Eric's Battle Report

I've just received Eric's version of events via the miracle that is e-mail and without further ado present them for your perusal:



1. Design and Setup

Designing a scenario for our first full two table experience presented a few challenges. The main problem is to try and avoid having most of the action happen across the gap between the tables. This usually means that straight side-to-side encounters are not an option. I played around with a few ideas in my head, but many of them ended in two separate battles happening with only a tenuous connection between them, which isn't what you normally want. I settled upon a set-up loosely (very loosely you pedants!) based on the second day of the battle of Kulm 1813, a battle which I seem to have some sort of obsession with as this isn't the first time I've used it for inspiration.
Battle across the table gap

As I had only minutes to think up forces and to make things different from the more structured campaign armies we have been using, we decided to go with random troop quality. Until a unit has to take a morale test they are assumed to be 1st class. When the first test is to be made a d10 is rolled and the result compared to a chart I quickly made up. As this was 1813 the average quality of all armies was a mix of 2nd and 1st class infantry, with very low rolls meaning militia and high meaning veteran or better. Each division on table was given a quality which provided a modifier to the die roll - veteran divisions gained +2 for example and a roll of 12 would give the unit Elite status.

The terrain was set-up so that there was a hilly and forested area on the French right becoming flatter further left with a scattering of villages and open woods. The French left was dominated by a large hill (the Altberg) which had steep sides so that artillery could only traverse it on the road. It did have a flat top where artillery could set up and troops on it could see over all the other hills. Exposed as it was the French would be taking a risk putting artillery there. The open terrain in the centre and left had the potential for both large scale cavalry and artillery duels. The area behind the French front lines was set-up similarly with close terrain to the right and open on the left, with a carefully sited village if the French chose to fall back on it.

The initial forces had two small, but veteran Russian divisions, with a supporting 12pdr battery and allied Austrian line division facing off against 3 French divisions, two of which were veteran and supported by a large heavy cavalry division and a corps 12pdr battery. At game start 2 Prussian divisions were set up behind the French right just emerging from the rough terrain. The Prussian commander was informed that if he blocked one of the roads off table behind the front lines he could prevent their reserves arriving. The Russian commander was told that his reserves depended on the whim of the Tsar, but that success would be rewarded more than failure. The emergence of the Prussians meant that both tables could be used from turn one as that action could take place on one table whilst the Russo-Austrian lines were involved on the other. I hoped this set-up would lead to minimal action across the gap between tables, a hope that was destined to be dashed.

2. The early battle

The French chose to set-up one of their batteries on the Altberg supported to the rear and left by a veteran division. This exposed unit was assaulted straight away by the Austrians and the battery forced to retreat. A large scale infantry battle ensued for the Altberg which left the French veterans streaming back in two waves. These routers were to play a pivotal part later on.



Meanwhile the Russian 12pdr battery dominated the open ground in the centre, whilst the French Corps 12pdrs were left impotent having been set up too far back, out of range of the Russians. The French left moved to the other side of a low ridge and attempted an assault, but the move had lost them cohesion and the attack was half-hearted and so doomed to fail. The Russian guns turned their attention to the central division who stood and took it for a while, their casualties leaving them with reduced morale.

The Prussians emerged from the woods to find themselves faced by the French heavy cavalry. Their hussars threw themselves gallantly into the fray but lost to superior quality and superior morale dice. Without any further cavalry support their infantry was left to try and advance in square to try and make room for their guns to set up. The heavies, without artillery support could do little against the squares and a stalemate ensued. The Cuirassiers did ride down a battalion of Fusiliers, but the cavalry started to take increasing casualties from skirmisher fire.

Once the Altberg had fallen the Tsar started to release the reserves. At the same time the French reinforcements started to arrive on the rear board and the battle moved into a new phase.

