WRG Scenario #16: Reinforcements in defence (2) - off the table

We held the second of our Newark Irregulars reunion events last night at the LetsXcape Together boardgame cafe in town.

As I'd sort of warmed up the 6mm napoleonics with a couple of solo games and was happy that I still more or less understood my rules, these seemed an excellent way of providing a game that was easy to transport, would adapt to several player if needed but would not depend on more than two, and which would give the feel of a "proper" wargame with an objective, manoeuvring, planning and managing chaos.

Laurence and James were both up for a game so I looked for something suitable in the WRG scenario book and settled on #16:

We put the Austrians on the defensive with a rearguard force defending the ridgeline and awaiting reinforcements. Attacking was a provisional French corps of two infantry divisions each with an attached brigade of light cavalry and a division of cuirassiers.

The French manoeuvre around the central hill. View from the south-west.

Late in the day and the French sit atop both hills with victory in sight. View from the south.

The French initially struggled to gain the initiative and had to manage their advance with fewer command points than they's normally anticipate. It took them around three and a half hours to get in position to attack the central ridge and anxiety rose as they only had eight hours in total to clear the high ground. To add to their worries the Austrian reinforcements had begun to arrive, including cuirassiers and elite hussars.

At this stage I did forget to randomise the arrival point of the Austrians which might have livened things up even more...

Fortune began to favour the French from this point on. Seizing sufficient initiative to launch their attacks, both infantry divisions plunged into the Austrian infantry brigade atop the main hill and sent them reeling back, capturing their guns in the process. The Austrian reinforcements were just a shade too late to be able to stop this and there was no realistic prospect of recapturing the lost terrain. All that was now to be decided was the margin of French victory.

With the clock ticking-down the cuirassiers and horse artillery swept away the grenzers and line regiment on the northern hill, ensuring the French had captured all of the high ground with more than an hour of daylight remaining.

As befitting history, the Austrians saved a modicum of honour by launching a mass attack by hussars, supported by infantry that destroyed a French infantry regiment but this was far too little and far too late.

In the end the French victory was overwhelming, however with just a few dice rolls going differently their progress could have been far harder. If playing again I might have reduced the French strength by removing one light cavalry and one infantry unit. When I convert the OOBs from the book into my rules I tend to count light infantry units as just another infantry regiment for the French, however I suspect the book intents light infantry to be weaker than line infantry (and this tend to be the case for the Austrians) so the French might be a bit over powering when on the attack in a finely balanced scenario.

This worked well for as a cafe-based game, with a corps-sized action being completed in around 2 hours including set-up and a bit of chatting, even with players unfamiliar with the rules. All good fun...unless you are Austrian.

French infantry and artillery capture the central hill.

The last hurrah, as Austrian hussars plunge into a French infantry brigade to prove a point.

The wider view shows how insignificant the hussars' counterattack is, as the better part of a French corps continues to advance beyond the ridge line despite heavy losses.