As the penultimate game of our 1813 Napoleonic campaign organised by our campaign maestro Paul Nettle, a few of us gathered at my house for the game.

Each side was to comprise of 3 Divisions each of 1500pts, with severe restrictions on troop quality with a further mandate that each division was to have 4 conscript units, additionally for cavalry every other regiment had inferior horses… additionally each division was to hold at least 1 brigade in reserves (dice to arrive turn 6 onwards) which had to be at least 400pts.

We played on a table that was 14ft by 6ft, with essentially three crossroads on the centre line of the table, the left (from Russian perspective) was surrounded by woods, the centre was a small built up area, while the right was open.

Each division was to decide to either arrive via Forced March, normal march or flank attack.  The Russians chose a left flank attack, and the centre and right flank were to be normal March, while the french forced march to the centre objective and marched to the flanks… each mode of arrival meant your force which was split into Vanguard, Main and Reserve would arrive at varying times.

Luckily the Russian flank attack arrived in Turn 2 and was rewarded with the flank of a French Brigade which it took full advantage of… in no small part helped by Glenn’s consistent ability to roll quite abysmal dice – meanwhile the Russian forces started arrive in force on the right flank and push back the weak cavalry screen of the French. Whilst in the centre the French’s forced march was rewarded by them securing the built up area which they were to hold all game… forces continued to arrive over several turns with the Russians fully securing the right flank seeing off one brigade and severely mauling another brigade with the help of our superb cavalry general Derek.

The Russians secured the left objective with a Brigade of infantry, and were busily moving two fresh brigades to exploit the gap between the left and centre objectives which was weakly contested by the French.  Additionally three batteries (15 guns) were pounding the entrenched infantry in the central objective but too little affect.

Meanwhile on the right both sides had amassed considerable forces, with concern growing with the arrival of the French heavy cavalry brigade…

The Russian forces were fully committed – while the French still had some reserves – but at this point we called it a day, and on mutual agreement it was felt that the French had a good hold on teh centre objective, likewise the Russians securely held the left objective.  The right objective was held by the Russians yet there was string opposition building and while it woudl be touch and go it was thought the Russians could hold the position, especially if able to reinforce from the central division which seemed easily doable unless the French decided to advance out of the secure central objective – unlikely.

Overall a victory to the Russians, secured by a successful flank attack, superb leadership of our cavalry by Derek, and Glenns abysmal dice 🙂

Players:

Russian/Allies: Andy-Left Flank, Derek-Centre, Warren-right flank
French: Glenn-Left and right Flank, Paul-Central

Now to some images of the day… hopefully in some semblance of order – apologies for the poor quality image s- hopefully the others will provide some better images…: