Battle of Althorp - 26th December 1745: Part Two - British army taken by surprise

Hopefully blog visitors will have read the Introduction and terrain making background  to this battle in Guy's  fictitious 1745 Jacobite Rebellion campaign, which took place over a weekend in mid September 2022.  Those interested can see all the background documents  (briefs, orbats etc) at the Battle of Althorp link in the right hand sidebar - 18th Century Historical. 

Here is a reminder of the table map to help orientation.

The narrative report below is written by Guy (grateful thanks from me) and will give you his perspective as GM, lead umpire and assistant to the British Government side, which was led by Richard Newcombe as the Duke of Cumberland. I was back-up umpire (we had expected more players) but we decided as we only had one player per day that each of us would be an extra (non-executive) pair of hands to help the hard pressed commanders move and roll some dice when necessary (there were about 900 Scots/Jacobite figures and about 700 plus Government troops). Ken Marshall was Bonnie Prince Charlie on Day One and his place was taken by Steve Johnson on Day Two.  The photos and captions are mine, and apologies that the "snow" effects tend to make the uniforms look darker but if you click on photos the larger image should mitigate that. There is a slight disconnect in places due to my difficulty in trying to find the most appropriate photos to illustrate Guy's narrative but I hope it does not spoil the story for readers. This post covers just our first day of play and game time approximately 8 am to 1030 am.

Battle of Althorp-game report

<<These were the opening positions on the table at about 6.45am as the early Boxing Day sunrise came up over the heavily frosted ground.

The Jacobite/Franco forces were advancing from the South (left in the photo) hoping to catch the Government forces from the rear. The French formed the centre. The Highland division was on the right advancing towards the village of Harleston and to turn the government flank. The second Jacobite division including the lowland regiments advanced towards Althorp manor. 

The government forces were arrayed in their battle lines but crucially facing north with their backs to the approaching rebels. The closest Government troops to the approaching enemy were a brigade of superior troops consisting of the 1^st Foot Guards, the Hanoverian guards and 2 combined British grenadier detachments. [by CG: in fact the closest was Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick who was a visiting dignitary given command of a "corps" and promised a stag hunt on Boxing Day. He had overnighted at the Hunting Lodge with a plentiful array of supporters, gamekeepers, beaters, servants and dog handlers.  We represented them by a "trifling" sized unit of dismountable Jagers.]

View West along the Jacobite/French lines

View West along the Government lines

All the Government units were facing North, expecting a Jacobite advance from that direction!

Camp followers try hastily to pack up tents and collect supplies, alerted by a commotion in the direction of the Hunting Lodge.....

....but the Duke of Brunswick's followers soon realised it was futile to exchange shots with the French regular battalions advancing on their position

Those French included a squadron of Lanciers de Saxe sent to boost Prince Charlie's meagre cavalry
 arm.

The French view of the backs of Cumberland's Guards/Grenadier brigade

Lord Gordon Lewis's Highlanders look down on the luxurious stables and manor and the camp and contemplate the possibilities of loot

An overview of the opening positions looking north-east

Above and below : just off table the Jacobite/French had a
 second line, and behind that a reserve brigade of
superior infantry and one of cavalry

Richard looks a little concerned; well who wouldn't if the GM had deployed your army with its backs to the enemy!

I was there too

[By CG: Worth saying at this point the Government Army had an advanced guard off to the north-west which would quickly arrive summoned by the shooting, and a cavalry brigade off the table near Harleston.]

Turn 1

The Jacobites won the initiative (as they consistently did throughout the game) and advanced across the whole front. However, they were not fast enough to catch the government troops in the rear and with much relief, the Government army swiftly faced about. The brigade of superior troops retired a short distance and took up position in and about the gardens of Althorp Manor whilst the main army formed a battle line from the gardens to St Andrews church. Desultory artillery fire broke out. Ferdinand and his small accompanying unit of jagers beat a hasty retreat to the main battle lines from the hunting lodge. The same applied to the Duke of Cumberland who vacated the manor and took position behind the superior troops.  

The Jacobite left Division attacks Athorp. The stable boys put up a brave resistance

Government Elite Brigade retires into the garden

Cumberland has turned his battalions and skilfully the brigade commanders form a solid battle line.

