The Russians Bite Back

Thursday nights' continuation of our river crossing scenario looked on the whole to be a matter of the French consolidating their bridgeheads and driving the Russians further back into an increasingly constrained defensive arc.  Events however were to turn in favour of the Russians who fought tenaciously and forced the French back across the river at two of the four crossing points.

Some of the triumphant but exhausted defenders of the Russian right wing.  Only three of the original six battalions from this division remain.

The evening started badly for Erics' French command when his small force which had made it across the river were assaulted by Russian infantry and he was unable to roll anything above a four in firing and combat.  His luck doggedly refused to improve and as the night wore on his position became more and more tenuous.  Eventually his entire command was forced to retire back across the river and ended the first day pretty much where he had started.

The redoubt now clear of guns remains in Russian control despite Nicks' efforts to capture it.

On Erics' immediate right Nick having forced the defending battery to rout began streaming his infantry across the bridge in an attempt to take the high ground and establish a bridgehead.  Following some initial success Nick was eventually forced back and though he finished the day with troops on the enemy side of the bridge it was decided that these should withdraw overnight. 

A mixture of Germans Swiss and Young Guard push into the suburbs of the Russian position.

Happily from the French perspective the evening wasn't a total disaster.  On the right they were able to not only force their way across but also reorganise and push back the Russian defenders.  This was of course done with the benefit of a flank attack which gave Mark the Russian commander no option other than to retire in the best order he could.  The French were also able to gain control of the string of woods which face the left flank of the Russian position which is now at right angles to the right flank.

Lancers of the Duchy of Warsaw about to ride down another Russian defender. 

So a game which was firmly in French control has now swung some way back towards the Russians though just how much so remains to be seen.  The French have suffered remarkably few casualties crossing the river and now have the Russians couped up into a small area.  They will need to maintain pressure on the two lost crossings if only in order to tie down Russian forces and will have to think carefully about where they are going to put in their main attack.  For the Russians there is the decision of where to deploy the Guard with its' six gun twelve pounder battery and whether and where to attempt a counter attack.  The Russians have received substantial reinforcements but have the problem of not enough space to deploy them, they will also need to rotate their fresh divisions into the line to relieve some of the more battered ones.

Two of the six Russian Guard battalions which have recently arrived at the garage.  These are Front Rank Figures and were painted by "Reinforcements by Post".

The second day will see a slight realignment of the lines and limited redeployment before it gets under way.  It looks very much like being an infantry heavy fight as despite the fact that each side is fielding a heavy cavalry division as well as a host of light cavalry the area for manoeuvre is severely limited.  The French will be hoping to break the Russian line at some point though they will be wary of taking heavy casualties as in this game victory points are being awarded for each destroyed enemy unit.  At the moment they have a significant lead.  The Russians will of course be trying to hold their line while inflicting heavy losses and very likely attempting a localised counter-attack probably headed by their Imperial Guard division.

Bridgehead Secured

Thursday night was not an easy time to be playing on the Russian side in our continuing river crossing scenario.  The French attackers have been able to cross at all but one of the four crossing points and establish viable bridgeheads.  In addition the threatened flank attack appeared at a particularly bad time for Mark commanding the Russian left wing.  A heavy cavalry division consisting of two regiments of cuirassier and two of dragoons supported by a battery of horse artillery entered the table on his left just as three of the battalions which had been defending the leftmost bridge broke.  They were summarily ridden down by the gleeful cuirassier.

Westphalian Grenadier-Garde supported by Hesse-Darmstadt fusiliers make their crossing on the Russian centre left.

All is not yet lost for the Russians as they are in the process of receiving large numbers of reserves including a division of heavy cavalry and a division of Guard infantry.  The latter being supported by an impressive six gun battery of twelve pounders.  However as the Russians are pushed further and further back their room for deployment decreases and they are being forced into a right angled position. 

Swiss and Poles commanded by "Nick the dice witch" cross to the right of the Westphalians.

In addition to the Heavy cavalry the French also brought on a division of Italian infantry and a division of young guard making the flank attack force the strongest French presence on the Russian side of the river.  This has given the Russian commander a decision to make, does he continue to push forward fresh troops and contest the crossings which will leave his flanks vulnerable?  Or does he attempt to delay until nightfall which is still six turns away and use the darkness to reorganise and establish a new defensive line?

The same scene from the rear of the Polish and Swiss position.  Infantry and artillery await their turn to cross.

