Blenheim, Order of Battle, Part I

 

When I started with this project, the first thing was to obtain a goof OoB: in the case of Blenheim we have many detailed lists of the units as well as their strength. As far as the organization is concerned, for the Anglo-Allied army the various corps arrangement is clear; for the French-Bavarian there are some minor differences between the various orders.

 

In the flood of articles and books on the battle I stuck with the more recent sources, namely the Osprey Campaign 141 “Blenheim 1704 – The Duke of Marlborough’s masterpiece”, by John Tincey, the various Falkner’s books on the subject (one for all Blenheim 1704 – Battle Story) and the very detailed OoB provided into the article on the battle published into the blogspot Obscure Battles.

My first idea was to refight the battle with Volley and Bayonet: once more, there are many OoB for this rule, namely the one provided by Andy Green in the original V&B website with the Malburian amendements, which can be found by the means of the Wayback Machine and the one done by Nicolas Lamberti and published on the French website G&P.

However, neither of the two fully satisfied me and accordingly I worked my version of the battle. First of all, I shall list the modifications to the standard rules I devised appropriate.

Period Rules

i)      Interpenetration: all units may move through friendly artillery. Cavalry can move through friendly infantry provided they have the same facing. Infantry cannot interpenetrate friendly infantry and cavalry.

ii)    All non-cadenced-march infantry counts as poorly drilled regulars and have no free face turn.

iii)     All Artillery counts as poorly drilled and, thus, have no free face change, except the Artillery under direct control of DC Blood.

iv)      French Artilley cannot move after unlimbering

v)       All infantry stands have grenadiers/elites present.

vi)      All French, Bavarian, Imperial and DC Ostfriese cavalry counts as "firearm cavalry".

vii)   All non-firearm cavalry (DC Lumley and Wurtemberg-Neustadt) count as heavier against similar firearm cavalry.

viii)   All mounted Dragoons may dismount. It takes 1 complete turn.

Next time, the Anglo-Allied Order of Battle and some pictures of the units.