Napoleonic Battle Report

Regular wargaming partner Roj has just put this up on his Ga Pa Great Northern War blog. A nice account of him hammering me in a very enjoyable Napoleonic encounter a couple of months back.

 Great Northern War Gaming & Other Projects: Playtest Eastern Front Napoleonic Game

I am hoping to do more AARs myself in due course, with some notes on the rules and how they work.

Some ACW Union Regiments

As I mentioned in an earlier post on painting my first Confederate brigade, the Perry plastic ACW figures are both very nice and fairly easy to paint. Union troops if anything are even simpler, with a comforting degree of uniformity, unlike the rebs. I also give them 2 flags rather than a single battle flag, which also helps. Decided to go with right shoulder shift again, as I think it really suits the period and protects the muskets and bayonets a bit more. With 5 figures to a base, rather than the more traditional 6 in 2 ranks of 3, you can jumble up the ranks a little to give that slight sense of disorder in a regiment moving briskly to the front. You also get 6 bases for the price of 5 with 30 figures - a considerable saving. 

I am working on and playtesting a home brew set of rules with my regular wargaming mates which use a scale of 1 base to 60 men. A "typical" regiment is therefore between 4 and 6 bases, although they can be larger. Smaller regiments are a bit flimsy in action and best avoided. 

As before the rank and file are plastic, the command figures from the Perry metal range - I use a complete metal pack with each regiment in order to get the two standard bearers that I need; my Confederate regiments can get by with half a pack (3 figures) each.

The exception is the Zouave regiment, in this case the 114th Pennsylvania, which is all plastic. They really do add a splash of colour to an otherwise fairly sombre army, although I do find that long lines of blue and grey can still look very appealing on the table.

I try to have a couple of batches of ACW figures on the go in various stages of completion as often as I can; it is one of those periods that, for me, is really do-able through the "little and often" method.  When painting more "formal" units, I usually prefer to do all 24/32/40 at once to maintain uniformity. With an ACW collection a dozen figures a week, before you know where you are, you have a couple of brigades a side and a game in the offing.

Am aiming for 16-20 infantry regiments a side, so still a way to go, but Gettysburg wasn't built in a day! Add 3 or 4 batteries and a selection of command bases and you are done. Cavalry is something I am still mulling over; not very prominent on most battlefields but would add a real degree of variation in our games. Couple of brigades a side - what do you think?

A Second ACW Confederate Brigade

Here are the fruits of a few months of "little and often" painting that I find really works for this period. The units aren't really "organised" in the usual sense in that I have a number of command bases as you can see below to which are added as many infantry bases as I need to make up the unit sizes for the game. In the rules we are using this can vary from 4 to 8 bases (occasionally a little more, but rarely less). This batch is 4 regiments of 6 bases each (representing 360 real men); it could equally be made up into a regiment of 4 bases, 2 more of 5 bases and a large regiment of 10 bases. This is the advantage of ACW, where the uniforms for the vast majority of troop types are indistinguishable, all you need is a command base and take it from there - very flexible.

As usual, the rank and file are Perry plastics and the command are mainly metal figures from the same source with a few plastics from the box thrown in. Overall, they look nice, even with a fairly routine paint job. Flags are GMB.

 

A New Napoleonic Army - The Prussians

 

With a decent sized Russian army you can always give the French and their allies a good run for their money, but for 1813-14 (my favourite campaigns), you really need a healthy Prussian contingent to help with the heavy lifting. Once again I have gone for Foundry figures for the infantry and again I really like the variety and quality of these admittedly ageing sculpts. So far I have managed 5 units of line infantry (1 fusilier and 4 musketeer), plus a command base, with the intention of doing another fusilier and probably 1 or maybe 2 grenadiers. In the last Foundry Christmas offer, I stocked up on reserve infantry (6 units) and landwehr (6 units), for a grand total of 19. This should be enough!

                                       First up is the 2nd Silesian Regiment

                                             The 4th East Prussian Regiment

                                                    

                                                      The 1st Silesian Regiment

                                                            Silesian Fusiliers

                                    And finally the 2nd Pomeranian Regiment

As you can see, the units have a definite campaign feel, with a sprinkling of different colours on trousers,rolled greatcoats and shako covers, plus the odd forage cap. As all I have are regulars at the moment, they will do for the early spring campaign of Lutzen and Bautzen. If I want to go beyond that, I will need to get cracking on the reservists and Landwehr. I also have a couple of boxes of Perry plastic Prussian dragoons, a regiment of metal hussars and half a dozen artillery batteries to make a start on so slowly slowly.

Napoleonic French Cuirassiers

With a light cavalry division under my belt, I thought I had better add some heavies to counter the dragoons and cuirassiers I already have in my Russian army. As with the lights I decided to opt for Perry plastics again, getting enough to make 6 regiments (5 Cuirassier and 1 Carabinier). Here are the first 3 to take the field. As usual lovely figures from the Perrys.

The carabiniers are part done, but the Seven Years War project and more AWI keep getting in the way. Also busy working on more drop on terrain - trees and ACW fencing; just as well I am retired now!!

AWI Battle. Playtesting The Rules

 

Regular wargaming partner Chris Charlton came over recently for another game of AWI. Our group has played this quite a few times over the last 12 months and the home brew rules seem to be coming along nicely, although still firmly in the playtesting stage.

