Battle of Essling 1813

This week Bob created and organized our Black Powder game ... the battle was loosely based off the Battle of Essling but set in 1813!

The idea was that French side held a couple of buildings at one end of the battlefield. The allies would attack the buildings directly but would also have another force driving down the flank, so the French would have to decide how many brigade to release to hold up the allied flank attack.

As I partook in the game, don’t really have an idea how the whole battle progressed. I can say that my Russian brigade got stuck in with Dave and Kens French and was the first brigade to break in the game … even though they were all “ubber” stubborn troops!

Here are some pics of the game

Austrian battalions march on the Essling church

Prussians, that filled in for Austrians, but used Russians stats!

Pats Russian brigade moves forward on my right flank.

Italians hold the wall and burnt out church

Württembergers backing up the Italian brigade.

The Russians and French collide

 

More Pictures!

 

 

Battle of Kalmberg Heights

I once again brought out the troops for a Napoleonic Black Powder game Wednesday night. This game was slightly different in that most of the gamers had not played Black Powder nor even Horse and Musket era gaming. I chose the forces that were around the Kalmberg Heights during the battle of Leipzig. For the French this meant most of them came from MacDonalds XI corps and for the Allies Klenau IV Corps with some Russian support from the nearby Russian I corps. Click on Battle of Kalmberg Heights to download the scenario in pdf format. In this game Chris and Erik commanded the allies while Wade and I commanded the French.

Allied

To:          FML Mayer, 3^rd Division

From:      GdK Klenau, IV Corps

Feldmarschall,

 On the morrow we attack the frogs; your command shall position itself on the corps left flank. Your objective is to drive the French from the high ground to your front, known as the Kalmberg Heights. Prinz Gorchakov’s Russian I corps will be to the left of your command and he has graciously ordered GM von Helfreich Division to assist you in taking the heights.

Generall der Kavallerie Klenau, Commanding

 

Chris took charge of the Austrian right, with six battalions of infantry and a six pound battery. Erik took charge of the Russians composed of four battalions of infantry and a twelve gun battery of twelve pounders on the left. They had a basic plan with the Russians trying to take the hill, while the Austrian infantry, as well as any cavalry that showed up, would attack in the center or center left. Though they did detached several battalions of Austrians to move around the small woods on the right.
 



French

To:       General of Division Gerard

From:   MdE MacDonald, Commanding XI Corps

General,

The allies have been patrolling all night, a sure indication that they will attack tomorrow. Your command has control of a key terrain feature, called the Kalmberg Heights. Maintaining the line is important and holding the heights is critical to this. The Germans of GdD Marchand division will be to your left but don’t expect much help from them as they will be fully engage in keeping the road to Leipzig open for the Corps. GdD Roguet has a sent a regiment of Young Guard to stiffen up your defense of the heights.

Marshall MacDonald, Commanding XI Corps

 Wade would command GdB Senecal’s French brigade of seven battalions of infantry and one Italian horse battery of six pounders. I would command four battalions of Baden infantry, a French twelve pounder battery and a small regiment of Italian chasseurs. The latter two not “showing” up until turn four when I realized I forgot to set them up! The original plan was to hold the line, but I as the Baden commander, GM von Stockhorn, decided he did not speak French and advanced both regiments towards the Austrians. Knowing that their enthusiasm for fighting had dimmed by this time, the French were not sure if Baden troops were attacking or defecting!

The Game

As per the norm of most of our games, things started slowly with multiple failed command rolls. However the Russian battery immediately started to take a toll on the conscripts of the 112^th regiment with surprisingly accurate long range fire. To put an end to this, the 2^nd/112^th advanced to musketry range of the Russian battery ... and was promptly shattered by concentrated twelve pound fire! So anticipating the collapse of the 112^th, Wade order the 6^th Ligne Regiment to form up into a three battalion column.

