Steve (French) and I (Russian) played a small game of 2000pts a side using Gdb Deluxe Rules for Napoleonics on an 8ft by 6ft table at our clubs Sunday gaming session.
I chose to go with better quality troops than I normally go with so I had some Vets and a few Elite regiments – opposed to my 2nd Line and Line units that I usually take… as always my Russians fielded a few guns – in this case 21!
Overall I had 4 brigades as follows:
- Brigade 1: 5 Inf Bn and 1 Heavy Artillery
- Brigade 2: 4 Inf Bn and 1 Light Artillery
- Brigade 1: 4 Inf Bn and 1 Light Artillery
- Brigade 1: 2 Lancer units and 1 Hussar, and a half horse battery of 3 guns
The french opposing me were (approx):
- Brigade 1: 4 Inf Bn
- Brigade 2: 4 Inf Bn
- Brigade 3: Artillery Brigade – 20 Guns overall!
- Brigade 4: 2 units of Cuirassier
- Brigade 5: 5 Units of Light Cav (1 *18 Lancers and 4*12 Lights)
Steve had clearly put a lot of thought into his game plan and it showed from the outset – where he placed his heavy cav in reserve, and massed his light cav on my right flank, the artillery were not quite a massed battery but were deployed to command the central open area of the battlefield and effectively stopped my largest infantry brigade form doing anything all game!
Anyhow – survey the deployment – I knew I had problems as clearly teh massed artillery was going to be a huge problem – his cavalry outnumbered mine – but I knew I had some good quality lancers (elite) and therefore being on engage orders I took them forward but the result was indecisive – following that Steve pressed forward with more fresh Light cCav and after several turns carried my right Flank an d then committed his reserves and infantry to come and take my lonely brigade on my right flank..
Meanwhile my left flank advanced to the farmstead – whereby I had failed to remember to tactical march my troops turn 1 and lost the advantage of occupying the farmstead – so I rolled my guns up and blasted away nearly all game at his column and skirmishers but to little effect until the last turn where his skirmish screen dispersed.. I gained foothold in one building – but was constantly repulsed from the other and failed to charge home against a french column in the open… Overall the farmstead remained contested throughout the game.
Lastly in the centre Steve rolled forward his light batteries and concentrated fire on my lonesome 12IB battery – who stoically took teh pounding turn after turn and managed to pass every test thrown at them – at the end of the game they were down to 3 guns from 6! A mentioned the Infantry commanding this section did take soem punishment from one or two of the batteries on a few turns but could do little else as Order changes were hard to come by – and to be honest – although I threw them in for the last few turns I knew they had little chance of reaching the guns – as to my immediate front were 7 guns (4 and 3) and that woudl make a mess of any units moving towards them – two or more rounds of canister showed me that at the end…
Overall in real terms I would have withdrew my forces half way through the battle – but as gamers we fought on – until we ran out of time (approx 6 to 7 hours gaming) – my right flank was in peril, I had committed my central forces to see what would happen (my expectations were met – they died to artillery fire!) – on the left the farmstead remained contested…
A superb game, where I was out deployed, and Steves reading up of Napoleonic tactics throughout the week clearly paid off. Well done Steve a solid victory to the French.
We are planning a return game – in the coming weeks.
Anyhow – not to many pictures – as I kept forgetting to take them… enjoy.
