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

BBB Bash Day IV - Leeds, Saturday 1st July - Update 28th May

 BBB Bash Day in Leeds is less than 5 weeks away.  Two of my regular wargaming friends have played one of the games from the day, Aspern Essling, so they can get back up to speed with the rules.  You can see how the first evening's gaming went here and the second here also here

Here are the details for the day correct to last night!

BBB BASH DAY IV -   The key info in one handy place (27^th May)

 

When:            

Saturday, 1^st July 2023

 

Where:            

Leeds Wargames Club - Hicks Hall, 60 Bankfield Terrace, Burley, Leeds LS4 2JR

Timings on the day:

09.00 - 17.00  (though this may be more like 9.30 to 10.00 to actually get started!)

 

Price £5.00, £2.50 for Leeds club members (as you’ve already paid for the hall).

 

Format:

The format is entirely participation games based on historical battles and using the Bloody Big Battles (BBB) rules. 

For the best chance of playing the game that interests you most, please sign up in advance. We will do our best to accommodate walk-in participants on the day.

 

The Games on Offer:

 

1.     ACW – Chancellorsville – host Chris Pringle (author of the rules, scenario books, etc.)

2.     FPW – Sedan – host Mike Brown

3.     ACW – 2^nd Manassas – host Tim Carne

4.     Austro-Prussian War – Kissengen – host Dave Whaley

5.     Anglo-Sikh War – Gujrat (1849) – host Mark Smith (author of BBB India scenario book)

6.     Zulu War – Nyezane – host Bruce McCallum

7.     Napoleonic 1813 – Lutzen – host Mike Brimacombe

8.     Napoleonic 1809 – Aspern-Essling – host Ned Dye

 

Parking:

It’s a residential area, so free, but there’s a lot of housing, so expect to spend a few minutes finding a space and walking to the club.

 

Tea & coffee will be provided, please bring your own lunch. 

 

Links: 

 

Bloody Big Battles - blog

http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/

https://groups.io/g/bloodybigbattles

 

***Leeds Wargames Club

https://leedswargamesclub.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LeedsWargamesClub/

 

Email – bbb.bashday@gmail.com

 

Colin & Chris

Bleeding Big Bash Day Team

 Please email me if you have any questions, comments or if anything is incorrect!

BBB Bash Day IV - practice at Leeds club - moves 5 to end of game

 Another busy night in Leeds on Wednesday - we finished the Aspern-Essling playtest for BBB Bash Day on 1st July.

The French failed to get re-inforcements and the Austrians had all their troops on table, so both sides had to use what they had.  Here are the photos from early on - both sides had a huge scrap for possession of Essling - which the French retained.

Here's the view from my side of the battlefield - I had taken Aspern (as the Austrians) but failed to make further gains.....

A great couple of evenings gaming.  By turn 7 both sides were holding on, but without the ability to go over to the offensive.  The Austrian assault on Essling had failed but the French could not counter-attack, so we declared a draw at the end of turn 8.  

My thanks to my regular opponents Mike & Ned, my newbie fellow Austrians Stephen (day 1) and Colin (day 2).  

Everything supplied by me.  The eagle eyed will see that the Danube has grown as we used my "big river" terrain from S&A scenics.

BBB Bash Day IV - practice at Leeds club - Aspern-Essling (Austria 1809) moves 1 - 4

 It's just under 6 weeks to Bash Day.  

As part of the preparation, my regular opponents Mike, Ned and I have been playing Aspern-Essling (French v. Austrians, 1809), partly to familiarise Ned with the scenario, partly as a refresher of the BBB rules as both Mike & Ned have kindly offered to host games. 

In summary, Aspern-Essling is Napoleon's hasty river crossing of the Danube, relying on a single makeshift bridge to get his army to grips with the Austrians.  The Austrians start with a considerable superiority in numbers, but a slow command and control system means units tend to move slowly, or not at all.  As time rolls on the French get re-inforcements (whose composition and timing is affected by Austrian attempts to destroy the bridge) but will these be enough to swing the tide of battle?

Here are some photos I took at the end of Wednesday - 3 turns of day 1, the night move and turn 4 (1st of day 2) completed.  The Austrians went in hard - well, as hard as you can with passive troops and no generals.  The French defended well and re-inforcements have crossed the Danube to get into the fight.

The Austrian Assault on Aspern (the tall grey building in the centre).  

