American Civil War: 15mm pick-up battle

We Americanised the Lobotsitz battlefield by adding trees & hills. With 5 players we made up a union army of 3 Corps each 6 infantry & 2 guns, one with 2 cavalry, and a Rebel army of 2 Corps each with 8 infantry & 3 guns, one with 2 cavalry.  As the Union had 18 infantry to 16 the Reb infantry were made marksmen so +1 on shooting & HTH. Figures 15mm, rules M2M.

We used a card draw to decide where each Corps started & who commanded it. 

Mitch's Rebs start in camp.  Mike's Reb reinforcements are coming on in the far RH corner.  
Jim's Union are coming on at the RH corner, Chris' LH near corner, Mark's LH far corner.

Mitch has deployed defensively using the woods as Jim & Chris converge on him.
Mark & Mike are still in march columns.

Despite superior numbers the Union attack on teh near flank is getting nowhere against a sound Reb defence backed up with far too many 6's from the Union point of view.
On the far flank both sides are still deploying.

On the extreme right flank the Union have had some success when their cavalry charged the Reb skirmish line then rode down the supporting line.  But the early loss of the Union artillery to counterbattery fire & good Rebel shooting more than making up for the Reb's lack of numbers.

On the extreme left the Union attempt to roll up the Rebs from their left has been thwarted by the timely arrival of Mike's cavalry & a shower of grapeshot.  The centre of the Union line on this flank has also been blown away by musket & cannon.

The Union right & centre Corps have both been reduced below half strength & are unable to continue their attacks.  Mark has no made any headway against Mike either, so the Union concede the battle.

Once again our random cards system produced an interesting scenario.  
 

 

Malo-Jaroslwitz 1812 at Black Hills

PeterC set up the scenario for Jim (French) & Chris (Russians) with his 15mm figs & M2M rules.
As winter approached Napoleon thought about moving south from Moscow but Eugene's advance guard ran into Kutusov's army blocking the way. 

The battle starts with only the advance guards on the table.  French reinforcements are coming on the road from the right,  Russians from the far sides of the table.  Neither player knows how many enemy are coming.

The Russians move their advance guard to their right as Cosacks come on from their left.
The French have a long column of troops filing across the bridge to deploy.

The Russian advance guard has been blown away by French muskets & cannon, but more troops have come up.
French cavalry has deployed to their left & forced the Russian right to form square.
More French cavalry has deployed to the left where it has driven off the Cossacks & charged the Russian foot's left flank.

On the French left, the French are advancing artillery to fire on the squares.
On the French right their cavalry has bounced off the Russian squares 

On the left the French guns are pounding the Russian squares.
On the left of the village the French infantry have advanced into musket range of the enemy.
On the right of the village the French infantry have charged & broken the Russian left flank, weakened by cavalry & artillery.
A huge Russian battery is deploying on the far side of the stream behind the shattered Russian left flank. 

The massed Russian battery has forced the French to pull back their right, but the Russian centre is being rolled up while on the left the French infantry are advancing on the squares pinned down by cavalry.
The Russians are clearly beaten & conceded the battle at this point.  

7YW PICK UP BATTLE

We recycled the Chotusitz battlefield from last week & selected two smaller armies.
Mark, Mitch & SteveJ: Prussians
Jim, Mike & Chris: Austrians
The Prussians have 10 line infantry, grenadiers, 2 -cuirassier, 4 dragoons, 2 hussars & 4 batteries.
The Austrians have 12 line infantry, 2 yegers, 4 cuirassiers, 4 dragoons,& 4 batteries.
The Prussian infantry are all +1 for shooting & HTH, their grenadiers have better morale.

The Prussians make their plans.

The Prussian foot stand their ground while their left flank cavalry move to their right.
The Austrians send yegers into the village & have begun to send their right cavalry to their left.

The yegers have advanced thru the village to harass the Prussian left.  The Austrian cavalry have advanced within charge range of the enemy cavalry.
The Prussian infantry had begun to advance. 

The Austrian cavalry charge was initially disastrous, but the second line is holding the line.
The yegers are really hurting the Prussian left.

The cavalry fight has turned into MAD.
The Prussians have made a mess of the centre of the Austrian front line with musketry & artillery. but the Prussian left is being hit hard by yegers & artillery& now infan

The cavalry of both sides is spent.
The infantry is slugging it out in the centre, both sides losing heavy casualties.

It really was a matter of the dice gods but it was the Prussians who broke first.