The decision for the Russians has been made a little simpler by the fact that the only crossing point that they still hold which is the one covered by the redoubt, is now also in danger of falling.  The battery covering it was eventually destroyed by the radical but effective expedient of wheeling up a twelve pounder battery to cannister range and blasting them out.  Already French troops are beginning to cross.

Confusion reigns on the Russian side with routing and retreating troops interpenetating their supports and making deployment difficult for the reserves.

So at the moment the French certainly have the upper hand and with nightfall still some way off they should be looking to secure as much ground as possible in order to have the best possible start point for the resumption of hostilities.  The Russians on the other hand will need to decide on their best course of action and look for a likely defensive position where they can attempt to fend off the inevitable french onslaught.

This new battalion of Corsicans is currently making its debut in the battle.  It was painted by the ever more prolific Dom, figures by Front Rank.

Following the last post there were a couple of questions regarding photography which I must admit is a bit of a closed book to me.  The problem with the garage is that there is only one window to provide natural lighting and the rest is provided by four fluorescent ceiling lights.  This tends to produce a startling variety of lighting conditions with the result being that a number of photos taken at the same time from slightly different positions results in huge differences in the way they come out.  I'm loathe to use a flash as it tends to just light up the front of the figures and terrain leaving shadows in the background.  We did have the benefit of Neil using his mini-Hubble for a while which has a back lighting capability but he hasn't brought it along for some time.  So unless I invest in a new all singing all dancing camera (highly unlikely) I'll just have to make sure I pick the best daylight conditions when I take the blog shots.

A final shot, this time from the rear of the French left,  after a spirited defence by hosts of Russian light cavalry the French are at last, making ground .

One final thing, Eric has provided me a couple of links to his photobucket page which have shots of the Lubben and Spree games which we played last year.  Apparently they're in reverse order but I can't see that making a difference.

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t31/ravenfeeder21/Shed/Lubben/

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t31/ravenfeeder21/Shed/River%20Spree/

So where were the Bavarians?

As Paul was astute enough to realise and indeed make comment on, despite the previous post being entitled "Bavarian Bash", there were sadly no Bavarians on show.  The simple reason for this of course is that I don't actually possess any.  The game was an interlude in the campaign and was designed mostly, by my reckoning at least, to allow Eric to use his beloved Austrians.  Despite the fact that he has spent the entire campaign avoiding any hint of action it appears that when given a sufficiently under strength opponent Eric grudgingly accepted battle.  Apparently with the proviso that "none of their nice white uniforms get grubby".  So there you have it, we had to cobble the Bavarian army together from the French and their Allies who apart from the Wurtemburg division bear them no resemblance whatsoever.  The happy news however is that six battalions of Bavarians are in the pipeline and will hopefully be joining the other denizens of the garage before too long.

Russian gunners manning one of the new redoubts which arrived on thursday evening.

Neil who's been running the campaign wanted to have a chat with the various commanders regarding the direction in which the campaign should be going in the future, and therefore suggested an ad hoc game to fill the period of inactivity.  Rightly or wrongly, only time will tell, Dom was allowed to vent his megalomania once again by designing the scenario.  The battle he's devised, which involves an opposed river crossing for the French has so far proved very interesting and appears to have lots of potential.

Westphalians begin to push across the river in column of march against a sparse defence.



The scenario pits a French and Allied force of three divisions agains what looks like a pair of Russian infantry divisions supported by some light cavalry.  The French will have to make their numbers tell early in the game if they're to get across the river without too heavy a loss as Russian reinforcements are already appearing on the horizon.  Rumours of the Russian Imperial Guard being amongst them will mean that the French will need to establish a sufficiently large bridgehead in order to be able to fend off any counter attack.

Vistula Legion troops covered by their skirmishers are the first to set foot on the enemy side of the river.  If they can link up with the Westphalians to their left things will get difficult for the Russians.

There are two crossing points on each table though one of the southern bridges has been effectively negated by the emplacement of the redoubt directly opposite the point at which the road crosses the river.  The Russian players were given a choice in its placement and opted to totally cancel out one crossing rather than incompletely cover two.  Whether this was the right move remains to be seen.  It does allow them to concentrate their meagre forces around the remaining crossings but conversely ensures that the French don't attempt to cross in a piecemeal fashion at all points.



A shot of both of the crossing points on the Northern table clearly showing the dearth of Russian defenders.