Austrian troops (lines at bottom of picture) have been delayed by die rolls low enough to halt or cause retreats.....  The French defensive ring looks a tough nut to crack!

Austrians to the left, French to the right.  The black strip is a dried up gully between Aspern & Essling which gave troops in it a cover advantage.  The grey felt square is Essling, currently stoutly defended by the French.

Looking down the Front lines - the Austrians in a big ring as they come from all points of the compass!

Austrian Grenadier columns head to the fray....

The Austrians nearer to Aspern.  Austrian HQ & supply wagon in the foreground

Baccus figures, 1/300, based for BBB.  Here's the link to the 2020 epic refight of Aspern-Essling in Oxford....  Aspern-Essling at OWS

Leipzig 16-19 October 1813 - Birthday refight 21-24 April 2023

 As part of my recent birthday celebrations my friend Mark laid on one of the big Napoleonic Battles - Leipzig.  The real battle was fought over 4 days, our refight also accommodated other birthday related activities, so it lasted 4 days as well.

Wikipedia tells me it was the largest European Battle before WW1, so it's a must for any gamer interested in the Napoleonic wars.

Mark set up his games table and I took the Allies.  I had a number of strategic towns and villages to capture in addition to Leipzig.  There was a scenario option to threaten the French escape route over the causeway at Lindenau , which I took.

I don't have the BBB scenario map, so here's the map from Wikipedia to give some idea of the scale of the battle and the forces involved.

I opted to be aggressive on day 1, which had mixed results - Gyulai spent the day sparring with Bertrand for Lindenau, Blucher got half his army to move forward, Schwarzenberg tried to assault over the river and got rebuffed.

Day 1 pictures here:

Slightly out of focus - the battle for Lindenau.....

Schwarzenberg- held at the river line, with large numbers of troops but too small a deployment area to make their numbers tell.

 Schwarzenberg's left, with the 7 strong Silesian Landwehr in the middle attacking the aggressive Poles in the village on the river....

End of day 1 here:

Schwarzenberg slipped troops into the wood to threaten the French left.  Mark "that's an impassible river"  Colin "not according to the map - the river starts in the wood"  Mark "bring me the head of the imperial cartographer...."

Schwarzenberg's left - in the centre the 7 strong Silesians have evicted the Poles and crossed the river, but in the centre the French still hold the river line. 

A view of Schwarzenberg's gains and losses.  The French still hold the river line in the middle, but with the Allies in the woods to their left and the Silesians across the river to their right, it may be time to withdraw....

Meanwhile, Blucher's army has assaulted the French frontally (mainly shooting rather than assault) which has enabled a mixed infantry & cavalry force to arc left and get over the river line.  In the top centre of the picture Mark has sent his reserve cavalry to counter this threat.

Overall, as the sun set on the first day of the battle, the Allies had much to be pleased about.  The French river line defence was broken in three places, the Emperor has had to commit all three Guard units already.  In the distance more Allied troops can be seen.....

In the scenario the second day is a night move, as both sides in reality had some minor skirmishes as they consolidated the gains made / shored up the gaps in the line.  Mark duly readied the Grand Armee for day three......

Day three dawned with the French in new positions, hoping that shorter defence lines will counterbalance the huge numbers of Allied troops advancing from all points of the compass.

Bernadotte arrives

To the left, the French hold the hill.  The raw Allied troops occupying the lower left village have opted to "stoutly defend" rather than charge the Middle Guard and 4 batteries on the hill.  This increased their chances of getting a medal at the end of the campaign considerably.

Schwarzenberg gets more troops.  Mark is stockpiling disrupted markers in the middle of the battlefield....

The Lindenau refight starts again.  The blue and white buildings are Leipzig, now full of French defenders.

Finally, Blucher - whose army is now facing an undefended river.....

Day three saw the Allies advance to within musket range of Leipzig, which triggered a die roll to see if the French engineers, worried about the pressure on Lindenau, blow the road on the causeway over the marsh.  

The Allies assault Leipzig

The winning dice!

We fought the battle over 4 real days, it was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate my birthday.  

We agreed that there were a lot of troops to manage - with only two players we spent a lot of time moving around the battlefield.  It would be an ideal battle for 4 or 6 players - it would probably have gone a little faster.

BBB worked well - there were a number of hand to hand battles that were closely fought, no results were wildly unrealistic.  

I would definitely play it again!