Sunday 13 August 2017

Sunday Napoleonic Game

Today we played our regular Sunday game. This time it was a Napoleonic extravaganza with a force of  Bavarian and Wurtemberg force against and Austrian force.

The scenario was designed around a large, steep hill - Abbey Hill after a large abbey at its foot - that separated two roads. The objective of each side was to secure the opposing road, while not losing control of their's.

The Initial Austrian Deployment, the Right Flank 

And the Left Flank

I played on the Austrian side. We had two divisions: one (mine) contained 12 battalions, three batteries  and two regiments of cavalry; the other had six batteries, 12 battalions and a single cavalry regiment. In truth I didn't pay too much attention to the strength of our opponents, but they were relatively equal.

The Germans got the jump and  started up the hill. The Bavarian artillery, all six batteries, engaged three Austrian batteries in a counter battery battle that would last all day, while their infantry negotiated the difficult passage between two large woods.

The Bavarians start their manoeuvre around the woods, their artillery mass on the right.

Then the Austrians stole the initiative  and gained the crest of the hill first. Then they stormed forward and drove three of the Wurtemberg battalions from the hill, but could not drive off the critical fourth unit. Their attack had cost them some heavy losses. 

Above and below, the battle for the hill 



The Wurtemberg infantry regrouped and held the Austrians in check, while they brought up reinforcements. They then pressed forward and drove off one of the Austrian brigades. Things began to look very shaky for the Austrians on the hill.

The Wurtembergers reclaim the crest


On the left of the Austrian line the Bavarians slowly managed to get their lines formed and came forward. They made three separate attacks and where repulsed in all of them. The Austrians then counterattacked and drove the Bavarians back.

The Bavarians attack, but (below) are driven back



Suddenly the Bavarians rolled two bad activation rolls and six of their disrupted and shaken units quit the field. The Austrians then pushed further forward and secured the road, the objective of the game.



The Wurtemberg troops had secured part of the hill, but with out the Bavarian support had little chance driving off the two remaining Austrian brigades that secured the other road.

The Austrians claimed the day.

12 comments:

  1. Great report Mark - wish I had been there with my Austrians - as it turned out, my family were all out most of the day in any case, so they would hardly have missed me if I had been there ...sigh!

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    1. It was a good result for we Austrians...although I have to admit that after the dreadful week I had last week, anyone in front of me was going to suffer! We got a result in good time too - about four hours - not bad for four players and lots of troops. And for once cavalry hardly played a role apart from fluffing around on the flanks. We had one cavalry charge at the very end of the game.

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  2. A great looking game and always nice to see an Austrian win, something I always seem to struggle to do when playing them.

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    1. Yes it was fun. And in truth after the awful week I had last week (and is continuing this week) anyone who was in front of me was going to suffer no matter which side I commanded!!!!

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  3. Great looking game, what rules?

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    1. Thank you Mark. The rules are homegrown. If you go onto the Free Stuff tab above there is a link to them.

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  4. Your group has many terrific figure collections. Are the Napoleonics solely your own? Another handsome looking gaming table and I, too, am pleased to see the White Menace get a victory.

    Great job!

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    1. Actually none of those figures were mine. Most of the Austrians came from the estate of one of our departed comrades and the Wurtembergers from another comrade's estate. Only the Bavarians are owned by one of the current members.

      The next game, on the 27th, will be pretty much entirely from my collections, using the same terrain.

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  5. Wow, most impressive lines of battle, what a great looking game Mark, congrats to the Austrians!!

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    1. Thank you Phil. It is not often you hear of an Austrian victory!

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  6. Lovely looking game, figures and scenery, nice to see the Austrians win!
    Best Iain

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