The Last Huzzah - October 13th

[Mike the Pike]

Environment be damned, I'm glad I was driving a two ton car with huge chunky tires. In other words, I got home safely despite the best intentions of Madame Vongfong.

As for the today's game, it was great fun getting all those painted troops down on the table and bashing the hell out of each other. My Russians played very much to type, taking appalling casualties while standing firm, at least until our gallant British Allies could roll up the French flank.

Cheers to Prim for organizing things as usual.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Lots of fun.

[YellowStreak]

Anyone get any photos?

[job]

Ask, and you shall receive.

The Wars of the Franco-Austrian Alliance and the Anglo-Russian Coalition.

The Battle of the East Abbey

Franco-Austrian Alliance Order of Battle
CiC General Hercule Lafayette

Austrian Army of General Komura

1st Line Brigade
1st Hungarian Fusiliers
2nd Hungarian Fusiliers
3rd Hungarian Fusiliers

2nd Line Brigade
1st German Fusiliers
2nd German Fusiliers
3rd German Fusiliers

Grenadier Brigade
1st Hungarian Grenadiers
2nd Hungarian Grenadiers
1st German Grenadiers
2nd German Grenadiers


French Army of Hercule Lafayette

Division de General Robert Malchance

Brigade de Friant
15th Legere
33rd Ligne
48th Ligne
Battalion of Combined Voltiguers

Brigade de Feraud
1st Suisse
108th Ligne
24th Legere

Guards Divison de General Josef O'Brien

Brigade de Lefevbre
3rd Battalion de Regiment de Fusilier-Grenadiers
3rd Battalion de Regiment de Fusilier=Chasseurs
1st Ligne de Vistule Legion

Brigade de d'Hubert
1er Cuirassier
Lancers de Vistule
7e Hussards
Horse Artillery

Grand Battery de Louis Martel
Line Foot Heavy Artillery battery 12-pounders
Line Foot Artillery battery 6-pounders
Line Foot Artillery battery 6-pounders
Line Foot Artillery battery 6-pounders
Line Foot Artillery battery Howitzers



Order of Battle
CiC General Mikael Alexsley

Russian Army of General Mikael Alexsley

Division of Mikael Pikesky

1st Brigade
1st Battalion Pavlovsk Grenadierskii Polk
1st Battalion Yekaterinoslavskii (Grenadiers)
1st Battalion Yaroslavskii
Foot Battery
Foot Battery
Foot Battery

2nd Brigade
1st Battalion Smolenskii
1st Battalion Kurskii
1st Battalion Leib Grenaderskii polk
Foot Battery
Foot Battery
Foot Battery Howitzers

Calvary Brigade
Leib EGO VELICHESTVA (His Majesty's Life Cuirassier)
Mariupolskii (Hussars)
Horse Battery


British Army of Stuart Wellesley

British Division Order of Battle

1st (Foot) Brigade
4th Regiment of Foot
42nd Regiment of Foot
42nd Gordon Highlanders

2nd (Light) Brigade
51st Light Battalion, 2nd Yorkshire West Riding
52nd Light Battalion, Oxfordshire
95th Light (Rifle) Battalion
35th Regiment of Foot

Artillery Brigade
R.F.A. Bolton, 9 lb.
R.F.A. Lloyd, 9 lb.
R.F.A. Roger, Howitzers
R.H.A. Bull, Horse artillery

6th Calvary Brigade
1st Hussars, King's German Legion
10th Regiment of Hussars, The King's Own
18th (King's Irish) Light Dragoons

A cool Mid-October day dawns to the sound of thousands of men from across the plains, islands and mountains of Europe mustering into battalions and filing out under their commanders onto the central European fields about the East Abbey.

The Russian General Pikesky deployed his battalions south of the woods across the Coalition center and right. British General Wellesley deployed his regiments across the north side of the forest across from the abbey. The Coalition light calvary rode across the open left flank.

The Austrian General Komura ordered Brigades into Brigade Column of lines, deploying his fusilier brigades to the Allied far left flank. General Lafayette ordered Malchance to hold the Allied right opposed to the British and in combination with Gen. Komura's grenadiers, committed Gen. O'Brien's Guards Brigade to attack the Allied center.


The Allied grand battery begins a cannonade of the Coalition center held by the Russian 1st Brigade.


With the Austrian Grendiers leading the attack, the French and Austrians march up the center. In the foreground and southern flank of the battle the cuirassiers fought a battle with French vanquishing their foes but getting hammered by Russian artillery. In the center the 7e Hussards are caught in the open as they attempt to attack the coalition batteries on the ridge. In the far north, General Malchance deploys his battalions into line catching the British hussars in the open.


The Austrian German Brigade deploys before the Russian guns, raking them with volleys. The French horse artillery begin to plow the Russian ranks with grapeshot, but the Russians hold their ground with grit.


The center erupts into pointblank musketry and bayonet fighting as the Austrian Grenadiers charge into the Russian Yekaterinoslavskii battalion and the Polish Vistula Legionnaires' column crash into the Russian musketeers.


