Mad as hatters 2 - Austrian Artillery

 I was looking at my blog this last week and noticed that a couple of topics were left unfinished, one of which was the Austrian Artillery needed for fighting battles 1792 - 1806.  

As mentioned in my earlier post there were several different hat options available.  Here's an update on two of these:

1790 - 1806 Rundenhat - worn with the rear brim turned up (service dress) (conversion needed).  Has a plume.

Here are the two cannon batteries made so far - two artillery crewmen and one "handlager" picked from a nearby infantry unit to do the heavy lifting.

1790 - 1803 Tricorn (later as full dress only) (SYW Austrian artillery).  Here are three shots of a cavalry battery and a heavy gun (12 pdr) with the crew in Tricornes.  My understanding is that most of the artillery drew rated as NCOs, so there should be plenty of suitable hat trim.

Figures are Baccus (Converted Austrian arty, SYW, Handler from AWI loyalist), guns mounted on 1" 2mm mdd from Warbases.

Enjoy!

Talavera - 27/28 July 1809 - refight 11 & 18 Oct 2023

 Fans of the "Sharpe" novels will know that Sharpe's Eagle is set at the battle of Talavera, where Richard Sharpe and his handful of 95th Rifles stop the French.  How did historical fiction play out on the table?  read on...

Mike chose Talavera as our next BBB battle and picked the British army.  This left Ned to take the French and I picked the Italians....  my favourite small French ally.

Our initial deployment was hampered by the club AGM but we got on with turns 1-4, with the Italians taking the left flank towards Talavera town and it's river crossing, Ned decided to go for centre & right.  The British army has a commanding position on a hill, with a nice flat plain for the Franco/Italians to march across.  The Spanish are then using the cover of woods to link the Brits with the Talavera river crossing.  The Brits get a right shift for devastating volleys, balanced by the Spanish being motivated to mainly stand still/run away....

Pics are not comprehensive, just taken when I had a break....

Early on:

British on the hills, Spanish in the woods.  Italians advancing.

French Dragoons & Carabiniers poised (or just making sure the Italian General feels supported?)

Italians moving into the woods, French light Cav lurking on Spanish far right, using woods as cover.   

One of my early moves was to push a 2 base unit of French light Cav to the far right flank of Mike's Spanish.  They did a little bit of manoeuvring to ensure no Spanish came near, neatly tying up the Spanish right as they were outflanked and the Cav COULD sweep down - so they deployed in line and did not move all game (apart from one foray into the wood - the light cav evaded, rallied & returned).

More towards the middle of the game:

The Italians move on Talavera, driving the Spanish before them.  I've ringed the scary two base French cavalry unit as it continues to restrict the Spanish right.

French Hussars & Chasseurs - not only flamboyant but highly effective....  see later.

Italians braving dug-in guns hiding in a wood to take on shaky Spanish 

A little later - Mike shores up his centre and retakes the gun pit objective, but 4 Brit bases now face off 8 French, 3 Italians & 2 Aggressive French Heavy Cav....  On the hill to the left, the French assault the Brit defenders.

Final moves:

Italians and French push into British middle.  The Brits are those above, now backed up by Cav & deployed in line....

French & Italians push the line back...

A little further back...

Meanwhile, on the hill, the Brits get pushed off by hordes of French...  so they rally and counterattack!

The final result of the counter attack - Brits lose 6, French 7, but French retain hill!  British/Spanish light Cav pivot to their right....

Arty takes out British light Cav.  Spanish light Cav has those Hussar/Chasseurs in front, French arty on a far away hill, Veteran Frogs to the right and rear....     ...meanwhile Wellington (bottom of pic) muses if there is a career in India for him, if he ever makes it out alive....

Conclusion

Ned and I did better than expected, with Mike's devastating volleys causing halts and casualties, but no French/Italian units got destroyed.  Mike's Brits performed well, but the Spanish refused to move, shot poorly and in some cases ran away at the sound of battle.  

