Napolionic British v French AAR

My Dads British army got its first outing at the weekend as they proved to be a very stubborn army to crack in our weekends game of Blucher. We just fought a straight forward meeting engagement battle using 300 points aside. I choose for the first time from the 1812 army list, in which I pointed Napoleon and a Guard corp, a corp of conscript French line infantry and a corps of Allied troops in the form of my recently painted Saxons and also a Heavy Cavalry Corp accompanied by a couple of Hussar units.

I decided the main attack of my battle plan would be launched at the British centre and committed my young and middle guard divisions to achieving this objective, my Saxon Corp were there to support the attack if needed.

However the plan didn't exactly materialise as I had hoped and after some very effective volley and artillery fire from the British my attack faulted and the first wave of Guard troops suffered heavy casualties. 

Over on my left flank my Conscipt infantry held the flank hoping to invite the British into attacking them

With my first attack halted I had to use Napoleon to get some orders to revitalise the attack, making sure my Saxon brigades got into the action.

The second wave goes into the Stoic British line, although I was wearing the British line my attack for the most part was repulsed again,even my Dragoons failed and lost the combat against an unprepared British infantry unit. The green arrows tell the story as they show which units have been forced to retreat from the combat 

This some up how things were going, I charged my Hussars into the Highland division and been unprepared they had to reroll any successful rolls. This they did as you can see by the dice behind them by rolling 4 sixes! My poor hussars proceeded in turn to retreat away from this very determined bunch of Scotsmen

If you fail at first try again..as a second unit of Dragoons catch the British line infantry again unprepared,however the result was the same and again my Dragoons lost the melee. However I had know committed my final reserves in the form of two brigades of old guard who managed to finnally break the British resistance.

Near the fighting around the towns I managed to lose a two on one combat despite having a flank attack against the Brunswick brigade, Again my dad somehow managed to reroll his successful hit dice and still out score me.

Then things went from bad to worse as the British guards broke a young guard brigade.

 

My last sucess came to a end when my old guard were halted and forced to retreat from a British counter attack.

But not until they had managed to destroy another British line brigade, late sucess.

The British reserve cavalry move over to threaten the isolated French Guard troops.

Picton at the centre of the action on the British right. He proved to be a great addition as he successfully on a number of occasions managed to rally a point of Elan on the British line infantry who were coming under heavy artillery fire.

At the end of the game my attack had completely petered out. The British lines had proved to tough of a nut to crack on this occasion. My dads dice rolling for the first few exchanges in the firing had been deadly and he just couldn't seem to miss when we were engaged in combat. The game ended as a draw as neiher side had passed there break point but the British were definetly on top by this stage and if we had more time to p,at  they would have certainly claimed victory. Another very exciting game of Blucher!

Stand to Shildon Show demonstration game

On Sunday Robbie, my dad, myself and Colin made the short trip over to Shildon for the Stand to wargames show been held at the train Museum to do a demonstration game. Robbie had chosen to use his Republic of Venice  army against an invading Ottoman Turks, set during their war in Greece. The rules used were Pike and Shotte. Here are some photos of tne game,

One of my Turkish light cavalry commands

The massed ranks of pikes in centre of the Italian army 

My dads cavalry command, the Mercenary Gendarmes were to weak havoc against my light cavalry 

The cavalry battle unfolding, neither sides light cavalry could muster a hit between them with there bow fire so we ended up getting stuck into melee. The only sucess I had was when my 4year old daughter Peyton rolled the dice for me and won one of the combats followed by plenty of high fives and whooping from us. However this sucess was short lived when my daughter left and I was once again in charge of the dice rolling and things went from bad to worse

My personal favourite unit on display, there is so much character to the unit.

The fight in the centre of the battlefield,it seemed at this stage that both Robbie and Colin were having a contest on who could roll the most blunders!

After declining to follow orders and move for much of the game,the elite troops of the Turkish army (not that it takes much) finally move to support the centre, all a little to late.

