Waterloo bicentennial game

After 11 hours of gaming, multiple hours of setup and cleaning it's finally over. Napoleon has conquered Brussels and is ready to face Austria and Russia.

We played our Waterloo bicentennial game last Saturday at the club with nearly all of the historical  forces present at the battlefield. The French were still missing some infantry and the Allies were missing  a few Regiments of cavalry. Still we managed roughly 6000 miniatures on roughly 11 square metres of gaming  area. Quite a bit of lead to be pushed around.

The battle commenced with both Reille and D'Erlon advancing their forces towards the Allied lines. After some fierce cannon fire La Haye Sainte was abandoned by the KGL troops occupying it. Sensing his chance D'Erlon immediately ordered his troops to occupy it only to see the lead Division swiftly move towards Houguemont and then retreating through the right flank of Reille's division (The wonder of two consecutive blunders in Black Powder). This was enough to allow the Brits to send in fresh troops to occupy the important farmhouse. Battle for it's possession would tie down one French brigade for much of the rest of the battle and finally lead to their destruction as well as that of the defending KGL troops.

On the French left Reille pushed back the British skirmish screen around Houguemont before ordering an assault on the farm itself. As at La Haye Sainte it would last for most of the battle itself before French forces would emerge victorious.

On the French right dire news reached Napoleon's ears. Blücher's advance guard had showed up around Plancenoit. Lobau was sent in to slow their advance. With the Prussians slowly making gains first the Young Guard was sent in to reinforce the beleaguered defenders and finally the Guards Chasseurs of the Old and Middle Guard were forced to lend their hand as well.

With the battle for La Haye Sainte in full swing the rest of D'Erlons corps advanced against the British lines slowly pushing the first troops away. This would prove to be a costly affair with both the Brits and French suffering heavily. Most of D'Erlons fighting power was spent and only the timely arrival of the Guard Grenadiers would save them and prevent the British troops from moving to reinforce their right flank and threaten Reille.

Even if D'Erlons attack proved costly he would in the end succeed in his objective to tie down one British flank and draw reinforcements there. While the battle was raging between La Haye Sainte and Papelotte Milhaud ordered his cavalry into attack through the ground between Houguemont and La Haye Sainte. The cavalry attack itself was of little effect, but forced the defending British troops to form squares. With them tied down French infantry was free to begin their work. Little by little the British right flank began to crumble and as the remnants of D'Erlons corps pushed through and captured the crossroads leading to Brussels there was little that the defenders could do. Even with the Prussians making gains in Plancenoit it was too little too late as the Allies had lost most of their cavalry while the French still had some fresh Regiments and controlled the important road to Brussels.

All in all a great game even if the result was not historically correct. Casualties were massive on both sides with the French finally gaining an upper hand. The French had managed to capture La Haye Sainte and Houguemont and cut the British army in two at separating them with the Brussels  road. Pursuit would be hot as the French had some light cavalry regiments fresh and waiting for the retreat to commence. With little allied cavalry left the pursuit would be merciless. Blücher on the other hand had most of his forces intact and could retreat towards Prussia in relative safety.

 D'Erlons Corps ready to commence attack.

  French left wing under Reille

 The Allied right flank hidden out of sight and in cover.

 D'Erlon commences the attack on La Haye Sainte and Papelotte

A firefight erupts between French infantry and British skirmishers screening Houguemont.

La Haye Sainte is cleared, but alas the French brigade  commanders misinterpret their orders and move towards Houguemont and finally retreat through Reille's corps when they realize their error. This  would provide the Allies with  enough time to reoccupy the farmhouse.

 The first French troops reach Allied  lines.

 Milhaud's cavalry moving through the fields ready to attack.

 The Allied right flank forms squares to protect themselves from the attacking French heavy cavalry.

 The Union and Household Brigades had some command issues, before they could start their attack on the French lines.

 Surprisingly even when failing to form squares some of the French infantry hold up in the face of the cavalry charge. Just enough to allow for Kellermann to come to their aid.

 French infantry bearing down on the British squares.

 Fighting in and around Plancenoit rages on.

 The Guard arrives! And this time it does not recoil even though it ends up being attacked in the side by Hannoverian Landwehr.

 With French cavalry breaking through the lines to threaten the Allied rear things are really starting to look dire for Wellington.

 The Brussels road is completely in French control and cavalry moves in to secure the area.

 

 Blücher has managed to take half of Plancenoit, but it's too late to save Wellington.

Russia 1812: First Battle of Polotsk

Clearing up some backlog from my silence with a few pictures from our third Russia 1812 campaign game. This time back on the northern front with the First Battle of Polotsk. Not many pictures here as I simply forgot to take pics in the heat of the battle, but more can be found at Napoleon Complex Gaming with a more indepth AAR as well.