Curiously, the Prussians did better in the cavalry fight despite the Austrians having heavier cavalry, while the Austrians won the infantry fight despite their disadvantage in firepower. 
After the failure of the initial Austrian cavalry charge things looked grim for the Austrians - their best asset was losing & the Prussian infantry was advancing with their superior firepower.  But the Austrian cavalry fought back & while eventually losing the surviving enemy cavalry was spent & useless.  Meanwhile, the Austrian yegers on the other flank were probably the decisive difference.  They not only took out troops by breaking them with musket fire, but they forced the Prussians to deplete their front line to face the threat to their flank. 

 

CHOTUSITZ 1742

Austrians: Chris & Mark, 16 infantry, 4 grenz, 10 cavalry, 4 batteries.
Prussians: Mitch & SteveJ, 16 infantry, 10 cavalry, 6 batteries.
The Austrian cavalry are +1. The Prussian infantry are +1 for fire & HTH & also well drilled.

The Austrians make their plans before battle.
Their army is on the left, infantry in the centre with cavalry on both flanks as historical deployment.
The Prussians have 6 infantry 2 batteries around the village, 6 cavalry over by the lake, 3 cavalry on the road on the near right & the main army marching down the road from top right.

The Austrian immediately charged the Prussian cavalry on their left flank.  They opened fire on the division around Chotuzitz with skirmishers & artillery as their infantry advanced obliquely to their left.  The Prussians stood their ground around Chotusitz as their left wing cavalry came up in support.  On the far flank, the Prussian cavalry were getting the worst of the cavalry melee so some of the infnatry deployed to their right to support their cavalry.  

On the far flank the Prussian cavalry ahs been all but destroyed.  The Prussian left wing cavalry has deployed to support the infantry around Chotusitz.   
The Austrian right wing cavalry is moving to support their centre.

On the far flank the Austrian cavalry has fallen back rather than attack a wall of Prussian infantry.
Around Chotusitz the both sides' infantry are taking heavy casualties as their cavalry form up behind them.

Both sides have squared off into parallel lines facing each other.

The Prussian cavalry have charged the Austrian foot in the centre.
An Austrian cavalry unit charged through a gap in the line to take out a battery & an infantry unit before they had completed their deployment. 

The Prussian charge broke the first line of Austrian foot, but the Austrian cavalry had charged & beaten the cavalry on their left & flanking them forcing them to fall back.  In the centre the infanrty of each are blasting away at long range.

On the near flank both sides' infantry & cavalry divisions are spent, being below half strength & the fighting there has ceased.
In the centre both sides have lost units in the firefight, but it it is not yet decisive.  On the far flank the Austrian cavalry has finally made a massed attack on the thin blue line of Prussian infantry.

The Prussian infantry put up a stubborn fight against the Austrian cavalry, beating off half of it, but the other half eventually won & this combined with the attrition in the centre broke the Prussian army's morale giving the Austrians a costly victory.  The Prussians had 14 formed units broken to the Austrian's 12.
  


 

   

Napoleonic Naval

While had a 7YW scenario set up a combination of circs reduced the numbers to just Jim, SteveJ & James, so we postponed the scenario to next week & I cleared off a small table for a Napoleon Naval action.
James took the Brits with Steve as his advisor, Jim took the French.
James had two squadrons of three ships each 1 2nd rate & 2 3rd rates, all with elite crews.
Jim had two squadrons of 3 ships, 1 1st rate, 1 2nd rate & 4 3rd rates..
The Brits had elite crews, the French had regular crew.
To compensate for the crew quality difference, the French were given the weather gauge. 

The Brits are in two columns in the far corner.
The wind is blowing across the table from the French side.

Initially the French sailed straight towards the Brits as the Brits sorted their two columns into a single line.  But when the lead British squadron tacked to starboard, the French turned to starboard to run downwind past the island to wards the head of the other Brit squadron. 

The French bore down on the leading Brits as the other British squadron wore ship to rejoin their comrades.

(Note:  We move the ships & islands towards the camera between the last 2 shots to give us more sea room).
The lead British squadron was outnumbered & pounded hard by the French.  One British 3rd rate was suck, the flagship was so damaged it had to break off & the other 3rd rate in the squadron had no choice but to flee with it.

But the French had to sail to windward to avoid the island & that allowed the 2nd British squadron to catch up to the tail of the French line.  The lead ships of the British squadron took heavy damage, but the squadron had its reversed order in it's earlier manoeuvres & the 2nd rate flagship was undamaged at the tail.  It caught up with the 3rd rate at the end of the French line & sunk it.

At this the two sides were on opposite sides of the island.   Both side had only two ships without heavy damage & neither was keen on rejoining the fight.  The French sailed on jubilant that for once they hadn't been totally destroyed, considering a draw as a win against the Brits.  The Brits limped home to be damned for losing a ship.