The Turkish light cavalry fleeing the battle field.

The Italian centre gets to grips with the Turkish infantry

This unit of gendarmes,part of my dads cavalry command accounted for the collapse of my left flank, sweeping all that lay in front of them as this poor infantry unit found out tne hard way. 

So in the end my Dad and Robbie in command of the Italian forces took the victory. Collins flank had faired a lot better than I had managed but the Turkish losses had come at to great a cost. The Game looked very appealing to the eye and was fun to play. Hopefully everybody who attended the show or were just visiting the museum will have enjoyed the game to. 

Refighting the battle of Ramillies 1706...BIG GAME!

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Robbie, my Dad and myself headed up to Westerhope after been invited to take part in a refight of the battle of Ramillies,  Which was been organised by the chaps at  Westerhope wargames group (A big shout out to them for how well they had organised the day/game). I had been allocated a command of Austrians on the far left hand flank of the British & Allies army which was commandered overall by Robbie. My dad was on the opposing French army commandered by Charles and he was in charge of the Bavarians who had the tough task of holding the town from the opposing British command. Although the rules were totally new to me and a few others, the lads from Westerhope wargames group kept the game flowing with minimal fuss so the game was played in quick fashion with the usual banter  flowing between the opposing generals and in some occasions between our own generals :-) . Playing the game means I can't give you a full run down of the game but if you head to the following link/blogg address there is a AAR of the game by the games organisers.

http://westerhopewargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/battle-of-ramilles-1706.html

My command of Austrians facing off against the village of Taviers

My favourite figure amongst the 1000+ on display,I think he was a brigadier from the Bavarian command, beautifully painted and an exceptional model.

It was a fun day to be part of and although I didn't get to see to much action with my command and I'm still waiting to roll a 5 on that average dice (im sure my dice was cunningly swapped to a d3 from one of those dodgy French Generals before the game) I still enjoyed the game and the sheer spectecale of all those figures on the table was great! Hopefully il be able to cadge a invite next time a gaming day is organised up at Westerhope, oh and the cup cakes were lovely!!

Bavarians holding the buildings at Autre Eglise

Here are some pictures of the game unfolding throughout the morning and afternoon..

The massed armies at the start of the game looking from the French side..

Oh boy that's a hell of a lot of French cavalry...

But equally the British Army had just as much facing opposite the French cavalry..

My first exchanges as one of my Austrain regiments advanced on the village, I was sharp repulsed from combined musket and canister fire.

The French Generals all looking deep in thought trying to remember the orders they were given

The first of many cavalry clashes saw the first Melles of the game.

This is the chaotic scenes of the cavalry engagement late in the afternoon. After many back and forth engagements I think the British cavalry was starting to get the upper hand in the exchanges and starting to exploit holes in the French cavalry position.

The British infantry on the far right manage to cross the beck and start to drive the defenders back through the town, the fighting was to be hard around this town.

The main line of French and Bavarian infantry engage a fire fight with the British & allies infantry.

The Irish troops defended Ramaillies for the hole game fending off the assaults from the leading allied infantry

A picture of the table at lunch time shows the French line still holding strong across the battlefield. Many a office had fallen as  casualties in the fire fight from both sides and the French had lost practically all their artillery.

The smoke tells its own story of the fire fight around Ramillies 

Late in the game my Narven regiment pushed forward in support of the cavalry attack and forced the withdrawal of a French infantry regiment after a fire fight before suffering the same fate from the supporting French infantry

My dads Command had suffered a serious bloody nose in defending the town from the British infantry, but the British were unable to press home there advantage and failed to occupy the town and fully cross the beck before the day finished 

analysing the battlefield at the end of the day, Robbie is in no doubt of the victory for the British and offers theFrench terms for their surrender however the umpires saw differently and a draw was declared, a fair result in the end after some hard fighting... 

Thanks again to the Westerhope group for organising the game and the invite, Great day :-)