Battle of Ocana 1809 - Steady Lads Steady AAR

 

Scale of games steadily going up in the new War Room. Looks like Ocana will be my only decadal game this year - and it's a year late! I used the Grand Tactical version of my Steady Lads Steady rules, with Hexon terrain. One hex is 200m, and manoeuvre units are brigade sized.

The battle followed the real one pretty well. French cavalry under Milhaud was quicker off the mark, and supported by Paris made short work of the unreliable and fragile Spanish cavalry. SLS's resolve tests and morale tests worked really well, initial Spanish defeats rapidly become a rout. In the centre Werte's Poles got a bit ahead of Leval's Germans and suffered as a result. But the Spanish didnt have enough time to exploit before the French cavalry came crashing into their flank. On the Spanish left Zayas and Rivas did have a chance to cross the ravine and counter-attack but (probably wisely) didn't take it. The whole things was over in 4 turns - 2 hours - can't find the time for the real battle.

Battered Poles (sort of..)

Zayas waits on the left flank with Ocana in the background

Milhaud's Cavalry rides forward

The big right flank cavalry melee - although many didn't even come to blows

French infantry advances

Long shot of the melee

Breakthrough - rich pickings coming up!

ENDEX - lots of empty space for the French cavalry!

The rules worked really well, best game I think I've had with SLS-GT. Particularly impressed by the way the cavalry conflict played out. The main changes in this game were aimed at streamlining SLS for megagame play (in prep for Waterloo60), principally:

• Side by side IGOUGO as only practical approach I think in a megagame
• CPs more like command cards that can be played at any time, not just on CinC activation
• Simple "Strength" value for units including size and TQ modifier so less mental maths, and an easier to understand concept
• Morale test taken by neighbouring units on Retreat as well as Rout - helped clear the board faster!

Next up, play Ocana with Large Shako since its on the table, and then try the SLS mods out on the normal Battalion manoeuvre game.

Battle of Bailen 1808 and Et Sans Resultat

That's got to hurt - you'd have thought!

Finally got Bailen on the table. This is the 1808 battle where the Spanish managed to beat the French under Dupont. For this game I decided to try out the Et Sans Resultat rules. I'd heard good things from them on the Meeples and Miniatures podcast and elsewhere, so was looking forward to it. As usual I'll do the battle report first, then a rules review and finish with some overall comments.

As an experiment I set the terrain up in 10cm Hexon, but then laid in 4cm hex cloth over it, worked pretty well.

Battle Report

STARTEX: French coming from left., Bailen off to right.

Chabert's Brigade was first on, and, as in 1808, swung SE to climb the slope and attack Coupigny (bottom of picture above). The first round was undecisive, both sides taking casualties, but by the second the French had the upper hand. Coupigny fell back broken, but Chabert retired as no longer effective.

Chabert's assault on Coupigny

The baggage train delayed Schramm's arrival buy a turn or tow, but they were sent stright up just to the S of the road to hit Reding. Again it took a couple of turn,s but this time Reding broke with minimal casualties to Schramm. Just as well as although Pannetier had arrived his orders got lost and he hadn't moved before the game was over! Dupre and Prive's cavalry faired better though and were thrown forward N of the road to join Schramm in a two pronged attack on Venegas (top of the main picture). Again two turns was all it took to send Venegas packing with minimal French losses.

Schramm on Reding - you'd have thought that Spanish gun would hurt!

So without even committing the rear-guard of the Marines, but with Chabert looking a bit the worse for wear the French totally over-turned the historical outcome.

The final fight on Venegas' position, with Reding himself almost surrounded

Rules Review

Well this was a bit up and down. I had good expectations, and the production values are really high, but  my heart sank when I read that deployed infantry moved 1125 yards - which at a 1" = 100yd scale means we're expected to measure to 1/4". As soon as I got the rules on the table I hit the next big negative, infantry move 1125 yards, but artillery only fire 900 yards. So you can move form out of range to melee in one go! The rules say that units "in contact" are still targettable as they are initially assumed to be at musket range, but may be out of arc - but after the first turn I always allowed one shot on the way in. What I did quite like though was that the fire is effectively "formation" (i.e Brigade) fire, with skirmish battalions and artillery combining against the approaching targets.

