Bussaco

This weekend saw a re-fight of Bussaco (1810) in the Epic format of C&CN.  We managed to fit two games in, starting around 1.30pm and finally finishing when the ladies returned from a shopping trip at Gun Wharf Quay at around 6ish.

The first game was a real tussle.  The second less balanced.  Both were French victories and both involved pulling the Allies from the centre to the flanks before attacking with overwhelming infantry in the centre to capture the heights.

Don and Norman took the Allied side in both games, Don on the left in the first (Craufurd's Light Division) and on the right (Portuguese) in the second.

Part of Craufurd's division

The first game was a really tough affair.  The French on the right, against Craufurd made no headway throughout the battle and by the end the British came off the ridge line to press the French. 

On the French left, progress was better and the Allies had to feed units into their right to stem the French assault. 

Allied right flank

An early cavalry charge (by Norman) saw the two British Heavy Dragoons charge over the ridge into a French gun line in the centre with mixed success, one battery was destroyed but both Dragoons were badly damaged, limping back to their base line to participate no more.  Don (Wellington) was not impressed and the lack of cavalry would hinder the British in the centre later on when the French infantry began its assault on the ridge line.

I have to admit, with both flanks making no progress and the centre being difficult to move, I as, Massena was somewhat despairing.  It was also frustrating that all my well laid plans were stymied by good tactician cards including 'Infantry combat first' and 'Battlefield smoke'.  Surprisingly, from being some 8 - 4 down the French turned the game round in the space of 3 moves.  Lady luck finally shone on me!

Part of the French centre moving forward

The final score was 13 - 9 to the French.

Game two turned out to be much more one-sided.  A strong start on the French right against the new Craufurd (Norman) including an early 'Bayonet charge' saw elements of the Light division hit hard and falling back to the ridge.  This resulted in British reserves from the centre being moved to the left.  On the French left, steady progress was made but this time the threat of French cavalry (Dragoons) resulted in the British moving their Heavy Dragoons to the right to counter this.  Thus a similar scenario to game one with the Allied centre stripped of key troops before the final French assault.  A very useful 'Le Grand Manouevre' enabled the French to mass three batteries close to the centre of the Bussaco ridge, followed by a 'Bombard' targeting the Coldstream Guards who in Don's words were 'atomsied' being reduced from 5 stands to one - as a former Grenadier guardsman, although disappointed, Don did not show the high level of remorse one would have expected at his best unit getting pasted.

French  Hussars

Game two finished 13 - 6 to the French and was over in about 1.5 hours whilst game one took nearly 3 hours.

A great afternoon with my new British and Portuguese figures debut appearance.  Next up is Vimeiro at Salute and Partizan.

Garrison markers

These are some garrison markers showing French Legere.  the pillar and railings are from a German terrain company (picked up at Crisis).

More garrison markers for British, Prussians etc. to follow at a later date.

Westphalians

I recently finished a Westphalian brigade, using Steve Barber figures. The figures are painted for the 1812 campaign in Russia with the aim to deploy them at some point in the future for Utitza.

 Four Westphalian regiments

They took a lot longer to paint than I thought they would due to being in campaign dress, some without shoes and many with patches on uniforms and various pots and pans.

For 1812, their commander was Prince Junot who I also recently completed.  Figure is Gringo's excellent representation.

At the same time as completing Junot, I also completed Ney and his followers for 1815.  These are Perry figures.

I am currently scrambling (as usual) to get the final units (Swiss) done for Salute in early April (Vimeiro 1808), which is earlier than usual, hence the extra emergency.  I am also trying to finish flank markers (for the C&C game system) and some extra terrain that is needed.

I hope to have it all done in time.  As well as Salute we will also be exhibiting at Partizan in May.

Crisis 2018

Just got back from Crisis 2018.  Overall, a great weekend.

Four of us departed Kent early Friday morning to catch the 6.50am train from Folkestone to Calais.  Some interesting questions from UK Border police officers re purpose of visit and how much cash we had on us? 

Train left on time and arriving in France we had a smooth run from Calais to Antwerp.  We used an alternative route to avoid the heavy traffic on the E17 approaching Antwerp, experience of last 5 years.  Having got to Antwerp at around 11.30am it then took us over an hour to get to our hotel which was near the main station.  Antwerp roads and traffic make London look good.  No left turns, no right turns, dust carts collecting rubbish at noon!!!  No wonder the police use bicycles.  Finally checked in at the hotel - we were told the roadworks (tram system) would be finished November 2019 - hopefully before Crisis next year.

The rest of Friday was spent in the Antwerp Pub opposite the hotel.  Several games of C&C Napoleonics Waterloo, lunch, snack, dinner and many beers.

After the traffic of Friday, all agreed an early start for getting to the show on Saturday morning.  Left the hotel at 8.45am and aimed for the Scheldt.  We actually got to the car park for Crisis at around 9.15.  This allowed sufficient time to fight the Antwerp parking meter system.  For a fee of €3.80 you can park all day.  Absolute bargain.  The drawback is trying to get the machine to issue a ticket!  After multiple attempts of trying to input my car's registration number and a large queue forming behind me and one of my colleagues, a friendly German said as we were British with a UK registration plate we would not be penalised.  So we simply joined our colleagues in the Crisis show queue to await the 10am opening time.