3. The battle of the gap.

The first reserves to arrive were the Austrian Grenadiers, who were given orders to punch straight down the middle and rout the central French division. The move left them intermingled with one of the Russian divisions and both divisions suffered from reduced cohesion. Rather than face this assault and an outflanking by the victorious Austrians on the Altberg, the French withdrew onto the rear table, covered by their Corps artillery finally in use.

To the French rear the poor quality Westphalian reserves were followed by veteran Wurtemburgers and elite Young Guard divisions. The two confederation divisions were sent against the Prussians, whilst the heavy cavalry was brought behind the lines to counter the Russian advance on the left, which was now supported by a small Kurassier division. As events unfolded the French heavies saw no further action, depriving the French of their strongest arm.


The Prussian commander, with many of his troops still stuck in the woods, decided to try and draw off the Westphalians with half a division. This tactic worked and though the Prussian battalions were defeated, the Westphalians had been drawn into an attack far away from the point of decision, when they might have been better deployed just screening the whole Prussian force, leaving the Wurtembergers to help in the centre. Instead the Wurtembergers ended up in a drawn combat against the other Prussians.

On the French left the Russian advance was held up by a Swiss militia square which refused to run, but the advance continued. Once the 12pdrs were back in action and the Kurassiers had moved up, there was little that the battered French could do without reinforcements that never arrived.

In the centre the French reorganisation was badly hampered by the retreating troops from the Altberg. These troops repeatedly rallied then routed the rallied and routed. This meant that the good order troops could not deploy properly and that the troops already battered by the Russian 12pdrs kept on having to take morale checks. By the time the mess was sorted out several other battalions had joined the rout and the Allied assault was upon them.

The only hope the French had left was the late arriving Young Guard, whose fire saw off the damaged Austrians advancing from the Altberg and who threatened to take advantage of the confusion between the grenadiers and the adjacent Russians. This confusion was heightened by the gap between tables where this force was trying to deploy. So much for my plans of avoiding this scenario!


The guard attack was hampered by Wurtembergers falling back, but that could not excuse two battalions routing on initial contact with the allies. With most of the French army now falling back the battle was declared an Allied victory. The French had an initial advantage but attacked piecemeal and used their artillery poorly, whilst the Russian 12pdrs were allowed to have a field day.


This battle was envisaged as part one of a trilogy. The result here means that come part three a French veteran division will be replaced by a poor one. Part two is about to start. Will the French get their revenge? I don't know, but this time I've decided to embrace the gap.


...and there it ends, or does it? The game lasted for four game nights and nineteen turns in all and allowed us to use heavy cavalry divisions for the first time. The Russians are shortly to be strengthened by two more cuirassier regiments and can expect more dragoons in the near future so perhaps Eric's next game will see the Allies on the offensive. In addition to Eric's battle report I also received lots of photo's. In fact far too many to publish on the blog, so I'm looking into putting them onto an online album such as photobucket though I've not had much success so far.

In the absence of...

I was hoping to be able to show some more photos from the last two weeks gaming but it appears that our lensmen have all been struck down by a terrible case of apathy, so I've decided to show a few more shots from the previous weeks.
This first one is another angle showing the strangely popular Austrians. Strangely popular to me that is, I have to admit that whilst not actively disliking the Austrians, I'm not their greatest fan. To me they're a pretty non-descript bunch and given the choice I'd pretty much choose any other army than the Austrians. However I know for a fact that they are a great favourite with lots of other people. There are two committed Austrophiles who are regulars here at the garage and I've met many others. Then again I've also met many train spotters.


Moving swiftly on, we have a panoramic view of the battlefield in the early stages of the game taken from the Allied right. The first Austrian reinforcements have arrived and the Allies are advancing along the whole of this front. On the right of Steve (strange looking bloke in the middle) the Prussians having been held up for some time by the French heavy cavalry are starting to force their way through the woods and shake out into a battle line.


