Brienne 1814

We've just finished the battle of Brienne, the first of the series of battles that were fought in France during the 1814 campaign. I was field Marshal Blucher leading the Russian forces and my son was Napoleon leading the French forces. We used the simplest of the available rules which was Grande Armee, I had come close to choosing between Snappy Nappy and DBN but as we've already used GA before we went with the safest option. The rules will need modifying as the higher rated units tend to steamroller everything around them; it was impossible for the French to evict my men from Brienne and infantry able to attack cavalry just doesn't seem right. Otherwise we had a really fun time of it.

The French could win by severing the line of communications (represented by the long convoy of vehicles.) and shooting the hell out of my units . They achieved both these objects but failed to take Brienne - it's entirely possible that I misread the rules but the saving roll with 4 added to it for hard cover seemed excessive. It is my understanding that villages changed sides frequently in these conflicts. 

Here are some pictures, the game took 2.5 hours to complete and Blucher sort of lost, I think.

The rules...

The Russian right flank.

The Russian left flank and rear ....just the loooong supply column that must escape!

The Russian center - Brienne garrison by an infantry brigade and the chateau on the hill.

Everything was going ok until this guy appeared.

French right, their dragoons menace Brienne

French left - Marshal Victor deploys his brigades (sorry for fuzzy pictures)

Count Pahlens cavalry make heroic charges and take out two batteries.

The dragoons sweep the brigade away - I should really have had the men inside the chateau! :(

Close up of the dragoons....

Close up of French infantry..never ending hordes...

Nobody can take Brienne...French infantry take hits.

Routed units - nearly all Bluchers Russians.

End of turn three and Ney with the four Young Guard brigades arrive. Guard cavalry as well...end in sight for Blucher.

Russian reinforcements also arrive on turn three - Sherbaotovs corps, four brigades of infantry and two batteries.But the convoy is still not safe. I remove one wagon every turn

Mihaud the commander of the cavalry corps is killed and so napoleon takes over the Dragoons. The ride down the infantry and start to move towards the convoy.

Guard cavalry steam roller whats left of Bluchers right wing. Sherbatov is too late.

Close up of Ney and the Young Guard

Blucher throws in the towel....most of the wagons escaped bar three that were captured by the emperor and the dragoons.

Instead of languishing in the study these take pride of place in the lounge...well the bit where we now wargame.

Preparations for Brienne

The trestle tables (together make 5 x 6 feet) arrived a couple of days and me and the son set them up for the Brienne scenario. I downloaded two versions; an Age of Eagles and Volley and Bayonet PDF's.

Here are a couple of photos from the back of the lounge, its a bit of a squeeze for a portly chap like myself but I can still still maneuver around it to place troops! The river Aube can just be seen on the extreme left. However, there ought to be a road running from Brienne to Chamnsil, and also Breinne-la-ville is missing!

Annotated with place names.

Russian Tchougouiev Uhlans

Another poor unit that's been sitting on my desk gathering dust for over three months! These are AB figures and are the first 15/18mm I've painted in a while. They were primed well before the Ayton game and the tons of painting I did for that!! This unit was at the battle of Brienne and is one of the last ones to be completed for a brigade unit based game. I've ordered a couple of 2 x 6 ft trestle tables, there is just enough room for them to be setup at the back of the lounge. The kitchen is just too cramped and besides we need time to setup and play - so these tables can be left out for a while.  The next unit are the Russian Irkutsk Hussars....but I dont think they'll be needed for Brienne.

The Ayton Imaginations Game

Just a few pics from last weeks game that took place at Ayton, near Scarborough in Yorkshire. There was about a dozen of us or so divided into two groups. The scenario was devised by Henry Hyde of Battle Games Magazine http://henrys-wargaming.co.uk/

The first three show the setting up of the game.

The games itself was fought over two days, on the first day we had two large tables fighting out two separate scenarios and the 2nd day involved a huge battle. Later I shall post pictures of the new units I painted up for the game.

General Wrede

What do you think of this command base? The detail and quality of painting is absolutely amazing, have I been on a painting course? have I suddenly improved my skills? No, General Wrede and staff were painted by my good friend Paul from Napoleonic s in Miniature. This is the only unit painted by someone else, but I had the chance of getting something painted by his hand and here it is.

For a better write up, the story behind it and some better pictures visit Pauls blog :

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/von-wrede-1812-14.html

The campaign of 1814 officially delayed!

Looking at the amount of lead I have to get through for the May day game at Ayton is absolutely crazy! We are talking about 25-28mm figures: 3 x 36 man battalions and 50 Hussars and 10 gunners with 4 limbers and 2 heavy cannon. So 1814 will be delayed until mid-May at the latest. I'll post pictures of the game when i return.

Minden Hussars

Well, after over a month of inactivity I have finally gotten around to doing some painting. I suspect I may have suffered a bit burn out from rapidly completing all those Russian units for the 1814 campaign. I still have a couple of Russian units to do. However, the big game at Ayton (near Scarborough in Yorkshire) early May holiday looms on the horizon. I have to paint up some units for that - these 25-28mm scale forces for the imaginations game, this will be my fourth trip to Ayton and it's something I really look forward to, the chaps I meet up with are very pleasant and sociable. So this will be three days of fun. The mornings and afternoons are packed with excitement from the games and the evenings are spent in the Denison Arms for food and later on the Forge pub.

We've had a bit bad news on that front - the landlord of the Forge sadly passed away a couple of weeks ago and the pub is now under new management. Peeler, one of the guys who organizes the Ayton game attended the church service and the wake, it was well attended since he was quite a popular chap.

I should really keep these a secret but couldn't help myself! My plan is to have two  versions of the same unit, basically a mounted and dismounted version. These two bases are part of the dismounted version, I suppose it's really a supernumerary type as its only intended to show where the hussars have left their horses while they go off on a mission and does not have a combat value. Together there are nine horses, three horseholders and two hussars running off to join their mates.