It was a fun two evenings gaming and it was nice to get the Italians out of their box.  It has inspired me to make some more - if you look carefully you might see some rogue Bavarians as I didn't have enough Italian flag bases.

BBB made it an enjoyable and entertaining game - it was still in balance to the very last move, it could have ended as a draw or Brit win, if they had managed to retake/keep their objectives.

It was also nice to see Mike's Brits & Spanish grace the table - I'm looking forward to some more games soon.

Finally, sadly, in this game, Sharpe did not get his eagle, fame, glory and a promotion...

Maida - two games in an evening! Original battle 4th July, 1806, refight 30th August, 2023

 

 This Wednesday saw my return to the Leeds club, Mike suggested that we play Corunna or Maida.  I was happy to provide suitable French and Mike fielded some brand new British troops he has recently painted.

Maida is not really BBB material, in that the battle has about 5,200 British troops attacked by 6,400 French.  Both sides had Swiss battalions and the French had Poles.  You can read more here 

We set up the table, with French deploying on a ridge, with a river and wood to their left, the British deployed on a ridge opposite the French.  The battle has 4 turns representing 15 minutes real life, so it's not going to last long.

Initial deployment looked like this:

French deployment 

The view from the British end

I led the French for game 1, which started badly in that two of my units refused to move and two more got half moves.  Once my French actually got started i tried a left hook, but the late start, loss of cavalry and just not having enough troops meant my attack slowed then stalled.  The Brits for lots of cannon and some units had a "D" rating for devastating volley.

Here's the pics from game 1- from left to right:

Inadequate French forces try to assault up a hill...

British defenders on their hill sneering at the French.

Mike deploying the British re-inforcements to pincer the slow French

As the game had only taken half an hour, we reset and swapped ends.  Having now got one game under our belt, we appreciated the need for speed, but were now playing for the other team....

Mike's French sped across the plain, heading for my Brits in an extreme left hook.  I deployed right and managed to do very little damage as they came towards me.  My right hand Brits moved forwards, survived an assault and retreated to higher ground.  My left hand Brits then assaulted Mike's left and got high enough results to exploit.  That D rating just tipped the balance in my favour in the fire-fight.  Once again, the Brits held the ridge.

Pics from game 2:

Brit defenders on the Brit right

Brit Arty swivels to the right

French attackers having a go at my centre

French covering force to distract my left...  getting whittled away

In conclusion, Maida is a really nice game.  

Not many troops needed, but you do get guns and cavalry (French only) so there is a nice mix of troop types.  It's an opportunity to deploy Swiss and Poles, so different uniforms and flags (we just used ordinary troops).  British D firepower gives them the edge, but then the French have skirmishers in abundance.

It's a tough call for the French, who are attacking on a 1:1 ratio, however, the French can pick where to attack and the British have to hold all of their hill.

I would recommend this game in it's own right and as a starter to introduce new players to the game.

 

Marengo in Leeds - AAR

 The last two club days at Leeds saw a return to Marengo, with myself as Austrian and regular opponent Mike as Bonaparte himself.  Marengo is interesting, in that the French deploy at the Austrian end of the table and are attacked by overwhelming Austrian forces - so they need to hang on till Dessaix and the reinforcements arrive.  We used BBB rules and the Marengo scenario posted to the BBB io group.

A quick look in the archives shows that I played this in August 2021, as we were emerging from Lockdown - I remembered it as a fun and entertaining restart to my hobby.  See the last AAR here  

Here's the board at the start of play:

Above, the Austrian end, with cheeky French column deployed in the Austrian start area.  They were relocated and the game could start.  Marengo is the left hand village, stoutly defended by 4 French infantry.

Below, the view from the French end towards the Austrians.

The view from the Austrian end - these troops are all going to come piling on  as the Austrians start the game.  Note Austrian command cup of tea.

