The Battle of Est L'église
On Saturday the 2nd of February Battle was joined between forces of the Anglo-French Alliance and the 6th Coalition of Austria, Russia and Prussia.
Sadly casualties were reported even before battle got underway. The Prussian general Von Laycock was stricken by some foul pox and so would be absent from the following battle. Feeling confident, the forces of Russia and Austria marched on. They would find their foes awaiting them on the field.
The commanders of the 6th Coalition
From left to right: Mike the Pike, Soga san, Komura san.
And their forces
They would find their foes awaiting them on the field.
The commanders of the Anglo-French Alliance
From left to right: Kojibear, Job, Prim
And the noble warriors under their command
The battlefield was 12' by 6', quite a span. Each building would be worth 3 Victory Points to the side which garrisoned it. Each regiment routed from the field would be worth 1 Victory Point.
In total the forces for each sides were:
6th Coalition
6 Brigades consisting of:
6 Regiments of Austrian Infantry
7 Regiments of Russian Infantry
3 Russian Guns
2 Regiments of Russian Artillery
Anglo-French
5 Brigades consisting of:
6 Regiments of British Infantry
4 Regiments of French Infantry
4 British Guns
2 French Guns
1 Regiment of British Cavalry
1 Regiment of French Cavalry
The Coalition had the advantage of greater numbers, whilst the Alliance had more cannons behind them. We made all the Austrians Crack and all of the Russian infantry were steady which meant that the Coalition forces could take a lot of punishment. The French and British took their rules from Albion Triumphant for the most part. Given the solid body of men the Coalition had to throw at the Allies, the Alliance started off a little closer to the objectives, expecting to be pushed back by the Coalition assault.
The Alliance deployed in columns with the French taking the right flank and the British infantry on the left. The light and artillery brigades took the centre with the cavalry brigade in support.
Meanwhile the Coalition deployed in a similar pattern on the far side of the field.
Turns 1, 2 and 3 were mainly just manouvering and bringing units to the centre of the table.
One of the Russian cavalry regiments, some Hussars pushed forward ahead of the infantry, obviously eager to fight.
Seeing their opportunity the French Cuirassiers lept on the unsuspecting Russians and a melee ensued. The British Hussars were also ordered to engage but failed to do much more than stand around looking overdressed (which is all they did for the entire battle).
The Hussars were outmatched by the heavy cavalry and despite a brave effort were driven from the field. This left the advancing Austrian units behind them startled and the Cuirassiers charged on and into the Austrians who barely held their formation as they were sabred by the angry French.
Seeing the danger of the cavalry on their flank the Russians threw a great weight of men forward in support, whilst the 2nd regiment of Austrians behind those being engaged formed a hasty square.
Luckily the combat ended with a tie and the horsemen were forced to withdraw. The combat left both sides shaken, and effectively ended the Cuirassiers involvement in the game.
Meanwhile, on the other flank the Russians advanced unopposed, taking the Church of Est L'église and it's nearby graveyard before moving forward to engage the enraged locals.
In the centre the Light Brigade stormed forwards to take the central house, the 52nd taking the building whilst the 95th skirmished outside. A company of the 51st had meanwhile taken control of the building now in the allied rear where they sat down for a well earned rest and cup of tea.
As the British formed lines, their artillery started to deploy to threaten the Coalition advance.
Now that the two armies were starting to close with each other, the Austrians advanced in the face of the British skirmishers and despite one regiment being disordered, a second regiment managed to lay a considerable weight of fire into the Greenjackets, disordering them, whilst the Russians started to close on the British lines on the left flank.
At this stage in the game, the British decided to throw their lines forward to engage the Russians at close range with musketry before giving them 3 cheers and a bayonet charge. The result... almost no movement in the Allied turn as commander after commander spectacularly failed to issue any orders.
