Battle of Eckmuhl, 1809

 Last weekend I made my (roughly) annual visit to Chris G for one of his Napoleonic mega-games. The game was Eckmuhl fought between the Austrians and the French / German allies. In the original battle the Austrians undertook a fighting withdrawal in the face of a determined French attack with the cavalry covering the infatry retreat.

Long shot from the Austrian left

Long shot from my position on the French right

As usual the terrain was to a high standard, as were the 1000's of 18mm on display. Mostly from the collections of Chris and Paul B.  

The game itself was fought over 3 days with day 1 involving lots of setup for the French. The rules are a modified version of  Keith Flint's Honours of War 18th century set.   

In our refight the river proved more of an obstacle than historically and the Austrians deployed well forward, preferring to reinforce this position rather than withdrawing.    

By the end of the game the French had outflanked the Austrian position and threatened the supply lines. Their Bavarian allies had made progress up the table but not as much as historically. On my flank I had to switch my axis of attack due to well placed grand batteries and deal with several fortified villages.       

My high water mark attacking a village about half way up the table

  

5 Parsecs - The Frozen Wastes

The Hermes crews adventures on the frozen moon of Travoris continue with two more missions. 

Mission 5 -  The Rivals

With the number of rivals building-up the Captain took the decision to try and take-out the latest set of rivals, the isolationists of the Travoris Peoples Front. Having previously visited the compound in search of the Ossian Veil Assassins, it was decided to attack the site again. 

Isolationists colony. 

TPF leader waits in ambush

The crew pushed forward while the Isolationists held back in the side streets and tried to outflank the advancing team. As with the last battle they had the services of a Merc to bolster their forces.  

Once in position the Isolationists opened-up and a fierce gun battle ensued. The better trained Hermes crew got the better of the locals but at the cost of  two crew wounded.  Harlan's wounds proved serious and he would be out of action for two turns.    

TPF's hired gun adopts a sniping position

The crew cleared the site but the leader escaped to fight on. Despite the win the Isolationists were not eliminated as Rivals, so will need to be revisited.   

Mission 6 - Foiled!

For this campaign I'm using the  Story Mode option which means that at regular intervals a series of overarching narrative scenarios are inserted. Mission 6 was one of those - the crew were asked to meet a potential Corporate Patron at a discrete station.   

The ambush site

It was an ambush with some Hired Guns waiting for thew crew to arrive.  

Hired Guns

This led to a short-range shoot-out between the crew and hired guns. The outcome was very much in the crews favour with the Hired Guns eliminated within 3 turns with some stuns but no wounds to the Hermes crew.    

Hired Guns leader advances

The crew were then able to search the site for clues, but none were found. So the identify of the figure behind the ambush remained unknown.     

Trusty droid PDP-11 searches the site

      

Half a league onwards - cavalry actions for LaSalle

For our penultimate set of LaSalle games we did some cavalry only actions. The setup was pretty simple - each side an objective to defend on their left flank (their camp) and there was one in the centre to try and capture.

Game 1 - French vs Austrians

Both sides setup to attack the enemies camp and contest the central objective, but with the French placing more emphasis on attacking the centre at the cost of a weaker defence of their camp.   

Austrian's defending the camp

French attacking towards the Austrian flank

Austrian Cuirassier

French Lancers

The Austrians attacked directly towards the French camp while the French looked to move into a flanking position on the Austrian camp, at the cost of additional momentum.  

Early wins went to the Austrians as they drove-off the French guns and destroyed one of the heavy cavalry defending the French camp. The French were able to strike back by capturing the central objective and destroying some Austrian lights.      

French dominate the centre

Both sides were able to capture the enemies camp but the French had a firm grip on the central objective and so won French win, 2-1.   

Austrian Hussars

Game 2 - French vs Russians

In this game both sides deployed fairly evenly across the board with the French guns starting limbered to support the attack. 

French cavalry moving forward

Russian heavies 

I was not playing this the game but it seemed fairly dynamic with swirling melee developing in the centre as both sides seeking to find vulnerable flanks to attack. 

Both sides lights manoeuvre for position

Russian Hussars

Russian Dragoons

The Russians got the upper hand with the French sustaining the heavier losses and eventually surrendering the field for a Russian Win.   

French lights face-off against the Russians