The French and Scottish advance continues all along the front. The second line troops have made their entrance to the tabletop

View along the reforming Government left flank
at Harleston. At top left Ferdinand of Brunswick and
his "jagers" evacuate the Hunting Lodge just in time.

It subsequently transpired that a message had been sent to the French units in St Neots not to advance to the battlefield. They had been given the opportunity to see if they would arrive in time but mindful of the campaign instructions, they wished to secure a route to the sea if they suffered a reverse. With hindsight, the French concluded they had made the right decision. 

Turn 2

The Jacobites on the left stormed ahead and attacked the stable block of Althorp House. The 200 stable boys and servants of the visiting dignitaries (a historic "fact" it is said that Spencer employed 100 staff in his new stables alone) put up a stout resistance and caused a few casualties but soon had to retire leaving the Jacobites in possession of the Manor which they thoroughly looted. (This explains why so much good quality mid C18th English silver and trinkets still turn up in auction houses north of the border). The Hon John Spencer took refuge in the priest’s hole. 

A plucky clan charges Grenadiers in the garden using the hedges to break the Scots' momentum, so this attack was seen off

Jacobites move into the stables to drive off the stable boys and servants

Elsewhere in the garden French and British regulars exchange musketry while the mortar battery hastens to find a firing position

The dense woods and Hunting Lodge enclosure prove an obstacle for the French Wild Geese Brigade ( not helped by a poor initiative roll by Ken!)

But the French second line looks organised and formidable

The stable lads are driven off

Turn 3 

The Franco/Jacobite advance continued, seizing the hunting lodge. The French in the centre soon came to realise they faced rather tough opposition to their front. As soon as a regiment advanced it was assailed by musketry from one of the superior British units such as the 1^st Foot Guards, and combined artillery fire. 

French troops move slowly through the Hunting Lodge and further West are badly hit by musketry and artillery fire. Below view of the same activity from Harleston church

The first regiment of British cavalry started to appear in the eastern boundary of the battlefield by Harleston village. They were hit by a highland charge and were destroyed (see caption for clarification). Despite this success, the clan was then forced to retire in order to reform. This result was repeated throughout the battle as fresh cavalry regiments emerged. Three large regiments received highland charges and were effectively destroyed in subsequent moves. 

Before the Jacobite clans could attack Harleston a large force of British cavalry began to appear to the East of the village pond

View from behind the Jacobite right flank

Not much room for all those heavy cavalry to squeeze between (off-table) sunken lanes and the frozen duck pond

We modified the Highland charge rules to allow the Highlanders to confront cavalry by: attack, fire muskets, then receive the cavalry counter charge at the halt, swords drawn........

That meant the Highlanders were still formidable in melee but impetus bonus lay with the cavalry. But the front cavalry unit was broken and the clan forced to retreat two moves without muskets from 4 Hits.

French regular battalions began to sustain Hits from the Government artillery.....

But when the French and Jacobite guns lined up on the Grenadiers Ken rolled some more low dice!!

The first French battalion broke up under close range musketry from the garden hedge

The government forces had some relief as the advanced units of the screening forces to the north started to make their appearance at the NW corner of the battlefield. This consisted of some infantry (mostly of inferior quality) and 2 more regiments of cavalry. 

The Government Advance Guard has marched "to the sound of the guns" and appears above Althorp on the North side

The French reserve units which consisted of superior infantry battalions and 2 regiments of cavalry were also trying to advance onto the table in the centre but were delayed as they reorganised their line of march.

Turn 4 

More British cavalry appeared on the eastern boundary and were once again thrown back by fierce highland charges. By the end of the day the government forces had lost 3 large cavalry regiments attempting to force the flank. However, the Jacobite’s were unable to exploit this advantage because the government forces had used this time to form a strong line of defence of infantry and guns in and around the village and St Andrews church. There was the added complication of a large frozen pond which restricted manoeuvre.  

The 2nd North British Dragoons counter charged another clan but met the same fate as their cavalry predecessors.

Meanwhile more British infantry tried to stem the tide beyond the pond

Clan battalions from the first wave reforming and collecting up their discarded muskets

This general view shows the orderliness which Richard was maintaining in the Government lines but belies the difficulties Ken was having in making quicker progress. A 3pdr battery with every British brigade made a slow but steady rate of attrition among the French ranks

Just a nice example of Richard's glee at one of his
 artillery "fives" (he's a modest chap and  I got him to pose!)

