1813 game: French vs Russians

Pour faire le compte rendu de vos batailles
Répondre
KeefM
Sergent Major
Messages : 77
Enregistré le : jeu. 26 déc. 2019 07:59

1813 game: French vs Russians

Message par KeefM » mar. 22 juin 2021 21:44

300pts
Rob running the French; Keith on Russian duty.

For background: we use 40mm UD, and standard units comprise 2 bases for infantry and cavalry, and 1 for artillery (large units have 1 extra base, and small units 1 fewer); bases being 40mm frontage by 30mm depth; artillery usually 40mm x 40mm. Cavalry bases have 3 figures, infantry bases have two ranks of either 3 or 4 figures depending on size of figures. With a 40mm UD, our usual table is 1500 x 1200 for 200pt games or 1800 x 1200 for 300pt games.

French commanded by a Brilliant CnC with 5 recon points rolled a 5-3 result against the Russians commanded by a Competent CnC with 8 recon points (so a base initiative of +3 each) …. and the 2 difference thereby creating an ENCOUNTER game which means that 1 Division starts on table with the rest arriving on over the coming two turns. Russians were attacking.

Two photos from game here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6AeQt8inXAELoc5z8

Photo 1 shows table during Turn 5 after Attack orders activations (during a coffee break !). Russians on the right of photo, French to the left.

Terrain was generated for Western Europe on an 1800 x 1200 table using the excellent terrain generator here: http://www.bellisoft.org/adc-be/ … The French objectives selected were the village (of 3 “heavy” buildings), the other “heavy” building at top centre of photo (also selected by the Russians as a double objective), and the Russian LoC road exit. The Russians had selected the two non-LoC French road exits in addition to the double objective building. For the remaining terrain, at the top of the table was a gentle hill and a marsh of difficult going with light cover, and at the bottom of the table was a field with a hedge, two light woods, and a “medium” building. The Line of Communication road bisected the table.

Okay, onto the game itself. Overall, it was a real arm-wrestle of a game from start to finish with the end result a marginal victory to the Russians: both holding 3 objectives; Russian losses 14, French 21.5.

The French list comprised just 3 Divisions: Guard (including 2 Guard artillery !), Infantry and cavalry with a break point of 41. The Russians comprised 5 Divisions: Grenadier (with a single attached Guard infantry unit), Infantry (of entirely conscripts), Vanguard, Cavalry and Cossacks. The Russian army was packing 5 large batteries of artillery out of its 21 units: 2 x 12pdrs in the reserve, 1 Light battery with the Grenadiers, and 1 horse battery with each of the Vanguard and Cavalry Divisions.

For their part, the French intended initially holding the village with the Guard, while swinging their large infantry division through the woods and fields to then for both divisions to jointly attack the Russian LoC, while their cavalry held off the Russians from the road exit at the top of the table. The Russian plan was the polar opposite being to sweep the double objective then head back toward the French LoC. The Russian infantry and the reserve artillery of 2 12pdr batteries were to hold their own LoC supported by the cavalry division comprising two large units of Dragoons and its horse battery.

Given the Encounter game, the Russians started on-table with only their Vanguard Division deployed at the top of the table. The French Cavalry Division deployed also at the top of the table. Both opposing divisions were on Engage orders.

Having won the dice-off, Russian veteran Jagers sprinted for the double objective while the conscript Jagers (deployed as 2 x detached skirmisher units) got themselves into the marsh using a double move. Two units of French LC (both L2) rushed up the side-line of the table aiming to bring pressure onto the Russians.

Turn 2 saw the arrival of the French Guard who settled themselves on Hold orders into the village, while the Russian Grenadiers arrived in time to scare off the French cavalry at the top of the table. Russian conscript infantry moved up to support the already deployed reserve artillery 12pdrs batteries opposite the village. Long range shelling caused an attrition on the French Guard velites, as did the French cavalry division horse battery on a column of veteran Jagers by the double objective building.

On Turn 3 the Russian cavalry division managed to move before the arriving French infantry and rushed themselves across the table with good CPs to establish themselves in a good blocking position. This positioning basically kept the French infantry division bottled up at the bottom left of the table (photo) among the field and the wood on the French side while both sides took some casualties due to respective artillery fire. Also on Turn 3, the Cossacks arrived to add further pressure to the now retiring French LC.

From here on the game hinged around the action at the top of the table with the Russians exerting constant in-your-face pressure using its veteran Jager (L4) units to move to volley range in column against the lower grade morale French cavalry. The conscript Jagers in the marsh kept up good harassing fire on anything that came in range of the marsh while not venturing out of it themselves.

Early in Turn 5, the Russian Guard infantry unit assaulted the French horse batter situated at the edge of the gentle hill only to be badly repulsed as the horse battery was uphill and had its flanks secured by the Cuirassiers there.

By now, the French commander decided to unleash the Guard, sending the 2 units of Old Guard toward the hill to try and stem the Russian tide there and to protect the road exit. Plus, to be fair, Rob wasn’t that overly keen on committing his Guard division to a drive across the open table against 2 large 12pdrs Russian batteries especially when the expected support pressure from the supposedly supporting infantry division was sadly failing to materialise in the face of being cooped up by the Russian dragoons.

A shortage of CPs throughout the game hampered Russian efforts to be able to finish off the French cavalry division; by the end of the game, the French (L2) dragoons had been chased of the table by failing to stop themselves closing with a Russian grenadier square (C class failing a control test) and then subsequently retreating off the table. Both French LC units were quite battered but still on-table, and the horse battery was finally cleaned out by an assaulting Russian Grenadier unit before itself getting smashed up by repeated Old Guard volleys.

In the final Turn (7), one unit of Old Guard were shot to ribbons by a flanking Russian Grenadier unit while confronted to their front by the now-rallied Russian Guard unit. The disordered French Old Guard unit would not have survived another turn … saved by the bell !

So, the end of a long arm-wrestle. Rob played well; bailing out and extracting his light cavalry after the Russian Grenadier division arrived and effectively ended up using his cavalry to cramp up the space available for the Cossacks to cause problems. And the slow going of using good quality veteran (L4) Jager to pressure lower quality French (L2) cavalry combined with limited Russian CPs meant that Rob ultimately held up the Russian drive for the road exit. Likewise, at the other (bottom) end of the table, the Russian dragoons achieved much the same thing by aggressively bottling up the French infantry. The marsh proved both a saving grace for the Russians as being an invulnerable place to hide skirmishers and provide safe flanks for the veteran Jager against the French cavalry, but also a bottle neck that the Russians couldn’t get either its Grenadiers or Cossacks past quickly enough to cause extra pressure.

The close up 2nd photo is from the Russian side showing the pressure being applied against the French cavalry. Russian Guard infantry disordered after losing to the French horse battery. Cossacks up in the face of disordered French LC, with veteran Jager about to close (again) to volley range and drive back the French. Two units of French Old Guard in the top left of photo are getting themselves ready to head onto the hill for their change from Hold to Attack orders.

All in all, a good outing !!

Répondre