Sunday, March 29, 2015

Waterloo warm-up

We decided to do some practice games for our upcoming 200th anniversary refight.  This game between six players featured three Prussian "brigades" (anyone else's division) and a Brunswick division take on three French divisions.  Each side got a brigade of cavalry.  Click the photos to enlarge.

The starting positions below.  On the left the three French divisions of nine castings per battalion and their cavalry on their right.  The hedge would disorder anyone charging over it.  Fields are cosmetic and the woods are open.

Opposing them are the Brunswickers in the foreground, cavalry and the infantry brigades filling out the line.  The Prussians have 12 figure battalions.

Both sides aggressively moved to close.  With no modifiers for either side it came down to a straight dice throw for how went first.  The French won and started attacking immediately.  The single cuirassier regiment charged the landwehr in front of them and had the good fortune to have their targets fail to form square.  These were summarily run down and then they bounced off the second line which had formed square.  The French infantry began to maneuver against the larger but less experienced Prussians.

The Brunswickers take a wide flanking maneuver, supported by the Prussian cavalry.  The cuirassiers are routed by flank fire from the squares and then the Prussian hussars routed the French dragoons.  All the French cavalry is gone now.  Fortunately the Brunswickers only had one impulse that hourly round.

As the other two French divisions are locked in combat the third begins systematically clearly the ridge in front of them.  Artillery is deployed to deter the Prussian cavalry and Brunswickers.  In the subsequent ME determination test, the Prussian brigade runs off.

On the left and center both sides deploy into line and start slugging it out.  In the middle the French combine firepower and shock action to disrupt the brigade.

With the Prussian brigade from the French right gone the Prussian cavalry moves over to slow and threaten them.  Abandoned guns litter the field.

The center begins to favor the French.  The crack French battalions have a big advantage in both firefights and shock action against the mostly conscript and landwehr Prussian battalions.

The Brunswickers close in the second hour of combat and threaten to flank the French division.  Strangely, both sides roll poorly and both the Brunswickers and French division have only one impulse each.

To counter the cavalry some French battalions form close column and block the cavalry, while the others combine with the French center division to finish off another Prussian brigade.

The French appear victorious everywhere except the left where they did not press the issue.  Given the ennui that hit the far right they will be able to recover and counter the Brunswick contingent.

The result was not totally surprising.  The French infantry was man for man superior and the guns higher class.  Leaders and cavalry were roughly equal.  The extra maneuver element and bigger battalions were not sufficient to make up for the quality difference and aggressiveness

Training games continue as each side tries to be at their best for the "big game."

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