Sunday Game - Napoleonic Encounter

As promised, here is my report on our Napoleonic game yesterday. We had almost a full house, four players per side plus Paul as umpire. The scenario was an encounter between the Austro Russians on our side and a motley collection of Germans and Poles on the other! The battle ebbed and flowed for much of the day although ominously, the Coalition right wing made steady progress against Julian on the Austrian left. In retrospect, we made an error is leaving Julian with a quarter of our force to hold half our front line, although that was the initial disposition mandated by Paul in his scenario.

The basic idea was that the Coalition was part of the 1812 invasion force and the Russians, having gained fore knowledge of this attack, intended to pre-empt it with a counter strike of their own, dragging the Austrians along for the ride.

I was the Austro Russian commander so I guess you can lay the responsibility for poor planning and placement of troops on my shoulders. We didn't really discuss a plan so in effect, we fought three separate battles - another tactical error! Despite these problems, in the middle third of the game, the Austrians were in the ascendancy - with Julian doing a sterling job holding off Rick and Chris's combined forces - although they claimed they had hardly any more troops than Julian did ...… but it didn't look like that - you may judge for yourselves from the images below!

The Austrian commander - so me, in fact! My OG figures

Coalition left flank - Marks Perry plastic Prussians, facing off against Nick with some old school Russians

General view of the table - Austro Russians to the left. The aim of the game was to control the roads

Some of Barry's old style Minifigs Bavarians

More old style 1970's era 25mm Austrians, commanded by Julian

Rick commences the assault on our left wing, commanded by Julian

In the centre, my Sash and Sabre/Old Glory Austrians commence the advance towards Barry's Bavarians

The Russians comprised our right flank, commanded by Nick

 

More old school figures in action - Rick assaults Julian...

Supported by Chris in the Coalitions centre with the Poles - mostly Minifigs I believe

 

 

Barry managed to occupy this farm and held it for the entire game although his unit was carrying the maximum number of hits permissible for half the time

Just prior to lunch, I launched a massive assault on Barry's Bavarians - two columns head onto a line, plus a third column coming in from the flank - 9 dice to 3 needing a 5 or 6 for a hit.....and we got one each!

The Bavarians rushed in reinforcements to hit my stalled assault - and also failed - a draw!

A view from the Bavarian commanders position,

The Russians to this point had sheltered in the dead ground on the far side of a hill, whilst the Prussians had practised the art of masterly inactivity - but Nick got bored with that.....

A seemingly unstoppable tide of Bavarians mass to attack my Austrians in the centre

Meanwhile, off on our extreme left, Julian and Rick continued their tussle. Julian had a number of remarkable successes with the dice to keep himself in the game

As Chris moved forward with a mass of Polish infantry

At the other end of the table, Nicks Russian command charged into Marks leading units

The view from the receiving end of the Russian assault

And the view from behind the Poles moving inexorably towards Julian's second brigade

The end was nigh on our left flank as Rick finally started to get the upper hand

My cavalry ponced around in the centre, adding some class but little else to the affair

Close up of my OG Grenzers

Barry's Bavarian artillery occupied this position for the entire game and did good execution upon the Austrians

The old school Minifigs Russians assault the Perry plastic Prussians

Our left flank starts to disintegrate - where has that brigade of Austrians gone Julian?!

That looks like an awful lot of Poles mate!

The ongoing melee on our right wing

John commanded a small force of Russian Pavlovski Guards who came up between Nick and me to support both our attacks

Solid Austrian lines poured fire into the advancing Bavarians, causing their commander to lose heart temporarily

But all was saved by the charge of the Russian cavalry, who destroyed the Pavolvski guards then broke through onto one of my Austrian battalions and sept them away too

At the same time, the last of Julian's command were assaulted simultaneously from front and flank

Final view from the now empty left wing of the Austro Russian position - we called the game at this point, with our left wing demolished, the centre on the back foot and our attack on the right a stalemate with Mark's Prussians.

A great scenario and the fortunes of war swung in the balance more than once. Perhaps the pivotal action was my failure to gain victory over Barry's Bavarians in my 9 to 3 assault. If that had succeeded as the odds would have suggested it should, we may well have been able to collapse the Coalition centre at the halfway point of the game - but it wasn't to be!