Road Trip

Martin and I traveled to the big city from our wooded hideaway homes to participate in a club game put on by a new club. The club is run by two brothers who are prolific collectors and painters. They always collect opposing forces and always sit opposite each other at the gaming table. We had seven players in total and 2 new players.

The Scenario was home made and a 'what if". Prussia had joined the 1809 campaign and sent 2 Corp to join the Austrians in Italy. The map was taken from the Napoleons Battles Scenario book for Marengo. Instead of fighting along the length of the table we set up along the length and battled for the middle. There were no specific objectives beyond break the enemy and send them running.

The rule set was Napoleon's Battles. As I had arrived late, I was assigned the Allied right flank and given flank and attack orders.

2 pictures of my deployment

I had good troops including a division of Heavy Cavalry and another of Grenadiers. I also had the advantage in Cavalry quantity. On the other hand my Italian opponent had a similar number of troops and had set up a grand battery in front of his position.

I had 2 Corp and assigned the first to pin the Italians frontally and assigned the second to work around the open flank of the enemy position.

Note the open flank in the foreground

Also visible in the photo is the Italian grand battery deployed in front of his position of 2 batteries of 12 pounders and 4 of 6 pounders.

Also visible in the photo are the two large wooded areas in my deployment area.

In the end I was able to advance up to the Italian position without overwhelming losses and start to cause problems. The Italians committed 2 Divisions to protect his flank forming at a right angle to his front line.

Having read many accounts of Napoleon's tactic of forcing his opponent into just such a position and then attacking the hinge of the "L", I decided to give it a try. I had pretty good success but in the end did not have the reinforcement's needed to exploit my success. So on my flank it came to a bit of a draw.

At this point I received a courier advising me to withdraw. The French had crushed the Prussian Centre right and broken through.

Big Table, Many Figures

French force set up in the centre

Napoleon's Battles is and excellent rule set but this battle may have been a little large to manage with the number of players. Also, it took about 7-8 hours to reach a conclusion.

I met a couple of new gentlemen gamers and was able to familiarize them with the rules. Looking forward to the next club date with rumors of a WW2 game.