Drowning in Conscripts

My Napoleonic armies are growing at a satisfying pace, so it's time to fight a battle.

The French
General La Porte, CnC 100pts
General Le Blanc, general Le Jeune: 80 pts

General Le Blancs brigade:
3 Line Battalions 177 pts
2 Bavarian Battalions 136 pts

General Le Jeunes brigade:
4 Conscript battalions 180 pts

Generals Porte and LeBlanc are bold, Le Jeune is cautious

673 pts

LeBlancs line troops on the left, LeJeunes conscripts on the right.

The Prussians

CnC General Heinz 100 pts
Generals Verbot and Weir - 100pts

Verbots brigade
4 Musketeer battalions 272 pts
2 six pounder cannons 90 pts

Weir's brigade
9 Cuirassiers 90 pts

652 pts

All generals cautious.

Prussian Cuirassiers, 2 six pounders, 4 battalions of line. The six pounders scored
a total of only 2 hits all game - time to cane those guys!

The French advance right across the field, sending skirmishers ahead.

A cuirassier charge sends the conscripts in on the left fleeing (later rallied), but their charge is stopped
by a hastily formed square. Although I notice some of these poorly trained troops
are facing the wrong direction!

A sneaky battalion attempts to take the prussians in the rear.

This time the conscripts in the foreground flee the cuirassiers charge, but
another square stymies the cavalry again. Meanwhile they are taking musket fire.

Cuirassiers shot at from three sides - wiped out by shooting.

A book of army lists from the 80's. It made my troop organizations more fun.

While the cuirassiers were getting shot up, two prussian battalions rout after
musket fire from regulars, and one cannon has been removed. One battalion was rallied.

The two battalions in the lower left corner are all that remain of the Prussians.

The French conscripts destroyed the Prussian cavalry. In the centre regulars from both sides gave as well as they got. The Prussians did well on their left, but only destroyed two bavarian battalions and it wasn't enough. French win 344-316. A close battle, a four percent difference from the starting strengths. Neat! Better luck next time Heinz, and maybe train some new artillery crews as well.

Thanks for reading!

Prussia vs. France and her Bavarian Buddies

Time for another game of WRG napoleonics.

France
CnC: General Pierre, cautious
Two battalions of 1000 light infantry each
Two Bavarian battalions of 600 men and one of 400 men.
468 points

Prussia
CnC: General Heinz, bold
3 Battalions of 800 men and one of 400 men.
Two 6 pounder cannons
414 points

I used random deployment once more. The 800 man Bavarians and a full sized battalion of Prussians ended up in reserve.

Prussians.

French and bavarians. The French on the right flank are skirmishing to run through the woods.

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise...

The Prussians deployed mostly on the left flank, and wheel to face the enemy. A cannon
is exposed and alone in the distance. The foreground Prussians took a long time to get into the fight.

The French skirmish line tries to charge the lone cannon...but are flank charged by
Prussians, breaking them. They fled for several turns.

The Prussians reserves randomly arrive in the perfect spot - A French columns flank! They
wanted to charge but a french column is too intimidating, even when flanked. Instead they deploy into line.

Not to be outdone, the Bavarian reserves arrive as well...far out of the way in the left
background. After a few turns of double time they begin to fight.

The Prussian reserves trade fire with French and Bavarians.

General Pierre rallies the French battalion. Not good for the Prussians.

The Prussian semi-circle - the left, centre and rightmost units, begin to bend...

And the Bavarians charge their unsteady enemy, breaking the line and taking 600 prisoners. I called it a day.

So the French win, thanks in part to their Bavarian allies.

My longest game yet. Fun. Getting to know the rules better. It's nice when a mass-combat game lasts long enough to be satisfying, even though I only had a few units. Phil Barker recommends playing with armies two to three times bigger, but those would hours long affairs. Maybe someday, when I have more figures.

Thanks for reading!

WRG 1685-1845

I recently picked up a bunch of Hat Industrie's 28mm hard plastic napoleonic figures. I really like painting the figures and they're very easy to assemble, most coming in just two pieces. And they're very cheap! I've also painted up a few Perry napoleonics, and now I have enough french, bavarians and prussians for small games. I decided to try wrg's rules for the period, because they're free, and also because it's a system where each figure counts. Each figure stands for 50 infantry, so you know how many guys are getting killed with each volley. I was initially disappointed that unlike most older wrg games there's no individual tracking of causalties, but you can't have everything. I still prefer this system to more abstract rules where everything is done by base with no real troop scale at all.

France
2 Battalions, each of 1000 Light Infantry Voltigeurs.
1 allied bavarian battalion of 600 line infantry

Bavarians on the left, then two French battalions. General Pierre in back.

Prussia
3 battalions of 800 line infantry each
2 six-pounder cannons

General Heinz in the back, cannons on the right. One unit of prussians was left
in reserve.

I used random deployment, an idea I got from The Solowargaming Guide, a great book by William Sylvester.

The lines advance. There's not enough room for everyone to deploy into line.

The shooting starts. The bavarians in the left foreground get hit by canister.

The french charge and break a prussian battalion, while the prussians in reserve arrive and march to the sound of
the guns.

A mixed up melee at the end, game called due to time. At the far end the french
and prussian reserves are firing into each other. The cannons have turned to face the
french. The bavarians have all been slain by a prussian charge.

Final score was French 318 Prussia 281. This set has a clever rule where you can surrender troops at any time, and still get more points for them than if you let them all die. Prussia preserved some points from surrendering their broken battalion, rather than letting it get destroyed in rout.

I had fun with both my new figures and my new game. Thanks for reading!