The initial melees seemed lacklustre, with few casualties (fatigues), but the after battle assessment saw more damage and was where the formation really suffered. At first it seemed to disconnect the damage from the actual combat - but again its reflects the focus on the "formation" not the Bn ( I should have watched the video tutorials first!).

Coming back the next day I realised I'd read the combat table wrongly. I though you just looked up the difference once (for the winner - which is what I do with SLS), whereas in fact you look up for both sides - but even so it was still the assessment that caused the real damage. I was now getting more into the flavour of the game, and you do need to think of it as formation level, even though you have Bn MUs.

I used the orders a bit, Pannetier's delay being the result of that, and I could see in a bigger game and more forcibly applied they might work pretty well.

Another big downer though came when look up troop types. There is page after page of stats for named commanders of the period, but units are only given in some representative OOBs, none of which had Cuirassiers (or some other key troop types!) so I've no idea what stat they should have. There was also no sense of formation (which could be allowable at this scale), but also no sense of cavalry wreaking havoc amongst unprepared infantry, or infantry being penalised for taking defensive measures. Gunners also appeared to be able to melee just as well as an irregular battalion - even against cavalry!

Overall

So overall, I think there is actually a very good set of rules in there, but its struggling to get out. It's got one of the nicest "higher level" takes on Napoleonic gaming I've seen, and I can see that the command, firing, melee and assessment sections could all work well with just a bit of tweaking, and as long as you stay in the formation mindset. But I think if I played again (as I may do - which is saying something!), then I'd certainly halve or third all movement to give the guns a fair crack of the whip (the French guns never stopped to fire a shot!) and give more of that sense of advance to contact.

Battle of Maida - 4 Jul 1806 - 6mm

6mm starting positions, British on left

In just the same way that Mad Mac used Maida to test different Napoleonic wargame rules I thought I'd use Maida to compare scales. So having fought the battle in 20mm I thought I'd also give it a go in 6mm.

Now the ground scale is staying the same - 1:1000 (1 x 100mm hex = 100m), but the figure scale is increasing from 1/72nd to 1/300th (6mm), so this means that there is only a mismatch between ground and figure scales of 1:3, quite unique for any Napoleonic game I've ever played (its usually 1:14), so I was  hoping to get a far better perspective on ground and movement. It also meant that since there were now 90 figures in  a battalion (6 of my standard 6mm battalion blocks) I only had a figure:man ratio of 1:5 (for a 450 man battalion).

To make the game slightly different I decided to have the French attack in column, not line, but nothing else was different.

The 90 figures of the Combined Light Battalion, 1:5 figures:men

The change to column made a big difference from the start. Both Compere and Peyri's leading battalions managed to close with the defending Brits and get into melee (they move faster, so less artillery/musketry, they get a +1 on resolve and 1 +1 in melee against line, but effectively lose the power to fire on the way in). The 42e sent the 81st reeling back again, but the Light Brigade managed to eventually win their melee and send 1/1e Legere back, and then 2/1e. Oswald again move forward to help fill the gap left by the 81st, and the 78th Highland were also now in melee with the Poles. On the left flank the 23e Legere of Diagonnet made far faster progress in column round the thickets, and the Chasseurs having corralled the Grenadiers and 27th into square held of the attack until the 23e could arrive.

By the end of turn 4 (about 9.20) the 1/23e had gone in against a 27th weakened by the fire from Griois' guns and routed them. In the centre 1e Polish failed to go in against the advancing Swiss of Oswald. However Dyneley's battery managed to rout 2e Polish, which then took the French Swiss with them. Oswalds 58th then fell on the flank of the halted 1e Polish, sending them home too.

