Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Napoleonic encounter battle

 Having spent much of the past week 3D printing & painting cavalry I set up an encounter battle with lots of cavalry.  Steve chose to command the French, so I had the Russians this week.
Russians: 4 line, 1 grenadier, 4 cossacks, 2 hussars, 2 dragoons, 1 field & 1 horse battery.
French: 3 line, 1 legere, 4 lancers, 2 dragoons, 1 field 7 1 horse battery.

All pics are taken from behind the Russians. The two armies approach each other from opposite corners of the table. 
Both sides deploy their cavalry & wait for the infantry to deploy behind them.
The Russians have deployed their infantry on the ridge to the left of their cavalry.
The French are advancing their infantry through their cavalry on their right flank & covering their left with artillery & dragoons.
Legere lead the French advance in skirmish order.

The newly 3D printed lancers look splendid.  The green ones are Austrian Uhlans masquading as Confederation of the Rhine tonight.   The blue are Polish.
On the left, the French line have charged up the hill past the legere.
On the right, the French dragoons have charged the cossacks.
On the left, the French line have broken one Russian unit, but been beaten by the other one.
On the right, the dragoons have won one & lost one against the Cosssacks.
On the left the French line at the end has now broken the Russian second line & Lancers have ridden down the Russian battery, but the next Russian line unit having beaten off French line infantry is now holding on against lancers. 
The Polish lancers have charged the hussars on the ridge & though initially successful,  the second line of hussars is hold on.
On the right, the dragoons have turned to attack the Cossack flank, but the Cossacks managed to turn & face them.
In the centre the Russian dragoons are suffering under artillery fire, but doing a job plugging gap.

The Russian line unit on the ridge saw off the lancers & the hussars have stopped the poles.  On the right, the cossacks have broken the dragoons.  The French have lost over half their force & fail army morale.

It was close run thing.  The French made a well planned attack against a well planned defense, but the Russians got the breaks in the critical combats. 


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