The Fictional Battle of Haftah ka Khel - AAR

Surjit and I got together on Saturday morning for another remote game of Koenig Krieg.  This time we ventured to the Indian sub-continent for a fictional battle between British and French forces.

Surjit was sent an image of the battlefield.  He had to select a 14 point British army and deploy on the northern edge of the map in the white box prior to the game.

The map for deployment sent prior to the game.
Brown hexes are hills. The green are woods.  The grey hex is a BUA.

I took control of the French, deploying in the southern deployment box.

The Armies

The British
1st Infantry Brigade: 1 European Foot, 1 Rajput, 1 levy unit and 1 heavy artillery

2nd Infantry Brigade: 1 European Foot, 1 Rajput, 1 Sepoy, 1 levy and 1 medium gun

3rd Infantry Brigade: 1 Sepoy, 1 Rajput, 1 levy and 1 medium gun

1st Cavalry Brigade: 1 Rajput heavy cavalry, 1 Native light cavalry

2nd Cavalry Brigade: 1 European light cavalry

Independent units: 2 units of Mahratta skirmish missile cavalry

The French
Infantry Brigade 1: 1 unit of European Foot, 1 Sepoy unit, 2 Mysore foot, 1 medium and 1 heavy artillery

Infantry Brigade 2: 2 units of Sikh levies, 1 Sepoy unit, 1 medium artillery

Cavalry Brigade 1: 1 European light cavalry, 1 Mysore light missile cavalry

Cavalry Brigade 2: 1 Sikh armoured cavalry, 1 European light cavalry

Cavalry Brigade 3: 1 Mysore Light Cavalry

Independent units: 1 unit of native levies, 3 units of Mogul skirmish missile cavalry

Deployment

The Battle

The plan, such as I had one, was to throw the Mogul cavalry forward to harass the enemy infantry, induce panic and shield the approach of my own.  All this whilst my cavalry held the flanks.

Both sides advanced quickly towards each other.  Mogul skirmish cavalry moved out on the right flank to occupy the British cavalry with their missile fire.
However, the French made a dreadful error by boxing in their cavalry reserve.

The Moguls on the right flank exploited the gap between the British cavalry and its infantry line by slipping inbetween.  This had the desired effect of forcing the flanking cavalry to turn back to deal with the situation.  Meanwhile, another Mogul unit induced a British levy unit to retreat along with a nearby battery; only to be caught by musketry from European foot and forced into a panicked retreat themselves.
In the centre, infantry began closing amidst musketry and artillery fire.
On the left flank, Hussars from both sides squared up to each other.

However, the British were to win the upper hand against both hussars and skirmish infantry.

The British then wasted no time in exploiting the situation.  The infantry on the hill charged into an unprepared and undeployed French regiment on the hill.  Further to the left, the British hussars crashed into a Mysore light cavalry unit and sent it reeling.

As for the melee on the hill, the unprepared foot unit was despatched without mercy.

The situation across the field of battle.
Not looking so good for the French!
The left flank looks ragged and the centre creaking.  Plus, the boxed in cavalry reserve is unable to take advantage of the situation on the right flank.

The centre was now fully engaged.  The air was thick with black smoke as casualties mounted on both sides.  However, British weight of infantry numbers was being brought to bear.

With two regiments charging the front and skirmish cav on the flank, the French European foot regiment was under extreme duress.

Despite fighting valiantly and inflicting heavy casualties with its cannon, the French foot suffered dire losses and retreated in haste and close to collapse.
A Mogul unit on the hill was compelled to surrender after being surrounded.  However, the Mogul cavalry on the right managed to escape from the attentions of the chasing British formed horse regiments.

At this point the French conceded the field and sought to withdraw as quickly as possible.

Afterthoughts

The situation at the end of the game.

That was an incredibly interesting and enjoyable game.  Battling with such exotic armies was a real test.  Neither of us really knew how to use our forces to best effect.  So, we learned alot during the game about how we would approach this arena of mid 18th century conflict in the future.

I kept the army countdown clock.  The result at the end certainly reflected the view and demise of the French.

Both clocks started on 14!

This was also a game with a greater degree of terrain which made for a different but entertaining challenge during play.  It was good that here was a game that was not decided by events on the flanks.

Lastly, I am very happy that Koenig Krieg and my army lists worked for a battle set on a non-European battlefield with non-European armies.  I just need to try out a SYW game set in North America.