Two battalions of 23e Legere in Column of Divisions

Technically it was now game over as the French had two broken brigades, but I was keen to get the 20th onto the table so let the game play on. I soon almost regretted it as Raynier was first out the deck and used a command point to rally 2/e, bringing Compere's Brigade back under control.On the left flank the 20th failed to materialise and so 1/23e Legere charged into a now weakened Grenadier square and routed that. Turn 6 and the 20th are still not there. 1/23e failed to charge in against Dyneley's battery which had begun to rake the French on the left flank. Likewise the 58th failed to go in against Griois battery which had placed itself in a commanding position on  a small hillock. 2/23e managed to push Watteville's Swiss back, and Acland and Oswald were struggling to build a defensive line on a much refused left flank. On the right things were also not looking good as a rejuvenated 2/1e pushed the Light Brigade back and took the gun battery.

Final positions

On Turn 7 the 20th finally turned up, right onto the flank of a weakened 2/23e. 2/32e routed immediately from this surprise flank attack, and took the unformed and battered 1/23e right next to them with them. Game over.

Endex as the 20th Foot goes in against 23e Legere

Interesting how a change in tactics resulted in a far more bloody and close fought battle. Given my comments last time I do wonder if perhaps I need to up the impact of musketry, need to dig out some detailed casualty figures again, to make it harder for the columns to go in, and also to make more of an incentive to stop and fire.  One other minor change I made was to force morale tests when units retreat past you (a lot more common then rout - which was the original condition) - think that worked well.

Playing with the 6mm really did give it more of  a "battle" feeling, 90 figures not 18 per battalion. The ground coverage looked quite convincing, although there wasn't too much of  a sense of unwieldiness that I was expecting with long lines as there were in reality on 2 hex wide (would have been interesting on my 40mm hexes - then 6 hex long!). It's certainly something I'd do again, and it may be a ideal job for the MDF Napoleonics.
So overall another cracking game and a nice scenario.

Battle of Maida - 4 Jul 1806 - 20mm

Reynier's 1ere Legere advances on the British Combined Light Bn

Next up in my decadal battles series was the Battle of Maida, 4th July 1806. This was the only major battle the British fought in Italy, and was part of a small, and highly successful, operation aimed at disrupting the French plans to invade the British defended island of Sicily. Richard Hopton's book is the go-to information source - I picked mine up at a show for £5!

Stuart had landed with about 5000 men just up the western Italian coast, 80 km from the Straits of Messina. Reynier marched with about 6000 men to meet him. As Stuart marched up the flat Maida valley (as in Maida Vale!) Reynier descended, possibly unwisely, off the valley side to meet him.

The nice things about this battle is that it's about 8 bn a side, the British have two small batteries of 3/4 pdrs, the French just one. The French have a regiment of Chasseurs, and that's it. Here's a nice map from NapNuts:

Given the small size I decided to play this scenario twice. First in 20mm with 18 figure battalions (so about 1:33), and then in 6mm (1/300) with the same ground scale with 90 figure battalions (so about a 1:5 ratio). In the latter case since the ground scale is 10cm = 100m (using hexon hexes), so 1:100, it means we have only about a 1:3 error between figure and ground scale. I used Steady Lads Steady as usual, but given the small numbers I decided to also allow musketry (which is usually wrapped in with the melee/charge rules), but used the existing firefight rules to do it.

Initial Deployments - British on left

Both sides start deployed in echelon and in line, as was historically the case. This meant that the first clash was (bottom half of image) between the British Combined Light Battalion and the French 1ere Legere. The firepower of the British line and the gun batter was enough to see off the first French battalion. Alongside, 2/1e Legere came up against the slightly untried 81st who flinched and withdrew. But that left 2/1e momentarily stranded and Wateville's English Swiss in the reserve Brigade marched swiftly up and into the flank of 2/1e who retreated back.

Whilst this was going on in the centre the French Swiss (yes, both sides!)  and Poles marched steadily forward but again the fire from the second British battery and the 78th Highlanders they were unable to make an impression on the British line, and were soon withdrawing with losses.