This was why - that die roll broke the Royal Scots

However the British line looked a bit like wavering in front of the Manor. This was primarily caused by the destruction of the 2 combined grenadier units after a failed charge which left them exposed to flanking fire from a clan ensconced in the stable block. This sudden change of fortune left the mortar battery exposed in the gardens and its eventual destruction was widely anticipated by all onlookers. 

In front of the stable building two British Grenadier battalions advanced to within close range of a clan.
(The mortar battery can now be seen in a firing position in the centre of the garden, and the Advance Guard Brigade has sent cavalry down the road towards the Manor)

But the Grenadiers themselves receive heavy flanking fire at close range from Highlanders in the stables who still have their muskets, a ripple of shots from the clan they face and canister from the supporting Scots battery

It did not end well for the Grenadiers - one destroyed and the other retreating back to the far end of the garden.  Highlanders are filling the manor courtyard, giving the relieving cavalry regiment pause for thought

The Highland First Division keeps pressing to try to make a breakthrough near Harleston

As the Highlanders pressed on against the next cavalry regiment Hits began to accumulate and a clan was broken in the attempt

Another Grenadier battalion has had to retreat, this time on the Harleston village front

In the centre the French infantry continued to try and advance but combined musketry and cannon fire caused the destruction of a few French regiments without ever being able to make an impression on the government line which was unwavering. Classic C18th linear warfare was in evidence on both sides.  (By CG: For example in Turn 4 Ken had lost a French line battalion, the Royal Scots battalion and 2 clan battalions to Richard's single cavalry regiment)

The French commander, the Duc de Grammont, is trying to inspire the Auvergne regiment in person in the face of heavy musketry ........

........which bypasses him but puts paid to the 2nd Brigade's commander,
the Chevalier de Maupeau

De Grammont retreats in the face of an advance by a British Royal regiment

Ferdinand commands the centre of the British/Hanoverian line. Here he is watching the tentative approach of Irish battalions Dillon and Lally

On the western side of the battle the Jacobites started to press their advantage by filtering units around and through the manor to threaten the British units in the gardens. They came under fire from the government mortars which to the surprise of everyone, actually caused a few casualties. This led to much jolly back slapping by the assembled gunner officers. 

Here are the mortars, now effectively the right hand end of the Government line

Although the idea of "umpire assistants" for both sides was intended to speed things up, inevitably the commanding player's concern  led to lots of watching those hands-off movements, accompanied by meaningful suggestions. When it worked properly the players lost a bit of control, realistically recreating some "fog of war"

Ken at last got a double move to bring on the infantry of his Reserve Division. The faster moving cavalry regiments had untangled themselves from the manoeuvre shambles off-table and arrived half a move earlier

Grenadiers de France lead a four battalion column towards the Government centre

Following the Grenadiers - French Guard, Swiss Guard, and La Reine

The Government is still strong at Harleston and another clan goes down to musketry

Content that all is well except on the extreme right, Richard receives some "non executive umpire assistant" advice from Guy

A useful overview shot towards the end of Turn Four.  Cumberland's skilful 
forward defence, combined with many of Bonnie Prince Charlie's unfortunate
initiative and firing dice, means the Government have plenty of rear area
 in which to redeploy the newly arrived reinforcements on each flank

Turn 5

The Jacobites swept forwards on their left flank but the delay had given the government forces time to reform the rather thin looking, exposed red line. 

(NB: Our modified Highland Charge rules allow Highlanders to recover their discarded muskets if they stay back on a red marker for two moves out of the battle. This had the effect of making Highlanders more interesting than the simplistic "one shot weapon", but did build in delays once they suffered an initial reverse. It would enable some of the Highland clans to return to the fray for our resumption of play on the next day).

At long last the French superior units started to appear. The infantry moved to support the French infantry in the centre and the cavalry started to move to the eastern flank in order to try and exploit the open terrain. >>

Duke Ferdinand views at close quarters the demise of the 20th Foot going down to canister fire

Although the Jacobite clans had thinned out considerably on the right flank there were still enough to have reformed and Lord George Murray ordered a renewed attack. Below- their view of the objective

Worth noting in the photo two above there are three small French/Jacobite cavalry units heading towards the right flank. This one is The Prince's Lifeguard, but the figures are some of my Minden Royal Dragoons. More significantly this photo shows the gap in the Jacobite line only manned by artillery, that is deliberate.