This shot gives a better idea of what was happening in the Prussian sector. In the right foreground the Westfalian division with a couple of other battalions attached, having arrived on the battlefield push forward to stem the Prussians who can be seen lining the woods. To the left of the Westfalians the Wurtenburgers move up in support. Behind them the heavy cavalry fall back to take up a reserve position. In the end the French were guilty of sending far too many of their reserves to face the Prussians, giving the Allied centre and especially the allied right a much easier job of forcing back the French main line.

And Finally... the unsung heroes of the Allied triumph, a Russian six gun twelve pounder battery which dealt death and destruction to all who had the temerity to show themselves. Unlike the Russian six pounder batteries which were forcibly split into three gun sections by Eric's Francophile orbat, this battery was extremely effective and because of the flatness of the terrain in the area there were few places to hide from its attentions.

Eric's Battle Continued

I received a few more photo's of Eric's battle in my email the other day so I thought it only right to share some of them with you. This first one is the initial outing of the Wurtemburg division which Chris painted. It will shortly be embellished by the addition of its own skirmishers and a light cavalry regiment, (though this will probably spend most of its time on detachment in a light cavalry division). These chaps have turned up as a reserve formation and are rushing to stem the onslaught of the Prussians.

It seems that the French have had the best of all the cavalry combats so far and this one was understandably no exception. These poor sons of the Rodina were sacrificed in order to satisfy Neils' bloodlust. They allowed another of their squadrons to get into position to charge the rear of a fleeing mass of French infantry. I'm at a bit of a loss to know what kind of threat the infantry posed but Neil seems chuffed about the whole idea and anyway cavalry combats are always good fun.

This one is especially for you Rafa, as you can see there is a little bit of open ground left, though in truth this is only due to the lack of figures to fill it with. This one is taken at some indeterminate point in the game so I'm not totally sure of the situation. However, roughly the Russians and Austrians are on the furthest table and are making a concerted push forwards. On the right where Steve (in dark blue) is, the Prussians are beginning to force their way out of the woods. This has become easier since the French were forced to redeploy their heavy cavalry.
On the left in the foreground are troops from Dom's command in the process of pulling back to form a defesive line against the Russians who are advancing on the Allied right.

A division of Westfalians advancing in support of the French right. These were painted by Neil Sheardown whose contribution to the garage in terms of figures is by far the largest of anyones. Again this is a reserve division which along with the Wurtemburgers who can be seen in the background are being channeled to the French right. The French position has become "L" shaped by now and seems to getting boxed in with not enough room to manouevre.

Eric's Battle

I thought it would be a good idea to post a few more photos of our current game, which for want of a proper name I'm referring to as Eric's Battle. The game continued up to turn 16 last night and various reinforcements have arrived on both sides. The French received an allied corps made up of Wurtemburg and Westphalians and the Allies recieved an Austrian Grenadier division and a Cuirassier division. This first shot shows the grenadiers as they push through the lines of their Russian allies in order to assault a French held village.
Old Glory Swiss painted by Dom which form part of the French attack on the Allied right flank. Here supported by a rather tatty old foot battery which will shortly be retired and some French light cavalry. The horsemen were to later cover themselves in glory by soundly defeating a force of Russian Uhlans.



Prussians from Steve's command struggling to deploy through the woods on the French right flank. Their job has been made all the more difficult by a French heavy cavlry division which is positioned to pounce on any unwary troops. One battalion square has already been cut down and the others are understandably nervous.



Calpe Prussian Landwehr painted by Neil Sheardown. These lads only arrived a short while ago and will eventually be joined by another two battalions. Neil's going to be painting some of the new Calpe Saxons which I may have mentioned before and I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Hopefully Calpe will be producing Saxon cavalry in time.



Finally a head on shot of the grenadier division. These are a mix of battalions from Elite and Front Rank. As you can see the Elite ones are still waiting to recieve their standards but were rushed into action anyway.