With the elite Riflemen of the 95th having shaken off their disorder during the allied turn the Austrians decided to charge the irritating light bobs, only to have them skillfully evade to their rear, leaving the Austrians out in front of the entire British line. On the left, the Russians advanced as well to go toe to toe with the infamous redcoats and their two deep firing lines. On the right, the other Russian infantry brigade tried to push the French out of the way with weight of numbers. In a display of poor marksmanship the like of which has never been seen, every single Russian unit on the right failed to hit. Obviously the peasants had got hold of some Vodka from somewhere and started passing it around. It was around this time that the Austrian General Komura san had to leave for another engagement, luckily General Ikeda san was available to take over command of the Austrian forces.
In moving forwards so aggressively the Russians had left their flanks wide open and the Voltiguers pounced on the enemy line, enfilading them and driving them from the field.
The British infantry managed to edge forward a little, bringing more guns to bear on the Russians, including the battery attached to the Light brigade.
From the start of the game, the allied generals had been worried that it would be difficult to break the enemy force. Their steady and crack rules granting bonuses to morale tests and saving throws were expected to keep the eastern european forces on the field and fighting fit for quite some time. What actually happened though was that the Austrians failed every single one of their tests for the Crack rule whilst the Russians used their Steady rule for their first morale test and then promptly rolled abysmally for their following test. Luckily their generals weren't too upset about it. (Must have been at the Vodka too?)
Ikeda san and Soga san mid-game.
Things were beginning to look grim as the British took severe casualties up and down their lines (the French had barely been scratched by this point). The Russians seemed to have endless waves of men to throw forward and promptly did so. A charge by the Russian heavy cavalry forced the 35th into square, leaving them at the mercy of the Russian guns.
On the right, the French continued to punish the Russian invaders, driving them back the way they had come.
The Russians had given the British lines a thorough battering with their muskets and nearby horse artillery, but the brave redcoats stood their ground.
The British artillery spat cannister and shrapnel rounds into the Russian Grenadiers and sent them packing, giving the infantry space to breathe.
With their available reserves depleting quickly, the Austrians and Russians pushed towards the centre, hoping to throw the British lines back and threaten the French working over their flank.
The Allied forces stood their ground and gave back everything they go in equal measure, the smoke from the powder obscuring the ground between the two forces.
The French at this stage had successfully turned the Russian flank, driving off one brigade and working on a second. The poor morale and poor shooting had left the Frenchmen virtually unscathed throughout the battle.
In one last desperate push the coalition threw everything they had into the centre, but alas couldn't break the 35th as they were huddled up tight in their square.
With a final volley from the 95th, the Austrian troops cracked and another regiment fled the table, leaving the Austrian brigade well and truly broken.
As night was closing in and the Coalition forces had been badly mauled, their generals decided to sue for peace. The whole battle had been a damned nice thing, the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.
At the end of the battle, the Coalition had lost 6 full regiments with several more shaken and no more reserves to send in. The British line was looking little better, with three regiments clinging on tenaciously due to being in a square or inside a building. The French came through the entire battle in almost pristine condition, the musketry of the Russian infantry proving to be terribly unreliable. This had been the first game for 2 of our players and of the rest, 2 had only played one quick demo game. I think this showed through in a couple of ways. The Allies, with more experienced commanders overall did a better job of keeping their line stable whilst protecting their flanks. The newer coalition officers pushed ahead regardless and were chopped down piecemeal by enfilades and supported assaults. The cavalry on both sides didn't do very much apart from the one charge early in the game. The battle quickly devolved into a massive brawl in the centre. In future I think we will arrange the table so that the game is played across a much wider frontage, allowing for outflanking and more manouvering. Throughout the game the Coalition had terrible rolls for their morale tests with units fleeing every turn towards the end of the game. The Allied side suffered from poor command rolls, but as they didn't need to move around a lot from the mid-game onwards this became less of an issue.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450
Regrettably I have a high fever today. 37.8. Many of my schools are down with influenza. It's probably best I sit this one out. I'm really disappointed and gutted about this as I was looking forward to playing a huge battle finally. Apologies to Prim and the guys.
