Liphook - Margeno Megagame

A good game at Liphook this weekend. It was a smaller crowd and smaller battle, with less troops, but with still three big tables so it was the most open game I think I’ve very played there, with a reasonable amount of room to manoeuvre. I think its also the first time I’ve ever seen a unit fight its way across 2 whole table width.

The 3 tables looking W from behind the French lines (c. San Giuliano)

The battle was Marengo, with me as Napoleon and Nick as General Melas. As the heavily outnumbered French we had little option but to try and hold the line of the Fantanone stream. Nick decided to avoid a direct assault across the bridge to Marengo and instead put almost all his forces to the flanks. Kellerman and Murat did an ace job is using their cavalry to frustrate his advance, particularly in the south. With all our troops more or less engaged on the flanks he was then able to force a ford just N of Margeno.

Fantanone table now clear of my French (except Marengo!)

At that point I ordered a fallback to a new line at La Fournace. We managed to make a clean break and at this point apart from our cavalry (which was now pretty much spent) had suffered hardly any damage. Nicks parallel thrusts on our flanks continued. In the S Victor fount a village based defence, also making good use of the woods and vineyards. In the N it was more open and although Lannes tried to hold the vineyard line some good dice rolls from the Austrians, plus their surfeit of cavalry/artillery and some poor rolls on our side soon saw the whole of Lannes’ Corps streaming back beyond Villa Nova.

The middle table and the fight for the vineyards and wheat fields

Desiax was rapidly trying to get into a position to fall on the flank of the Austrians in front of Lannes, but Lannes gave way and a poor firefight saw Desaix frustrated and it was game over.

Austrians advance out of the wheatfields

Nick and the Austrians won 4 points to nil, and we’d fallen back (rather than be pushed back!) to a line which we were just about holding. Lannes was actually still a very potent force once rallied, and so we feel it was far from a  white-wash.

Kellerman's Dragoon's saw much action during the day - as in reality

Overall a good game for Liphook, with a nice amount of space to play in, a reasonable amount of troops on the table (not too many, not too few), and a reasonable, if still brisk, tempo to the play.
With Trevor “retiring”, there is just one more “classic” Liphook game to be played in September, but there is already talk about how to continue these mega-games beyond then.

More pesky Austrians!

Liphook - Jena Wargame

Half of the middle table!

Sunday as Liphook Historical Wargame Society's wargame of Jena. Having done all the Bicentenary Battles up to Waterloo we're now cycling back through 210th Anniversaries (Jena was 14 Oct 1806).

Three huge tables were set up, although only 2 saw use. Figures were 25mm with a 1:50 figure ratio and a 1mm=1m ground scale, and used the clubs Art of Command Rules (very old skool).

Some lovely Saxon cavalry

I started the game as von Prittwitz, which meant in reality being von Cerrini commanding the 1st Saxon Bde. My orders were to hold the French between Lutzeroda and Closewitz, the former being in bounds, but to give way once heavily pressed so as to save my good quality Grenadiers and let the French fall onto our main Prussian defensive line behind.

And matching infantry

The Saxons did quite nicely, the two battalions in Lutzeroda slowing the French nicely. But the real stars (and unofficial "unit of the match") were the Lecoq Grenadiers who ended up fighting about 10 rounds of melee and seeing off half a dozen or so French battalions. The star turn though was when there was a mutual pull-back after a drawn combat, so the French decided to fire on them to force a moral check which they would certainly lose. But I then played an "Ignore Morale Check" card, so they got to fight yet another melee.

The last stand of my Lecoq Grenadiers

By then it was time to leave things to the Second Line, so my Brigade pulled back to fill the line just E of Isserstedt and I handed over command.

My next appointment was at von Ruchel, bringing on his Corps from Weimar. We were tasked with reinforcing the Prussian right flank, just W of Isserstedt. The Imperial Guard were pushing our 2nd line hard E of Isserstedt but we were just holding firm. As the game ended by Corps had actually positioned itself in enfilade against the French left flank so I was already to roll their flank up and give them something else to worry about!

The battle developing in the centre

Overall a good game, the rules meant that as ever it was not particularly fluid, but at least it had a bit more movement than some of the games have managed.

There are acres of polystyrene under all that felt! All Trevor's hard work

Battle of Austerlitz AAR: 2 Dec 1805

Looking NE up the battlefield, Pratzen Heights between the players. Note more or less unused rear (E) table.

Sunday, down to Liphook for the Liphook Historical Wargames Society's refight of Austerlitz. With the Bicentenary refights ending last year the club is now revisiting old favourites, so this year its Austerlitz and hopefully Jena or Auerstedt. Trevor puts a lot of effort into organising these events and building the huge terrain (they are 25mm, 1mm=1yd scale), and the scope of the games is always superb. For this game we had about 7-8 a side, so people were pretty busy, and I found myself as Napoleon.

