Month: January 2012

Over the course of the battle the snow remained pretty much a constant, visibility was poor and only a couple of instances of snow blindness had occurred. Most of the flank activity had been severely hindered by the weather, through collisions and threat from cavalry.

In the centre from the south village of Serpallen along the small ridge and on to the central plain in the north the ground was covered with French and Russian troops closing for the final assault.

You can see at this point that the village has been vacated by the defenders.

Davout was pinned with the Cavalry of Prince Galitzin’s cavalry reserve and the village of Serpallen, forming the apex in the right angle between this flank and the front line, was now the key point for the French.

More figures from the Connoisseur Miniatures range.

Nearly all the Cavalry here are from the Connoisseur range of miniatures

Both sides realised this and the time was coming for the push through. Who would go first?

All these figures are from the Connoisseur range.

Well I am afraid you’ll have to wait until Thursday next week as I am away for a week!

Still I promise, it will be worth the wait.

On the Southern flank the village of Serapallen was empty troops from either side re-organising before the push into the village.

Davout was pinned by the horde of Russian Cavalry brought in by Prince Galitzin, his divisions of infantry suffering from the blinding snow, hindering movement and those that could see weren’t taking any chances with the Russian Cuirassier and had formed battalion squares.

In the centre the cavalry of the 5th (Tuchkov) Russian Division along with the 3rd (Osten-Sacken)and 4th (Samov) Division’s looked to hold up the approach of Murat’s Cavalry Corps.

The fight however proved to be quite brief, whole regiments committed to the fray quickly thundered back to their own lines. The Russian horse coming off the worst!

To the North of the central plain, Soult’s division’s rolled forward delivering disciplined volleys into the swarms of Cossacks and Hussars in front of them.

The snow fluctuated between light and heavy, mostly heavy and with the visibility drastically reduced the advance became somewhat tentative. There were Cossacks out the after all!!

Tomorrow I will provide more on the real fight, the village of Serpallen and the centre.

There was a lull in the snow and the whole thing seemed to stop for a turn, during which the troops approaching Serpallen got a pasting, only to have it turn back to light snow then heavy just as the troops were ready to charge! Charge they did though and the deduction on the charge distance of D6 wasn’t enough to stop them getting in.

Close up of the Firing Line figures in Heudelet’s division.

The strange thing was that the battalion from Kamenskoi’s division bolted at the sight of the howling banshees emerging from the blizzard! The Russians then sat behind Serpallen in some confusion while the French stopped and re-organised.

Over on the Northern flank the huge wave of Russian cavalry began to move toward the massive column of Murat’s reserve cavalry. Many cossacks died while walking unwittingly into the firing range of the French troops at the edge of the obscuring snow. Russian cavalry from the Division’s arrayed in the centre moved forward to engage the French reserve cavalry, hoping that their initial weight of numbers in throwing whole regiments in, would count.

The centre of the battlefield was awash with cavalry of all nationalities, right behind Murat came Soult, this was going to be a hard nut to crack for the French, but they certainly had the weight of numbers.

A nice battalion of Elite Miniature figures the flag is by GMB Designs.

This is a very nice shot of one of our many Connoisseur Miniature battalions.

To the south, Davout arrived in force, Prince Galitzin hurled his Cuirassier into the division of Gudin, only to have the first squadron repulsed by some disorganised fire from a battalion that was caught unformed and in column of route, the hasty manoeuvre into line and the desultory fire proving enough to see the first squadron off!

Friant’s division was not going to be as lucky though……more on that tomorrow!

Well the snow was falling heavily and the steady advance from the French wasn’t causing them too much trouble, the cloud of cossacks on the Northern flank were having a few issues, with one Sotnia being decimated after emerging from the blizzard smack, bang in front of a French Veteran battalion at medium range!

In the Centre on turn one both the reserves for the Russians had been released on turn one. Prince Galitzin’s Cavalry Corps and the one Russian Division, the eighth in this case had been released. The former needing a “6” and the latter needing a “5 or 6”. Lucky I guess, as the game at the beginning of last year saw them released at least half way through the game!

There was no sign of L’Estocqu either, or Ney thankfully. News was coming in that they had engaged to the North and nothing was slipping through.

In the centre Murat’s Cavalry manoeuvred toward the Russian Centre, Prince Galitzin’s Cavalry reserve had already moved off to engage the troops to the south west of Serpallen, so it was going to be left to the Russian infantry Divisions to stop these elite troops.

On turn four the first division of Davout’s Corps arrived to the south east of Serpallen. This was Gudin, this also mean’t that the rest of Davout’s III Corps would not be far behind. Unfortunately the French division lost the road in the heavy snow and wandered into a wooded area slowing down the advance as confusion reigned among the lead troops.

The eighth Russian division was following up on the heels of Galitzin’s cavalry, so even if Davout turned up in force the Russians shouls be able to hold the southern side of the line. Serpallen was the key and both sides seemed to recognise this. Augerau advanced his lead battalions into a hail of fore from the village, one battalion stopping dead in it’s tracks. The rest however steeled themselves for the fight for the village.

More tomorrow.

The battle of Eylau is the latest game fought at the Wargames holiday Centre, the temperature was freezing, the snow had begun to fall and the troops were all arrayed for the off! (and this was just at the Centre)

Eylau is a battle that is fairly unique in that it is fought during the course of a snow storm, visibility was appalling, the troops were freezing and above all else getting lost in the driving snow! Whole divisions meandered into death traps, Augerau’s Corps moved off to the assault and ended up in front of the Russian Grand Battery!

Thousands died, the French High command could not see it happening either!

So, how do we replicate this on the table top, we started the game in Light snow and rolled a d6 after movement each turn. The result was checked against a table and the snow dissipated or became worse. In Heavy snow formations could veer, again dependant on a dice roll. Each formation (this varying from battalion to Division or Corps sometimes) rolled an average die along with a D10, on a 2 or 5 the formation veered a number of inches on the D10. This being to the right or left.

Turn 1 it got worse, the French set off in a torrential blizzard, the Russians could not see anything and the troops only veered slightly, most staying on course.

More tomorrow!

You will remember that I have imported a whole new batch of Russians, Front Rank are the figures of choice and they certainly come up well!

The spare figures available to me mean’t a bit of juggling in getting the battalions right, but the mix means that there is a load of variety to the look of the battalions.

Front Rank are a very robust figure, they have good quality metal and certainly stand the test of time, I believe that a large portion of these figures are on excess of ten years old before they were painted.

The various head gear and the fact that there are a variety of poses give each battalion a unique look about them.

This accompanied by the paint work from Reinforcements by Post has given a final look that is second to none.

All I have to do now is decide, gloss or matt finish?