The Battle for Charleroi 1815

I have been reading the excellent and free Ezine "Warning Order". They often publish 2 generic scenarios in an issue. I have been printing these off and putting them in a binder. Today I got to try one of these out. The scenario is called flank attack. This sounds dull but the write up is more interesting than the title sounds. As I read the scenario, I thought it bore a passing resemblance to the opening battle of Napoleon's 1815 campaign - Charleroi. 

French cross the Sambre 

The French crossed the frontier into Belgium at Charleroi at the Sambre River. The Prussians held briefly before retreating. I pulled out a French and a Prussian force to match the suggested list in the scenario. The objective is to capture Charleroi and not take 50% casualties for the French. The Prussians must hold the town and wait for reinforcements.

Prussian cavalry threaten the French advance

Forme Carre!

The Prussians were attacked by a larger French force but held good defensive terrain. The French opened the attack by attacking the hill that defended the towns flank. They also formed up to assault the town. The Prussians did their best to stall the French and had some success with their cavalry.

French flanking force arrives behind the Prussian defenders

Napoleon secures the hill

Prussian reinforcements started to arrive a few at a time but had a long march to get to the front lines.

Charleroi falls!

Prussian lancers counter attack

 Prussian reinforcements form up before withdrawing

The French rolled well and got all their reinforcements on turn three and they were in good position to help the attack on the hill and stall the arrival of the Prussian reinforcements. The Prussians fault valiantly but were eventually ejected from the town and hilltop. The Prussians did not have enough strength remaining to retake the town and withdrew to fight another day...

The Long March to Battle

I finally got to play my Talavera game tonight. I had scheduled a game with some able players but this ended up falling through due to work commitments. I then failed to summon the motivation to play it solo before I left on a lengthy vacation. The battle was left on the table while I was gone.

I was able to reschedule for today and the battle was played to a conclusion this afternoon with fellow Armchair Commanders Jonathan and Martin. Jonathan commanded the French and Martin commanded the British, leaving me with the fragile but well defended Spanish.

We scenario allowed a free set up but we opted to try and replicate the historical deployment as best we could. The French marched the bulk of its army toward the Spanish army, cowering behind their defenses. They left one division to screen the British and sent another division across the river threaten the British flank.

French advance in the foreground and mass troops in the background left

The Spanish sent a rider galloping for Wellesley begging for reinforcements as the French were forming up to push against their fortified lines. The British obliged by sending their light infantry brigade from the reserves to fill an obvious gap in the Spanish defense. The Spanish also sent in an infantry brigade from the reserve to fill another gap as well. 

French view of the Spanish defenses

The French continued their redeployment toward the Spanish. In their haste, they failed to adequately screen the columns. Wellesley saw his chance and sent the British over the river to put in a spoiling attack. This was a little risky as the British abandoned their defensive terrain to do this and could be overwhelmed by French superior numbers. They had good success with the attack and forced the French to deploy 2 divisions against them that ere otherwise heading to battle the Spanish. The French could not capitalize on the British exposed position due to some poor activation rolls and worse reinforcement rolls. 

British spoiling attack goes in, surprising the French in column

The French division trying to flank the British line had some initial success in drawing off units, but was eventually repulsed with  heavy casualties. 

Battle overview

The French probed the Spanish lines but never seriously threatened it. They did not have the reserves they had hoped for to sustain an attack against the entrenched Spanish. a British brigade managed to break through and destroy the French HQ. The remaining British withdrew behind the river due to increased threat from French cavalry deployed from reserve.

View from the French lines as the British withdrew back across the stream

The French morale broke after the loss of their HQ. We agreed that the French numbers had been reduced enough that a successfully  breakthrough could not be achieved.

Victorious British brigade after knocking out Jordan's HQ

Good chance we will try the scenario again switching sides so stay tuned for the rematch results.

Friggin' in the Riggin'

I have spent the weekend painting and rigging the GHQ 1/1200 ship La Superbe. I am standing on the knowledgeable shoulders of the following blogger:

GHQ website photo

http://volsminiatures.blogspot.ca/2014/05/rory-mccreadies-step-by-step-guide-to.html

This guy rigs with thread and does an amazing job. I found another blogger who used paint brush strands to make the rigging. This looks much less fiddly and gave a nice result. Unfortunately, I cannot find this blog to give him/her credit.