So far the fight has gone pretty much as might be expected with the defenders being pushed back by greater firepower and numbers though there was one spirited attempt by a brigade of Russian light cavalry to stream through a gap in the French position.  Unfortunately this led to nothing other than the loss of a fair number of Russian light cavalry, though if it had succeeded it would have caused havoc in the French rear.

The view of the southern table where the French have sensibly refused the temptation to march their troops into the fire of a well entrenched battery. 

The fight will continue on thursday and there are rumours of the possibility of French troops carrying out a flank attack on one or perhaps even both of the Russian wings.  One thing is certain and that is that Dom is unlikely to pass up the opportunity to get as many troops as possible on to the table so we can expect what is currently a large skirmish to evolve into an all out scrap for the river line.

Stay tuned for an update next week.

Bavarian Bash

As a sort of interlude within the campaign our latest scrap took place far to the South of the main action, between the small Bavarian army aided by a couple of friends, and the full might of the Holy Roman Empire.  As might be expected the Bavarians were outnumbered and on the defensive and were relying on the strategy of holding for long enough to damage the Austrians whilst ensuring the survival of enough of their force to remain a viable threat. 

Austrian grenadiers advance with the intention of doing harm.

In general terms the Bavarian plan was sound enough but withdrawing from a battle once in heavy contact is always difficult especially if things aren't going too well.  Dom kicked off the action for the Austrians by pushing his light cavalry forward on the extreme right.  This should have caused little problem for the Bavarians but unnacountably Andy, in command of the Bavarian left wing decided to withdraw the units on his left in the face of this perceived threat and Dom was able to push infantry and guns through the gap unmolested.

The main punch of the Austrian army, forty eight man infantry battalions which take a lot of stopping.

On the plus side for the Bavarians, their centre and left were only lightly engaged, with what few casualties there were being caused mostly by artillery fire.  However Andy now had to make the decision of whether to stand and fight or to pull his troops out before they became too heavily engaged.  Having decided to withdraw he turned his troops around and headed back to the relative safety of the hilly ground to his rear.  Dom's infantry were inevitably in close pursuit and were able to cause heavy casualties on the retiring battalions. 

    Having reached his destination Andy now decided to change his tactics and turned his troops around once more in an effort to engage the Austrians who now outnumbered his forces and who had also suffered far fewer casualties.

Far too many Grenz for comfort, ably assisted by sharpshooting Jaeger.

The result was pretty much a foregone conclusion, even though Dom was unable to throw anything above a six for his firing the Austrian volleys tore into the hapless Bavarians precipitating a cascade of routs as unit after unit of Bavarians turned and fled.  Eventually the whole left wing collapsed into a struggling mass of men, horses and guns and the order was given for the remainder of the army to withdraw. 

    Possibly the one saving grace for the Bavarians was that their centre was able to withdraw unmolested along with an almost untouched right wing though these had finally become embroiled in fighting as the Austrian advance continued. 

Duchy of Warsaw lancers painted by Dom who's done a particularly fine job on this unit which is the latest addition to the Garages' ranks.

So a pretty comprehensive victory for the Austrians, though it will remain to be seen whether they have done enough damage to the Bavarian forces to knock them out of the campaign.  If so they will be free to head Northwards to Berlin and join their allies in what might be the final push against Napoleon and his massed armies.

Another shot of Dom's lancers, figures by Front Rank with a battalion of Elite miniatures Vistula legion infantry in support.

That's all for this the first post of 2012, I think I can speak for all of the regulars at the Garage when I wish all of you a very happy New Year.  Many thanks for all the support which the blog receives and I really will do my best to make the posts a more regular event.

    I was asked about the Hesse-Darmstadt troops manufacturer, they are in fact from Elite miniatures and I believe they come from the Napoleon in Egypt range.

It was a slow, quiet evening at the garage on Thursday.  Our ad-hoc game had pretty much run its course and we were all aware that we needed to have everything put away before starting the next campaign battle which as I previously mentioned pits the Austrian juggernaut against a handful of Bavarians.
    Still we have had a chance to test out some of the rule amendments which we came up with and everyone seems happy with the new skirmisher rules.  I particularly like the idea of stopping overhead firing by artillery though we haven't really had too much chance to see how that might affect one of the larger games.  However it certainly makes people consider their artillery deployment regarding lanes of fire instead of the usual mad rush to the nearest hilltop.

A Brigade of Hesse-Darmstadt troops take position in and around a village.

As a matter of fact we were so efficient in clearing the figures away once we'd agreed there was little left to play on that I completely forgot to take any photographs of the proceedings.  So I've been out in the garage setting up a few "action" shots and browsing my photo library for something to lighten up the obligatory waffle. 

