Tonight's game had a rather satisfactory outcome, thanks to Lau rolling some of the worst dice I have ever seen!
The scenario was based VERY LOOSELY on the battle of Putulsk, but substituting Austrians for Russians and ignoring the snow and fog.
The Austrian defenders had the following bases:
3 x Veteran infantry SK2
12 x Trained infantry SK1
1 x Elite Light Cav (Hussars)
2 x Veteran Light Cav (Uhlans & Chevauxlegers)
1 x Elite Heavy Cavalry (Cuirassiers)
4 x Foot batteries
These units could be divided freely between 3 commanders
The French attackers had the following:
9 x Veteran infantry SK2
2 x Elite Light Cav
2 x Foot Batteries
The French also had 3 commanders
Rough forces were:
French: 22,500 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and 30 guns
Austrian: 37,500 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 56 guns
The terrain consisted of a horseshoe shaped ridge with the "points" on the Austrian side of the field but the central ridge being closer to the French. The Austrians deployed first and had to hold at least a part of the ridge from 10am until 8pm. The Austrian commanders were all classed as "cautious" until 2pm to reflect their poor knowledge of the actual French strength and to keep the scenario interesting.
The Austrians loaded their left flank and centre with most of their infantry and all of their reserve artillery. The right flank was held by the cavalry and around 5,000 Grenzers forming a sort of mega-advanced guard force.
The French opted to send two divisions agains the Austrian right, while taking and holding the centre of the ridge with a third division and the reserve artillery. Light cavalry brigades were attached to the leftmost and rightmost divisions respectively.
The French plan of attack was to strike hard at the Austrian right while holding steady in the centre ready to exploit any opportunity or cover any retreat. In summary, this went well. The Austrian right chose to spontaneously withdraw early in the game due to a lack of clear command and control from the CinC. It was robustly pursued by the French and torn apart in a frenzied attack by the veteran infantry supported by hussars. This allowed part of the French left to redirect towards the centre and combine with the third French division to annihilate the Austrian centre. At this stage the Austrians withdrew from the field.
Our after-action summary was that the Austrians allowed the French to get away with a very cheeky attack through a combination of poor dice rolling and a less than ideal deployment. We plan to refight the scenario next week with the benfit of hindsight and we'll see if the Austrans can do any better.
Thanks to Lau for taking his defeat with such good grace :-)
cheers
The scenario was based VERY LOOSELY on the battle of Putulsk, but substituting Austrians for Russians and ignoring the snow and fog.
The Austrian defenders had the following bases:
3 x Veteran infantry SK2
12 x Trained infantry SK1
1 x Elite Light Cav (Hussars)
2 x Veteran Light Cav (Uhlans & Chevauxlegers)
1 x Elite Heavy Cavalry (Cuirassiers)
4 x Foot batteries
These units could be divided freely between 3 commanders
The French attackers had the following:
9 x Veteran infantry SK2
2 x Elite Light Cav
2 x Foot Batteries
The French also had 3 commanders
Rough forces were:
French: 22,500 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and 30 guns
Austrian: 37,500 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 56 guns
The terrain consisted of a horseshoe shaped ridge with the "points" on the Austrian side of the field but the central ridge being closer to the French. The Austrians deployed first and had to hold at least a part of the ridge from 10am until 8pm. The Austrian commanders were all classed as "cautious" until 2pm to reflect their poor knowledge of the actual French strength and to keep the scenario interesting.
The Austrians loaded their left flank and centre with most of their infantry and all of their reserve artillery. The right flank was held by the cavalry and around 5,000 Grenzers forming a sort of mega-advanced guard force.
The French opted to send two divisions agains the Austrian right, while taking and holding the centre of the ridge with a third division and the reserve artillery. Light cavalry brigades were attached to the leftmost and rightmost divisions respectively.
The French plan of attack was to strike hard at the Austrian right while holding steady in the centre ready to exploit any opportunity or cover any retreat. In summary, this went well. The Austrian right chose to spontaneously withdraw early in the game due to a lack of clear command and control from the CinC. It was robustly pursued by the French and torn apart in a frenzied attack by the veteran infantry supported by hussars. This allowed part of the French left to redirect towards the centre and combine with the third French division to annihilate the Austrian centre. At this stage the Austrians withdrew from the field.
Our after-action summary was that the Austrians allowed the French to get away with a very cheeky attack through a combination of poor dice rolling and a less than ideal deployment. We plan to refight the scenario next week with the benfit of hindsight and we'll see if the Austrans can do any better.
Thanks to Lau for taking his defeat with such good grace :-)
cheers
Hi
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog look forward each week for nest installment. Have decided to re-base a french infantry and cavalry corp, this will give me the entire french army at waterloo.
The articles on rules has been interesting, is there any chance of a copy.
Keep it up
Ian
PS, any chance of posting some pictures.
Thanks Ian,
ReplyDeleteRules-wise I would recommend that you download Fast Play Grande Armee and buy a copy of Polemos napoleonics; use either, or mix the bits of each that you like. I'd rather not distribute copies of my hybrid rules as they draw so heavily on these other sets. If they become substantialy different from the existing rules over time, then i might change my mind, but for now I'd like to respect other peoples' hard work.