Tip for Crisis organisers; collect €5 from all cars on entry, give €4 to the local government and €1 for the club.  Much quicker.  We noted, once in the show (€20 including 8 Jetons - tokens for food and drink) how quiet it was initially with streams of people still coming in at 11.30, I suspect after having battled with the parking meters.

Crisis is a great trade show with a really good spread of European traders, especially terrain but also good model material suppliers.  A few no shows from the traders (e.g. Flag Dude) but this may have been due to a train failure in the tunnel later Friday morning.

Picked up all my pre-orders plus some (Napoleons Berlin coach for one!).  Looked at most games, some excellent (especially the Arnhem game) but some did look like an excuse for a club night game.  Couple of my colleagues thought it was quiet until they saw the scrum for the Bring & Buy. 

We had a previously made engagement to be at the Ligny Museum at 3pm, which was especially opened for us (shuts for the winter 31 October) after making contact some months back and requesting a visit.

We left Antwerp at around 12.30 and headed south around Brussels.  Checked into our Saturday night hotel in Waterloo (Martins - excellent) before heading down to Ligny.

Museum at Ligny was brilliant.  Small but really comprehensive coverage of the battle and also Quatre Bras and huge collection of artefacts on display.  The most informative exhibit was the map of the Allied and French dispositions on the 16 June 1815 (by squadron, battery and battalion) which provided a clear sense of how stretched out columns were (D'Erlons) and the distances involved - shame they did not have a printed copy for sale.  Personally, I thought it more informative than the new Waterloo museum and only €5 per person to get in.

Many thanks to the staff at the museum.

Rest of Saturday afternoon was finding original buildings of the Ligny battlefield including Ferme du Haut and Ferme d'en Bas, both now relatively disused and run down but both very solid!

Ferme du Haut

Ferme d'en Bas

As the day became cooler and darker we made our way back to Waterloo, via Quatre Bras to collect some bricks from the now bulldozed Quatre Bras farm.  Will mount this at some point.  The wife rolled her eyes when returning home with 200+ year old bricks!!!

Back in Waterloo, dinner at a great Brasserie and then off to the Irish pub (The Snug) for the rest of the evening.  It actually closed at 3am but we retired at 2ish.

After breakfast Sunday morning, down to Waterloo battlefield to walk from the new centre to Hougomont via the path marking the Allied right wing front line.  Some new markers on the path which I hope do not stay!!

This is promoting a new automated shuttle to run from Waterloo museum to Hougomont.  There was one of these about every 12 yards.

They make the Lion Mound look in keeping!

Once at Hougomont, we decided to walk round to the south side (wall defended by the Guards) and then head east towards La Belle Alliance.  A bright and chilly morning but a great walk with us finally heading north on the Brussels Road to confirm our views re the location of the Grand Battery at various points in the battle.

Walking the Waterloo battlefield is something I strongly recommend to grasp the hills and undulations.  At points between the Allied and French lines you could not see Hougomont or La Haye Saint.  And the crops at this time of the year are already harvested.  Napoleon's assumed observation point certainly gives probably the best view of the battlefield, especially the Ohain road ridge line where Picton's division was posted as well as east towards the Bois de Paris and Chapelle St Lambert where the Prussians massed before attacking towards Plancenoit.  From that point though you cannot see Hougomont at all.  Possibly why it is was such a mess down there?

Left Waterloo around noon after a good 2-3 hour walk and back to Calais and then England.  Tired but enthused.

Reading show in two weeks!

An expansion of the battlefield

I have started work on designing some new scenarios using the C&C La Grande Battle (LGB) system.  I will post these on this site when completed and play tested.  One of the issues I noted is that the battlefield (26 hexes wide by 11 hexes deep) is a little narrow for some battles and can end up with distortion of the ground to squeeze onto the table.  When I had the tiles which make up the table extended from the original 9 hex deep C&C system to 11 deep to accommodate the new Epic and LGB systems, it resulted in the additional 2 hexes added to the depth being put on one side.  This left the other side with room to add 2 deep hexes as well.

To keep the system flexible, I asked Martin at Warbases to prepare some 4x6 inch hex mdf bases with a mark left so that the hexes are distinct from one another.  These have now been flocked and extra PVA added to ensure the flock stays on!  I now have a table 13 hexes deep which should be more accommodating of the grander LGB games planned including Borodino, Waterloo, Ligny and Wagram.

You get an idea of how big the table is above, 14' by 6'.

Aspern-Essling again!

Two weeks ago saw myself and 5 friends fight Aspern-Essling (1809) again, I think this is the 4th time.  The difference this time was a modification to the terrain as well as adding in some further units, a Grenadier division for the Austrians and some Guard for the French, including my freshly painted Young Guard battalion.

2nd Battalion, 1st Voltigeurs

We also managed to field 3 commanders aside making the Le Grand Battle system work well on the day, although it did require rigorous control of the command cards as people chucked in completed hands.

