Black Powder

Jim's frogs v. Steve's Austrians

We made a rather more cluttered battlefield this time - with a dominant village in the centre.  Both sides were about 1200 pts.  The French had more cavalry, but the Austrian Generals were 6's compared with 8's for the French.  The Austrians had more infantry units, but the rench units were bigger.

The Austrians made a steady advance on their right & centre.  Their cavalry was initially behind the centre, but was moved to the left to face the French cavalry.

The French advanced their left into the corn field & farmyards to defend that flank.  In the centre the infantry were formed up into attack columns to rush the village.   Despite poor command they did get into the village first because they took maximum advantage of every good command roll whereas the Austrians made more measured advance.   The French had superior cavalry - all deployed on their right, but with their poor command, just could not get most of it moving.

While the French bemoaned the failure of the cavalry to do anything, the Austrians made converging attacks on the farm & the village.  The Bavarians in the farm fought well & although broken themselves, so were both the enemy brigades attacking them.  Likewise the French in the village fought well.  Eventually they lost the front houses, but they had caused enough damage for the enemy to be on the point of breaking.

On the right of the village the small French brigade became exposed when the cavalry refused to support it.  But they only lost 1 battalion to the Austrian cavalry & the remining 2 battalions were in good shape. 

Even though there were a couple French routs in the centre, the Austrain cavalry were pretty well spent & it was only  going to be a matter of time until the French cavalry got moving & finished them off.  With 2 brigades broken & the other two on wood, the Austrians conceded.

The pics are all taken from behind the French left.  Note French Cavalry still where it started at the end.