Battle of Gilly, 1815 Belgium

It goes without saying that gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult endeavor to accomplish these days. That said, our small group did get a game of General d'Armee in last Sunday (the day the store is closed). We played on the large 6' x 12' table which made it easier to social distance while gaming.

The scenario was inspired by the rearguard action on June 15th 1815 near the town of Gilly, between Pirch II division and Lefol’s division from Vandamme's III corps leading the french advance. While control of the town was helpful (cavalry and artillery could only cross here), the Prussian objective was to hold off the French for an unknown number of turns. The French needed to aggressively engage and disperse two of the Prussian brigades to claim victory.

The Prussian 28th Regiment awaits the assault of the French 37th Regiment.

Holding the village was our best regiment, the 6th Infantry Regiment.
Well behind the village, we put the Prussian 2nd Westphalian Landwehr Regiment in reserve.

The Prussian left was held by the Cavalry brigade comprised of the 2nd Dragoon regiment,
a Westphalian Landwehr Cavalry regiment and a 6lb horse battery.

The French right flank with the five battalion of 12th and 56th Ligne,
supported by the 1st & 4th Hussar Regiments and a 6lb Horse Battery.

The four battalions of the 37th and 64th Ligne attack on the French left.
Behind them is the Empress Dragoon Regiment of the Old Guard!

It is difficult to see but the five battalions of the 15th Léger and 23rd Ligne have begun their assault on the village held by 1st battalion of the 6th Prussian Regiment. The veteran fusilier battalion of the 6th Regiment was in support just to the rear of the village.

It should be noted that this was the point in the game that a major fight for the village started. The initial French assault ended in a draw, but both sides added more battalions to the fight before the Prussians had to retire...

The 6th regrouped and immediately counter attacked ... which once again led to a drawn combat. And again both sides threw more battalions into the fray, until the worn French had to retreat leaving the village once more in Prussian hands. The hour long fight involved nine battalions of infantry between both sides.

While 1st/37th Ligne was heavily mauled by the fighting in front of the stream,
the other French battalions were able to force back the battalions of the 28^th Infantry Regiment.

Reduced, the remnants of the 28th regiment reform on the small rise with orders to stop the onslaught of the French ...
they failed and were dispersed from the battlefield!

Though it was at this moment that the Prussian high command felt the Major General Pirch II had delayed the French long enough and allowed his division to begin an orderly retreat from the battlefield claiming victory over the French.

All in all another good game of GdA, and we are already planning our next battle (La Rothiere 1814). We have played so many games now that we are starting to add in house rules to "fix" issues that crop up. For this game the terrain rules (very lacking in GdA) caused some grief and delays in the game, so we are looking at the terrain rules in General de Brigade and incorporating some of them into our GdA games.