The Russian 2nd Brigade steels themselves as they are charged by the two Austrian fusilier Brigades. After a storm of bayonets, and both Austrian brigades break before the wall of Russian steel. The Russians themselves don't waver even as their batteries fall to Austrian Grenadiers diverted from the center and the French horse guns continue to belch iron into their ranks.


The Coalition center breaks. The Polish soldiers drive off the broken Russian battalions of the 1st Brigade and clear the hill of guns and horse. The Middle Guard begin to reform to face the advancing and victorious British.


The British on the northern flank assert their superiority in guns and numbers and drive back General Malchance's outnumbered and outgunned battalions. The Swiss fight a stubborn and disciplined withdraw beside the equally gallant Frenchmen, but the British infantry seize the northern end of the battlefield.

At which point, a storm broke above the battered and bloodied field of war ceasing the hostilities between adversaries.

Taking stock, the Coalition held the center. The Austrian fusiliers had broken, but three grenadiers battalions remained intact. The French Middle Guards remained mostly unscathed, but the Vistula Legion had taken frightful loses carrying the center. The French calvary remained on the field, but limping with causalities in their ranks. The Malchance's division had held the British valiantly, but the entire division was broken.

On the Coalition side, the British infantry remained in good order with exception of a battalion routed by the French Middle Guard. The British horse had been broken, but the Russian hussars continued to support their allies. In the center Russian 1st Brigade had been destroyed, but the gallant 2nd Brigade continued to hold their line on the far southern flank.

The commands on both sides recognized a close Coalition victory. Although the center belonged to the Frano-Austrian forces, the British held the northern half of the field and the Russians hung on to the far Southern end. Furthermore, 4 Frano-Austrian brigades were broken while 2 Anglo-Russian brigades were broken.

[YellowStreak]

Thanks for the batrep. The nicely painted armies all in formation look great!

[Primarch]

Is that how it happened? Well, change "The Frenchmen fought valiantly against the oncoming British" to "The Frenchmen died screaming as the British mercilessly culled them from the battlefield" and you may be getting closer to what was happening on the flank where you hung Admiral Malchance out to dry.
Another turn or two would have been telling I think. Of the French brigade facing me, the Vistulas were shaken and I would only need to shake one of the other two battalions to crack the unit. Except for my one lost battalion, my infantry were generally untouched (My OoB should have both infantry brigades as 4 strong by the way) and my artillery hadn't taken a scratch. While Pikeys central brigade was gone, his flank brigade was also still largely untouched unlike the Austrians battering themselves against it. It would all have come down to Komura's centre brigade and the gun battery parked behind the rock.
Well, that's how things looked from my end of the table anyway.

[ashmie]

Frickin awesome. I'm glad all these epic battles are getting chronicled. Good stuff.

[job]

Is that how it happened? Well, change "The Frenchmen fought valiantly against the oncoming British" to "The Frenchmen died screaming as the British mercilessly culled them from the battlefield" and you may be getting closer to what was happening on the flank where you hung Admiral Malchance out to dry.
Another turn or two would have been telling I think. Of the French brigade facing me, the Vistulas were shaken and I would only need to shake one of the other two battalions to crack the unit. Except for my one lost battalion, my infantry were generally untouched (My OoB should have both infantry brigades as 4 strong by the way) and my artillery hadn't taken a scratch. While Pikeys central brigade was gone, his flank brigade was also still largely untouched unlike the Austrians battering themselves against it. It would all have come down to Komura's centre brigade and the gun battery parked behind the rock.
Well, that's how things looked from my end of the table anyway.

I believe if you ask people who read history about the Battle of Waterloo they'll either tell you "Wellington defeated Napoleon" or "Blucher won the day". There even those who think Napoleon could have won at various points during the 100 days campaign. (And then there are those who lay all the blame on Ney, Grouchy or D'Erlon.)

It was Badruck who said he thought his infantry performed well in their task and withdrew from the field. I think that is fair. It was he who decided to march further right to tie down the British. I thought Badruck did well all things considered. He even broke the British Calvary brigade. Maybe I should have redirected more of my cannon and horse his way, but it was our team plan to defeat the Russians first and then turn on the British. We were just a few rolls away from defeating Pikey, but between dice and a determined effort by Mike, we were entirely foiled and all the more glory at Mike's feet.

I thought it was fun everyone could claim some glory. I thought it was agreed the Coalition won and it was close.

After all, It was Primarch who wrote:

It would have been interesting to see how things went if we had another couple of turns, as the French centre was still pretty strong and would have been a tough proposition for the British to break through to relieve their allies.

It would have been equally difficult, if rather more so, for the French and Austrians to defeat the Russians and British remaining on the field.

[job]

(Oh, as an aside, I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures of the British - French action, but I was mostly rolling dice with Mike and Komura. I really wish I had remembered to snap more pics like of the cuirassier action or the Austrian Russian combat or British hussar and French infantry or the British cannonade in turn 4/5 and with a steadier hand and without my finger in half of the frames. )

[Primarch]

We need a 'tongue in cheek' smiley I think.