Austerlitz: North Flank

The north flank of Austerlitz makes a great scenario for a large 28mm battle.  The Area 52 games shop kindly gave us space on a Sunday with a 16x6' table representing the 5km front to the north of the Platzen where Bagration & Lannes faced off- with Liechtenstein's & Murat's cavalry corps being fed into the battle. We had three players a side plus me umpiring.  Mike, PeterC & Dave commanded the French, Mark, Chris & SteveD commanded the Russians.
The rules are Hail Napoleon, our housed ruled version of Hail Caesar for Napoleonics.

The battle started with only Lannes' & Bagration's Corps on the table. (Lannes on the left).

Both infantry corps were content to wait for the cavalry to arrive.   The only early moves was an advance by Bagration's cavalry on his left.  The cavalry brigade on Lannes' right flank fell back behind squares pending the arrival of the first of Murat's cavalry divisions.

Leichtenstein's Cavalry corps arrived near the south end of the battlefield.

Bagration's Heavy Brigade charged Murat's Light Brigade as Liechtenstein advanced & more of Murat's cavalry came on.  Still no action between the infantry other than a bit of redeployment.

The cavalry action becomes general as Liechtenstein & Murat's cavalry go at each other.  Lannes finally begins an advance with his infantry on the far flank.

A bird's eye view:  Lannes' infantry is advancing in an arrow formation while the cavalry action swirls about at the south end.

 French & Russian cuirassiers slug it out.

 Bad command dice has delayed Lanne's left, but the infantry is finally in action.

The number of cavalry is now reducing as both sides have divisions breaking, but the French seem to be getting the upper hand.

Lannes & Bagrations' foot are now engaged.

The cavalry fight is pretty well over.  The Russians have lost 3 cavalry divisions & the French 2, but the remainders all have heavy casualties.  The infantry fight has heated up.  The French have broken a regiment on the left of the Russian infantry line, but on the right, the Russians have held the line & are now counterattacking.

At the appointed finish time, neither side had failed their army morale test (5 divisions to be broken).  The victory conditions for the game in that case were that the Russians won if the French had committed all their heavy cavalry divisions, it was tie if they committed only 2 & a French win if they committed only 1.  As the French committed all their heavy cavalry but failed to break the Russian army in time, it was Russian victory on the grounds they did better than history.

It was very successful day's work, enjoyed by all.  It also attracted a lot of interest from gamers there for other things.  It was great venue with heaps of space - many thanks to Area 52.  We are already thinking about what to do next there.