The reason for that is Ken was heading his two French cavalry regiments towards that gap....but it would take a few moves to get into position.  Would those artillery batteries be enough to deter Cumberland's attempt to close his line at that point?

The British Advance Guard brigade has been diverted away from the bottleneck of Althorp Manor and Garden and heads East towards Cumberland's centre.......

Which of course leaves the Highlanders in the Manor, having finished their looting for the moment, free to contemplate the naked flank of the mortar battery

Together with a Lowlander clan they line the hedge hoping to see off the gunners without risk. Since the target was now too close for the mortar trajectory the gunners took up muskets and returned fire

Back on the Harleston flank the Hanoverian Leib regiment Reuter goes down to the Highland blades

British Grenadiers and Highlanders inflict a mutual retreat on each other at 4 Hits.....

.....which thins out this flank and creates a natural break in immediate hostilities

That proved an adequate result for Cumberland and Ferdinand as they were able to fall back to a more concentrated line from Harleston church through the wintering brassica vegetable gardens.

To be continued......with another 5 Moves to work out a result for Guy's campaign. Don't miss it!

Battle of Althorp - 26th December 1745: Part One - Introduction and making the terrain

 

Althorp game - The Origin

This game took place in mid September and had been trailed on the blog back in March as part of my 2022 programme of custom-made terrains. Dedicated readers will recall I committed myself to build the central part of the Waterloo battlefield for JP in August, and the "how-to" on that is here. So there you can see the table built from the bottom-up and finished in its June  2015 (too?) brightness. I told Guy Barlow he'd have to adapt that battlefield for his Jacobite game only a month later and he came up with a brilliant suggestion.   In his "what-if" 1745  campaign the Jacobite Army had reached the English Midlands by December 1745. He decided that the area round the Althorp estate near Northampton would fairly be represented by our Waterloo field. Handily the village of Harleston was just about the right scale distance away to take the place of La Haye and Pappelotte, with the manor taking up the footprint of La Haye Sainte and a bit extra.

The main challenge for me was to fit in making, within a month, the buildings and change the terrain from Summer fields to 26th December in the chilly English countryside, and include a week's holiday in Northumberland. We did not want full snow for obvious reasons but I promised to give it a different feel. This blog post attempts to show you how I did it.

Steve J and Richard enjoy a joke at the start of Day Two of our weekend of a wintry-looking Battle of Althorp

As a reminder here is the map I provided to Guy for him to plan the scenario and from which I took the extra detail we needed - the buildings, winter trees, frozen ponds and the formal but dormant garden. The dark brown line shows the 12 x 6 foot table limit though we allowed deployment outside that area. at the start.

Althorp Terrain - The Buildings

I'd never had the chance to recreate an English stately home on the wargames table before and the "duchess" and I had free entry to Althorp Manor with our membership of Historic Houses.  As we could pass that way en route to our northern holiday it made sense to make a brief visit. However Guy and I had done a bit of research and I knew that the present day edifice is about 1780, too late for 1745, so could I find out anything useful?

Old Harleston cottages

I quizzed a guide on lots of things and he was very helpful. The estate is vast, way beyond the  miles of perimeter walls I had seen (coincidentally not far off the brown lines on my map), and Harleston village is owned by the family, and properties rented out. I noted there are two parts to Harleston, a large one on the main A road (roughly the northern road on our map) and a more rural one about a mile South. I had to ignore that and compromise for our purposes, but hey, this is not history it's a "what-if". Most importantly he confirmed what I suspected, that the big house there in 1745 would have been the original mid 16th Century Tudor manor. Evidently that was upgraded, expanded and clad in fashionable Georgian brick and decoration in 1780. But wait - what of that magnificent square stables and coach house? Surely contemporary with the upgrade? No it was built around 1730 and was one of the grandest stables in England. So I would have to make a reasonable facsimile of that.