An initial rule query was resolved amongst ourselves.  Subsequent clarification with Richard Borg provided the definitive answer, which was not what we agreed but in reality we do not see it being an issue (see the link re the rule query here: https://www.commandsandcolors.net/napoleonics/forum-main/5-rules-and-faqs/1749-la-grand-battle-corps-commander-cards.html)

Battle about to commence

The above is a general view of the game.  More detailed shots as follows:

French centre and left

Austrian centre and right

Baden artillery

Austrian Grenadiers

The game kicked off with a slow creep of the Austrians around the French right to try and mass their forces.  Under C&C rules the Austrian line infantry is slow so it takes time which means for the first few hours the game can be quite quiet.

Austrian attack on the left

On the Austrian right, facing Aspern, the fighting got underway from the off.  The Austrians were immediately under fire from the church and village of Aspern and suffered significant casualties.  Some early Austrian attacks were beaten back with high losses and after about an hour the Austrian right wing suspended attacks for a re-think.  This included shifting cavalry and some infantry to the centre which was matched by the French CinC ordering the left wing commander to shift the Baden division to the centre, where they would be very important late on.

Austrian right wing

Church at Aspern with Baden division in the rear

By lunchtime, the Austrian left had pushed in the French right, the Austrian right had stalled and was re-deploying whilst in the centre, it was mostly quiet with some French troops, including the Young Guard being pushed to the right to support that flank.

Austrians pushing in the French right

The attack on the French right would go on all day with the French feeding in more fresh units (Guard and cavalry) to try and stem the attack  After lunch the French, to relieve the pressure on their right, started to feed more infantry from the left (mostly Badeners) and launched a series of cavalry attacks against the Austrian centre.

French reserves of Guard and heavy cavalry

The centre battle raged for the rest of the day destroying almost all the French cavalry (including a Cuirassier division) and leaving only the Grenadiers a Cheval as the only full strength unit which launched a final attack, along with the Baden division to finally break the Austrian centre and win the day for the French, 22 banners versus 18.

The winning Baden division!

Overall, a great day.  Tiring but helped by some beers and a curry in the evening in the local village.  Followed next day by Colours at Newbury.

The next game planned is Vimiero 1808 and the entry of the British for the first time.

The imposing Granary - never attacked all day by the Austrians!

Mockern

Last weekend was the long awaited Mockern Epic game.  After some last minute painting of Cossacks by Don to ensure we had the Mother Russia rule covered we were ready to go Saturday morning.

Table ready to receive the figures

Don took the Prussians (Allied right wing), which are all Calpe figures, Norman took the left wing with his newly completed Russians (Front Rank).  I took the French and a spattering of Poles (Foundry, Perry and Murawski) with the objective to hold the right wing of the French Army at Leipzig under the command of Marshall Marmont.  The Allied army was commanded by Blucher.

Initial set up, seen from French right flank

We managed over the day to play two games with a close run thing in game one and a more one sided affair in game two.

Game 1 started with a strong Prussian infantry attack on the fortified Manor House north of Mockern.  This was quickly captured and with a series of force march cards in this sector the Prussian infantry was able to maintain its momentum for most of the game and push the French out of building after building.  The French also lost over half their artillery early in the game.  With the left flank almost gone, the only option for the French was a counterattack against the Russians (who had moved very little), spearheaded by French hussars and Polish uhlans.  The attack almost paid off with all the Russian cavalry being destroyed but it was to little to late.  The Allies won 15 banners to 14.

Prussian infantry in front of Mockern

French infantry behind Mockern

French artillery in the centre

Game 2 started in the same fashion as game 1 but this time the initial Prussian assaults did not push the French out of their defensive positions, the French were able to reinforce and the Prussian attacks, although pressed never got any momentum and by the end of the battle the Prussians were holding a thin defensive line along their start positions.

In the centre, the Prussian cavalry took a hard pounding from French artillery before being mopped up by the French Cavalry, again supported by Polish uhlans.

French artillery near Mockern

French cavalry awaiting orders

On the other flank, the Russians this time showed more aggression but were never able to dislodge the French/Polish infantry and a massing of French cavalry (including Cuirassiers) ended with a cavalry charge which won the game for the French, a score of 15 to 3.

Russian cavalry, light and heavy

Prussians in the centre

A great day with two fantastic games, especially the first which could have gone either way although I just could not stop the Prussian steamroller.  The day was intermixed with a good lunch and very nice dinner, courtesy of the camp followers!

As mentioned in my last post, the Polish infantry got their first outing in this game.  The Polish artillery (almost done) did not turn up so some French artillery stood in.  Next game is Aspern-Essling Le Grand Battle in September (Colours weekend) with hopefully 6 players.  I have made some changes to the LGB version on the website adding in Austrian Grenadiers and some more Grenzers.  The French get one each of an Old and Young Guard battalion, the latter being the next unit on the painting table.

Using Microsoft Publisher I am now able to construct my own maps (with terrain only and then add the units) and will be working on the following LGB scenarios, Borodino, Wagram, Ligny and Waterloo.