 

By now the Austrian infantry on the right had moved into engagement range of the Baden battalions, but as all units were in column the effects of musketry was minimal. So the Austrians just kept on moving and closed with the Baden troops and it was not long before the 2^nd Baden regiment broke and fled the field of battle.

After dispersing another battalion of the 112th, the four battalions of Russian infantry began moving uphill to contest the hilltop. It was also about this time that Austrian cavalry brigade arrived on the road.

 

The first battalion of the 1st Baden regiment tried to stem the Austrian tide, but ended breaking as well. So the remaining battalion retreated to the rear. This left a pretty big gap on the French left, and unfortunately the 6^th regiment had by now engaged the Russians and Austrians advancing onto the hill.

 

Wade did not have to worry about moving to the left because the left came charging to him! The large regiment of Austrians Cuirassiers crashed into 6^th regiment, shattering one battalion. The 2nd/6th was able to form a hasty square and barley held up the Cuirassiers and surely stopped them from destroying the entire brigade.

The Italian chasseurs tried to hold the far left but they were so few in number that the three Austrian battalions of infantry were able to easily drive them from the battlefield.

Collapse of line was imminent, so to help cover the retreat of the brigade, I ordered the twelve pound battery to move up and pour grapeshot into the reforming cuirassiers. They inflicted sever casualties on the regiment, but there was so many of the armored troopers that instead of continuing to fire the battery took this opportunity to limber up and retire.

With that the French army broken, and we called the game as an Allied Victory.

Post Game Thoughts

I tried a few new things out for this game …

Large battery for the Russians: I just had them fire as two batteries which worked, but I think it worked to well. It makes it almost impossible to charge them and I think there needs to be some degradation for inefficiency of a large battery. So I am leaning towards 4/3/2 for the whole battery and let them re-roll one miss. 

Victory/Objective conditions: The threatened LOC Victory condition I liked and will use it some more. The taking the hilltop part was really an all or nothing prospect, in that it is hard to take the objective without breaking the brigade "guarding" it before reaching it, and it would most likely be the end of the game. Instead of the Staff Rating adjustment, I think I'll try a break point adjustment, such as: One Defending Brigade with a unit with in 4" of the object can ignore shaken units for Brigade morale while they have not lost the objective.

Retreat from Waterloo

We had another Black Powder game last Saturday, and even with the hot day had a good turnout of players. Steve, Mark and I commanded the French, while Ken, Chris and John commanded the allied army (Dutch, Prussian and British).

Rearguard at Quatre Bras, June 19th 1815
The Allies flush with success after Waterloo charged off after the defeated French. A hodgepodge Allied forces caught up with the French just north of Quatre Bras. If they could defeat the French before nightfall, their triumph would be complete. Napoleon still stinging from yesterdays defeat, placed 7th Division (unengaged at Wavre), along with some stragglers, at Quatre Bras to hold off the allied pursuit. If they could hold the allies for a day, he knew he could rally and regroup the Armee du Nord.

Allied Command To:  Lt General Chasse   From: Lt. General Wellington,   Sir,   With good haste, take your command and harry Napoleon's army all the way to Paris! Yesterday we have inflicted a great defeat upon him, and it would be a shame to let the scoundrel return to France and create up a new army. Smash his rearguard and complete our victory.   General Wellington, Commanding       Allied Pursuit Command   LG Chasse (3rd DB Division)   Dutch/Belgian Brigade:   MG d'Aubreme with 5 battalions German Brigade:   MG Saxe-Weimar with 3 battalions British Brigade:   MG Sir Pack with 3 battalions Prussian Contingent:   GM von Pirch-II with 5 battalions, 1 regt Light Cavalry Brigade:   MG Sir Vandeleur with 2 regiments