First up was to paint up the model. I experimented with an art felt ($5) to put the black trim on the sails. This worked pretty well but when I painted the rest of the sail, the ink ran and as a result my sails are pretty dark.

I inherited a lovely piece of kit for this project. It is a magnifier with a light. I painted without it for the most part but it came in handy putting on the hull stripes.

Next, too the rigging. I cut a few strands of black brush and put it in a jar. I followed Rory's rigging guide for thread but replaced the thread with the paint brush strands and viola...

 This is the standing rigging. The model did not come with any rat lines but I plan to purchase some fancy brass ones from Langton. At this point the rat lines would go on but will move on to the running rigging which will be done with the gold colored brush strands. The pictures do not show the black rigging well. Next time, white background!

2 hours later the running lines have been added...

Battle of Friedland 1807

I had the pleasure of sorting out the French and Russian troops for the Battle of Friedland. Sorting and labeling French and Russian 15mm troops for the battle can often take as long as the game itself but it gives me a chance to play with my toys and speeds up the game set up and play on game day.

A view of the table from the first time we played in January 2015

The battle takes place in East Prussia June 14 1807. After the indecisive battle of Eylau earlier in the year, the French pursued the elusive Russian army until it turned at bay at the confluence of the Muhlenfluss and Alle rivers. Both armies started out with a screening force that was gradually reinforced throughout the day. Napoleon got there “firstest with the mostest” and concluded a brilliant campaign with a victory resulting in the Treaty of Tilsit.

Our battle was refought using the Commit the Garde rules. These are meant for large scale battles 1”=125 yards and a stand =4-500 men. It is played on hexes and tends to be very decisive.

Brent and I commanded the French and Martin commanded the Russians. The rivers divided the battle field which meant that the cavalry would battle in North and a French Grenadier Division faced Russian infantry and cavalry.

The cavalry battle in the north was ferocious resulting in many casualties. The French held the field and pressed toward the bridge to Friedland and bottling up reinforcements in difficult terrain.

The French Grenadiers in the south competed for defensive terrain with the Russians and were punished by effective combined arms attacks from the Russians.

Both sides struggled to get reinforcements on the board but eventually, the French were able to bring in a decisive number of troops to reinforce a depleted initial force. The Russians saw the desperation of the situation and summoned the Guard Grenadiers to try and turn the tide but it was too little too late.

This is the second time we have played the scenario and the Russian player learned from the last battle to deploy his cavalry Corp in the open to avoid getting penned in and destroyed piecemeal. This let the Russians put up a good fight but the French had better quality troopers and were able to get more actions than their poorer led counterparts.

The battle technically ended early on when the Russians failed an army moral roll. We all agreed to play on as we did not want a single die roll to determine the game and end a planned afternoon of gaming.

Deployment view from the Russian rear

French on the left. Swirling cavalry fight in the North

Same spot a few turns later. Depleted units and French gained ground

This line of hills were the key to the South and hotly contested

Saxon Cuirassier and French Hussars prepare to capture Russian pontoon bridges

End game with the French crossing the river into the Russian rear from the North

Endgame in the South. French reinforcements arrive to maintain the pressure

Not sure what is coming next. Hopefully, I will find some motivation to pick up a brush and finish my 1/1200 74 gunner and try out my rigging plan using paint brush bristles instead of thread. An idea stolen from another blog.

The Root of All Evil $$$

I have earned a play money by selling off my old 2^nd Edition 40k figures. I have been happily mulling over how to plow these funds back into the hobby. I reviewed an older post where I had a wish list put together for ideas. At the same time I saw that Black Tree Design was having a %50 off sale on many of their Feudal and Dark Age figures. I strongly considered this but in the end discarded it because the cavalry were still full price and it would make for too big a project, cutting into gaming time.

Now I am considering getting a fleet of 1/1200 ships for Age of Sail. After some research, I have chosen Langton Miniatures. The quality is high and the price is reasonable. I also found a US distributor that has free shipping for larger purchases. I have a friend with Sails of Glory. This is a fun game and uses 1/1000 scale ships and the models are nice and pre painted. It would make sense to collect this game but my gut tells me otherwise and it is unwise to ignore ones gut!