Another posed shot, this time French infantry advance in support of an eight pound foot battery.  All figures from Elite miniatures, the infantry were all painted by Neil Sheardown who sadly no longer paints.

I've been having all sorts of problems with Blogspot lately.  The primary one being that I appear unable to leave comments on other peoples' blogs.  I know it works because I've been successful in the past but now I regularly go through the rigmarole of making my comment and copying down the squiggly word only to find that I'm back at my own blog and being asked to sign in once again.  This is particularly frustrating because from my own experience I know how important comments are to those who produce blogs.  They are I suppose a form of validation from like minded individuals and let's be honest there's a fair degree of pleasure in reading the nice things people have to say about your toys.  I will of course persist in trying to make comments but I do have a low tolerance threshold when it comes to repeatedly entering the same comment only to have it disappear in to the ether.

Poles posing for the camera this time.  These beauties were all painted by Justin Davey and are once again all from Elite.

While I'm on the subject of comments, Doc mentioned that he hadn't heard of Firing Line miniatures so I did a bit of checking and it appears they were bought by Bicorne Miniatures in 2001.  At the time they were the only producers of Wurtemburgers that I was aware of though now Front Rank have stepped up to the plate with a release of Wurtemburg infantry.  I believe Front Rank will be adding artillery and cavalry in the New Year.

Russian Grenadiers advancing with a little support from their Prussian friends.

That's about all for now it only remains for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year.  There may be a brief hiatus over the holiday period but normal service will resume with hopefully some news of the latest battle in the campaign.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

Thursday night was a continuation of Erics' scenario which pitted a Russian force against French and allied defenders.  Early moves saw the introduction of a fresh heavy cavalry brigade for the Russians followed by more infantry on the French side.  This has left the Russians with twenty battalions in three divisions against twenty five French battalions in four divisions though the Russians have the advantage in heavy cavalry. 

Elite miniatures Russian dragoons and uhlans arrive to bolster the centre and drive a wedge between the two French infantry commands.

It was about this time that I realised that we'd actually achieved one the original aims that I'd had when I first decided to convert the garage into a gaming room.  This was the ability to fight large games using troops from just one of the allied nations that opposed the French rather than having to amalgamate divisions and corps from various nations.  We can now put on games using just Russians and to a lesser extent the Prussians, though the Austrians are as yet not available in large enough numbers especially the cavalry arm.

    My original plan had been for about sixty French and Allied battalions plus a division each of old and young guard along with enough cavalry and artillery to support them.  These would be opposed by approximately forty battalions each of the three allied nations again with supporting arms.  The French army was accumulated more quickly than I had imagined possible largely due to their availability on ebay and through the efforts of various people who wanted to paint them and we went past the original requirement some time ago though we still have no old guard.  The Allies on the other hand have taken longer with the Russians being the only faction which at the moment is strong enough to challenge the French on equal terms.  This said it's an encouraging development and the next step will be to try and bolster Prussian numbers.

More cavalry action and all that remains of two squadrons of French lancers after mixing it with the Mariopol Hussars.

Back to Thursday night and we were graced with the presence of both Dom and Neil for the first time in ages, Dom has been unavailable due to his having to study and Neil has been away growing a beard.  Both were pitted against each other on the night with Dom attempting unsuccessfully to stem the tide of Neils' Russian cavalry.  It was an education for both of them as neither had played using the rule amendments which we're currently trying and though these have a minimal effect on cavalry there were some useful discussions regarding other changes. 

    It was then that I had my second epiphany of the evening, as we discussed the rules regarding skirmishers Dom made a suggestion proposing the introduction of elite skirmishers and I realised then that we all have subtly different conceptions and prejudices regarding how our rules should reflect the period.  Not much of an epiphany you might think but when you're trying to introduce rule amendments it lead me to consider whether the committee approach which we're currently using is necessarily the best option.  Perhaps we would be better served by having a sort of "informed dictatorship" whereby one person decides which amendments to use or not and everyone else abides by them.  That is in effect largely the way published rule sets operate though in time they normally succumb to tweaking.  Of course this always presupposes the availability of someone willing and able to play the part of the informed dictator and it's not something I'd like to do so for the time being at least I think we'll be sticking with the open forum, giving everyone the chance to put their ideas into the pot regardless of how odd they may seem to the rest of us.

