Austrians vs. French....again!

The last club game for the year I can get to happened last Saturday at the Croydon venue. The Napoleonic crew had another series of 1:120 matches of...guess what?...Austrians vs. French circa 1809.

We're all getting to grips with our units and how to best play them for the upcoming January re-fight of Wagram and this Saturday past was no exception. We had 3 games going, all 1:120 scale and all Austrians vs. French. I was ably partnered by Darren and his Republican French army and faced a combination of Pete E. and Andrew B. using Pete's Austrian figures.

On my side of the board it turned out to be a fairly tame affair as Andrew wasn't in much of an attacking mood after Pete got into all sorts of bother due to Darren's early flanking move with his Chasseurs a Cheval. Andrew tried to put in a charge on my line in the woods, but due to a combination of failing to attach a general to his regimental charge, my firing as he came in and the disorders incurred charging into the woods, his charge failed and the regiment fled.

This failure caused him to use his small cavalry force to plug the gap on that flank, while his stretched infantry line in the centre was protected by his other small, but superior, cavalry unit. Once he moved this away to try and help Pete, I felt the time was right for an attack. I had one of my light infantry regiment skirmishing with his right hand regiment in the woods in the attempt to keep it busy and rack up enough disorders on it to prevent it from interfering in any major way from whatever I was going to do next. I wasn't sure if I'd be more successful with a cavalry or infantry charge on his line, but settled for the cavalry as they were ready; I'd have had to spend a turn at least getting my infantry ready.

I duly sent my Chasseur brigade in column at the line, allowing it to expand their frontage for maximum effect, but a combination of the chasseurs' rubbish rating, supporting artillery fire, a massed volley from the line and a pathetic pre-melee die-roll, the attack failed, resulting in a draw. How could that torrent of horse-flesh fail?!! Note to self - Chasseurs are rubbish; don't rely on them to smash the enemy, only to threaten them! I then decided to organise my infantry into attack columns in preparation for a charge, but by then Pete's position was untenable and the game was declared a French victory. Before the last turn, my horse gun battery had managed to inflict a morale failure on their Austrian counterpart in a minor act revenge for the failed cavalry charge. Huzzah!

My serried ranks of French. No room for the cavalry to start in column!

The infantry. A minor stir occurred when deciding who started because I failed to attach my general to a front rank unit; I rolled a 6 to Andrew's 5, but because his general was attached, he invoked a rarely used rule that states that attached generals add a +2 to the initiative roll!

My light cavalry brigade

Pete moves his Austrians on the first move, while the French await their turn

Andrew's forces advance

My French infantry champing at the bit

Darren's Republican French...

...march to the top of the hill, a la the Grand Old Duke of York!

Andrew's Austrians

Pete moves into the built up areas

My forces move up to occupy the space between the two woods; "Oh, so predictable!" my erstwhile opponent declared!

The cavalry moved up to the flank to threaten the approaching landwehr

The game-winning manouver; Darren's Chasseurs force Pete's infantry into square while the rest of Darren's forces approach.

Andrew's thin white line

My attempt at matching him with fire-power and hitting power; l'ordre mixte with artillery and rear support

On the other flank I occupied the woods and fired on the jaegers and artillery, keeping another regiment in reserve to protect against the landwehr getting any ideas about leaving the BUA.

A panoramic view of the Napoleonic games with Darren in red and Tim at the forefront and Robin, Paul and Jim in the background

Tim and Garry's game

Paul and Robin vs. Jim

Paul's method of depicting the loss of a gun from a battery; a pair of smoking boots!

My line in the woods fires on the jaegers

Huge 24 figure Austrian regimental block

My mixed order brigade...

...facing the Austrian line.

Andrew's Austrians charge into the woods...

...and out again!

The jaegers pull back to conform with the running regulars and to remove themselves from my line's devastating fire!

The Chasseurs a Cheval position themselves behind the unlimbered foot batteries for a charge against the Austrian line. THe legere infantry skirmished on the left flank

The right flank in the woods holds steady under the close attention of the Austrian artillery and the cavalry threat.

Andrew's right flank regiment advances into the woods, while the skirmishers prepare to meet them. Meanwhile, should I stay on the defensive, or get the line into column?

The cascade of cavalry is too tempting, though!

The generals discuss the matter...

... while the cavalry champs at the bit!

Still waiting!

The cavalry charge! The head of the column expands by 2 figures in the distance it takes to reach the line

What? A DRAW?!

The gunners' view; BLAM!!

Take that, Austrian gunners!

Run away!

"Les pinceaux de la guerre" - La Bricole painting competition

Robert of "Serrez la Rangs", who also doubles as Olsuviev, Despotic Chastiser of the Serfs and Grand High Poobah of Forum Discipline and President of the Russian Army's IXth Corp Karaoke Appreciation Society (or moderator of the la Bricole forum) has hit upon the idea of a painting competition for January/February. The votes are in and the subject for the competition is "Bog Standard" (otherwise known as line units) and "Militia" (exactly what you'd expect!).

I've put my hand up to participate, but now face a quandry of what to paint. I'm stuck between Italians, of whom I've been hankering to paint some for a while (especially as I have a ton of surplus French figures!), and Wurttembergers, of which I've bought the HaT set recently and look forward to painting as the 1st non-Peninsular War army in my collection.

What should I paint, dear readers? Italians or Wurttembergers? (leave comments, or vote in the poll!)

Wagram Command & Artillery WIP

More command figures for Wagram, this time divisional generals. To add a bit of variation, I've indulged in a bit of head swapping. The figures are from Italeri's French Imperial Command set and there's also a couple of figures from Waterloo 1815's Napoleonic Command set.

