The Loose Association of Wargamers

What are the historical examples of evading/fleeing/avoiding skirmishers being caught during a battle by regular troops ?

goat major wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:16 am What are the historical examples of evading/fleeing/avoiding skirmishers being caught during a battle by regular troops ?

Good question.

I might guess that many instances of evaders being caught went unrecorded because, maybe no-one saw it & more likely, maybe no-one cared.

As opposed to the 'evade' rules (as opposed to keeping your distance & doing a normal retreat when you have to) I like how many rule sets don't let various bad things happening to your skirmish troops effect anyone else's morale.

Fred. the G,'s attitude to light infantry - unreliable, prone to desert & only used out of compulsion - says it all.

donald

goat major wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:16 am What are the historical examples of evading/fleeing/avoiding skirmishers being caught during a battle by regular troops?

I just got the Osprey campaign book on Quatre Bras (I think it's actually Waterloo, Vol 1) and there seemed to be numerous accounts of Allied skirmish lines, including a couple of British ones, being caught in the open by French light cavalry, due to the latter being concealed by the nature of the ground, possibly lack of familiarity with said ground, and mis-identification of the cavalry as friendly.

Of course, you do need people to survive such an experience in order for someone to later write an account of it......

Interesting. That example sounds like an element of surprise for the lights. And I think there's probably examples of deliberate traps being set as well (is there something in Caesar like that or am I misremembering ?)

I was wondering of examples where you have the classic wargame situation of skirmishers blatantly stand in front of body of infantry, get charged and then fail to run fast enough.

The sorts of examples I can remember are more along the lines
- The "defenders' have some faster troops who can go and sort the skirmishers. The skirmishers as a result keep their distance and are less effectual (retreat of the 10,000 ?)
- the defenders are closer order types who can disperse the skirmishers with a charge. But if the skirmishers have any discipline they can just keep coming back (e.g. Kings Mountain).

And I think there's probably examples of deliberate traps being set as well

I cant recall the name of the Chassuer a' Cheval commander but they set a trap for some cossacks by spliiting the regiment into two (one keeping the cossacks occupied) and the other half wheeling around a wood to catch them.

Didn’t he know that Cossacks don’t count for Victory Points?
What a noob.

Dunno, he was French.

Norman D. Landings wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:15 pm Didn’t he know that Cossacks don’t count for Victory Points?

Surely someone told him at the beginning of the game?

Norman D. Landings wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:15 pm Didn’t he know that Cossacks don’t count for Victory Points?
What a noob.

Surely someone told him at the beginning of the game?

Probably like me at Ayton, never read the rules and never f*ckin will.