Lasalle- Russians vs French 1812

Kent and I managed a game at his place tonight. Andrew joined us to help co-command the Russian attack. Kent decided to take the Young Guard supported by a brigade of light infantry vs our Grenadier Division + Guards Cuirassiers.

A view of the Russian lines.





The French artillery


The Russian positions


The advance begins


The Russian infantry advance in the centre.


Kent sends his light infantry forward on his left flank.


The Russians take up position to repel the French.




On our left flank Andrew sends forward Pavlov's Grenadiers.


Kent also throws forward his infantry.


Pavolovs Grenadiers drive off another French assault, destroying a battalion.


In the centre a Russian battalion is destroyed, another charges the French...


And routs them.


Guards Cuirassiers arrive early.


On the Russian right St Petersburg Grenadiers await the onslaught. My plan is to hold with our right and smash the French centre and left.


But the Grenadiers are routed in hand to hand combat.


More confused fighting on the Russian left flank.


In the centre Cuirassiers deploy.


Pavlov Grenadiers charge the French guns.




My artillery redeploys.



Result:We were decimated, losing 5 battalions- mainly to attacks vs artillery. Another fun game, I'm sure we made a few mistakes but we are getting the hang of it. We wouldn't want any more stuff than this on a 6x 4 table though.

Well done Kent.

What's next?

I've almost finished the last 2 battalions of the Russian force (only finishing the basing left to do) and so Ive ordered the French Army deal from Warlord Games (4x boxes of Perry Infantry, 1x Victrix Guard, 4x Cavalry) as I need to get a French for ready for Conquest (less pressure to get it done though as I can use my Russians vs Kent in the meantime).

I've been speaking to Kent and he prefers the Front Rank metals to paint to the Perry plastics as the detail is easier to pick out but at the price of the plastics, it was hard ot turn it down. I'll be rounding out the force with some Perry metal commands and artillery. So for Conquest I need to paint:

8x battalions of French infantry (+ 16x skirmishers)
4x regiments of dragoons (32 figs- only 8 figures per regiment- or 2 1/2 boxes worth)
4x line artillery (3x med cannon + 1x howitzer)
4x horse artillery (as above for the infantry).

For the comp we intend to have 3 commands (each of 1x core infantry divison and 1x support bigade).

The French will be:

• Infantry division (8x battalions) + Cuirassiers


• Infantry division (8x battalions) + Dragoons


• Infantry division (6 or 8 battalions) + a brigade of Young Guard

Poochie is responsible for painting the Young Guard, Nick can supply some of the French, Kent and I will have the rest.

We are toying with the idea of an L shaped table. The idea being two Frnch commands attack the British on the main (8x6 table) while the third command holds off the Prussin flanking force on the L shaped table. If the Prussians are able to defeat the holding force then they can arrive on the flank to potentially save the day for the British. We should probably play test it but I'm not sure if we will have the opportunity to since Nick is in Wellington, Poochie in Christchurch and Kent and I are in Timaru. Maybe we could get Poochie down for a game together with a 4th volunteer in the next few weeks to test it out in concept.

Craig

Lasalle- Russians vs French 1812

Here are a few shots of our first 28mm game of Lasalle. We decided to simply do a "meeting engagement" to get the hang of the rules.

The Russians deploy.


And the French- Kent fielded all he had painted (about 8 battalions + a unit of Cuirassiers, I had my Cuirassiers in reserve).


Another shot of the Russian lines.




The French advance.




My plan was to hold my right flank with some artillery and 2 battalions while 4 infantry battalions advanced up the centre and left flank.


One of the main reasons for refusing my right flank- Cuirassiers.


My grenadiers deploy into line.


Meanwhile the French are about to "liberate" a Russian hovel.


The first Russian assault goes in- but is repulsed after inconclusive fighting.


Let's try that again! The french counter attack.




The Russians are forced to withdraw and regroup.


Meanwhile the Cuirassiers deploy into line- and are then targetted by the artillery and Grenadiers.


Steady boys... steady.


The cavalry are destroyed.


About face! My infantry have turned to try to help my other artillery battery (who somehow managed to hold off an infantry attack)


But with that threat removed the Grenadiers turn around again to face the advancing French who have just smashed a battalion.


End game. We ran out of time after 9 turns. My reserves still hadn't arrived. We had both lost two battalions/regiments and the game was stating to get interesting. The last 3-4 turns were much faster and we were starting to get the hang of things.

Final positions




A fun game. We started to get the hang of it (after 2 years!) and next week should get a result. My Russians will be attacking the French- which is motivation to get the other two grenadier battalions done.

28mm Russians ready for action

Just in time for tomorrow nights game, although the skirmishers have yet to be highlighted.














I think that this has been my most insane painting mission in a long, long time! The figures only arrived on August 1st so in just over 3 weeks I've managed to paint:

• 6x 16 figure infantry battalions
• 2x 12 figure Cuirassier regiments
• 10x artillery pieces
• 6x skirmishers
  
• 2x sub-generals
• 1x command stand

Only 2 more infantry battalions to go and the basic force is done (I need 8 battalions when attacking)- then I have a jager brigade (4 battalions) to round off the force- and another 10 artilelry pieces of course!

Craig