The scenario revolved around a meeting engagement in which a British force of 3 brigades (commanded by me) was attempting to pounce on what it thought was an isolated American force, only to see fresh troops arriving on the battlefield to reinforce it. 

The British had a brigade of good quality regulars (2 battalions), supported by a solid brigade of Hessians  (3 battalions, including one of grenadiers, a jager company and a section of Hessian artillery) and an advance guard made up of British Legion infantry, a loyalist battalion with a company of poor quality loyalist skirmishers and a high quality company of British light infantry. The American force was made up of two regular brigades and a small brigade of rifle armed skirmishers under Morgan himself. The forces were of a similar size, with the British enjoying a slight edge in quality, albeit they were doing most of the attacking.

Here we see an overview of the battlefield with the advance guard moving over the ford, with the British regulars close behind. The Hessians who were mainly deployed for action are on the far side.

The ford provided a fairly easy passage, although deploying from the line of march was to prove difficult in the face of some lively firing from the American rifles in the woods. The militia skirmishers were routed in pretty short order, although the British lights were made of sterner stuff.

Chris surprised me by advancing his best unit; a strong composite light infantry regiment towards my advancing Hessian line - obviously keen to get to grips! As you can see, their fire was having some effect. In the rules a unit can take a certain number of hits before a base of figures is removed (6 for an A Class unit, down to 2 for the very shakiest militia types). The Leib regiment shown here was C Class, so could take 4 hits before losing a base, so nearly there. This would provoke a morale test

The Leib Regiment, supported by von Bose sweeps majestically forward.

Another shot of the loyalist brigade approaching the ford.

And here they are again deploying (slowly) for action. By this time a brigade of Continentals has arrived to support the rifles and things are hotting up for the British. 

Here come the British regulars, which I felt would be needed to deal with the enemy troops now deploying in front of me.

The American light infantry were clearly unconcerned by the approach of the Hessians, pictured here just prior to their advance.

More of Morgan's pesky rifles moving up in support.

A Continental regiment moves up to support the rest of its brigade.

From behind the Hessian lines.

A note arrives for General Morgan informing him that the British are coming - better late than never! His rifles are giving the British light infantry a hard time and inflicting considerable casualties on the British Legion.

Whilst the Light Bobs keep the rifles occupied, the already damaged British Legion gets some much needed support from the leading unit of British regulars, which deploys into line in fine style and advances without a care in the world on the American regiment to its front, which is already pouring fire into the hard-pressed Legion.

Risking a bayonet charge, things go their way. Shrugging off the closing fire they rout the rebels after a short, sharp encounter, encouraged by their brigadier. They would go on to do the same to a supporting enemy regiment in the following turn, albeit at some cost. The Legion, who had offered some supporting fire are now hanging back, feeling they have done their bit.

Meanwhile the other loyalist regiment has managed to deploy and is adding its firepower to the battle, having persuaded Morgan's rifles to vacate the wood with a well executed bayonet charge. Things are starting to look promising on this side of the field.

Encouraged by their brigadier another Continental regiment attempts to stem the tide, whilst the rifles, who are close to losing a base themselves, attempt to reform. The cotton wool ball denotes that they are currently unloaded.

In the end, the British were able to drive back the units facing them, although at heavy cost and it was doubtful that they would be able to do much more. On the British left, the Hessians were struggling to hold on, those damned light infantry fighting particularly well. Unfortunately our correspondent didn't cover this side of the action in any great detail, although it was largely a (losing) firefight.

In the end a great game with each side holding the advantage on their right flank, but struggling badly on the left. As packing up time arrived, we felt that a hard-fought draw was an appropriate verdict.

The rules work on a multiple activation system whereby each unit (or brigade if they are all doing the same thing) has a number of attempts (between 3 and 5) to move, manoeuvre, load and fire etc each turn. The more complicated the action, the harder it is to succeed; so for example moving straight ahead with no deviation is accomplished on a throw of 2+, to wheel requires a 3+, to move to a flank or reform needs a 4+ and so on. Things are slightly harder in difficult terrain such as woods. You declare what each unit or group will do in that turn, but if the first option fails, you have to carry on until you are successful, so often you don't achieve everything you might want, so forward planning and risk assessment are a big part of the game. Getting too close to the enemy in the wrong formation can be a problem - changing formation needs a 4+. One of my British regulars (my best unit) got on the flank of the American light infantry regiment with its first action whilst still in march column, subsequently failing 3 times to form into line and charge, which I had every expectation of doing. Instead they milled around under close range canister and rifle fire - not good!! 

The rules still need a bit more playtesting, but we have found that they give an enjoyable and often nail biting game as you can never be certain how much, or little your units will achieve.

Anyway this is the first in what I hope will be a more regular offering of AARs - something I always enjoy reading on other people's blogs. Hope you found it of interest.

Napoleonic French Chasseurs a Cheval

 

Following on from the initial 2 light units (see 24 February 2024 post), I thought I had better add another unit of chasseurs - the workhorse of the French light cavalry arm. Once again these are from the excellent Perry plastics box, which allows enough variety for a real campaign look. These chaps are from the 10th Regiment, which with the 9th Hussars and 4th Chasseurs, represents a pretty strong light cavalry division of around 1,800 men.

I still have enough figures in the pile for another 4 units, one of which will probably be hussars and another a regiment of Neapolitan chasseurs a cheval, so still a long way to go.