Warburg 1760 SYW - in 6mm with Might & Reason

Might & Reason - a review

Might & Reason (M&R) are intended to fight large-scale “grand-tactical” battles of the mid-eighteenth century.  I've always been a fan of Sam A Mustifa's rules.  They always play well and they are very clear, readable and understandable.  Might & Reason are an old set of rules which I have come to late.  It is easy to see a number of points in these rules which have influenced the design of later rules.  I don't claim to be an expert in these rules but I've tried to capture my initial thoughts based on having fought two battles.

Units have SP (strength points) which reflect their performance in combat.  This is very similar to a unit's Elan in Blucher.  As a game mechanic it prevents units being unbeatable killing machines, even the strongest, most elite guard unit will be worn down after a series of combats.  Although I enjoy playing BlackPowder2 with my friends it is possible for a elite unit to fight multiple combats and still be almost at strong at the end of the battle as at the start.  This is not the case in M&R.  In M&R sending in fresh reserves can have a huge impact as fresh troops will cut a swath through even the best of troops who have been worn down in a series of combats.

These rules and those in Sam's Fast Play Grande Armee share a similar approach to command.  The command system is based around the rating of the commander and in non-historical battles, poor commanders are given large armies to help compensate their command shortcomings.   The better a commander is the more command dice (CD) he receives.  These CD allow commanders  to improve the activation of their troops and influence combat odds.  Game turns have a variable length of 1-4 phases which adds an interesting challenge to commanders , deciding whether to save their command dice to later phases or to blow them all in the first phase or two.  

The rules have very comprehensive army lists for all of the major and minor powers of the period.  They also contain not one but two campaign systems.  For those of you who have always wanted to fight a campaign you may find these rule interesting even if you fight other systems.  I suspect they will be good between the Thirty Years War to Napoleonic's. 

The rules are very playable and reflect the feel of the period.  I found them a little slow when compared to Blucher but that may be my lack of familiarity. I have used, a slightly modified, Blucher to refight SYW battles and they do it very well once the power of Napoleonic cavalry is restrained.

Warburg is one of the example battles which are detailed in the rules. Chronologically it was after the Battle of Minden, which was the subject of my last blog post. See below for useful links:

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• Kronoskaf: Warburg
• British Battles: Warburg 
• The King's Royal Hussars

The plan

The Anglo-German plan was to refuse their left flank and swing the elite troops of the right flank into the side of the French and roll them up. The french plan was to react to the Allies and not move very much due to their poor leadership.

The plan started well. The Anglo-German right wing swung to attack the French left flank. The French commander personally took command of the left wing and lead them towards the incoming Grenadiers.
Meanwhile the poor level of generalship resulted in the French cavalry and right wing sitting still and take no action.

The fight between the Anglo-German elite troops and the best infantry of the French was a hard fight but in the end the French broke but not without wearing down the fighting capability of the Anglo-Germans.  The French cavalry eventually managed to get going and swung into combat with the weakened Anglo-German grenadiers. The intervention of the cavalry saver the French army from being rolled up from the flank.

The French reserve frustrated by the lack of motion of the French righ wing, advanced past the French front lines towards the Anglo-German centre.  The French right wing, bizarrely, taking over as the reserve.  The British cavalry in the centre bravely charged the advancing French foot, who repulse the British attacks.

By now the daylight was fading and the Anglo-German's had inflected more casualties than the French had on them however when the commanders rolled for moral they both decided that is was best to withdraw from the field.  The final result was a draw but a minor moral victory to the French as defenders.