French Command To:  General of Division Girard   From:  Général de corps Reille   General,   Napoleon has entrusted the defense of the army to us. You’ll take your yet engage division and stop any blimey pursuit. You are authorized to use any and all stragglers you come across. In addition, the Emperor has released the last two battalions of Old Guard to us as an indication of the importance of your task. Do not let us down.   General Reille, II Corps    Rear Guard Commander    GdD Baron Girard (7th Division)   1st Brigade:   GdB de Villiers with 4 battalions 2nd Brigade:   GdB Piat with 5 battalions 2nd Division (Remnants):   GdB Aulard with 4 battalions Light Cavalry Brigade:   GdB Wathiez with 2 regiments Guard Brigade:   GdD Roguet with 3 battalions

Setup and Objectives
The French set up, from left to right, 4 battalions from the 2nd division, 1st brigade in and around Quatre Bras, Light Cavalry on the right flank. 2nd Brigade was in the center and made up are reserves, as were we not sure when or if the Old Guard would actually show. The French had to hold Quatre Bras for the rest of the day (15 turns).

The Allies set up from right to left, Dutch brigade, German brigade and light cavalry brigade. The Prussian contingent moved onto the battlefield left center. The British brigade was held in reserve off table and would arrive later in the day. The Allies had to defeat the French before nightfall (15 turns).

The Battle
Both sides found it difficult to move early in the battle, and while the French were mostly already in position, it was difficult to reposition troops to face the oncoming allied forces. And by difficult, I really mean, that most of us failed our command rolls for the first few turns!

On the left flank I finally moved the light battalion forward; and along with the light company deployed in the woods, engaged the Dutch Militia in long range musketry fire … with little effect. John commanding the Dutch was having a harder time advancing than I was, so little happened the first few turns.

Mark in the center was able to move a couple of battalions to the left of Quatre Bras and help fill in the gap against the advancing Germans. They battled for several turns before the French began to whittle down the Germans. This was helped out significantly by Steve, who using the French cavalry, not only kept the allied cavalry in check, had the lancers charge several German battalions, even breaking a poorly formed square!

Alas, as usual, the advantage the French had gained was soon gone. The Dutch finally got the word to advance and threw themselves at the remnants of the 2nd Division. Who at first held, but the tired Frenchmen soon collapsed, and all but one shaken battalion fled the field. Mark tried to cover the empty space with his last two battalions, but the French left was still woefully unprotected.

In addition, the French cavalry on the right, just plain got worn out from charging all day; and they too retired from the field. Also the Prussians had arrived and gingerly advanced to engage the two French battalions holding the right side of Quatre Bras. At this point, the French were stretched pretty thin, and even though the Germans in the center would play no more part in the battle, the allies looked ready to break the French army. Especially as the newly arrived British brigade, with a battalion of highlanders, promptly marched straight for Quatre Bras.

Just as GdD Girard thought his command was about to panic, GdD Roguet and the Old Guard arrived onto the battlefield! A battalion of middle guard, supported a battery of guard artillery moved to stabilize the right flank, while a battalion of Old Guard rapidly marched to the extreme French left and stopped any Dutch turning action. The last battalion of old guard marched around the left side of Quatre Bras in a position to support the left or center.

GdD Roguet spying through his glass, saw that the 42nd Highlanders were preparing to assault Quatre Bras, and sensing that the moment of crisis was at hand, personally took charge of the 1st battalion Grenadier of Pied. He formed them up in column of attack and marched straight into the six hundred muskets of the highlanders.

The clash was heard all across the battlefield, the highlanders fired off one volley and counter charged the grim faced grenadiers who kept on advancing. The melee that ensued was short and bloody … for the highlanders. They were crushed by the tide of grenadiers and immediately broke and fled the field; this panicked the supporting 44th Foot, who in turn followed the feeling skirts of the highlanders! The sudden rout of the British brigade broke the morale of the Allied army, leaving Lieutenant General Chasse no option but to order a general retreat.

Afterthoughts
The OG attack was the last attack of the game, and they did indeed crush the highlanders, winning 8 to 1 for the combat resolution, and inflicting five hits on the highlanders. We got about ten turns in and all seemed to fun with the game/scenario … of course several of us talked about bringing more old guard battalions to the next game!

