Here are some pictures from our latest Piquet: Field of Battle game. It was a rather surprising rout at a river crossing.
Here's the game table with the Austrian deployment. The river sections were kind of rushed. Since the French won our last scenario, I set up something like a French pursuit. This is about half of an Austrian division defending a bridge at a small town. There is a known ford just this side of the village, and two possible fords at either end of the table (troops will have to try to cross before it will be clear if they can be used). A full French division is attempting to cross. On the second turn, the Austrians shuffle in a Game Event card, and three really great Grenadier battalions arrive on the table edge at the road.
The French commander sent his light troops to investigate the ford on his left, which was found to be unusable. However, the cavalry found the ford on his right to be suitable, and crossed over. The Austrians weren't prepared for this, and facing the two Hussar and one Dragoon regiments are three line battalions in march and two Hussars in line.
The French main effort was a direct crossing on the ford by the river. This was congested and effectively contested by the Austrians, though.
The focus of the battle very quickly shifted to the French right, though, as the "diversionary attack," as the French commander called it, of the French cavalry very quickly became the main thrust. The French Hussars each charged and destroyed outright an Austrian battalion on the march.
The battle for the ford continues. The French lack the élan to charge across the bridge-- this is not Lodi!
The Austrian Hussars fail to stop the French cavalry and are destroyed. The entire Austrian left flank has been completely destroyed and the French are moving into the center, taking a battery of guns and forcing the Austrian Commander in Chief to flee before them.
The French cross the ford, but determined Austrian resistance forces them to fall back across the river.
Finally, with the Austrians turn 2 deck very nearly depleted, the grenadiers arrive. The next card for the Austrians, though, was the Army Morale group, with the result that two Command Groups must fall back-- sending them immediately back off the table! The Austrians conceded.
*SNIFF* I've finally painted enough figures to put on my first Napoleonics game with my own gear. I'm so proud. I do believe that, finally, this officially makes me a Historical Gamer. Now I just have to finish the initiation ritual of criticising somebody's else's uniform painting!
The game is Austrians vs. French, a fictional engagement in 1809. I'm fairly close to having enough figure for Eckmühl, and this engagement isn't too dissimilar. I chose to use Scenario 1 from Programmed Wargames Scenarios by C.S. Grant using Command Piquet, with the programmed French defending a ridge against the oncoming Austrians. This was my first CmdPK game and my first time to use any scenarios from PWS, so I didn't try anything too fancy.
Things went bad for the French from the start. The Austrians, despite being rated much worse, rolled a Superior CinC for the day, matching the French, with Poor wings. The French had a Skilled General on their quiet left, and a Superior General on their hot right.
The Austrian plan was to envelop the outcropping of the ridge (yes, that is supposed to be one solid ridge line) on the left, not being aware of the wood, concentrating fire there to break the French right. The French rolled a defense spread equally across the entire ridgeline. However, their light troops were on the flanks, putting the Crack Légère in the elevated woods right where they were needed most. The French had one battalion in reserve, placed in the middle of their deployment. They were only one cavalry unit weaker than the Austrians. All French commanders were rolled as Cautious, with the goal of simply holding any part of the ridge in concentration, so they passively stayed put and prepared to receive the Austrians.
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| View from the Austrian side. |
The artillery opened up first, with the elevated French proving much more successful, pounding two central Austrian battalions. The Austrians responded, discomforting one French battalion between the two batteries slightly, but failing to phase the Légère at all. I was beginning to think the French might have the upper hand.
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| The French right getting flanked. | Austrian grenadiers charge a battery. | Austrian cavalry threatens the right. |
The Austrians swung two battalions in column around the French right flank, and their worst unit caught a break and forced the French right back. Their campatriot pushed the French back further, within an inch of routing them. The French guns blasted back the central Austrian battalion, leaving a gap the Grenadiers surged through. They reached the guns, forcing them to limber and fall back, but fired their first volley point blank into the battery, devasting the crew beyond hope of bringing the guns back into service.
The Austrian battery on the right prolonged their guns into point blank range and routed the battalion between the French batteries with cannister. This left the Légère surrounded, almost cut off and totally without any support. The French reserve went Out of Command as the routers fled past it, and couldn't find the impetus to move.
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| French battalions driven back, battery gone. | Austrians pushing three battalions through the French right. | The Légère trapped. | Uhlans apply pressure on the left. |
The Légère formed column to try and maneuver out of their predicament, but the Austrian battalion, their worst 2nd rate battalion, wheeled through the woods and delivered their first fire into the Légère rear, routing it outright. The French CinC and Superior right flank commander tried desperately to rally anybody to try and hold something of the ridge, but couldn't. Three French battalions routed off the table, one battery gone, and the French pulled the rest of their troops off in no doubt some disorder.