My plan, as Austrian general, was to push forward in the middle whilst sending cavalry, infantry & grenadiers up the left hand road.  The plan worked, in that Mike deployed his initial reserves to counter this threat and stopped shoring up his troops around Marengo.

Mike also managed to lose all his cavalry in the really stages.

Below, scattered Austrian units cause Mike concern.

Below, French Consular Guard & Friends threatened by the left hook.  In the process, however, my left hook forces started to get whittled away....

Meanwhile, however, my forces in the middle had issues with traffic jams and three French units that holed up in the villages and woods.  Instead of a swift breakthrough, I was rolling just low enough to miss/disrupt, not cause damage,  So my troops assaulted, got repulsed, formed up, tried again, etc.

Below, Austrians not quite co-ordinating and expelling the French, who used the woods and villages to great effect.  A lot of inadequate movement rolls on my part did not help!

The French unit below, having been evicted from it's village, spent the rest of the game sitting in a marsh and distracting Austrian gunners with forays into the dwindling Austrian left hook forces, before retreating into the marsh again!

In the end it was a draw.  The Austrians had Marengo (Hurrah!) but didn't get the crossroads or eliminate Napoleon.  Neither side had inflicted more than 50% casualties than received.

All in all it was a fun two evenings gaming.  The game was in the balance till the end.  Well worth playing if you want something different.  We both agreed we would be happy to play again, perhaps next time I'll be the French?

Bloody Big Bash Day IV - the last post.

BBB Bash Day IV has happened, mostly to plan, so here's the report of what we did on the day.... 😊

With 8 hosts and 11 players, we decided to change the format so that 4 games were played in the morning and a different 4 in the afternoon.  This meant that hosts could join in a game, as well as hosting a game.

Apologies, in advance, for the lack of photos for some games, I did not get photos of them all.

The morning games were Chancellorsville (ACW), Kissingen (Austro-Prussian War), Nyezane (Zulu War) & Sedan (FPW).  Here's what they looked like:

Chancellorsville

An impressive 8' x 4' table, showing heavily wooded terrain.

One of the two balloons in operation on the day.

Kissengen - early on in the game.

Nyezane - start position

Nyezane - the game progresses.  Bruce (game host) took BBB upscale with a 28mm figure per base, rather than our more usual group of 6-10mm figures.  It looked fun!

Tom getting into the spirit of the game!

Sedan - the one I actually played - photo at start.....   and that's it for this game....   see below for more reports.

We broke at mid-day for lunch, with the scores as follows:

Chancellorsville - Rebel (Patriot?) win.

Kissengen - Bavarian win

Nyezane - Zulu win

Sedan - draw (it was in play till the end...   which is what BBB is all about).

The next 4 games were set up, as follows:

Aspern-Essling - I had lent Ned the troops and houses & rivers, I understand that it was a fun game, more of that below...

Gujrat was our Anglo-Sikh offering,   A flat, dusty plain - it won the award for fastest set-up/pack down

As can be seen, some point with fingers, some with sticks...

Lutzen - it happened, and I contributed, but sadly took no photos!  Sorry!

2nd Bull Run - once again, the preference for ACW battles to take place in wooded, hilly places - at least it makes the battlefield sites nice place to visit in the modern day.  The woods are bath mat - once again proving that warmers look at every-day objects and think "now if I change this a little, it will make a superb....."

The scores at the end of the day (yes, we were sorting the evening curry and some people were STILL rolling dice) were:

Aspern-Essling - French win

Gujrat - Sikh win

Lutzen - French win 

2nd Bull Run - draw

Some of the participants have posted on their own blogs, see here Tom Davis and here Blackshaw gaming 

 

Check out the BBB FB page Bloody Big Battles and Chris Pringle's BBB Blog for his report

It only remains for me to thank the Leeds club, the game hosts, the participants and my long suffering wife  who made this a memorable and fun day.  

Oh, if this inspires you to try the rules, buy a copy and come to the next BBB day - wherever and whenever that will be.

Colin