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.