Napoleonic Battle AAR - The Battle of Gorodechno

 Last weekend was June 18, known in wargaming circles as Waterloo day. A group of us celebrated the day with a Napoleonic wargame, featuring no British, and astonishingly, no French. Yes, it was an Austro-Saxon force fighting the Russians near a little town called Gorodechno. This battle was fought along Napoleon's southern flank in his invasion of Russia. 

Here is a map of the battle.

Three of us were Russian while the others all took Austro-Saxon commands. The initial setup looked like this.

The Russians lined up on ridges facing Austrians and Saxons doing the same. The rules used are a homebrew set but fast playing and fun IMO, I'm not usually one to enjoy homebrew sets, but after a couple goes with them I do like them. The Russians were to hold the main east/west ridge for 10 turns then scoot off to the east (far end of the table).  Most of the battle was static for a good portion for the Russians. About half my command faced off against the Austrians across the river, the other half facing the forces coming to take the main ridge.

The east end saw a huge swirling cavalry melee, going back and forth the whole game. The ridgeline just pounded away at the advancing Saxons for the required 10 turns. The Austrians across the river just fired artillery at me, to good effect.

The advance on the ridge.

Unfortunately for the Russians, though we held the ridgeline for the required time, the cavalry battle sealed the Russian escape route, and their fate. While we had some cavalry, it would not be enough to reopen the escape route. Overall a really fun game done in 4 hours . I had thought I took better pics that this. I guess I was too caught up in the action. Thanks for stopping by!

Black Powder Napoleonics

A few weeks ago we did a small action. Prussians v French.  While Black Powder is not my favorite set, I have issues with the movement, I think I am getting the hang of it anyway. The scenario was a hypothetical one with the Prussians defending a cross road, that being their mission. Here is a shot of the battlefield after the Prussian setup. I am the command closest to the camera.

The middle command is deployed forward in the town and the hill just past it. The cavalry command is centered in the rear and my command in columns closest to the camera. The French arrived on the table edge to the right. Not sure of where they would concentrate we retained a couple commands back till they started to move on.

The French start to trickle on to my front. He kind of got stuck there a couple turns due to bad command rolls, while I was able to deploy.

As a second unit entered to my front, I started to deploy in line with the front edge of the village. with a couple supporting batteries.

My unit fully deployed and ready for the French onslaught.

As the action stalled in my area devolving into a shooting match, the rest of the table heated up. The Prussian cavalry has left the center rear to meet a flanking attack to our left rear. This was dispatched handily, and allowed the cavalry to meet a new threat that materialized from the French side of the board on that flank. The French attacked heavily with infantry on the far village and the center hill between the two villages. They finally captured the far village but were repulsed at the hill in the center.

This is when the center Prussian player decided that the best defense is a "good" offense and attacked!

About that time I had a unit collapse from fire. leaving a small gap that was quickly plugged by a reserve battalion.

The Prussian attack goes in and is heavily repulsed leaving the door open for the French to take the crossing. Since our reinforcing brigade never arrived we were in a pickle and our fate was sealed. Though that fate was disputed by some. Overall, a great game and as always good times with friends.