On the British left flank the French fared better since the Chasseurs could come forward and force the British grenadiers and 27th into square. But the French battery of Griois (who provided one of the best eye-witness accounts) was too weak to make any impact unless it could get really close. The French 23ere Legere also came forward in support, but the scrub on this flank really slowed things.

That was pretty much the first hour/3 turns.

Returning to the British right flank the Light Battalion surged forward against the two weakened and one full strength (but disordered) battalions of Compere's Bde, forcing them all back and sending the Brigade into Compulsory Withdraw orders. In the centre Oswald's Reserve Bde pushed forward through Acland's disrupted Bde of the 78th & 81st and started chasing the Poles and Swiss back. That brigade (Peyri's) was also soon into Compulsory Withdrawal. But before the turn could end (and it would then be game over since the French had 2 of their 3 Bde's withdrawing) Reynier was able to use a command point to rally one of the Polish battalions and stave off the end of the game.

On the left flank the Chasseurs unwisely decided to charge the Grenadier square but were beaten off and had to withdraw. This meant that the Grenadiers and 27th could come back out of square and advance, helped by the 20th Line who had just arrived on the table (they were late marching up from the beach having been involved in a diversionary attack elsewhere).

The 81st advance - but bring up the rear after initial losses

In the closing turn - #7 - Oswald finally made contact with Peyri's fragile Poles and Swiss, and that was it, game over as both the battalions exited the board.

The subtitle of Richard Hopton's book is "15 Minutes of Glory", and the real battle lasted about 8.30 to 10.30, so the wargame was about the right duration, and gave the right result!

Curtains for the Poles, who performed better than in reality

The really interesting thing for me though was that in the whole wargame there was not a single melee! In each case when someone went to charge either their charge faltered or their opposition fell back. Reading Hopton's book this appears to be exactly what happened in the real battle. Hopton says "It was very rare that two lines of infantry charging with bayonets fixed would in fact run into each other....Maida has in the past been offered as an exception to this rule... [but]...bayonets did not cross at Maida ..[and]...Dyneley [commanding one of the British batteries] confirms..that the French 'turned tail' and fled before they reached the British bayonets".

Indeed Hopton highlights that the fact that the casualties were extremely low. He reports that the British lost only 45 soldiers (including one officer), and had 280 wounded. French  losses were around 700 killed/wounded and 1000 prisoners. This all seems in line with what the wargame showed. He also notes that the highest British casualties were in Acland's Brigade, as in the wargame, and that they were saved by Watteville's Swiss - again as in the game.

The end state

When I wrote Steady Lads Steady I had this issue of bayonets rarely crossing front-of-mind, and designed the "assault" rules accordingly with a three phase, but quick, firefight-resolve-melee sequence to try and capture this and have a fairly high "resolve" threshold. It's always worked pretty well in bigger games, with many charges either not going home or having their target evaporate, but this is the first battle where NO assault resulted into an actual melee, and it was nice it did it on a battle that is documented as one where exactly that happened.

So the 20mm figures can be put away and the 6mm one's brought out!

Battle of Castiglione 1796 - End Game

With the arrival of Fiorella Wurmser went into full-on withdrawal mode.

In the N Kisfalud faced little French opposition and so was able to pull back to and through Solferino relatively easily, covered by his light cavalry.

In the Centre the Austrian heavy cavaly under Spiegel and Mittrowsky moved forward to cover the retreat of their fellow infantry and the artillery reserve, keeping the advancing units of La Valette and Guillaume at bay.

The big  question though was whether he could save Nicoletti's Brigade which was about to face the full might of Augereau's II Corps, and with Fiorella threatening to cut off its line of retreat. von Dannenfeld who had been heading S to hold off Fiorella was ordered to fall in to line with Nicoletti's refused L flank. Over the next 2-3 turns the luck was really with the Austrians as they always moved before the French and so were able to keep more or less a charge move away as they withdrew back to the road and E board edge.

Verdier going into the attack

Verdier's two Grenadier Bdes did manage to get in a charge, but not enough to cause much damage - as did a couple of battalions from Robert.

