Shako - 8 July 2015: 1809 mini-campaign game 1

Aiming for a figures game every month or so, this week saw a tactical game of Shako hopefully leading up to a refight of the 1809 Battle of Eckmuhl between the French and her German Allies and the Austrians.  In this Divisional battle, Friant's 2nd Division of Davout's III French Corps (James and Andy) engaged the Austrian General Sommariva's Division (JP and David) who were defending the village of Hausen.  Given their requirement to attack into the face of the Austrian defence the French had slightly more troops - Pajol's Brigade consisting of the 5th Hussars plus a Horse Battery; Grandeau's Brigade consisting of the 108th and 111th Line Regiments; and Barbanegre's Brigade of the 48th Line Regiment - the latter Brigades with Foot Batteries and detached skirmishers.

The Austrian defenders had Radivojevich's column consisting of the Austrian 3rd Hussars plus two Battalions of the 9th Grenz Infantry; and Pfanzelter's column made up of 5 large battalions of Austrian line infantry (3 battalions of Manfredini's Infantry Regiment number 12 and 2 battalions of the Wurzburg Infantry Regiment number 3), also with guns and skirmishers.  The Austrian infantry were deployed defending the town and the light troops and hussars on the other side of the river - fordable just below the Austrian front line.

I opted to use a new mechanism for deployment, given each side playing cards representing the position of their Brigades plus an additional dummy cavalry card.  The players could see whether the opposite side was deploying infantry or cavalry but not the exact make up of the force and one of the cavalry cards was a blind.  

After the first move - French Hussars and Horse Battery approach the Austrians on the left bank whilst the French infantry move in echelon to the far right

The French tactics were to try to break the Austrian forces on the left bank by attrition from the horse battery and to ignore the town sector and send the infantry to the far right to punch through the Austrian line.

The last turn.  The Austrian light infantry and hussars are rushing back across the river but too late for the main Austrian infantry brigade which was broken by the fast moving French columns massing all their force on the far right. 

Alas for the 5th Hussars unlucky dice rolling saw the Austrian Hussars break the unit and the battery, allowing those forces to recross the river, but the time this took meant that they were too late to influence the main infantry clash.  On the right bank the French were successful in ignoring the town, although Austrian sallies eliminated 2 French battalions.  The concentration of force on the far right meant that Friant was able to break Pzanfelter's Brigade and hence the Division.  So, Hausen remained in Austrian hands, but Friant's Division were able to break through the Austrian line - a French victory.

The game was fast and tactical and finished in just over 2 hours after set up - very playable.  

Quatre Bras - 2 January 2015

To mark the 200th anniversary since the Battle of Waterloo, Jonathan has planned a sequence of Napoleonic games.  We played the first of these yesterday - Quatre Bras.  Kieron and (another) Jonathan took the roles of the French, James the Allies with post-lunch assistance from Adrian.

We faced a roughly 16x4 feet table with Quatre Bras and the crossroads near the Allied table edge.  With troops hidden in the woods and occupying the town, the Allies initial deployment was on top of the hill to the left of QB and along the road between the town and woods.  With the exception of some cavalry, the bulk of the French army came on directly opposite the cross roads and QB.

The Allies were hampered by a great deal of second-rate troops and a series of Aides-de-Camp with shorter life expectancies than drummers with Spinal Tap.  When the concentration of French troops was clear, new orders were sent to the right flank so they could reinforce the town and attack the French flank.  Over the course of 7 or 8 turns, the Allied lost a dozen ADCs, and so the orders did not get through in time to have impact, and by nightfall, the French had occupied QB and had pushed up the hill, defeating Brunswick, Dutch and Belgian troops.

A minor highlight of the Allies was the hardy unit stationed in the building near the French table edge which took potshots at the passing French and defeated two units who tried to storm the building.  The lowlight was the charge of the Brunswick lancers, defeated by a French unit that was successful in forming a hasty square.

So a victory for the French but good fun for everyone.  Thanks again to Jonathan for all the painting and running the game for us.  Next stop Ligny...

Show and Tell, 5 January - Polish Fusilier Battalion

Time off work over Xmas has allowed me to paint up another Shako battalion and some 28mm figures (to be reported separately).  This is a Polish line infantry (fusilier) battalion in the colours of the 6th infantry regiment.

