Fleurus - 24th June 1794 - refight 14th July 2024 at Joy of Six, Sheffield

As regular readers of this blog know, this year I have spent an increasing amount of time lately preparing to put the Battle of Fleurus on the table at the Joy of Six Show in Sheffield.

I have helped others put on games at shows, this was my first go at doing it myself.  After researching, writing, painting, varnishing, testing and tweaking, the game went live yesterday morning.

My thanks go firstly to Mike and Ned, stalwart members of the Leeds club, who volunteered to help me on the day.  Mike gets a "mention in dispatches" for kindly hosting the two play tests.  Thanks also to Chris Pringle and Mark Smith for encouragement.

Finally a massive thank you to Sarah, my wife, who has become a "Fleurus widow" over recent weeks, who offered to drive me there and back on the day and who has been super encouraging.  She produced the map!  On the day she brought a book to read....

The After Action report:

Ned and Mike helped with the set up and Sarah offered to take the Austrians until such time as a new player wanted to take over and she could read her book.

Sarah has known about BBB, the rules set that we use, from it's very early days, but has never played a game before.  So, this was her baptism of fire, as she handled 4 of the 5 assault columns.  Ed from London had seen the game advertised, is interested in the the Revolutionary period and decided to give it a go.  Ned took the Dutch and helped Sarah, Mike took the French left and helped Ed with the French right.

In brief, on the actual day of the battle, 1 column of Dutch and 4 columns of Austrians attempted to break through the French troops encircling Charleroi, held by the Austrians.  The day before the battle the Austrian garrison had surrendered, so all the French could be deployed to halt the Austrians.  After several hours fighting the Austrian Commander, Saxe-Coburg decided to order a general withdrawal, despite the Allies having gained a lot of ground.  His withdrawal ended the Austrian attempts to hold Belgium and led to the successful French invasion of the Netherlands.  The French victory was followed by a coup against Robespierre and the end of the reign of terror.  French Generals no longer had the shadow of the guillotine over their every move....

Here's the map of the battlefield - start positions are roughly where the troops are at 08.00

The refight.  

Mike and Ned were opposite each other, with Mike having already played two battles and won both times.  Ed was in defence and Sarah tasked with winkling him out of a series of villages and woods.  

As Ed and Sarah had never played before, there was a lot of initial questions, but once they got a rhythm going they got stuck in to the battle.  It is a tribute to BBB that you can work off one QRS (Quick reference sheet) and a lot of the rules are intuitive.  

By the end they were seasoned veterans......   roll the dice, work out if anything happened, consult the rules if needed.  

The French outnumbered the Allies 83 : 53 but suffered from troops that were raw - so casualties immediately hit morale.  A couple of Ed's units fled after combat and at least one fled before combat!

As the game progressed Ned's Dutch ground Mike's French down and successfully launched an assaults on Roux and Marchienne-au-Pont, which enabled him to take Charleroi.  Sarah's Austrians also ground the French down as she pushed through the bulk of the French forces.  

In this game, with most of the French raw, passive & fragile, once they had taken one casualty they were harder to motivate and more susceptible to running away.  We had also added a scenario rule that french Generals had to be in contact with the units they wanted to add +1 command bonus on die rolls, rather than having a sphere of influence.  This was to reflect the revolutionary nature of the French forces, with the need for leaders to get alongside units to motivate them, rather than directing the wider battle.

By the end of turn 6, having gamed from 10.30 - 3.30 with only minor breaks for food, the French and Austrians agreed it was an Austrian win, with 4+ objectives held.

The game generated interest in passers-by (and see the many JoS reports to see the other stunning games on offer) and proved to be a highly enjoyable day for the 5 of us who played through the day.  It has to be said that had we played the last two turns, the French may yet have turned it around and saved the day - once again the game was in the balance right to the end.

Mike and Ned enjoyed the day and Ed and Sarah had a lot of fun!  

Umpiring for me was also a real pleasure as the game unfolded, though my voice got a little hoarse!

Pictures:

Set up

Looking West

Centre, looking South

Dutch on the Allied right

Allied Centre & Left

As the game progressed, I took some photos, enough to give a flavour but not a coherent timeline!

Charles in the woods at Fleurus on the left, Wenzel in the middle put pressure on the French

Ned's Dutch head for Roux.  In the background the Dutch head for Charleroi!

Beaulieu in the foreground and Archduke Charles assault the line of villages and woods.  The French are getting broken (blue counters = spent)

Towards the end of the game - the Austrians have taken one VP

The Dutch are in Charleroi - the French assault is about to be thwarted by the Dutch heavy artillery to the right of the picture

The French balloon, deployed near Fleurus, watches over the mounting pile of casualties.

See earlier posts for details of some of the figures painted /created for this game here , there , here again and also here .  It was nice to get the troops out!  Sarah didn't get to read her book....

  

French Generals for Fleurus

 Finally, in the run up to Fleurus, I made a couple of big command bases for Generals Jourdan and Kleber, the army commanders on the day.

As senior commanders they get 2 ADC/escorts, so this is my chance to make them catch the eye!