The real battle took place after Oudinot had retreated to Polotsk after the Battle of Klyastitzy. General Wittgenstein attacked a Bavarian force that was slightly separated from the main French body in an attempt to destroy it before the French could react. In the heavy fighting that took place Marshal Oudinot himself was wounded and the losses to the Bavarian troops were very heaving including the loss of much of their General Staff. In the end the French forces would prevail, but the attack by Wittgenstein in effect put an end to the northern advance towards St. Petersburg.

Our game was slightly altered as we didn't really have too many Bavarians in our collections and my freshly painted Swiss and Croatian troops yearned for battle. Historically the  Swiss 9th Division was mainly a reserve force during the battle being stationed across the river in the town of Polotsk separated from the main battle that raged around the town of Spas which the Bavarians defended.

The battle concentrated around the small town of Spas with the Russian and Swiss forces being engaged in a constant point blank firing and close quarters fighting. Casualties were heavy on both sides with the opposing divisions in the area being in effect decimated. The game ended with both sides having to withdraw due to heavy losses. Being on the French side I naturally considered it a moral victory as my Swiss troops were able to hold the Russian bear at bay.

 

 

Russia 1812: Battle of Gorodeczna

We played the second game of our Russia 1812 campaign last week which saw the reluctant combined Austrian and Saxon armies attacking a Russian rearguard in support of the main French advances which were threatened by the attacking forces of General Tormassov in the south.

Another report of the game can be found through the blog of a fellow club member Jaakko: Napoleon Complex Gaming

Historically Tormassov had defeated Reynier's Saxon Corps in the south and threatened the French flank. To counter this Napoleon ordered Austrian Prince Schwarzenberg to unite with Reynier and defeat Tormassov. Schwarzenberg had avoided battle with the Russians, but was now forced to fight. Tormassov gradually retreated south and deployed his men across a marshy plateau close to Gorodeczna.

Our game saw the combined Saxon and Austrian army try to push through the defending Russians and attacking with roughly a 2-to-1 advantage in manpower. The Saxons were deployed on the far right conducting a flanking attack, while two colums of Austrians were to attack the Russians over a river front.

The game began with the Saxons slowly advancing towards the defending Russians. The plan was to tie down the Russian flank before Seighenthal's and Frimont's divisions would attack over the river. However due to the slow advance of the Saxons an attack on the Russian lines was started by both Austrian commanders before the Russian flank was occupied.

In the center Jägers forced a crossing over the river and deployed protecting the attack columns. Initial assaults weren't immediately successful and a bloody hand-to-hand combat began. On the left flank Frimont's attack wasn't making headway with one brigade being routed almost immediately.

 

Relentless Austrian attacks were making headway with Nasimov's Russians starting to waver due to heavy casualties from close combat and close range firing from Austrian Jägers and infantry. Their flank was also threatened with Austrian light cavalry making a flanking move ready to run down any retreating Russians. Saxons on the right flank also finally made contact with the Russians and started grinding them down. Saxon and Russian cavalry made each other effectively useless through repeated assaults and counter-assaults.

After hours of heavy fighting a breakthrough was finally made in the Austrian center with Nasimov's whole division routing and creating an opening for Austrian cavalry to exploit. However due to communication failures they were not immediately in position to do so and had to maneuver into position.

To salvage the situation Russian dragoons were positioned in the middle to hinder the Austrian advance and prevent a complete breakthrough. Heavy fighting ensued between the cavalry of both sides that saw both taking heavy casualties.

At this point we had gotten through the 10 turn limit and stopped the game. The Russians had managed to slow down Austrian and Saxon advances, but had taken fairly high losses and were under the risk of being encircled. Russian left flank was in dire trouble and their center was destroyed. On the right flank most of their troops were in fairly good condition, but needed retreat to avoid being encircled. Austrian troops on the left flank had taken heavy losses and were unable to continue an assault. In the middle most troops had taken casualties, but were still mostly combat effective. Roughly half of the Austrian cavalry was still completely fresh and ready to start causing havoc in the Russian rear. Finally on the right flank the Saxons started to really make contact and were in position to push through defending Russians and close the pocket before they could retreat.

Another fun game, though the deployment of the Saxons meant that they couldn't really get to grips with the Russians before the end of the game. The first shots fired between Russians and Saxons was on round 6 if I remember correctly, so things could have gone very differently had they been in combat earlier like they were historically.

Next up the first battle of Polotsk where my Swiss and Croat troops will make their debut.