February 2011 - War Games Holiday Centre

The second day was just as bloody, the deployments were fairly historical with some minor changes.

Nansoutys Cuirassier of French I Cavalry Corps.

The VIII corps under Junot supported Poniatowski’s V corps and on the Russian side the twelve pounder batteries from II, VIII and V corps occupied the ground to the south of the redoubt with II corps infantry occupying the redoubt itself.

The Westphalians begin the assault on the Ochard west of Utitsa.

The Russian III corps under Tuchkov was allowed to deploy two of it’s Elite Battalions within the Orchard in front of Utitsa, this mean’t that when the Westphalian VIII Corps started the battle it would be in combat very quickly. Also the aggressive moves by the Russian commander in Utitsa saw Ponoatowski’s Outflank manouvre falter due to the amount of decent cavalry the Russians threw at it! (It turned out that there was only the III Cavalry Corps under Kreutz, just the amazing dice rolls saw it doing great service for the Russian cause).

Other-side-of-redoubt — The view of the redoubt from Borodino

The view of the redoubt from Borodino.

The view from the Russian side, it was about to get very messy.

This time the pressure was all on the gap between the fleches and the Great redoubt. Davout massed his infantry here and with the support of Nansoutys I Cavalry Corps and the III Cavalry Corps they hoped to punch a hole through the Russian lines here.

The view south of the Great Redoubt

Montbruns Cuirassier of French II Cavalry Corps!

After the tiles were revealed it became apparent that this would be harder then anticipated, as the afore mentioned batteries of twelve pound guns were deployed here. Still the attempt was made, Neys III Corps went up the slope before the Great Redoubt, taking considerable punishment! Eugene began weedling the skirmishers out of the suburbs of Borodino, moving on to the town itself eventually, here the fighting was intense, with the final throw of the dice seeing the Guards flee out of the village before the victorious Italians.

The view of Borodino from east of the Kolocha River.

The battle for the village of Borodino rages!

Around this time the supporting gun battery and infantry fled from their positions on the east side of the Kolocha.

Outside Utitsa the Poles ground to a halt, letting Grouchy’s cavalry through to deal with the dreaded Russian cavalry that had seen off their own cavalry escorts. The Westphalians entered the Orchard, which is deemed to be an open wood and immediately became Unformed. The skirmisher duel was quick, nearly all the Westphalian rifle armed skirmishers being put out of action straight away. A morale roll of three ones for the Veteran battalion that had just lined out mean’t that there was a retreat before the fight really got under way. The punishment for the Westphalians was bloody after this, with one battalion being reduced to just seven figures from full strength in one round of shooting! Let Latour-Mauburg through with his Saxon heavies, they will smash through the Russian battery and break the line. Grouchy had engaged the Russian Cavalry corps and while it had suffered lots of casualties, the Russians had to retreat to re-group.

On Rumbles the Saxon Guard du Corps, the whole regiment, supported by the Zastrow Cuirassier regiment, surely this would do it! The screening Polish lancer squadrons began by charging one of them into the battery, this was wiped out in the resulting fire. The second squadron moved further forward to get a better position for it’s charge. At this point an Elite Russian battalion appeared on the left flank of the Saxons, emerging from the cover of the Orchard. It was thought that the Russians would be too busy with the Westphalians in the Orchard to bother with the Saxons.

On rode the valiant Saxons! Surely nothing could stop this tide of horse flesh?

How wrong they were! Five figures were blasted off at close range, the remaining squadron of poles was annihalated by the six pound gun battery. The decision was made, go for the guns next turn. The Poles returned to own lines and the trumpets blared!! The Saxons charged, thundering toward the guns, the gunners began to panic, but the die roll proved to be exactly what they needed, the guns fired, canister flew and horsemen crashed to the ground. ( well they did in my head….) The Saxons Guard du Corps lost eight figures from the regiment. They were now just over fifty percent, needing a thirteen to continue into the guns, being Elite they needed a twelve. Rolled eleven, it must just have been too much for the plucky Saxons!

Davout plodded on into the hail of canister and shell, his supporting Cuirassier attempting to get to the gun line in their support, all failed. The corps artillery finally fleeing from in front of the massed Russian gun line, just as the guard cavalry drew up into lines to throw their weight into the fray. All to no avail.

So in summary, the French captured Borodino, contested the Great Redoubt, but didn’t get into the Fleches, Utitsa also remained firmly Russian.

So in two days we had a right ding-dong, with the Russians winning once and the French winning once. A great weekend was had by all!