Prussian Line

I've finally gotten around to finishing the Calpe Prussians that I featured here a couple of months ago and this is the end result. Not the best of photos but they give a general idea. I found them particularly easy to paint even though it took me a long time to finally finish them. I haven't come across any other 28mm figures which in my opinion are anything like as good as the Calpe range. If you haven't already done so take a look at the new Saxon figures on the website.
The flag as always is from GMB though if it's the correct one for the unit I'll be amazed. I just picked out one that looked good.
Actually they're not completely finished yet as I'm awaiting the arrival of some grass tufts to finish off the bases. I saw them on Chris's blog and liked the idea. So maybe once that's done I'll get Neil or Nick to take a good picture and post that as well.

A Tale of Two Tables

A quiz question to start things off. What do you think the was the cause of these Austrian gunners looking like they've just had a fight in a talcum powder factory? Answer at the bottom of the page.

Well it took a long while to materialise but I've finally received at least one the commanders reports from our final campaign battle. It's short and concentrates on the action on the French right flank, but as I have only a hazy recollection now of what actually happened it might even be accurate.

Battle Report

The right flank…

…The plan according to Marshall Andy was for Steve and myself to assault and take the village on the right flank. Steve and I both had 6 Battalions of mixed ability and size – some 32s and some 36s.


In hindsight the assault on the village would have been easier with both divisions under one command. As it was though I had to rely on Steve doing what I thought he should & would do to support the attack.

Incredulously Steve elected to use his 12lb battery to act as counter battery fire rather than to control ground in front and to the side of the target village. Then he decided to exchange fire with the defenders of the village rather than engaging it in an assault. I am not sure if he was waiting for me to assault it first but I was caught up trying to peel of a few of Noels battalions and avoid his howitzers.

If, as Chris observed in previous comment on the last post featuring this battle, we had combined our guns to soften the target up for several turns and then a few more we may have been successful. As it was this did not happen and in order to avoid my boys getting obliterated going in I elected to try and draw of some defenders by going through the woods. There was some skirmish fire and then my battalions were getting set for the charge. That’s when Noels elite boys started to sting!

I charged and failed, if this had gone in a think I would have won the 1st round of melee and then would have broken through as Noel would not have been able to reinforce and I would have had 2 fresh battalions.

Instead I fled the other way through the woods. Steve was then flanked by Eric in support of Noel and the whole French right flank collapsed. It was a disaster. The French divisions were under strength and unbelievably outclassed by the opposition. Only a combined assault would have worked, and then it would have been in the hands of the Gods. Poor communication between two divisional commanders did not help, and my attempt to flank the Prussian’s through the woods was not in hindsight very wise.

Had the campaign continued Andy’s French would have been in utter rout from a collapsed right flank which would have swept up the whole battlefield.

Well there you have it, in fairness to Nick who wrote the report, he was left with the task as Andy was unable to make it to the garage for several weeks. The upside of this of course was that Andy was spared the horror of seeing his troops soundly thrashed.

On Thursday, though there were only five of us present we started a new game using both tables in their entirety for the first time. Until now the most we'd used had been one complete table and three feet of the second one. This now gave us a whopping 180 square feet to play on. Eric devised a scenario consisting of a Russo- Austrian force somewhat on the back foot and about to be pounced on by a stronger French force. Who in its turn suddenly finds that a Corps of Prussians has turned up on its flank and rear. I'll hopefully get Eric to write up an account of the battle though I haven't mentioned this to him yet. Nevertheless he is quite erudite and a shade more reliable than some of the other buffoons.
It was also on Thursday that Nick arrived proudly sporting his new camera. It is indeed very nice though I think he might want to spend some time learning how to use it. For some reason the pictures have come out very bright, possibly Nick's insistence on using the flash had some bearing on this. That said the photographic composition, artistic interpretation and subject matter are beyond reproach, so all in all a good start for the fledgling lensman.

