Interlude

We're now into the full glory of our English summer which so far has consisted of an assortment of rain, mist, high winds and cloudy skies, variously mixed together to produce a pretty dismal though consistent backdrop to daily life.  However as I write, my better half is sunning herself in the garden, and there's a real prospect that tomorrow might be "pleasant " too.  Which is about as far ahead as I trust the ability of our so called weather forecasters to divine from whichever piece of seaweed or chicken entrails they are currently using.  So why am I wittering on about the weather on a wargaming blog?  I suppose it's because that regardless of the meteorological situation, we're at the period when availability of our regular gamers takes a bit of a hit and we find ourselves filling time.  So once again this week due to unavailability we were unable to continue with the campaign which as you may remember will next consist of the Prusso - Russo attempt to cross the River Spree while Marshall Davouts IV corps takes pot shots at them from the other side. 

Our initial attempt at river sections sporting some of the bridges which the brave Allies will be using.

Though we do have several river boards, there are nothing like enough to cover the fifteen feet of table that Neil wanted to use on the battlefield, so we looked for other solutions.  What we've come up with is simply roofing felt cut into irregular strips and painted blue with a little white on the edges for effect.  Actually they're not too bad and once we've used them for the battle we have plans to improve them by adding banks and the odd patch of reeds.  The good thing is that they only took about thirty minutes to produce including the cutting out and initial painting.  The sections are designed to be not less than five inches wide at any point meaning that any musket fire across them must be at least at effective range and all of the ends are of course the same width to enable them to be placed together.

    It does seem however that the campaign will have to wait a little while longer as with so many of us unavailable due to holidays, exams etc. there won't be enough of us around for a couple of weeks to make continuing with it feasible.  Added to this is the fact that in mid July most of us are off to the Wargames Holiday Centre for the weekend to play Marengo which is one of the new games I've never played before. 

The Prussian right wing lacking artillery support recoils from sustained French fire.

Of course give a group of gamers a little time coupled with a supply of terrain and figures and it won't be long before they've got a game started.  So almost inevitably someone, in this case Steve, came up with a scenario which he'd been mulling over for a while.  It's based on Davouts epic fight against the Prussians at Auerstadt and consists of a prepared defensive line for the French being assaulted by more and more Prussian infantry divisions.  Artillery is limited at the moment which seems to be favouring the French but more enemy troops seem to be arriving each turn.

The French left wing having fought off one half hearted assault awaits the next one.

At the moment the French appear to have the upper hand which is understandable as they have the better class troops and the Prussians have to attack across difficult terrain but as their numbers increase it will be come more difficult for the French to hold them at bay.

One of the small number of batteries so far deployed, firing on distant Prussian cavalry.

We'll be continuing in two weeks as there's no game next week due to shortage of numbers, and we should have it decided by then.  Which means we'll have a week to begin the campaign game on the Spree before we head off to play Marengo.  So all in all a pretty disjointed period here at the garage but eventually normal service will be resumed and the campaign should start to hot up with the arrival of the first Russian troops.

French veteran light infantry beat off an assault  by two columns causing disruption in the Prussian centre.