Napoleon, me, commanding forward from near Pratzen

From the Players Brief it looked like the intention was to do a proper refight of Austerlitz, with the allies trying to extricate themselves once the French fell on their rear. However the allies had other plans, and from turn 1 had southward moving columns moving as slowly as possible, and a large force (Miloradovich and Kollowrat?) moving directly over the Prazten heights for the French arrival point (we only started with Legrange's Division on the table down on the Goldbach). Given this in reality Napoleon is likely to have not deployed forward and either defend the Goldbach, or move back to fight another day at a better location, given that he was heavily outnumbered, but this being a wargame we had to stay and fight. So what followed was not so much a refight of Austerlitz as an unbalanced wargame over the Austerlitz ground.

Cavalry face off in the southern sector

The game was one of two halves. For most o fthe first half all the action was in the South as the Allies gradually forced us out of village after village, and Davout's small reinforcements were not enough to hold the retreat. However Davout's cavalry dominanace actually meant that we ended up holding all the open ground in the South, with the Allies just holed up in the villages (which unfortunately is where the victory points were). It was then more or less stalemate for the rest of the game. In the North the French fell back on Pratzan (but still held the Heights - or at least its trig-point!) in the face of the Allied advance, waiting for Bernadotte and the Guard.

The battle for the villages

In the second half the focus switched to the North. Bernadotte went forward between Pratzen and Blasowitz into a line of about 6 Allied gun batteries. The left flank was open though so the Guard and other Cavalry started a flanking action and took out most of the Allied cavalry in the North. Soult was reinforced by the Guard and Duroc's Grenadier Division which fought to hold the Heights, and drive a wedge between the Allied forces around the Heights and those facing Bernadotte. Through this gap one of Vandamme's gallant Brigade's made a bee-line for the Stare Vinohrady trig-point, worth 20 victory points. The game ended with the Pratzen spot-high contested, and Bernadotte still slogging his way through the Allied guns, but cavalry from Davout heading North to disrupt a renewed Allied attack on the Heights from the South.

The Russian guns that met arriving French

Not the most rewarding of Liphook games, but offset but a wonderfully expansive table - even if the fighting was reduced to 3 pockets, and almost stealing victory from the jaws of defeat - we lost only 30-40. Will be interesting to see what the casualty figures are like.

The fight on the Prazten Heights, Prazten village in distance to NW

Bernadotte's heroic assault on the Russian gun lines

ENDEX - Looking SW down the table, Heights mid-table

Battle of Craonne - 25mm

Here's the account of the Liphook Historical Wargames Society refight of Craonne at the end of Jun. I was Napoleon :-(. The rules were the Liphook in-house rules, very old school in style and the game was played over 3 tables with about 7 commanders on each side. The game lasted from about 9am to 4pm real time one Sunday.

10 min per turn. 1mm = 1 yard. Units represented to company/squadron level but moved as battalions/regiments. Single figure casualty removal (usually by card marking) and 5 states of disorder (I think).

The battle started after the French had taken Hertebise Farm. The main differences from the historical battle plan were that Carpentier and Rebeval made their main push through the woods either side of the neck to try and outflank the guns - so lots of skirmishing with the Russian Jaegers, but a push across the neck was still needed in the end, and De Morvan's Young Guard Division was seconded to Nansouty so as to give him a combined arms force to hopefully secure any advantage he gained on the Russian flank, and also with the option of exploiting W to the table edge.

T1 (1100) 6 Russian batteries are deployed right at the head of the neck. Cossacks line the ridge on their L above the Lette. Rebeval and Charpentiers Divisions from Victors Corps push forward in skirmish order through the woods, which are already infested with Russian Jaegers. Victors other troops hold back on the neck. Ney pushes forward towards Ailles.

T2 (1110) Skirimishers push forward. Ney reaches the small bridge just past La Maison Blaume.

T3 (1120) Skirmishers almost in contact. Ney splits forces sending the Spanish Brigade towards Ailles and the rest towards the ridge - but mindful of the Cossacks

T4 (1130) Nansouty's cavalry starts to emerge from the woods on the S spur. Guard artillery moves onto the neck. Skirmisher firefights start in the woods both N and S of the neck.

T6 (1150) Exelman's cavalry move N on the spur, towards the Russian 2nd line guns. Some Russian cav being sent S. Guard infantry begins to move onto the neck but already getting very congested. Victors Young Guard is slowly pushing the Jaegers back, but with more success in the S.

T8 (1210) Young Guard in the S wood almost pushed through to edge, but Guard in N wood being pushed back.

T9 (1220) The Cossacks above Ailles finally decide to charge Ney's advancing infantry but bounce back.

T10 (1230) Young Guard now at edge of both woods, in S try and exit but bounced by defending Russians. Most of Nansouty's cavalry now on the plateau. De Morvan's Division which had been seconded from Mortiers Corps to bolster Nansouty's cavalry only force starts to emerge from the woods.

T11 (1240) Nansouty charges the Russian Pavlograd Hussars which have been monitoring him. In the N wood the Russian 14th Jaegers have pushed through the Young Guard line, but 15th Jaeger are being pushed back out of the woods.