Verdier in melee with Nicoletti's Austrians

So Wurmser managed to keep both Fiorella and Dannenfeld in good order in the face of Augereau and Fiorella and get them off the board fundamentally intact.

Verdier's Grenadier's spent battalions watch the Austrians leave

Further to the S Marmont's cavalry finally dispatched Placzek's Austrian Cavalry, but was too late to head N to stop the Austrians.

Marmont's cavalry recover from their melee

Rolls for Despinoy and Wiedenfield to arrive were made on the last turn (11), but their units were still too far off.

Endex!

So in the end the Austrians managed to extricate themselves without too much damage. The French found it tough going in the first hour or so, which meant that they weren't able to get to the Austrian 2nd line which was fresh and available to cover the retreat - all in all not at all too far from the real battle, although possibly done in an hour or so's less time - although I didn't cover the fight through Solferino and the withdrawal over the Mincia.

Looking at the stats the Austrian's had 4 brigade's broken, to 2 of the French (although the French had 14 bn spent or broken to 16 Austrian). On the scenario VPs the Austrians get -8 (-3x4 for their losses, +2x2 for the damage on the French), and the French get 2 pts (-3x2 for their losses, +2x4 for the damage on the Austrians). Since the French didn't manage to break the Austrian Army Morale then they didn't get a decisive victory, so its a marginal victory to the French - which sounds about right.

From a rules perspective a couple of things:

• The +2 Austrian strength threatened to unbalance the game, but in the end the French managed to fight through it. I had been tempted to change the boundaries but might leave as is.
• Regimental 3pdr guns were useless (especially against +2 Austrians!). Perhaps change to a +1 firefight modifier only as I do with Divisional Batteries when playing the Bde level game.

All in all though a really fun game and a nice scenario.

Battle of Castiglione 1796 - The Tide Turns

Fiorella's Division turned up the very next turn, and along with good progress along all but the furthest N of the front the French very much have the upper hand now. Here's the report on Turns 6 and 7 (taking us to 9.40 am).

Kisfalud and Pijon come to blows on the ridge

Left Flank: Having held back for a few turns Kisfalud could see that if he didn't push forward he was going to get smashed by the French, so he went over onto the offensive and took some nasty bites out of Pijon's Bde. Just S of Pijon La Vallette makes good progress pushing forward against Mittrowsky, almost breaking the Austrian Brigade.

La Vallete against Mittrowsky

Centre: Guillame, Beyrand and Robert all make good progress, and the concerted work of La Vallete and Guillame against Bajahaza has meant that Nicoletti (who relieved Gummer) is completely isolated.

The French about to go in for the kill against Nicolleti. Fiorella arriving top right.

Right Flank: Marmont's cavalry decided to push forward against the Austrian cavalry of Placzek by the Monte in order to distract them from the arrival of Fiorella. One Austrain unit fell back instantly, the second was engaged in melee by two French Dragoon units.

The cavalry clash

Fiorella marched his first 2 brigades onto the board, and Wurmser dispatched Dannenfeld's  Division from the 2nd line to head them off.

Fiorella advances onto the table

So at the end of Turn 7 it's decision time for Wurmser. Under the scenario rules he can only get a decisive victory if he stops a French exit - but no chance of doing that with 23 turns to play to nightfall. He also loses 3 points for every Brigade he loses and only gains 2 for every French brigade destroyed - so he's unlikely to build up points that way. Conversely the French can only get a decisive victory if they make Austrian morale fail (i.e. > 50% Brigades spent). So Wurmser could (as in real life) limit the French to a marginal victory by fading away in front of them and making sure he doesn't loose too much in the process - in fact he could even win on points! It will make for a short game, but it will very much be a game in context rather than a stand-aloen slugfest, and so a lot closer to what I'm after (and I've got No Man's Sky downloading tonight!)

Battle of Castiglione 1796 - The Opening Moves

Finally got the battle underway. The scenario opens as Napoleon completes his withdrawal and Wurmser is coming on against him. At first I thought I'd messed up as all the Austrian battalions are rated +2 for size and that was making them very hard for the French to damage - particularly since 2 of 3 battalions in every demi-brigade were inferior volunteers. Soon the French got wise and started sending two of their Battalions against every Austrian one and that stabilised things. Costly though.