Well the opening shots havebeen fired and the French have stormed forward across the plains in front of the Russian positions. The French deployment has Junots Westphalians deployed North of the Kolocha River, opposite the Russian VI Corps, Ney’s III corp in front of the redoubt supported by Nansoutys I Cavalry Corp and Latour Maubourgs IV Cavalry corps. Davout linked up between the south of the Redoubt to the fleches supported by Montbruns II Cavalry Corps and Grouchys IV Cavalry Corps. South of this was Eugenes IV corp and coming into Utitsa from the south was Ponitatowski’s V corp.

A view from the southern end of the battlefield.

On the Russian side Tuchkovs III corps were defending the Utitsa area, North of them was VIII corps holding the fleches, supported by the Guard twelve pounder battery. North of this IV Corps took up position in and behind the redoubt. VI corps supported two battalions of Jaeger-Carabinier of the Guard in the Borodino village.

Volley after volley into the Borodino village finally beat the Guards holding it.

Right from the off the French poured forward, the Poles dashed toward Utitsa as the opposition dug in within the confines of the village and surrounding area. The Italians crept through the Orchard to engage the village from the front.

The new model of the village of Utitsa.

Along the whole front the Russian guns began to reap havoc among the cavalry regiments advancing across the plain. The Russian cavalry were held in reserve right up until they were needed, to maximise the casualties from the guns. The twelve Pounder battery in the redoubt blew seven casualties off a Wurzburg battalion in turn one and a further eleven in turn two.

Polish infantry stream past Utitsa to the South

As the fight wore on the French guns began picking gunners off, the French infantry managing to get up to effective range behind the cavalry screen. Once the screen was away though the guns knocked dozens of figures off! This wasn’t enough though and by turn twelve the fleches were in enemy hands, the villages of Utitsa and Borodino had fallen into French hands and the woods around Utitsa were being strongly contested.

The southern fleche finally saw it’s half battery retreat, leaving the dogged defence to the infantry.

The French III corps moved steadily on through ball, shell and canister up the slope in front of the Great Redoubt, dropping into the wolf pits to exchange shots with the battery, it was carnage.

The French III Corps assault up the slope before the Great Redoubt.

Miraculously though the Wurttemburg 25th Division managed to get around the side of the redoubt, engaging the Russian division protecting the North flank of the earthwork and driving them back. It was at this point that Junots corps finally drove back the Guard from Borodino, and began contesting the far bank of the Kolocha river with volley fire, a battle they would inevitably win.

A view from the Northern end of the battlefield.

At this point, at 17.40 and after fifteen turns it was decided that the Russians had been beaten! So we put the figures back on the trays, re-wrote the tiles and we’ll start turn two again tomorrow having changed the sides around a little bit. If it’s as much fun as today, it’ll be great!

Nansoutys I French Cavalry Corps

Another update tomorrow!

Well the second event of the calendar is nearly upon us! We have another full house, so that is always a good thing.

The massed ranks of the Russian Heavies, forcing all opposing infantry into defensive squares

The Russian Field Marshal Kutuzov has been ordered to stop the advancing Giant, the Grande Armee. He has decided to make his stand at a small village called Borodino on the Kolocha River. Preparations have been made and a grand redoubt has been built, along with several defensive fleches, will it be enough though.
Over a quarter of a million men will meet in a titanic confrontation.

French columns, with Baden battalions in support

French columns file past a village, a Baden battalion can be seen in the background.

The Russians have seven infantry corps, along with five cavalry corps. The French oppose them with the Imperial Guard and a host of allies, Italy, Saxony, Poland, Wurttemburg and Westphalia combine to present five infantry corps including the Guard and five cavalry corps, including the cavalry of the guard.

French and Allies

The massed ranks of French infantry along with some allied divisions, in this case Nassauers.

Historically the bloodshed was enormous, with over 80,000 casualties on the day of the battle.
Some of my favourites

If it’s possible, from the many figures I have here at the centre, these are my favourites. More on these soon.

I intend to update you on the progress of the battle in the next few days.

The Imperial Guard "await the off"

The Old Guard positioned behind a grand battery of foot artillery of the Guard.

Well the French have won, the Allied centre had broken, Picton was looking to withdraw and save his precious elite troops, while the British Guard looks to cover the retreat.

French troops advancing near La Haye Sainte

La Haye Sainte is always a key area of the battle field and even though the Dutch Belgium troops fought valiently they couldn’t in he end stop the French

The French plan to screen Hougomont, while the small Brunswick corps operated ineffectively within it’s gounds, proved a winner. Sure there was a fight but the veteran French light infantry proved more than a match for the inexperienced Germans. The resulting break of the Brunswickers and the pressure on the far right of the British lines proved too much. The timing of Durutte breaking the unfortunate Dutch divisions coinciding with the collapse of the right of the Allied line.

