Another Seven Years War Game

Additional cavalry regiments having been mustered (as noted here), another clash of the French (played this time by my good friend Karl) and the Allies (again played yours truly) during the Seven Years War was diced out with about 130 shiny plastic little men. 

Since it seemed fair and worked well before, at my suggestion we used an ad hoc, I-go-you-go system to lay out the terrain.  However, this time the result was a rather cluttered table with little open space to maneuver or even advance short distances without intersecting woods, houses, walls, muddy fields, hills, or rivers.  As it was, the Allies ended up deployed before the bridge, and the French deployed on the other side around a hill directly overlooking said bridge.

The rules where again All the Kings Men, and again the deck-of-playing-cards activation system charmed all involved.  When the allies drew a deuce, which prohibits all further activations by a unit of one's choice for the rest of turn, the cause was ascribed to "oh dear! the colonel's hemarrhoids have flared up again."

Things would probably have unfolded predictably if the Allies had not marched a Hanoverian infantry regiment across the bridge and then (on a consecutive activation) right up onto the hill, where they formed up in line and delivered a volley into the French artillery.  However, bad dice throws meant the artillery was not wiped out, and said Hanover regiment was now in a state of disorder and stranded in the middle of the French line with no friendly forces nearby.
 

It then proceeded to take enfilade musket fire and canister shot from French artillery to its front and rear, but awesome dice resulted in it weathering the fire (huzzah!).  In a following turn it was finally broken.

The rest of the game was dominated by artillery dueling and a cavalry charge by the French which broke an Allied infantry unit, although the French cavalry was broken as well in the combat.  French artillery won its duel, destroying both Allied gun positions and also hitting the Allies' break point and ending the game.

Future games will employ some kind of agreed upon terrain before hand, and probably involve a wide open field in the middle - enough of these confounded fights from two sides of a river!  K___ was quite adamant about some sort of blind deployment, or an I-go-you-go placement of units.  I suggested a combination of both, with cards with "infantry," "cavalry", and "artillery" written upon the placed I-go-you-go face down.  The cards would then be flipped and the wee little figures placed. 

More units are also in the works: a few more infantry regiments for each side as well as light infantry.