The long retreat to Moscow continues. Bagration detached a division to slow down the French advance and hopefully give them a bloody nose. Would it work?
Each side had:
10 battalions of infantry (we had 2 grenadier, 2 jager and 6 line)
2x foot batteries
3x regiments of Cav
1x horse battery.
Dave, Lewis and I commanded the Russians vs Stephen and Kent.
Turn 1: The French advance. On turn 2 Stephen's command (the French on the foreground) blundered and retreated two turns off the table! Huzzah!
Dave commanded the 4 line and 2 jaeger regiments in the foreground.
Dave signals the advance.
On the far right I sense and opportunity and charge the middle guard (why do I always pick the elite units to charge?). Both Russian units are disordered as they charge home.
This unit is about to be shattered and the survivors flee back towards Moscow.
Meanwhile Dave charge the French battalion that is in the house on the right, resulting in several rounds of inconclusive combat.
On the far right Dave's jaegers form a skirmish line and advance through the woods.
Where are my troops? My grenadiers charged into the teeth of the French defences and are destroyed, leaving one shaken unit and one okay so the rest of the brigade also retires- and Lewis's Cavalry reserves have yet to appear. Dave, I think we have a problem...
Lewis's Cav have finally arrived, he ponders what to do with them. Or more correctly how can he salvage anything from the festering pile of dogpoo he inherited on the right flank?
The French cav also arrive and spend a couple of turns preening and cleaning their uniforms- we aren't the only ones who can roll crap command dice.
Kent meanwhile throws some infantry at the horse artillery which have just claimed our first battalion destroyed! It is not a complete white wash.
French cav clash with the lancers, who pull back from the engagement.
Time Gentlemen. Things were not looking good for the Russians. Dave had occupied a couple of houses in the centre and his command as intact but faced the bulk of the French army. Lewis was charging disordered squares with curiassiers (and bouncing off- I'm not the only one to roll useless dice tonight) but at least was tying up Kent's command. Having slowed the French advance (that's our story and we are sticking to it) the Russians pull back towards Moscow...
Next week, some Impetvs as my Ancient Germans try to overcome their phobia of all things Roman in a clash somewhere in Germania, in the early years of the first century AD...
Craig
Nice looking game. Fog of war definitely an extra player in this game!
ReplyDeleteIs this a spin-off from your big Borodino clash?
Not really, just an excuse to link them via a narrative
ReplyDeleteBeautiful looking game. What size of table were you playing on? It looked quite good scale-wise, meaning not cramped with room to maneuver.
ReplyDeleteThanks Curt
DeleteAbout 7.5ft x 6ft. At the club the tables are about 2.5x 6ft so we put three together. We like our games so they are not too cramped. Ideally I need to get another 2 battalions done so we can have 12 infantry battalions aside.
We are going to try a meeting engagement in a couple of weeks once Kent is back from holiday- we will divide our armies up into vanguard/main body and rearguard and they will randomly arrive on table.
Great looking game Craig. I think you do need the dice gods on side when playing BP.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, i can no longer claim its beginners luck for Kent- however the dice hated him too last night, needing 3s to hit he rolled 5x 1s & 2s- on two separate occasions.
DeleteWe'll get him next time
Craig
Good sized table for the scale of action. Nice terrain, too. I have a feeling that a bad run on the dice could lead to extreme ,,, erm ... frustration. Not something I generally go for, but then, I'm a control freak. So far as my armies are concerned at any rate... :-)
ReplyDeleteKent has his head round the rules better- his troops shoot better too (we are using the Borodino changes we had so Russians shoot at 2 dice rather than 3) but my initial attack caught him on the hop but I simply failed to win either combat which would have really put him on the back foot early on.
DeleteWith BP its all about a relaxed evening of fun gaming rather than trying to win at all costs- I'll have my moment of glory. It was good getting 3 of the other club players involved too.
Craig
Great looking game.
ReplyDeleteCheers Beccas
DeleteThat's a super looking game!
ReplyDeleteChristopher