Also pictured is the first ADC mounted on his steed, ready for basing and varnishing.

Italeri figure with HaT chasseur head. This figure would probably suit a Chef de Batallion or Colonel, or at most a brigade general, but I decided on the conversion to add a little variation.

Waterloo 1815 Nassau general with Italeri head-swap to create another French general

Another Waterloo 1815 figure, again probably better suited to a regimental or brigade command

Original, unconverted, Italeri figure. Same pose as the 1st figure.

Another original, unconverted, Italeri figure.

The poor, brave, wounded ADC and his trusty steed.

My Wagram command also includes a couple of batteries of horse guns and a few more foot batteries. Below is my beginnings of the horse batteries using Italeri's French horse guns set with head conversions using Zvezda heads again.The original figures are wearing colpacks which suggests Guard artillery rather than line. I've done the head swaps to try to indicate line artillery, although they do still seem rather dandified wearing tight breeches and pelisses.

Book Review - True Soldier Gentlemen

A bit of fiction on the Rosbif bedside table. That's a first! (Actually, the last book I read was also fiction - the latest by Russian author, Boris Akunin, but as it doesn't fall within the purview of this blog, I didn't review it. Highly recommended, though!)

Adrian Goldsworthy is better known for his non-fiction histories of the Roman Empire. This is his first venture into fiction and I found I enjoyed it a lot, despite some minor reservations.

Historical fiction set in the armies of the Napoleonic period has left me cold after trying to read the Sharpe series (can any character be so 2 dimensionally heroic, while all other British officers are incompetent fops and Frenchmen impossibly evil?). I enjoyed Allan Mallinson's Hervey books, but they mainly took place in the period immediately after the Napoleonic Wars. Then of course, there are all the naval novels like Hornblower and the Aubrey/Maturin series and all their imitators, which I've enjoyed immensely. But the army-based novels of the period that I have enjoyed have been few.

The book is written in 2 parts; the first concentrates on the officers of the fictional 106th (Glamorganshire) Regiment of Foot in their preparation for war during the period immediately before the expedition to the Iberian Peninsula, while the second takes place in Portugal where the characters find out what they're made of as they enter battle for the first time.

A lot of the book is spent establishing characters and the world they live in, with a lot of descriptions of training and barracks life. There is a brief interlude of Austen-ish manners and feminine charm with the introduction of the Captain's wife and daughter, and the establishment of rivalries and enmities that drive the narrative and look like continuing in further volumes of the series.

The battle scenes are described with brutal honesty, with the descriptions of waiting for a French artillery volley particularly gripping. The way the author describes the battles runs the gamut from the macro- to the micro-view; from the generals on both sides down to the British subaltern characters. I'm not sure if this works very well, as I'm never very happy when real life personalities are given the fictional treatment, but that's my personal taste.

The weakest part of the story, in my view, was the minor plot line of a vicious Russian (yes, Russian!)officer, who was out to regain his fortune that he'd gambled away in St. Petersburg, by snatching a treasure hoard that he'd found out about from the Portuguese whore with the heart of gold whom the British subalterns had sworn to protect and to reclaim the treasure for. The Russian was supposedly the Tsar's liaison between the French army and the Russian fleet, but did precious little except twirl his moustache and torture Portuguese. That he got his come-uppance so quickly left me thinking that surely there could have been a better plot device than him.

The strength of the book is the description of the world of the British Army subaltern and the battles they fought in, rather than characterisation. Hopefully the following volumes of the series will have more character development with the surviving characters becoming more rounded and believable figures and the plot a little more credible. Possibly the sheer number of characters in this book led to the dilution of characterisation. The next installment is called Beat the Drums Slowly and is set during the Retreat to Corunna. The main characters seem to be the newly minted Ensign Williams, who has risen from being a gentleman volunteer to subaltern in the aftermath of the Battles of Rolica and Vimiero, and his love interest, the Major's (previously Captain's) daughter, Jane McAndrews.

I'll be coming back for the next installment, so stay tuned for the review. Hopefully it'll be in Rosbif's Christmas stocking this year!

Oh, the silliness starts!

In response to my last post regarding the French advantage in command and control, namely we have 4 messengers to the Austrian 1, Archduke Charles (aka John R.) sent me this response by email:

"Dear Beefy Boy,

I do like the messengers shown on your blog. My snipers will be given pictures of them for recognition. So thank you.
However, dear Froggy player. I would like to point out about our special messenger.We have 1 but he is VERY quick and uses sound communiques. See the picture attached."

WTF???

I responded thus:

"Sacre bleu et zut alor, Sir!

I knew that your empire included some barely civilised specimens of humanity, especially on your eastern borders, but recruiting half-naked, blue skinned savages is quite beyond the pale!

I see no shafts for the horses to pull the very odd carriage he is standing on.  Could it perhaps be a stationary platform that is wheeled into position and then left  for the duration of battle, for the savage to send his drum messages over the heads of your army? If so, sir, consider him a prime target of our artillery!

Your servant etc.etc.

Msr.le Rosbif et Jean le Frog"

(apologies to my eastern European readers; I was not actually comparing you to Smurfs! :-D)

French ADCs

Just a few things left for the January Wagram 1809 game. I need to paint up a few more command stands and several more artillery batteries, both horse and foot.

Part of the game is the need for messengers to relay orders. The French have a much more efficient Command and Control system than the Austrians, so we get 4 messengers per commander, whereas the Austrians get only 1.

So far I have painted up only the messengers, using Italeri figures from the French Imperial Command set with head conversions using the wounded head and the shako rondeau from Lancier Bleu and the shako with cords and plumes from the artillery train figure from the Zvezda foot artillery pack.