I want to be able to paint, base and rig the ships myself. I had a small collection of about 5 ships back in the day but gave them away. I still have an unbuilt 74 gunner in my lead pile that I will put together to see if I want to do 30+ more.

This is the completed La Supreme from the GHQ website

Here is mine dug out from the lead pile. I have done some research on how to do other rigging. I need to get some smaller drills and the right thread before tackling this project. The results can be spectacular. I hope to get the hang of it and produce a worthy fleet.

Here is my copy of WS&IM from Avalon Hill. Same guy that co authored Napoleon's Battles, another favorite rule set of mine, Craig S. Taylor. I will likely add to my rule collection as the fleet grows as this one is a little tedious.

I am preparing for a Napoleonics game next weekend. We are doing the Battle of Freidland scenario for Commit the Garde. To that end, I am building some terrain. The scale of this rule set is 1”= 125 yards and I am using 15mm figures. This is a big disparity between game scale and figure scale and as such will cause some compromises when building terrain. A single building represents a small town, a tree represents a stretch of forest and my inch wide river is an 100 yard wide impassable body of water. The scenario calls for two bridges and 3 pontoon bridges. I have bridges that are way too big for the scale and am scratch building replacements. The pontoon bridges are also scratch built for the job. I used my river to judge the length of the bridge and made it wide enough to accommodate my figures to cross in march column. I did some internet research to try and come up with design ideas and the bridges are coming along as shown.

Bridges constructed with framing card, balsa wood and DAS clay. I used a strip of river to make sure it would fit.

Pontoon bridges completed using tiny dowling, framing card and foam core.

Here are the bridges with figures added. the scale problems remain but they will do the job as long as troops are not on them.

I have dusted off my airbrush. I watched a Youtube video or two recently and have been inspired to use it more often. I build a lazy susan so I can paint and spin the model. I am on holidays this week and plan to make a mess with this over the next few days!

Eylau concluded

Brent and I have spent a second session continuing the Battle of Eylau. The battle has been very dynamic with many casualties. The French attack on the left had run out of steam with the 2 remaining cavalry brigades heading back to the French lines with Marshall Murat's incapacitated figure in tow.

French left preparing to attack and aftermath

The Russians advanced on their left in turn, but were pushed back and disorganized as twilight arrived. There are two Russian cavalry brigades cut off and waiting for night to fall so they can escape the French lines.

Russian left and French counter attack

The French have brought in as much troops as they have available except some of the Imperial Guard. The French have held Eylau since the first turn and when night falls and the armies separate to reorganize the Russians will be forced to shelter outside in the winter storm causing a significant morale loss for the coming battle tomorrow.

 The armies separate for the night and prepare for battle in the morning

Both sides have lost about 50 stands of troops with the Russians counting 6 batteries destroyed.

Day 2



The Russians were lucky and won the initiative for the next day. They continued to consolidate their position, pulling back depleted units and holding a line supported by terrain and their remaining artillery. They counter attacked the graveyard and disordered as many French units with fire as they could.

The French morale was in bad shape due to heavy casualties the previous day and calling in the guard. They needed to press the attack and rout the Russians before their own morale broke. The French pressed forward in the centre with the support of the Old Guard foot. They recaptured the graveyard and advanced their artillery. Davout's elite Corp began arriving and was used to reinforce the attack on the left. They screened their right with cavalry and forced the Russians to defend this area with their depleted units.

The battle ebbed and flowed with casualties mounting and the French advancing in the centre and on the left. The Russians were forced to hold the line with their depleted units and their losses would have swung the morale in French favour.

As the French prepared for yet another counter attack. Their morale broke and they fled the field at 12:00

Casualty piles

French Old Guard call off the attack

Overview at the end of the battle

Pressure on the Russian right

Custom built graveyard

This battle took almost two weeks to complete! Brent and I played the bulk of the first day. He gave instruction to attack aggressively in the centre with the support of the Old Guard the next day. I played a turn a night for a few nights to wrap up the game. The scenario was interesting with a clear objective. French break the Russians or lose. The snow rules did not work because we kept forgetting to use them during movement. The Russians fought a defensive battle and made every effort to preserve units that were damaged. The rules give morale loss for units wiped out or broken. The Russians were making a last stand with 5 units on the front line with only one hit left when the French morale broke, getting three 6s on 13 dice.