This game did point out that I had forgotten to paint up any CinC stands, and that I really need some more cavalry. One unit of French Dragoons serving as Chausseurs really doesn't cut it. I've got Austrian and French CiCs and a unit of Old Glory French Hussars (quite nice figures!) on the table to be painted. Also, I need some buildings! I had a bunch of 2mm buildings I intended to use for 6mm AWI terrain, but boy, it just does not work for 15mm. I'll probably get some of those nice Timecast 6mm or 10mm buildings.
I decided to take a break in all the Sci-Fi stuff I have been doing lately and go back and finish flocking all my Napoleonic bases I hadn't done.
They always look daunting to me on the table, yet anemic when I take a picture! How they look to you:
I've been reading the Memoirs of Baron de Marbot from Napoleonic Literature. I started it because it was free, I could download it to my Pocket PC, and a brief survey showed he served in the 1809 campaign. Now I see that he was one of the contested two first into Ratisbon! That's pretty cool, I had thought that was a great story, but never paid any attention to the name and had no idea that I was reading his memoir. It's really a great read. Did you know a horse can bite a man's face off his head? According to Marbot, it can-- and his did, to a Russian Grenadier at Eylau, in addition to disemboweling a French sergeant. That was one scary horse.
I finished a bag of Battle Honors 15mm French Légère tonight.
Well, not really finished, just painted. They still need their bases finished. I got in the bad habit of not finishing the bases, just getting them painted, and now I have 64 stands which need to be done!
This gives me twelve Piquet units of French foot, though-- nine Ligne and three Légère-- which is nice. I've got a one hundred count bag of Austrians on deck waiting on a command pack, or I might paint a couple of units of Erzhog Karl Legion. Actually, I might just paint something else entirely to keep from getting totally burned out on these!
Ha! I've been whining a lot about how slowly I've painted my Naps, 350+ figures over two years. Well, I bought them two years ago, but poking around my site, I just found this entry which indicates I fooled around and only painted about 50 in the first year. So, overall, I've been painting my Naps twice as quickly as I thought I had been! I guess it's nice to keep a little journal to track your progress...
Got half a unit of Napoleonic Astrian Uhlans painted yesterday...
Finally. Twelve bags of Battle Honors figures, two years and 366 painted figures later, I've reached a milestone...
...12 painted Piquet units!
Okay, okay, they're not all textured and flocked yet, sheesh, what do you want. And, yeah, only one unit of cavalry each...kind of lame. I've got Uhlans primed and ready to go, though, and then French Cuirassiers. Then I should be able to run a decent enough game. I've got Landwehr and French Light Infantry bags to go after that...plus some casualty stands...then I'll get some Jaegers...some more cavalry units...then onto the Bavarians and Württembergers, I suppose...ugh...it never ends, does it?
They look kind of unimpressive there, don't they. Maybe I need to put them in smaller boxes. ;-)
TMP has a nice thread on books for the Napoleonic 1809 Austrian campaign.
I've now finished some Napoleonic French artillery.
I've been making a bit of progress lately! I've got all my Napoleonic French infantry done (well, all that I bought...I have two more bags ordered and on the way now), plus I took a break to paint up a Warmachine Khador Devastator warjack. Read on to see how I'm staying on track...
I'm actually making more progress by doing a slow and steady approach...just painting when I feel like it, trying to keep up a reasonable one unit (four stands in the case of Napoleonics) a week schedule. I'm a week ahead, currently painting French artillery which doesn't need to be done until the end of next week to remain on schedule, so I have some additional leeway and don't feel under any pressure. So far, I've completed about 9 units and roughly 160 figures. My target is around 24 units, enough for a two player Piquet game, so I'm about 1/3 of the way there. In my spare time, I'm reading Napoleonic books and trying to stay away from getting into other historical periods and not get distracted by some other project. If I start to get burnt out (like now, looking at ugly half-complete French artillerists), I can take a break by working on some Warmachine warjacks. If I keep it up, I should reach my goal by around Christmas...but I'm not putting any money on it.
Just finished the Austrian generals and some French infantry. Lots of progress lately-- just over 100 figures done.
More Napoleonics finished-- this time, Austrian Hussars! The Austrian artillery is coming up next...guns and half the crew already done.
Woo! I finished my first bag of 50 Battle Honors Austrian marching in helmet, which I bought...just over a year ago. At this rate, I'll be playing my first full game of Les Grogs 2e sometime in 2011...heh.
I'm currently painting 15mm Battle Honors Napoleonic Austrians. I'm working hard to make them nice. I snipped off the cast standard and replaced it with brass wire. I resculpted the bearer's hands and finial. I lovingly painted the miniature. I rescaled the appropriate standard from Napflags, printed it out and attached in, waving in the breeze in an energetic manner. I gloss urathaned the miniature to protect it, then a coat of Dullcote for sheen. Then, yes, I see that I've mounted the firkin' flag upside down. I think I'm just going to leave it.