Call the Gendarmes!

Today, we did another WSS game using the 'Beneath the Lily Banners' rules.
Ian had trouble transporting his lead mountain, so brought a rather, er, atypical BTLB army to fight my French!
Lawrence, having worked like a trooper the last couple of weeks, had finished a small brigade of English troops to accompany the Austro-Danes.
As usual,Ian's force had rather more than my 5 brigades, which allows him to place brigades after I have finished deploying (BTLB advocates an alternating brigade deployment system), so I had to do a conventional deployment...

My strong right wing cavalry, 3 squadrons of the Gendarmes de France, 2 squadrons of Regiment D'Orleans, and 2 squadrons of Dragons Colonel-General.

 A large built up area separated them from my first infantry brigade.

In my centre, 2 battalions of Gardes Francaises behind a German and French battalions.

On my left, an Irish and Italian and 2 French battalions. 3 Squadrons of regiment Cosse and 2 more of Dragons du Dauphin were brigaded on their left.

The Austrian right was 3 squadrons of Hussars. 

Beyond a wood to their left were 4 Danish dragoon squadrons supporting 1 guard and 2 trained Danish infantry battalions.

 

 Beyond them was a 'Grand battery' of 3 field guns, forming a separate brigade.

Then came Lawrence's force, 3 English battalions (2 Elite and 1 trained) mixed with 1 Austrian and 2 Danish converged grenadier battalions (elite) 

On the Danish left were 2 squadrons of Danish Guard cavalry and 2 of cuirassiers.

Ian and the armies in their starting positions! 

 Initially, the English and grenadiers advanced within range of my gun.

 At this range, I only caused a single casualty on a Danish unit.

 The Austrian hussars advanced against my left wing cavalry.

 The Danish dragoons moved through the woods in their support.

The Austro-Danish grenadiers, not appreciating being shot at, formed into line! 

 The English stayed back in reserve.

 The Danish cavalry moved forward against my right wing cavalry.

 I had poor command rolls, so only managed to advance towards the enemy cavalry.

This stopped the Danish cavalry's advance. 

 On the Austrian right, the hussars cautiously probed against the French left. 

 A squadron of regiment Cosse steadfastly refused to charge them!

 Back on my right wing, my French horse charged the smaller force of Danes, confident of sweeping them aside!

The Danes also charged... 

 Disaster! - all but 2 French squadrons broke!

 

The dragoons were not sufficient to hold the still largely intact Danish horse.

The French  brigadier signalled the retreat.

The battle could not now be won by the French, who retreated from the field reluctantly.

My appalling dice rolling was to blame...

Such is life!

Having time left at the club. I then joined in a WW2 Wings of Glory game, flying a ASAF Mustang.

I got downed by an FW190 first shot!!!

I rejoined in another Mustang and did much better, helping to down 2 Focke-Wulfs.

You win some, you lose some!