And finally... the real reason you've bothered to read the rest of this rubbish, (that's assuming you didn't just scroll straight to the bottom). What happened to the poor old Austrians? Well those of you who clucked your tongues and muttered various sage comments on the pitfalls involved with spray varnish would be to a large extent wrong. I say to a large extent because this is in fact a prime example of what happens when you reach for the spray varnish and happen to pick up a tin of grey undercoat instead. These poor chaps along with the other three gun detachments in the battery bear mute testimony to old saying "look before you spray". Oh and before I get any derisory comments I was not the guilty person, however I feel it only fair to let the culprit remain anonymous in order to protect Eric's good name.

Another Week in Scarborough

I've just returned from my second trip to Scarborugh this year, I still have one more trip scheduled in December. This time I arrive armed with more than a few photographs of the occasion.

However, first things first as they say so a quick mention of Andy's battle is in order. When I last reported we were at turn 12 with the French attemting to break the allied centre and left while holding on their own left. If you take the time to read the comments from other blog readers you may remember that the ever astute Chris made the following observation,

"if they take their time, strip away the Prussian artillery and then punch in with a concentrated attack with the quality kit. If they rush in though, hoping a couple of guard btns will swing it, they will get mullahed",

and how right he was. The small French divisions attempted a frontal assault without first pereparing the way and by turn 15 it was all over bar the shouting.
To be honest I was hoping that the two commanders might have had their battle reports in by now but you know how it is, I go away for a week and they start taking liberties. I will of course whip them into shape and should have the reports in time for the next blog entry.

So back to our week at the WHC. Everytime I go there I have the very best intentions of logging the battles and writing a full report on each one, but as usual I became too involved in the games and now only have a patchy recollection of what actually happened.
Fortunately this time I remembered to bring back a copy of the briefing notes and the army lists for both sides. The week was split into three one day battles followed by a two day Leipzig type battle in which the results of the previous three battles would have a carry on effect. For instance in the first battle the French were up against the army of Silesia. A decisive French victory would have resulted in the army of Poland not turning up for the final battle and 50% of French conscripts being promoted to line. A marginal victory would just have meant 50% of the army of Poland not turning up. For the Allies a marginal result would have promoted 50% of Landwehr to line status and a decisive victory would have the same effect with the added advantage of one French formation being unavailable to fight the army of Bohemia.

As you would expect the forces we were using were large, though I thought the reduction in the size of gun batteries worked really well. I'm not going to list all of the figures used (unless someone particularly wants me to) but as an example here is the orbat for the army of Silesia:


Sacken - 10 x 32 Inf
1 x 32 Light Cav
2 x 6pdr Bty (4 guns)
Langeron - 12 x 32 Inf
1 x 32 Light Cav
2 x 6pdr Bty (4guns)
York - 3 x 40 Inf 10 x 32 Inf 6 x 32 Landwehr
6pdr Bty, howitzer Bty, 12pdr Bty, Horse Bty (each 3 guns)
2 x 24 Light Cav
Korff - 2 x 32 Light Cav 1 x 32 Dragoon 1 x 32 Cuirassier, 2 x 30 Cossacks
Horse Bty (3 guns)

In addittion we also attached

Wittgenstein - 13 x 32 Inf
2 x 32 Light Cav 1 x 32 Dragoon
2 x 6pdr Bty (4 guns)
Kleist - 2 x 40 Inf 8 x 32 Inf 6 x 32 Landwehr
6pdr Bty, Howitzer Bty, 12pdr Bty, Horse Bty (each 3 guns)
2 x 24 Light Cav
Galitzin - 1 x 32 Gd Light Cav 1 x 32 Gd Dragoon 1 x 32 Gd Cuirassier 2 x 32 Cuirassier
Gd Horse Bty (3 guns)

I believe that the French eventually got the final win by not being defeated in the last battle. Prior to that the first battle had been a draw followed by a marginal win for the allies in the second and a marginal win for the French in the third. What is more important of course is that we all had a really good time. I've been going to the WHC for years now and this was definitely one of the best weeks I've had there.
So that's it for now, hopefully we'll all be able to enjoy the commanders reports from our last battle in the garage in the next update.