One entrance to the magnificent Stables and Coach house

Arched  West entrance to the Stables, and goes right through
to the other entrance/exit seen above

Inside the Stable courtyard

The 1780s Manor built over the shell of the Tudor manor beneath the brick and tile. West Wing in the foreground, East wing further back, and main entrance is at right of photo between the two wings

In recent years I've been very attracted to downloadable card architecture. Usually you can find something suitable by an internet search, often free. Of course you have to print them on card and often work out what size to set the print. It can be tricky but I love the freedom to decide the scale/size and adapt to the required footprint on the table versus looking OK with the figures. In the Althorp game, all except the "hunting lodge", which was our indulgence and fictitious, were buildings I made specially and range from 25mm down to about 12mm size, but hopefully look OK in their places. Judge for yourselves.

Tudor Althorp Manor finished and now I was working on the base and entrance courtyard. It will be portable and reusable. I had to use ingenuity to get coherent shapes and sizes from my printed pages, but "converting" in card models, just with scissors, is easy. I usually give quite a bit of weathering to my card models to avoid them looking too stark. I wanted this Althorp to look 200 years old by 1745.

 Finished in situ. In the distance the Stables are ready to be placed in the prepared footprint

Like this. I took liberties with the detail and where the entrances are; I was really trying to convey the character but much reduced in size, while still being useful for play.  This building was practically new in 1745, and so little weathering. Guy decided he wanted a garrison of 200, made up of the 100 stable boys I was told it was built to house, plus another 100 from servants and grooms etc accompanying the Duke of Cumberland's and Earl Spencer's households staying over Christmas. This made a unit of about 20 figures.

Below: Various views of my interpretation of that part of Harleston village we needed on our table

These cottages and barns were fun to make as I printed several copies of the basic sheet and "kit-bashed" to get the shapes I wanted to fit the table footprint I had allowed. The thatched roofs were just made with plaster, sawdust, PVA and paint and roughly scored and shaped as they dried. They are probably a good match for 12mm figures one-to-one. But we were to use 28mm figures at approximately 1:10 or 1:15.

The deliberately small Church is intended for 25mm figures and is from a delightful basic village set designed about 15 years ago by Brian Collins, a highly talented Cheltenham graphic artist and painter.
Wicker plastic fencing from Renendra.

I've added a churchyard full of gravestones and crosses. This is the plastic set by Renendra available widely on the internet (25/28mm)

You can get downloadable versions for yourself of the card sheets I used by going through the "18th Century Historical" link to Althorp in the right hand "Downloads" sidebar, or use this quick link- card models for Althorp buildings. Just a thought - card models are mostly biodegradable; unlike plastic or resin or 3D printed models they will eventually degrade and leave little damage to the planet or clog up landfill. That matters to me but each wargamer to his own conscience.......

Here is the "hunting lodge" - just a cottage with a small footprint
I had in my box already

Althorp Terrain - The Groundwork

Buildings give any game its main character which is why I put them first, but I'm way ahead of myself  as the first thing I actually had to do once "Waterloo" was cleared off was tone down June and make it December.  The first part of that was getting a wide brush and various watered down acrylics in browns and creams and brushing any of the fields which appeared too bright (most of them!) to give them a dullness which was pleasing without being too uniform or boring. Here it is:

The second stage once dry was to switch to a similar wide brush, but this time dry brushing with various off-whites and creams. The aim was to give a cool look as when, in Winter, we look across frosty fields and see a haze of white tops. On sunny days this soon melts away, but on cold, cloudy days it can stay all day. Since we were doing mid-Winter that seemed appropriate to me. However, I still wanted to use this battlefield another time and expected to recolour it. I did not want to do that to the roads so I did not white-dry-brush them.

Above and Below: Dry brushing with an off-white mix

I fixed in place some hardboard bases to mark the Harleston Built Up Areas (BUAs) and the big village pond, and the smaller pond by the Manor (which I put in the former La Haye Sainte sandpit)

The pond bases were done early before any recolouring

The Icy Ponds

Many of you will have seen the fun I've had with rivers, streams and ponds on my previous terrain blog posts, and I'm secretly hoping you'll be thinking "he's experienced at this so I'll learn how to do it properly." Nothing could be farther from the truth as I've never done any "sculpted terrain" frozen water before (I'm not counting the lakeside at a frozen Fort William Henry on my sand table in about 2011). So I was making it up as I went along, all the while keeping part of my brain as landscape artist and recalling those dark wintry ponds seen on my walks. The basic mid brown (with PVA in it to give a certain waterproofing) seen above was to serve me as a solid surface on which to build. But first I wanted to set the ponds in their landscape so did not resume till I'd got the fields recoloured, the sandy banks rendered with "gunge" and sawdust, and the winter trees in place. (The trees I did for the Brampton Jacobite game in Spring 2021 see here)

Above and Below: I was satisfied that the variable browns on the base gave some variety and did not need more paint at this stage, so I stuck various sizes of tufts to look natural around the edges and growing out of the water.