General Jourdan - with ADC and Cavalry trooper escort

General Kleber - with ADC and Hussar escort

French Artillery for Fleurus

 Another part of my collection got an upgrade - French revolutionary artillery.  

Foot artillery - I wanted a "ragged" look, so this was done in two ways:

1. I bought Spanish artillery with French guns - the individual figures were mixed in with the standard Baccus French figures - the Spanish don't have backpacks or great coats.

2. I gave some gunners overall trousers in grey or brown to break up the uniformity.

Here are the results

I also needed horse artillery.  As far as I can tell French Horse Artillery wore the Bicorne, the Mirliton or the Tarleton Helmet.  Yup - Tarleton helmet - pretty close to British Horse Artillery.  So I made two bases of French Horse Artillery, basically just British Horse Artillery with a paint job .  The leftover British guns will be going to the Spanish.

So, with a bit of mix and match and a paint job, I've got FRW Foot & Horse Artillery in the right uniforms.

Dutch troops for Fleurus and Flanders 1793-95

 Here is part of my Dutch army for Fleurus 1794 at Joy of Six on Sunday.  Figures are a mixture of Baccus 6mm early Prussians, Austrian Grenadiers, Spanish & Prussian Hussars in Mirliton and Generals of various nationalities...

I will do a proper army page soon... honest!

William V, Prince of Orange - leading the first column on the day.  His escort is an officer of the Timmerman Hussars.

Timmerman Hussars - a mix of Spanish & Prussian Hussars in Mirliton with added shabraques

Fire support - Dutch 12 Pdr artillery.  Prussian Artillery, with a Spanish officer, firing an Austrian gun.  I went with red for the gun carriage.

Grenadiers - Austrian SYW Grenadiers left over from my Neerwinden '93 project.  See here for the second play test and here for the Austrian army page.

Finally, light infantry - Prussian skirmishers and some British AWI in roundhats...

Please bear with any blurring in the photos - the figures are really quite small, photography is not my strong point!

More French FRW Flag stands

 A while ago I posted pictures of my first two FRW French infantry in white coats & Tarleton helmets - flag stands.   You can see my earlier blog here.

Two more flag units have now been produced and will be making their debut at Joy of Six on Sunday 14 July.

Black faced unit - 1st Bn 3rd Regt, Pink faced unit - 1st Bn 36 Regt 

Both stands have Grenadier figures in Bicorne - not all troops got/liked/retained their Tarleton helmets, many that did get them then got rid of them!

Flags I made on my computer...😊

Baccus 6mm Spanish Light infantry, British Horse Artillery Officer, French skirmisher in Bicorne.

Valmy - 20 September 1792 - refight 3 May 2024

 Most wargamers have heard of the battle of Valmy - it's famous for the French artillery stopping the Prussian army advancing to Paris.

It makes for an interesting game - 32,000 French defending against an Austro-Prussian army of 34,000.  My regular opponent Mike took the Allies.  The scenario (on the BBB io.group) has the Allies as passive, whilst the French are a mixed bag of raw, trained, veterans, some passive and some aggressive (i'm not sure if some were passive-aggressive!).  

This is another Matt Bradley scenario.

The Map:

The French occupy a ridge to their right and have reserves that are moving up.  The Prussians need to clear the ridge and take two villages to gain a victory.

French deploy first, Allies move first.

The refight

Mike bravely moved East - or that was the plan, but his passivity meant that his troops were slow or stopped.  My French moved to block him and took casualties, going spent, but they hung in there!

Photos from French turn 3:

French on the ridge.  The mid ground French unit is passive, aggressive, spent, disrupted and low on ammo.  It's also in the way, thus annoying the Allies by just existing!

French hold the ridge

The highly decorated French infantry watch the cavalry melee....

Brave defenders of the ridge.  To the left can be seen my "French infantry in Tarletons" see here for how they look in close up

Close up

French left wing - a very small unit holds out whilst collecting counters...

Photos from turn 4

French right - continuing to hold the Prussians at bay

In the centre, French reinforcements cling on to the ridge with artillery support.

On the French left fresh troops march up to hold the line, which is stretched very thin...

The Austrians turn up to bolster the Prussians.

Photos from turn 7

On the left, the French late arrivals counter attacked and drove the Prussians from Orbeval - the objective village the Prussians had taken.

Next along, the French denied the left hill objective to the Austrians. 

On the right hand objective hill, the French stormed the Prussians who had managed to climb it, thus keeping it in French hands.  

On the next part of the ridge, the battered French collect counters and hang on...

On the French right, the French cavalry slows the Prussian advance.

It was at this point, after several hard fights along the line but with no objectives held and no more turns left, Mike conceded the battle.

Conclusion

It was a really enjoyable battle for me, my troops performed enough for a win, I got to use my white coat command bases and some newly painted FRW infantry.

Mike had tried hard and fought well, but his troops reluctance to fight (apparently not only were they deep in France, they were also suffering from both lack of supplies and dysentry, so not happy with the idea of combat) meant that his attacks were hard to co-ordinate as units moved slowly or not at all.

The scenario is in the io.group files - give it a go!