I have been researching on the Battle of Entzheim from October 1674, an action fought between a French army under Turenne and an Allied army (Imperialists/German States) in Alsace during the war of 1672-1678. I decided I had accumulated enough information so far to try and do a refight of the battle. I worked out the scenery for the table and, identifying the most prominent features, I set them out using what items of terrain I have: Entzheim and Lingelsheim villages, a few tracks, two main areas of woodland, quite a few hedgerows and a small stream. The hedges and stream represented areas covered by orchards, vineyards and ditches around Entzheim. The table in this case was seven feet by four feet. Here are some pictures of the finished layout.

Next up was organising the two sides. The Allied army was significantly larger than that of the French in infantry and cavalry, as well as artillery. In the end, I gave the Allies five foot regiments, two dragoon regiments, one Croat regiment, three gun batteries, five horse regiments (each two squadrons) and two kürassier regiments (each three squadrons; the French had three dragoon regiments, four foot regiments, two gun batteries and six horse regiments (each two squadrons). Here are some pictures of the two sides deployed. The French are on the right (wine rack side!), Allies on the left. I do not have the right figures for the Allies (other than the kürassier units) so they are Spanish and Dutch units.

It will be readily apparent from these pictures that the French have a real challenge as the Allies with the larger army are on the defensive, deployed behind fieldworks in one wood and behind hedges and the stream as well. How does one defeat a numerically superior enemy in a good defensive position which cannot be outflanked (there were rivers to either side of the battlefield, which meant Turenne could not manoeuvre the Allies out of their position)? It has been suggested that Turenne did not have to fight the battle as he had already cut the Allies' line of communication back to Strasbourg, but had only to wait for them to retreat. However, he decided that he had to "hurry them along" and, believing he had better troops and that the Allied command was divided (Bournonville was the commander, but he was obliged to confer with his coalition generals, who had different views on the campaign), he resolved to attack.

So, I made the French all Veteran troops to reflect their better quality in general, while making only the Allied kürassier and two of their horse regiments Veterans, all the rest being Trained. I also allowed the French to adopt a different plan of attack from Turenne (he got bogged down trying to capture the defended wood) to see if that helped them out. The Allies, on the day, acted mainly in a defensive way, except on their right wing, where Caprara and Bournonville launched an attack either side of the other wood against the French left wing and almost broke through. So I decided that the Allies were free to do the same, but that anything else proactive on their part would be controlled by a die roll. The battle was fought in pouring rain, but since this affected both sides in pretty much the same way, I decided to ignore any reductions in movement or firing.

Here are some other photographs of the units deployed for battle, first the French.

The French start with their left wing dragoon regiments already dismounted.

And now the Allies.

I will continue the account of the action in my next post, along with more details on the scenario.