Shako, Enconter at Grub - 2 January 2014

The first figures game of 2014 played out at Adrian's with a small-scale Shako engagement between Kieron, playing the Austrians, and Orhan as the French.  The scenario was an encounter battle set during the 1809 campaign with lead elements of Berthier's French Corps racing for the town of Adensberg and bumping into Austrian forces that the Archduke Charles had dispatched from the South with the same idea.  Both sides' aim was to seize the key river crossings around the village of Grub (or should that be Gruss?..).

With Adrian as umpire, each player mapped out their initial march orders, noting that enemy forces were to their front.  They were invited to specify whether their formations would advance with all possible speed (and hence be at risk of being in march formation upon encountering the enemy) or more cautiously.  The first two turns thus played out at speed with the formations represented by card markers (and with some extra markers moved by the umpire to represent the fog of war).  As units came into visual range they were put on the table.  This set up allowed a rapid move to action and, as it turned out, an asymmetric deployment.

As the French, (General Friant) Orhan's plan was to race his forces onto the heights above Grub, using his light and heavy cavalry to screen the northern flank, his light infantry regiment to occupy the lower town and guard the eastern ford, and to deploy his guns covering the main bridge and the approach to the upper town.  Orhan expected Kieron's Austrians also to seek the highest ground so determined to be there first.

Kieron's plan though did not conform to Orhan's expectations.  General Keller sent a sole unit of heavy cavalry up to the northern heights, raced his light cavalry through the upper town and marched his infantry determinedly straight through the upper town to take the bridge.

T'he Austrian infantry cross the western ford to enter the upper town unopposed

Austrian Kurassiers reach the northern heights, beat off the first attack of the French cavalry and are confronted by the deploying infantry division.

The initial cavalry clash was a victory for the Austrian heavies forcing the French cavalry back.  Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield, the Austrian hussars raced around the town and scouted the eastern ford, finding it blocked by deployed French light infantry in square.

The Austrian hussar brigade races for the eastern ford...

Not wanting to allow the Austrian Kurassiers to threaten his flank Orhan again threw all his cavalry units into an attack, only for Kieron's roll of double six to see all the French thrown off again.  But as skirmishers started to take a toll and a gun battery positioned itself to fire at the Austrian horse from the heights, they retired to screen the Austrian right for the rest of the game tying up all the French cavalry on that side of the board.

The Kurassiers 'Matrix moment' when a double six allowed them to beat off three attacking French units

In the centre, General Keller ordered his main infantry division to storm the bridge from the upper to the lower town.  In the teeth of punishing French cannon fire from the heights, the fusilier battalions charged across.

As General Keller and his staff look on from the North-Western bank, Kurstein's Division charge across the bridge...

... and encounter fierce resistance from the French 8th Light Infantry regiment whose volley fire throws the first attacking battalion back, but breaks as the second comes on undaunted (in a classic DBM-style 6 v 1 dice throw).

The tough Austrian line infantry pushed across the bridge and into the lower town, routing a Polish line infantry battalion and occupying the buildings there.

As more line infantry descends from the heights to try to stem the Austrian tide, the first Polish battalion is pursued through the streets of lower Grub.

Kieron now felt the time was right to unleash his light cavalry across the eastern ford.  One French hasty infantry square was crushed, the second held up a unit of hussars.  By now though the battle was won.  With the upper town, both fords and the bridge firmly in Austrian hands, and the French only just hanging on in the lower town Friant ceded victory to Keller and withdrew the remaining French troops.

The Austrian light cavalry charge across the eastern ford

An aerial view shows the Austrians crossing into the lower town, with French defenders disrupted

The view from Keller's position - Grub is taken.

We found that an engagement such as this with 9 infantry battalions, 3 cavalry regiments, 2 gun batteries and a couple of skirmish stands per side was both easily completed in an evening (the playing time was just over 2.5 hours) and gave the players a meaty enough command to keep them profitably occupied.  I'll look to organise more of the same in 2014.