We used most of our house rules and except for the two new players, all seemed to be getting pretty comfortable with the rules on cavalry charging infantry. We tried several of the rules from Albion Triumphant 2, and were not impressed, especially the rule on Deep Cavalry. If used again, we will change it, something like drop the +1 command and increase the number of HtH dice lost to two.

The Dutch, in particular the Militia, did very well … which may have been because John did not notice that they were Morale 5+, not 4+ and Mark had no idea that charging units received +1 to hit. Both of which might have changed several of the outcomes on the French left.

Basing Artillery

I have had several discussions with friends on how to better visually represent a battery in our games of Black Powder.

Each artillery base is made up of one gun model with four artillerists on a 60mm wide by 80mm deep base. Below is how Black Powder suggests players should base up artillery batteries.

My main issue with that system of basing is that an eight gun battery would have had approximately the same frontage (about 120 to 140 paces) as an infantry battalion, which is around 160 paces. And as per the BP rules, a standard infantry battalion is made up of six bases of four figures on a 40mm by 40mm base (240mm in line). Which compared to an artillery battery is about four times as great.

The small size of batteries has an adverse game effect as well. In that it is very easy to position it around the battlefield, especially in between units. With their super human ability to limber/unlimber, horse batteries essentially become unarmored tanks!

Our first attempt to “fix” this problem was to use two bases of guns. This brought the batteries to half the width of a battalion. Along with a few house rules on horse batteries, artillery batteries in our games began to look and feel more like Napoleonic artillery. Of course in my never ending quest for the “perfect” game, I felt that half the width of a battalion wasn’t as good as it could be.

So the next proposal was to use one artillery base per two actual guns, generally three to four bases (below). This is very old school and appeals to many in our group, but not me. In my opinion the cost is too high for what amounts to visual effect on the game. Artillery would have gone from two bases to four bases, effectively doubling the cost.

But more importantly I don’t think it gives the right visual look in the first place. The reason why a battery was near the width of an infantry battalion was that there was room in between the guns, around 20 paces or so. But using four bases with guns gives the impression that the guns were placed hub to hub, which was not the case.

So to increase the size of the battery and get a “better” visual of the spacing of guns, I have been testing out adding in spacer bases between the two gun bases.

The spacer base is a normal artillery base, 60mm x 80mm, with just a couple of artillerists on it. There is plenty of space to add in extra bits as well. By only using a couple of extra figures, the cost remains low and the battery increases its width to 180mm which is about right for a six gun battery and a little shy for an eight gun battery.

For the large Russian batteries I’ll use three gun bases with two spacer bases. You also have the added benefit of the unit being much longer when limbered (240mm). All which means it is more difficult for artillery batteries to zip around the battlefield like a WW2 tank. So not only is this a cheaper solution, but IMO a more visually appealing look for a Napoleonic battery in Black Powder.

Battle of Casa de Graci

We had another Black Powder game last Saturday, Bob and Mark commanded the French, while Mike, Troy and Erik commanded the British/Portuguese forces. We tried out a new victory/objective idea (which worked out rather well). We also use several house rules that increases the cavalry/infantry interaction during the turn, ie cavalry can charge squares. Below is the AAR, sorry no pics of the 28mm figures.

Livonia and Kiev Regiments

1st and 3rd battalions of the Livonia regiment (left) and 1st and 3rd battalions of the Kiev regiment(right)

Russian Division

The above is the what I have finished for the Russians. Two regiments of two infantry battalions each, led by a brigadier.

A small cavalry brigade of one unit of Dragoons and Horse Battery led by a Brigadier.

All being led by the divisions leader.

Working on two Curaissier units and then a Jaeger battalion.

Heavy Battery

Below is the my latest addition to the Russian army I have been working on. A heavy 12lb battery, as it is large we use three stands to show the unit in Black Powder.