheeling into position on the flank of the Royal Ecossais who are locked in combat with the Black Watch. This is the decisive charge of the game.

Both Murray and the French take morale tests which they fail. They Jacobite left is now empty and only the Ecossais and a couple of regiments of Olgilvy's brigade are left to buy time for their compatriots to escape.

Turn 19- The last of Olgilvy's infantry is driven back from the hedgrow by Lascelles soldiers. The 2nd Foot fires into the flank of the Ecossais, mowing the heroic Scotsmen down by the score. Despite thier losses, they refuse to surrender to buy as much time as possible for the rest of the army to withdraw.

Olgilvy's men form column of march and retreat from the field, taking their artillery with them. Mordaunt's men advance and occupy the abandoned position littered with dead and wounded.

Turn 20- The final turn of the game sees the 2nd Foot charge the flank of the remnants of the Royal Ecossais. The ADC leading the Scotsmen in French service is killed and the regiment is reduced to a single stand. The ridge has been secured. The battle won.

Seeing that continued resistance is futile, the last three regiments of Olgilvy's brigade surrender along with their commander. Darkness descends upon the field.

Lachlan's Cross is now in the Government's hands, but at a terrible cost. Two brigades of British have been thoroughly used up and the Dutch have sustained 50% casualties. Legonier's cavalry has also been considerably roughed up. On the Jacobite side, the elite French brigade has been completely destroyed. It's survivors will be fortunate if they have enough men left to fill out two battalions. They started as five. The Jacobite cavalry have been reduced to a single squadron. Both Murray and Drummond have suffered heavily and will need a significant amouont of time to reorganize. The casualty markers reveal where the battle was hottest. On the Jacobite right, Cholmondeley and Wolf were both mauled by the vicious charges of Drummond's highlanders and the disciplined volleys of Olgilvy's well trained lowlanders.

The Dutch and the French slugged it out along the stream for several turns, but at terrible cost.

On the Jacobite right, both sides fought desperately to control the ford. Scores of cavalrymen were lost here in flurries of charge and countercharge.

The high water mark, if it can be called that, is marked by the bodies of Murray's men as they tried, unsuccessfully, to stop Lascelles' entry into the battle.

Final thoughts- This was a most entertaining solo game. My system of determining when and where, if at all, units will enter the game adds a nice degree of uncertainty to the game. The Government's numerical superiority actually worked against them at the beginning of the game as brigades were stacked up behind one another as they tried to come to grips with the enemy. The randomness of drawing cards also added to the uncertainty, as well as the loss of initiative due to poor die rolls. On a couple of ocassions the French were able to get off two volleys in a turn before their opponents could get off even one. The battle went as long as it did because of the aggressiveness of the Jacobites charging while the British regiments were still trying to deploy. However, after initial success, the attack columns would suffer high losses from the musketry of supporting regiments of redcoats. All in all, a very entertaining game. Thanks so much for following along. I hope you have enjoyed it.