Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Napoleonic: French v. Russians

French: 
Jim (left flank & cavalry), Mark (centre), Chris (right flank).
3 infantry divs of 4 line, 1 light & 1 gun plus a cavalry division of 2 heavy & 2 light.
Command 9.

Russians: 
Steve (right flank), Nick (centre), Mike (Left flank & cavalry).
3 infantry divisions of 6 line & 1 gun & a cavalry division of 2 heavy & 2 light.
Command 7 except CIC 8.
After secret deployment within 18" of own baselines.  The French are on the right.
The Russians advance on their left with infantry & cavalry.
The French advance in the centre with flanking divisions echeloned back.  
The Russian cavalry sweep around the flank is delayed by their poor command.  The French cavalry is moving to meet it.  There is a scrappy infantry fight in the farm orchards.
The French attack on the centre faltered before it even went in after some unusually good Russian shooting & some poor break test results disrupted it.  The French left & centre has shaken out into line to bring their use superior musketry into play.
While a firefight rages left & centre, on the French right the Russian infantry is are attacking though the orchards.  The French cavalry have already charged once but both front lines became shaken without decisive result & with Russian infantry on their flank the French cavalry have fallen back to regroup while the Russian cavalry are, as usual, slow to follow up.
The Russian command team deep in thought.
The French infantry have stopped the Russian push through the orchards & are now counterattacking.  Both sides cavalry have put their second line to the fore & the French have charged again.
In the firefight on the French left & centre, the French firepower was countered by Russian tenacity (the French shoot better, but the Russians are stubborn).  The Russians have got on top & the French made a fighting withdrawal counting on winning the battle on the far flank. 
The Russian infantry division on the far flank broke first, but as nightfall approached, the French infantry on this flank & the Russian cavalry on the far flank have also broken.

So by nightfall the Russians had lost 2 divisions out of 4, the French 1 out of 4.  The army break test has it that if you lose 2 out of 4 divisions the size of the divisions is taken account of.  As one of the Russian losses was the smaller cavalry division, the Russians have lost less than half their force,so not broken, & the battle is a draw.  Given that the remaining French infantry divisions are both 1 loss off breaking & their cavalry units are almost all shaken, the French were probably saved from defeat by night fall.

The Russians had 3 more infantry units than the French.
The French had some slightly better cavalry.
The French were command 9 compared with command 7.
The Russian foot were Poorly Trained (1 less dice in shooting & line combat, line movement limit 1 per turn), but stubborn so +1 on all break & rally tests.
The French line were standard troops (2 moves in line).
The French had 3 light infantry units (3 moves in line, +1 dice shooting, & able to use skirmish line).

The French won on their right where their better command helped a lot in the swirling cavalry fight & in the scrappy infantry brawl in the orchards.  The Russians won on the other flank & centre standing on the defensive in a tight line where their poor command didn't hurt them.

1 comment:

Gonsalvo said...

The characteristics you have you have assigned seem very reasonable and appropriate for the two armies, and gave reasonable effects and results