A bit of smearing at the edges happened by chance as I tried to clear off excess powder from the "muddy" banks. As my old art master, Eric Ford, used to say "turn your mistakes to advantage" (when creating art). This is just 3D art so let's be free and imaginative to get a good result. I thought it looked OK - ponds getting shallower at the edge

Now it was time to try to give some glazing and watery look. You could just use many coats of gloss varnish but at this stage I went for a large dollop of PVA as I wanted the weight of the viscous liquid to penetrate round the reedy tufts, aided by my brush where necessary. It dries clear but I wanted to add a bit of Winter "magic" so judiciously mixed in a little blue acrylic paint. It was an experiment.

Completely coated and would take about a day to dry properly

Gradually being absorbed and I could see that it was staining the painted
 hardboard darker - ideal!

This was looking better than I expected. A murky dead pond, apparently devoid of life

Some coats of Acrylic Gloss Varnish would make these perfectly acceptable winter ponds for a dry terrain but I wanted ice. Moreover, I wanted to be able to reuse the ponds for more normal games so the ice could not be permanent. I acquired a small quantity of  candy art studio ice weathering powder and sprinkled this in an irregular way over my (dry) pond surface. I blew it a little to spread it more evenly. And I was happy with that till I would apply the "snow".

You can see it has a blue tinge in the jar, which is ideal for that cold feel

The rest

I had to put a formal garden in front of the manor but I needed to keep it simple for winter. No historic template for the 1745 garden was available which freed me to just give a usable impression. I delved into my stock of preloved home-made terrain and had lots more  kitchen garden plots (originally from Hougoumont in 2015), made from carpet offcuts. I covered the joins to make a  kind of gridded pathway (ignoring the conjectured design I had put in my map in March). this was from a roll of canvas type wall covering picked up in a DIY store sale many years ago.

Then coloured and freshened up with paint and some conventional hedge pieces glued as a boundary.

But those bright green cheerful hedgerows needed a totally different look for Winter. So I got out the Hob-e-Tac glue, which is ideal for flexible foliage, and coated the upper surfaces to receive a liberal dose of a brown scatter mix to represent either winter leaves or just a mass of bare twigs.

 

You can see the brown at the lower end of the hedge above, and edging the garden plots by the village templates below (now given a basic sandy topping).

So at this stage I was very pleased but looking forward to the final effect - a bit like varnishing a painting - scattering the snow powders. 

So you can see what I used in the above photos. For certain areas I preferred to sieve it to get fine powder and over large areas scatter freehand from the bag. I was aiming to give a melting and drifting effect - a cold feel without the need to hinder movement in the game. And I wanted to recover it all after the game, so no wet glue or paint.  Here is where I went for my supplies - other companies are available of course.   wwscenics snow effects

Ready for the armies

So all that remains is to give you a tour of the finished battlefield at the crack of dawn 26th December 1745.

Althorp Manor and Stables

Harleston Village.
The ponds fitted in much better once the snow was scattered around to blend in the icy effect

View of the manor from the northern higher ground

View of Harleston from the Jacobite southern approach

The Hunting Lodge. Occupied on Christmas night by Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick and his staff, diplomatic guest of the Duke of Cumberland

Just for fun, and so you can judge the effect with 28mm figures - some of my RSM Hanoverians set out from their quarters

Above and below: Shots from the area of the Hunting Lodge have alerted the servants and grooms. Panic stations to evacuate Earl Spencer's vintage French wine collection  and to dismantle the Headquarters camp so the troops can deploy to face the Scots .

A few teaser photos: Ken, Guy and Richard fully occupied on Day One; Jacobites surge on Althorp Manor and Stables. Government resistance in front of Harleston village

I hope you may have found that useful or entertaining. The next part will feature Guy's narrative of the actual wargame and give links to downloads of all the background documents .....oh.. and dozens more photos!