Sunday Game - A Napoleonic Tussle

 As mentioned at the end of my previous post, Sunday saw seven of us (plus umpire) meet at Barrys place for a Napoleonic scenario created by Paul. The Austro/Russians would take on the French and their Bavarian allies, in the Valley of Death, the sole aim of the game being to "write down" (in Monty's famous phrase) the enemy forces. A head-on clash then, with points awarded against each side for lost units. Did I discover a match winning formula for the Austrians to take on and overcome the Imperial Guard....what do you think? Place your bets and then read on to see what eventuated!

Die Kaiserlich-königliche Armee deploys in the centre, between two wings of Russian troops, commanded by Mark to my left and John to my right

16 battalions of infantry (large units of 8 bases each - 6 is normal in our rules) supported by two regiments of Uhlans, two batteries of field artillery and one horse battery

The opposition - half of the Imperial Guard force, commanded by Chris (more would arrive later)

The Duchy of Warsaw troops led by Adrian, opposite John to my right

Marks lovely Perry plastic Russian force to my left - opposed by both Rick (French) and Barry (Bavarians)

Rick trying to create a flank for his cavalry, where none existed!

The Austrians advance, lines for fire power, supported by columns for security (the Austrians have A LOT of negatives in our rules - as do the Russians - so its always a struggle to work out how to use them effectively...)

The Second Brigade of six battalions also advances

On move three or four, I got to choose a "chit" from several Paul had in his hand - some were blank, others had reinforcements listed - happily, I drew three more battalions of Austrian infantry and an additional battery of artillery. They moved onto the heights in the centre of our position, where the existing three batteries were already deployed

The Polish cavalry advance to strike at the Russians to my right 

Whilst their infantry and guns creep forward too

Here come the Middle Guard against the first line of Austrians

As the Guard cavalry lines up against a single unit of Austrian lancers....

Behind which, Austrian lines anchored by squares await

Jaegers (part of the reinforcement) move up to support the gun line on the hill

The Poles continue their inexorable advance

As do their lancers

When the charge came, the Uhlans counter charged and won the first round but were then overwhelmed, driven back and destroyed. The second regiment took multiple hits from artillery fire and then rolled badly for their activation and departed the field...2 points against the Austro Prussian allies ....

Polish Lancers (no, ACTUAL Polish lancers, not the Lancers of the Guard!) pushed back one of Johns Russian columns but then had to retire

The Austrian line holds against the Middle Guard - for now!

As the cavalry pulls back to reform, the Polish infantry continues to move towards the Russians

This is a saving throw I did - I said at the time, its an indication of how poorly you are doing in a game, when you celebrate NOT being killed, rather than inflicting damage! Chris had just achieved 8 hits on me, and I needed 4 or better to save - all duly saved! The other players all insisted I record the event.

Half of my right-side brigade has been whittled away by this stage, although the Middle Guard were a pretty spent force too

My left-side brigade, supported by some venerable Minifigs Russians, face off against Barrys Bavarians

Our centre (my position) is almost gone! Mark was rushing Russian reinforcements over from my left to try to plug the gap

An awful lot of French cavalry with nothing between it and my four artillery batteries!

After spending several hours glaring at each other, the French and Russians to my left (Rick and Mark respectively) finally moved forward and engaged in some combat

About all that is left of my 16 battalions of Austrian infantry

The score at this point - I probably contributed about 12 points to the "Allied" loss total (higher number is BAD here!)

Poles and Russians go head to head to my right

The French advance on my guns - the light infantry are sacrificed to prevent me firing at the cavalry massing for a charge behind them

Despite the combined fire of two battalions, the right most gun did not succumb immediately (guns are harder to hit and easier to save than other targets) The left most gun also drove off the cavalry unit by putting so many hits on them as they came in, they could not complete their charge. Further to the left though, another French cavalry unit (Horse Grenadiers) crashes into Russian infantry in column, driving them back and breaking through onto a second column (Russians cannot form square in an emergency in our rules)

The Bavarians, having had a brigade break due to the damage inflicted on it by the Austrian infantry, get their revenge with a combined cavalry and infantry attack on the line between two squares. Miraculously, they only won the combat by a single point, so the line was driven back rather than routed

Russian cavalry counter charges French infantry to support their infantry colleagues in column

A final image of the confused fighting to my right, as the Poles and Russians struggle for mastery

Well, I DIDNT come up with a cunning plan to make the Austrians decent opposition for the French, and they were wiped out virtually to a man. I think the final score was something like -32 points to us versus -18 points to the French, and as with the earlier score line, I imagine my command contributed the majority of lost units. And it wasn't as though I can blame the dice, I rolled pretty well for both firing and saving throws, although my main opponent Chris did likewise - at one point, I scored a total of 11 hits on a unit, and he saved 9 of them...what can you do??! I still don't know how to use the Austrians effectively - and particularly not against Chris, undoubtedly our most consistently successful commander, particularly when he was leading the bloody Imperial Guard!  At one point, I rolled a 6 for the activation, and one of the Austrian lines STILL quit the field -- that's how bloody useless they are! (I only persevere playing with them because they look so nice and I have a reasonable sized collection of them) I suspect if I had been facing Rick or Adrian, I would not have suffered such a bloodletting! Oh well, still a better way to spend 6 hours on a Sunday than most others....but its not fun to suffer such a heavy defeat! 

Stand by for a Kaiserlich-königliche Armee parade in the days to come!