T12 (1250) The Pavlograd Hussars rout the 1st Provisional Hussars but spent on followup surrounded by De Morvan's infantry. 3rd Tirallieurs finally exit the S wood on the flank of one of the Russian guns at the head of the neck.

T13 (1300) Nansouty's cavalry advances in skirmish order against the 2nd line Russian guns, but 2nd Provisional Hussars routed by Don Cossacks. Charpentier assaults the Russian battery from the edge of the S wood. Ney's lead troops almost cresting the plateau, whilst his Spanish Brigade invests Ailles.

T15 (1320) Nansouty's Grenadiers a Cheval chase off the Cossacks. Nansouty's guns decimate the Pensa IR which had formed square at the far S end of the spur.

T16 (1330) Charpentier's infantry exploits L and C beyond the Russian battery. Grouchy's cavalry finally has space to start moving across the neck. Vorontzov moves some infantry against Ney's forces cresting the plateau. The Pavlograd Hussars are finally chased off by the 1st Guard Lancers - but annoyingly for little loss (these Hussars were an annoyance to the French for the whole game), but they rout into the 10th Tirallieurs who are just following up a Russian battalion they have routed.

T17 (1340) There is an evolving cavalry melee between the Nansouty and Vorontzov cavalry on the spur.

T19 (1400) On the middle table the Polish Lancers melee with the Don Cossacks. In the centre the Russian guns(mostly spent) and infantry are pulling back to the 2nd line, with a few infantry battalions in square against the advancing Guard cavalry. Ney is making a 2nd assault up the slope.

T20 (1410) 2nd Provisional Hussars charge the Russian 2nd line battery SE of La Bovelle, but take 4 casualties and are Broken.

T21 (1420) Guard Chasseurs a Cheval charge the 8/9th Don Cossacks. 26th & 27th Chasseurs a Cheval charge the Vlapov (?) Don Cossacks. The French forces a now well S of La Bovelle and beginning to wrap around it.

T22 (1430) At the W end of the neck 1st Fusilier Grenadiers charge a Russian square of the combined grenadier companies of 15th Div and routs them. De Morvan's Division is pressing the Russian 2nd line gun SE of La Bovelle, which is now spent.

T23 (1440) A 2nd Russian square beyond the neck routs due to close range artillery fire and friends routing. Cossacks charge one of the Guard batteries on the neck. Ney and Rebeval pushing up onto the plateau again, which is now defended by a line of Tulsa IR.

T25 (1500) Russian centre now in full retreat to La Bovelle. The gap SW of La Bovelle which Nansouty and De Morvan had been hoping to exploit is rapidly being filled by Olsuflov's IX Corps with cavalry and artillery. French orders adjusted to try and exploit further S towards Paissy and Vanstcesse.

T26 (1510) De Morvan's Division now on the 2nd table, which is now the focus of action in all three sectors.

T27 (1520) Nansouty and De Morvan move WSW towards the stream crossing W of Paissy. Ney has cleared all but one building of Ailles from the Russians, with some others on fire, but exploitation W is stalling due to the lack of cavalry - the ridge W from Ailles now lined with cavalry and guns - the Russians having no infantry W of La Bovelle, it all being bottled up in the village.

T28 (1530) The Russian Beckendorff Hussars (them again) are enfolding the front of La Bovelle with Russian guns. The Russian 3rd line guns W of La Bovelle are frustrating any flanking move by Nansouty.

T29 (1540) Nansouty's cavalry is beaten back from the stream crossing by flanking fire from Paissy (although not quite sure how they managed to shoot up that slope :-) ), and the guns on the other side of the stream. Ney is still fighting over Ailles.

T30 (1550) Russian gun line at La Bovelle is keeping the French Guard from closing, and the Hussars are keeping them in square.

T31 (1600) Nansouty has another push on the L flank. Empress Dragoons charge the Russian guns in front of La Bovelle but are beaten back.

T32 (1610) Guard Horse artillery on L flank starts bombarding Caissy. Beckendorff Hussars finally pulled back into La Bovelle and their guns are more or less spent so a direct assault by Mortiers forces is likely to commence next go.

At this point the game was halted and a Russian victory declared. The French had not been able to successfully flank La Bovelle, and the Russians had put up a stout defence which had slowed the central advance.

There is a full set of photos taken with a proper camera here on Flickr.

***Imported from old blog***

Battle of Lutzen - Liphook

We refought the Battle of Lutzen (1813) as part of Liphook Historical Wargaming Society's series of quarterly Napoleonic Bicentenary battles. For some reason I found myself promoted to
General Wittgenstein and in command of the Allied Army. We had a creative plan which we managed to half implement, but the French kept coming. In the end we managed to hold our position in the villages to nightfall and inflict a good amount of damage on Ney.

A Battle Report Luzten Battle Report - Allies.pdf is attached.

***Imported from old blog***