The rest of the Allied line remained static after initial success in repelling the attack of Lobau on Papelotte. The arrival of the Prussian masses proved enough to push the French through Plancenoit, however the stalwart stand of Donzelot, the position of the French Guard cavalry holding up half of the Prussian advance, all proved to be just enough time wise.

Scots and French trade volleys

This is a great shot of the Scots trading volleys with the French, even though the right flank had gone the French still couldn’t move forward in the centre against the British volley fire.

In the end all the allied commanders agreed, enough was enough. They would plan to withdraw to the port of Ostend link up with the forces from Halle and possibly wait to link up with the Prussians again.

I’m not sure Napoleon would have given them time though! The French cavalry would have harried them, although that said there would have been plenty of Allied cavalry to delay the pursuit, given a lot of the British Cavalry had actually been held in reserve. Still this is a game for another weekend. A “what if” scenario.

British infantry watch the French advance

The view from the British lines as the French move ever forward.

After 20 turns of action, we had reached a conclusion, everyone had a blast and three bookings were made for the next game…

Thanks for looking, we hope you enjoyed it.

The Allied troops begin to fall back in front of the troops from Reille’s Corps, the battered Allies just can’t stop the French attack which has got to them almost untouched. Finally Altens division breaks completely, nine battalions are either routing or retreating joining the growing number of Dutch and Belgian troops fleeing to their left from behind La Haye Sainte.

The French relentless advance

La Haye Sainte in the distance is lost, Donzelot is still trying to get over the ridge against the British infantry and the French Old Guard march towards Smohain… Things are looking bad for the allies!

Donzelot is still fire fighting the British on the ridge east of La Haye Sainte, with the British still looking like they have the upper hand.

Prussian infantry attack Plancenoit

The Young Guard can’t stop the Prussian advance, Plancenoit is lost, but is it all too late?

The Prussian cavalry Brigades from Bulow’s corp have begun streaming past the southern suburbs of Smohain trying to support Pirch’s push on Plancenoit where the Young Guard are struggling to prevent the village being captured. They are currently hanging on doggedly to the west of the village.

French Guard Cavalry

The French guard cavalry line out again, sweeping everything before them as they have all day.

Cavalry of the French Guard have started manoeuvring to the west of Smohain village in order to delay the Prussians of Bulow Corps but whether they will get there in time is yet to be seen.

The Chasseurs of the Guard

As impressive as they are the French Guard haven’t been needed and it’s all over before they can get into combat.

The Chasseurs of the Old Guard begin their attack toward the east of Smohain into Altens division, waiting for them on the ridge are the British guard and Heavy cavalry…

To the west of La Haye Sainte Cuirassier from Kellermans corps have crested the ridge in front of Chasse’s division. The only option left to the Dutch militia in the face of this powerful enemy is to form square and prey their morale holds… once again with little hope and against the odds the Dutch fight off Kellerman’s cavalry repulsing them from the ridge with a close range volley.

Kellerman's cavalry charge over the ridge

Kellerman’s Cuirassier charge over the ridge straight at the Dutch Belgium militia!

While Kellerman’s Cuirassier where entertaining the troops on the ridge Reilles corps advances toward the British ridge from Hougomont pressuring the end of the ridge line, with the Dutch wavering along the ridgeline to the east the British need to hold off this new attack. Then all they need to do is work out how to stop The Guard Grenadier division which is continuing its advance toward the ridge west of La Haye Sainte. It’s not looking good for the Allies between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte but they are clinging on!

Reilles corp advancing on the British east of Hougoumont

Reilles corp advancing on the British linies to the east of Hougoumont… the British must find some way of stopping this advance or the ridge will be lost!

Durutte’s division has won the fight for the sunken road to the west of La Haye Sainte but it wasn’t easy and they are having to regroup, not able to press the attack further at the moment.

The Dutch Belgium's concede the ground behind La Haye

The Dutch Belgium’s have finally been beaten away from La Haye Sainte, the French will not be stopped here now!

At the other end of the valley Bulow’s Prussians begin arriving at Smohain, ready to start their advance by way of Papelotte.

Purch's Prussians move in to attack Plancenoit

The large Prussian force lead by Purch gets in position to attack Plancenoit… can the Young Guard hold on in the face of so many allied troops??

Pirch is pushing on hard towards Plancenoit and the pressure begins to tell on the Young Guard holding it. The village is now the centre of the Prussian attack and the French are being forced back, giving ground in front of overwhelming numbers of Prussian infantry.