Saturday 22 November 2014

French v Austrians battle

With the new arrival of my daughter Aimee in the last couple of weeks my wargaming has come to a understandable standstill so I have taken the opportunity to put the pictures up from our second Napolionic game played abit back while I have a moment from nappy changing and burping.


The game as usual was used using Blackpowder rules pitting my French against my dads Austrians. For this game I had a new Brigade in the shape of four battalions of Old Guard with a 12pdr gun and  attached regiment of guard horse. Also new was a brigade of three Hussairs units. The game ended in a draw but at the end I was just starting to break the Austrian centre as the Guard broke the Austrian Grenadiers. Both our armies lost a brigade each with a couple of other brigades wavering on the brink on each side. Here are the pictures of the action.

French line infantry and Old Guard in attack columns ready to close the distance with the enemy.

The Austrian Grenadiers move forward to face the columns of french after the Austrian line infantry blundered and moved or fled as I put it back towards the table edge. Maybe the sight of such glorious columns put the frightenedrs on them!

My new Hussairs cover the French left wing

The French columns make progress all be it slowly across the open ground, despite failing orders been in a French attack column allows you to make a single move.

Austrian Ulans and Hussairs sweep around to threaten the French right flank.

Austrian artillery fire round shot into the advancing French columns aiming to disrupt the advance to little effect.

As the French line infantry change formation into lines to engage in a fire fight the French Cuirrasiers move from there hidden position behind the hill to threaten the Austrian infantry. This order I miss judged and ended up moving them far to far and into point blank range of the Austrian infantry..oops 

Although it did look impressive.....

On the right flank the fight for the village starts as the Jäger occupy the buildings the French skirmishes try to flush them out with no joy.

The French Cuirassiers get away with their error as the Austrian musket fire is well poor and cause little in the way of casualties. Seen the French Cuirrasiers makes their Austrian counterparts have a rush of blood and a blunder sees them storm three moves towards the French heavy cavalry.

The massed ranks of infantry engage in a deadly fight for the centre of the battlefield.
The French view,

And the Austrian view
The French Currasiers announce a charge against the infantry who form square so the Currasiers pull back away from the square, who are left to the mercy of the French guns on the hill at short range, the result was the Austrian Square breaking. The Austrian Hussairs were also destroyed by a second unit of Currasiers before reforming back behind the a french line.

After the French line Brigade was broken by the Austrian Grenafiers, the Old guard charged home and after a couple rounds fighting broke the Grenadiers brigade.


With the Austrian centre weakened the French Chasseur a Cheval move into the support of the old Guard brigade.

The Austrian Yager managed to hold onto the buildings as a French attack column failed to drive them out after rounds of fighting. The threat of the Austrian Dragoons forces a unit of French infantry into square as the French right flank comes under increasing pressure although they do have a brigade of Dragoons in support behind the hill. The Austrian light cavalry brigade retreats behind the Austrian infantry lines after been shot at continually by tne French artillery after failing assault the gun position.

The end battlefield with both sides fighting to a stalemate. The French maybe just had the edge after the sucess in the centre of the battlefield.


8 comments:

  1. Great report thanks.

    Do you use any special rules etc for the Austrians? such as bn mass etc?

    Steve

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    1. Hi Steve,

      The only special rule we use at the moment is the Low decisiveness (hesitant) to all Russian brigade commanders. This means if you roll 3 moves for your command roll you have to reroll York dice and stand by your second score, although we always allow a single move if the reroll results in a fail. However we are keen to see what the rules will be in the future Blackpowder supplement release for the Austrians to add these to our games

      Cheers
      Neil

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    2. Sorry Austrian Brigade commanders not Russian lol

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    3. For the Austrians do you allow integral skirmishers? ie mixed formation? Im not sure whether to allow the Austrians to operate like this, as their old fashioned tactics seem to imply that they rarely actually did it!

      The other thing ive been thinking about is some sort of way to portray the Bn Mass. Its kind of similar to a square, but can continue advancing, even in the face of cavalry, although it would make them horribly vulnerable to being shot at, by artillery and by musketry.

      I have thought about making the Bn mass similar to an attack column, but with the same defensive benefits as a square, but with half the movement rate of a normal attack column. Shooting is reduced to 2 dice from the front quarter, and its a dense target. I dont know...?

      Steve

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  2. Good to see another grand Napoleonic bash ... and using rules that I know, understand and like! Better luck next time - although getting a draw against your Dad (wily old fox that he is) is probably no mean achievement!

    Davy

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    1. Hi Davey

      Thanks for the comments, I'm slowly starting to get to grips with the period and I'm currently getting quite a few Blackpowder games under my belt so hopefully il get that first victory with the French soon over the old man 😄

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  3. Although they are allowed to by the rule book we have decided to not allow the Austrians integral skirmishes as you quite rightly point out its not really a tactic of the Austrians, though for the Austrian Yager rifleman we do give them the sharpshooter rule. My dad has been thinking about different ways to represent the Battalion mass but ideas from other rule sets just don't fit with Blackpowder. Hopefully when the supplement from Blackpowder comes out with the Austrians in it they will have a rule to cover this.

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  4. Absolutely superb game! Looks amazing!
    Mike B

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