Show and Tell, 22 September: Austrian Jaegers

This last month I've supplemented my Austrians with a couple of battalions of formed Jaegers (and an alternate skirmisher stand).  These Tyrolean skirmishers also could form up en masse.  They were well trained: at Leipzig "The 5th Jager Battalion formed square at a run (!), delivered a volley, and waited its fate with bayonets at the ready." (Nafziger - "Napoleon at Leipzig" p 229).  The uniform was pike grey with green facings, which earned them the nickname 'grey devils' amongst the French.

Show and Tell, 29 August: French 2nd Carabiniers

This August I finished another couple of Shako units.  To add to the French heavy cavalry is another regiment of Carabiniers - the 2nd - painted in 1812 livery.  The figures are Essex and Andy had bequeathed me them ages ago.

Shako, Battle of Castiglione - 7 August 2013

Games night during the summer hols meant sufficient time for Adrian to prepare an impromptu Shako scenario from the Fields of Glory book (which had the effect of inadvertently confusing James, Deej and Orhan who turned up clutching copies of FoG).  These scenarios are generally pretty good and can be completed in around 3.5 hours.  We went for the Battle of Castiglione, 1796.  We'd never played this one before because I'd never previously had enough Austrian line infantry units painted up.  As it is, the uniforms of all my figures are for the later period but there you go...

The Scenario map - The French are on the left, attacking the Austrian centre.  Fiorella's flank-marching Division can arrive from Turn 3 if the French gets the die roll; in our game it arrived on Turn 5

The figures at initial set up, the French flank march (Fiorella's Division) and reinforcements not yet on table.

Castiglione saw a grand outflanking manoeuvre by Napoleon to try to turn the Austrians' strong defensive position.  Historically this arrived too early and prematurely sprung the trap, but in our game it worked out about right.  Orhan played Napoleon with me rolling dice for Massena and Leclerc and James the Austrian General Wurmser, supported by Deej.  The scenario is a very tricky one for the Austrians since they are largely fixed in position and can but react to the arrival of the large flank march.  The French needed to break three of the four main Austrian infantry columns to claim victory, with a glorious victory achieved if they also occupied the village of Solferino.  A draw would result if the French failed to do this, and the Austrians would win if they saw off the assaults and break three French divisions.

Napoleon receives word from General Fiorella...

General Wurmser in position behind General Wetzel's Column on the heights of Solferino and General Pittoni's Column in the centre.  The Reserve Column of Grenadiers commanded by General Lipthay waits behind the line.

Napoleon opted to assault the Austrian Redoubt on the hill of Monte Medolano (in reality the 'hill' was only 5m in elevation but the Redoubt made it a formidable enough obstacle for the French to want to amass a grand battery against it) and the village of Solferino, with his combined Grenadier brigade screening the Austrian centre and his cavalry advancing against the Austrian cavalry on the French extreme right.

General Nicoletti's Heavy Battery in the Redoubt of Monte Medolano

Austrian Hussars prepare to go into action...

The assault on Solferino by Massena's and Leclerc's divisions went according to plan with the French grand battery pummelling the Austrian infantry to the right of the advance.  With minimal losses Massena managed to win and hold the village on the last turn of the game.

Massena's Division attack uphill in column, supported by Leclerc's Division.  French light infantry face off the Austrians in the woods.

On the right flank, Augereau's large French infantry Division managed to take and hold the Redoubt, with Kilmaine's cavalry driving off Schubriz's Austrian cavalry - who had to face an attack in the rear by the Dragoons of Fiorella's flank marching mixed French Division.

Croatian Light Infantry battalions assault the Redoubt as Austrian fusiliers of Peist's Centre Column advance against the flank of the main attacking body of French, General Augereau at their head.

The Austrian reserve column redeployed to face Fiorella and the Austrian centre column went into the attack.  It was clear that the last couple of turns would be crucial - would the French, clearly forcing the battle on both flanks, be able to do enough to claim victory?

Augereau takes the Redoubt as General Verdier's combined Grenadiers attack Pittoni's column in the centre (two battalions having just been routed by the leading Grenadier battalion).  At the top left of the picture the Austrian reserve marches in column to intercept Fiorella's flank march.

At the end of the final turn, despite having lost no divisions and seized the redoubt and the village, Napoleon had only broken 2 of the 4 Austrian infantry formations, not enough for victory.  The Austrians had not inflicted enough casualties to claim a win themselves (pretty dire dice-rolling throughout) so the final result was a well-fought draw.