The situation at the end of Turn 5 (no sign of Fiorella yet) is (from French viewpoint):

• Left Flank: Kisfauld's Bde has pushed the French well back along the ridge, with Joubert's 1st Bde of I Corps broken and Pijon coming up to fill the gap. Kisfauld is pretty spend though. Likewise Mittrowsky has pushed hard against La Valette and is now being held.
• Centre: Bajahaza has fallen hard on Victor's 3rd Bde, breaking Victor's forces, but again taking heavy damage themselves. Guillaume has come forward to fill the gap. The Austrian's have no real 2nd line forces on the ridge or centre/left, so the French should now have no problem with holding them until reinforcements arrive - and may even go over onto the attack.
• Right Flank: Beyrand and Robert of Augereau's II Corps have done far better at holding Bajahaza and Gummer, although Beyrand is now being relieved by Gardanne. Around Monte Medolano Verdier's Grenadiers have had far more success taking the redoubt for minimal casualties as Gummer didn't really right for it. They then swung N to fall on Gummer's flank, and broke his whole Brigade as a result. Nicolletti is now coming up to replace him.

French centre-right looking towards the Gummer's Austrians

So actually the game has balanced out, and to me the look and feel of it is pretty perfect in terms of troop density and melee results, although I may widen the unit size brackets to reduce the number of +2 bonuses.

The view from La Valette's forces towards Solferino along the ridge

The key issue now is when does Fiorella arrive. As soon as they do the Austrians will (as in reality) have to move into a withdrawal mode their reserves will be needed to hold their S flank, and the fresh French second line units should be able to punch through the main Austrian line.

Battle of Castiglione 1796 - The Planning

Looking NE, French on Left, Austrians on Right

Having enjoyed doing the 100 Days Bicentenary refights last year, and having missed many of the earlier Liphook Bicentenary refights I've decided to try and 2-3 "decadal" Napoleonic battles each year - it will also give me some focus for my figure painting and book buying. For 2016 that means battles from 1796 and 1806. Whilst Jena/Auerstedt is obvious for 1806 (particularly since I visited the battlefield in 2006 for the bicentenary re-enactment) the 1796 choices are less obvious. I must admit I don't know a lot about the Revolutionary Wars and Napoleon's campaigns in Italy so I needed to do some reading up. The "name" battles like Lodi and Arcole seemed to be all about bridge storming - which never plays well in wargames. But Castiglione looked like the best choice as not only were there no bridges involved but it's also cited as one of the key battles in Napoleon's tactical development; featuring a feint withdrawal, flank/enveloping attacks and a "Manoeuvre De Derrière"

The view from the French Lines

it, since it's such a set piece, but is light on detailed numbers and some of the account doesn't match well with his maps. I bought the hefty Road to Rivoli by Martin Boycott-Brown, but that adds little, and contradicts more. There are some OOB on the web, but most miss out any mention of guns - and this was also in the day of battalion guns. Timings are also all askew. I found the Grand Manoeuvre scenario, but the provenance of some of the assumptions was unclear (only 4 bn in  Massena's Corps which others put at 10,000 strong?), and the holy grail appears to be Bernhard Voykowitsch's book

- but not about to fork out £50 on the chance of a copy.

Behind the French advance looking towards Solferino

So I've had to make all sorts of educated guess work in putting the scenario together, but once I started building the terrain out of Hexon and laying the forces out it all started to look like it would really be worth the effort. An infantry heavy battle, a mix of flat plain and hilly ridge line, French forces out-numbered at the start but with the promise of reinforcements on flanks and the Austrian rear to come.

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the deployment and scenario (timings? victory conditions?) but battle will hopefully commence before the week is out.

By request here's a link to my scenario and OOB - take it as you find it! http://www.converj.com/docs/wargaming/scenarios/Castiglione%20Scenario%201796.pdf