For this year's Easter game I decided to experiment and use AI (MS Co-pilot) to suggest a scenario for the French and Austrians. It spat-out a scenario I identified as the Battle of Raab (1809), which I reset for 1812 and added the Russians to reflect the figures available.
In this game the French are on the attack. The Farm counts as hard cover with an additional -1 for the attackers in melee as it was fortified. Artillery can only cross the river on bridges and cavalry on the narrow section. The river is rough terrain and strips chargers of their bonus. We used a 5 foot deep table with the defenders up to half way (the river line) and the attackers 10" in.
Both sides began with 3 Infantry Divisions (2 brigades) and 1 Cavalry Division (2 brigades) plus a few supporting units. About half the defenders were rated Inferior to represent the Landwehr (Russian figs). The attackers had a sprinkling of Veterans. We counted the village and cross roads as "2 skills" and the farm as "3 kills" for morale.
The Allies deployed with both Russian divisions and the reserve artillery to the west of the farm. This left the Austrians more thinly spread as they covered the farm and the rest of the field. The French focused 2 Divisions at the farm with the third to their west covering the Russians, hoping they would be drawn into the centre and leave the village exposed. The French horse deployed opposite the Austrians.
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| Russians in the west |
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| Central Russian units |
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| Austrian horse |
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| Austrians covering the farm |
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| The farm |
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| French 3rd division |
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| French 2nd divsion |
The French began the game by advancing towards the Farm with their flanks covered by the horse and third division. They opened up with the grand battery and began to wear down the Farm's defenders.
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| French first division with bonus Swedes |
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| Swedes attack across the river |
Seeing that the Austrian cavalry were not looking to block the river crossing, the French horse crossed on a turn the Austrians moved first. The heavies inspirational commander enabled them to cross and charge in a single turn, thus negating the disadvantage of the crossing. They ploughed into the Austrians and pushed them back across the line.
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| Massed cavalry attack by the French |
Centrally the Russians advanced to the river and with support from their guns did heavy damage to the French 2nd division. This was further compounded when some Russian Cuirassiers charged over the bridge and skittled through several units before being routed deep in enemy territory.
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| Russians advance in the centre |
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| French 3rd division makes it to the river |
After lunch the French reinforcements arrived to stabilise 2nd Divisions position. By now the French cavalry had cleared their opponents and taken the crossroads in the east.
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| French clear the farm's protection |
The game ended in Turn 9 with the Allied forces hitting 50% after the sudden collapse of the Russian central position and attrition on the Austrians. We managed 9 turns of play over about 4.5 hours gaming with 7 players. The Farm remained in Austrian hands through-out the game.
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| The French are close to victory |
Great game Stu. On a personal note, I thought John made a mistake in trying to attack my division, especially with some of his troops being inferior. He did very well, but I think hanging back might have worked better, preserving his force and defending the objectives.
ReplyDeleteI think they may have forgotten at one point it was about kills and the objectives just count as additional routed units. It would make most sense to attack if you wanted to trade dead for space.
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