Easter - 1813

For our Easter game we decided to revisit Napoleonic's and the Crusader Publishing Rank & File rules we've not played for a while. The rules are super simple - most things need a "4" with a few modifiers - 1 always fails/misses and 6 always hits/passes.

As we've played a fair bit of Waterloo we opted for 1813 - Austrians / Russians verses French. The scenario was simple , the allies had to capture two forts from the French with both sides feeding in reinforcements during the game. The initial Allied advantage was evens on cavalry and 2-1 on infantry.

The game began with two French brigades guarding the forts and both side's cavalry entering down the roads. In a fairly conventional move both cavalry swept around the flanks and headed towards each other bent of routing the enemy.

Austrian officers scout the French position

The right-hand fort and the inn.

French heavies advance on their left

A mass battle on the French right 

Austrian horse on the French left

Battle was rapidly joined. On the French left they enjoyed the better of the combat, supported by some accurate fire from the fort.  On the French right things were more even with a desperate struggle developing that would last much of the game.

The arm-wrestle continues on the right 

Battle is joined on the left

After 3 moves the Allied reinforcements began to deploy onto the table along with their supporting artillery units. The Austrians were attacking the French's left-hand fort and the Russians the right.

Russian infantry arrive

With the cavalry melee lasting longer than anticipated the Allied infantry hung-back while their artillery began a long-range bombardment that eventually forced the Swiss stationed between the two forts into a series of temporary retreats.
 

View of the Russians from the fort

The Austrians deploy

Russians stalled as the cavalry combat continues

Russians ready to attack

With time beginning to slip away before French relief troops would arrive the Allies finally launched their assault against the forts and the Inn in the centre. The initial attacks were repulsed but pressure was building as Allied reinforcements arrived down the roads.

Austrian assault on the inn stalls

The Russians join the fight 

On the flanks the French were able to push back the Allied horse sufficiently to launch  series of attacks against the assaulting infantry forces. On the right they caught several Russian battalions by surprise and were able to rout them before being pushed-back themselves by freshly arrived Uhlans.

On the left the French attacked uphill against several Austrian columns, and were roundly repulsed. Interestingly in the later Napoleonic period the Austrians adopted tightly-packed columns as a cavalry defensive measure they felt was a effective as the classic Waterloo square, albeit with a lot less firepower.

A bad day for the Russians!

French heavies on the attack again

Russian Uhlans arrive to save the day

As we approached the end-game the allies launched a series of attacks into the forts and the inn. the Austrian attack was stalled be galling fire from the fort and the presence of the French horse. the inn fell to a combined assault from the Austrians and Russians, with the later claiming the prize. The Russian attack reached the fort but they were unable to evict the defenders.    

All ready for the attack on the right-hand fort

Pesky French Dragoons ruin the Russian attack

The white wall on the march

The inn falls to the Russians

    
The game ended with the French holding the forts and the Allies the Inn. The fort on the left was secure but the one of the right was in some danger from the remaining Russians.

So a fun game played out over about 5 hours. Ultimately the French cavalry proved more durable than expected and were a constant thorn in the Allies side, preventing them mounting the kind of meticulously prepared assault they would have liked on the forts.