Wurtemburg infantry from Firing Line Miniatures advance to support Nicks' infantry.

Back to Thursday nights game once more and it appears that the French right has now stabilised with the arrival of another infantry division and in fact it now significantly outnumbers Marks Russians.  On the left the Poles who have taken heavy casualties have been bolstered by a Swiss division and are in the process of negating the attack of the two Russian divisions assigned to the area.  So it's in the centre that the Allies have been able to make the largest inroads with their cavalry able to sweep aside the small French light cavalry contingent and they now have the options of sweeping around to threaten the flank of either French command.

More Wurtemburgers, infantry and artillery this time attempting to block up the hole in the French centre.

I'm not sure how many turns we'll continue for, considering that this game is designed as a rule test scenario it's probably already done its job.  That isn't to say there isn't more testing that needs to be done as small problems tend to arise every now and again with the tweaks we've already put in place.  So we'll most likely play two or three more moves and then tidy everything away in readiness for the next campaign battle.  This will see the  mighty Austrian war machine finally deigning to take an active part in the campaign by pitting itself  against the almost insignificant forces of Bavaria.

Mark Votier's four gun redoubt made of resin and manned by an Austrian foot battery which has just been returned to its former glory after Eric mistakenly "varnished" them with grey spray paint.

And Finally.....  I thought it would be nice to show a couple of shots of a redoubt made by our newest regular member, Mark.  This four gun redoubt is for London wargamer Nick Farrel and I believe Mark is making others of various sizes for Nick including a huge six gun position.  Once that order is complete Mark is going to make a few for the garage as well.  Mark is trying to set himself up as a commercial model maker and so I'm doing my bit by unashamedly promoting his work.

A front view of the redoubt this time manned by Russian Artillery.  My own ones will be greener to fit in with the terrain here and the ditch in the front will probably have a few chevaux de frise inside.

That's all for now, I'm off to see if I've got the correct spelling for "chevaux de frise".

The run in to Christmas

It looks as if we're heading into another period of minimal activity in the garage as the Christmas holidays draw closer so the likelihood is of more one off games to allow us to thoroughly test any proposed rule amendments.  On Thursday evening with only four of us being able to make it we decided to wrap up the previous weeks' game and Eric, who has a knack for these things quickly devised an attack and defence scenario to further test our theories. 

A couple of squadrons of Elite Miniatures lancers part of a French contingent which has been making life difficult for the Russian infantry.

The scenario set a Russian force, initially of two infantry divisions, against a defending French and Allied force also of two divisions.  The French had the advantage of holding a defensive line between two villages while the Russians were able to deploy anywhere along their side of the table.  Things went quite well for the Russians on the right where a veteran division of six battalions and a three gun battery were able to force the French defenders from the woods to their front.  The arrival of a further division allowed them to maintain the momentum of the attack and with the advantage of numbers and the French left is now looking a little shaky. 

The Russian attack on the left has run into problems after trying to assault a dug in enemy.

On the Russian left however, things didn't go so well.  The nine battalions supported by a six gun battery found it difficult to dislodge an enemy which was almost equal to it in strength and were forced back to regroup.  This allowed a hole to appear in the centre of the Russian position which the French lancers gleefully exploited by running down a couple of battalions.  This wasn't helped by the Russian commanders' inability to throw the correct dice for the arrival of reserves and the light cavalry division of two Hussar and one Uhlan regiments didn't make an appearance until the last turn of the evening. 

French line infantry garrisoning one of the villages on the Russian left.  The village has been very kindly loaned to me by Mark Freeth who runs Wargames Holiday Centre.

So the game remains quite balanced and though I suspect there may be more troops yet to arrive on the French side much will rely on how effectively the Russians can use their cavalry to isolate the two French divisions by pushing through the centre.  We'll have to wait until next week when there should be one or two more players available to command the reserves.

    Finally I'd just like to say thanks to those kind folks who took the trouble to place a comment on last weeks post.  In answer to Doc's question, using ITGM the Russians in the village can fire at the supporting French battalion as long as the skirmishers are within four inches of it.  Casualties are shared with one in three coming off of the skirmishers.  When the French charge (if they do) the skirmishers are automatically moved to the rear of the battalion and take no part in any subsequent melee.

A recent new arrival to the garage is this regiment of thirty six Austrian uhlans.  Elite miniatures once again.  Unfortunately Dom appears to have fixed their lances with flour and water as most of them have fallen off.  Still they're very pretty and make a most welcome addition to the Austrian cavalry arm.