A few days ago I returned from a lovely vacation in England with my family visiting amusement parks, cities, children attractions, museums, battlefields and other historic sites which I'll post about at later date and of course having an absolute wonderful wargame with Ray from Don't throw a 1 blog fame and his gaming group called Postie's rejects headed of course by Postie himself.
The battlefield as seen from the French left flank with infantry facing off center and left and cavalry off in the distance on the right. Told you it was a huge battle! |
Well I thought we were just going to have an afternoon scrap with a few guys until Ray and Postie guided me into the fabled wargaming shed where I was presented with a massive table packed with 15mm Napoleonic figures! A truly epic sized game with about 3 corps per side which to my understanding is the largest game they have ever put on. The only time I've ever played in games roughly that big were at conventions using 15mm ACW so I felt quite chuffed to say the least to be included in such an epic game. Thanks a lot guys!!
Russians
John - de Tolly
Ray - Tuchkov
Richard - Strogonov
French
Surj - Davout
Myself- Eugene
Ian - Montbrun
Postie- Umpire
Well actually I drew the cavalry, but since I was new to the system(Posties home brew) and do not have a lot of experience playing Naps especially cavalry, but do however in infantry tactics from other horse and musket periods Ian kindly switched with me giving me control of the infantry in the center and himself the cavalry on the flank.
The Scenario
The Battle of Vyazma 31st August 1812
As Ray described in his blog "Napoleon and his Grand Armee are advancing towards Moscow, chasing the Russians. In a change of history, de Tolly has decided to try and halt the French advance, he set up his army to delay the French by the small town Vyazma and waited for the French."
Personally I was very happy the scenario took place in the Russian campaign as that is my favorite of the Napoleonic theaters.
Surj, Ian and myself discussed our strategy after viewing the armies dispositions. Basically the Russians had a relatively strong defensive position commanding a low ridge line with regular infantry holding the center and Grenadiers holding their right flank and a mix of regular and elite cavalry on their left with more heavy then light from what I could tell. Opposing them we had mostly regular infantry on our left and center and a mix of elite and regular cavalry on our right with more light then heavy. It quickly became obvious what our strategy was going to be. We decided to only engage the Grenadiers if we had to by simply doing a slow march towards them. Our cavalry was to stall the other cavalry for as long as possible while the center would advance as quickly as possible thus becoming our focus of attack as we had the numbers there and more equal footing in terms of troop quality. It turns out John, Ray and Richard guessed that we would do exactly that so dice rolls would be really telling on the outcome of the game.
An impressive sight as the Russians Grenadiers can be seen formed up on the hills, but would only see some action since we avoided them as much as possible. |
John's Russian infantry opposite of the Italians with their cavalry chomping at their bits to get at Ian's French to their left. |
Rays Russians enjoying the high ground and basking in the sun confidently holding the center. At this point the drums rolled and the French began their attack. |
YOU DOUBTED ME! Ian gleefully takes a picture with his phone of the destruction he unleashed on John's cavalry. |
Ray and Richard still confident they will win the day as they control the hills. |
Ohhhhh yes! Surj's reaction on seeing the Russians abandoning the hill. |
Richard happy in the knowledge his Grenadiers held up their end and would not be blamed for any failures. |
Cossacks intended for a flank attack should the French move against the Grenadiers never materialized so they spent the game playing go fish. |
Portions of the Russian Grenadiers and what's left of Ray's Russians try to mount a counter attack in the center and do cause some damage. |
No guys the scenario doesn't mention anything about a forth Russian corps entering center field. |
Yes sir that's right I'm now a proud honoury Posties reject!! |
So the Russians did delay the French, but were unable to stop them from advancing on to Borodino. The game was a tactical victory for the French, but strategically is more uncertain as the French were delayed and not able to crush the entire Russian force leaving many to fight another day to include most of the infantry who rather then being cut down had instead fled and a relatively untouched Grenadier force, but the French did badly maul the cavalry and captured several artillery pieces so considerable damage was done.
Plenty of banter, shouts, insults and celebrating your good fortune and your enemy's misfortune in other words a damn good time with gents who just want to have fun! I laughed so hard I thought my ribs would crack. No question if I get another chance to game with them again I'll jump on the chance!
Blogger is really ticking me off lately as my posts for the past few months are delayed for hours. This is beginning to really sap some of the blogging fun folks. Well off to catch up on the blog world and happy gaming everyone and don't forgot to check out Ray's blog for his version of events at Don't throw a 1.
One more thing all the figures are from Postie's collection and believe it or not but he also has drawers full with more!
Looks like you had a very good time!
ReplyDeleteExellent AAR
Thank you and indeed I did!
DeleteChristopher
Wonderful Christopher! Great game and lovely to put a face to the name.
ReplyDeleteThank you and it was a great game! Faces sometimes are not always what you would think sometimes isn't it?
DeleteChristopher
A great, epic game that looks like it was a lot of laughs!
ReplyDeleteThanks it was full of laughs!
DeleteChristopher
Great account of your battlefield exploits! I think it would be real hoot to face off against that batch of funny ne'er do wells.
ReplyDeleteThank you and it was a barrel of laughs. They are indeed a great bunch to game with.
DeleteChristopher
Hell yeah! What a great looking game.
ReplyDeleteThanks and it was!
DeleteChristopher
Sounds and looks like an awesome trip. Many thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks and it was indeed an awesome trip.
DeleteChristopher
Fantastic stuff Christopher. Love the photo of Ray giving his point of view!
ReplyDeleteThank you Rodger and Ray isn't very vague in letting you know what it is!:-)
DeleteChristopher
Excellent write up, sounds like it was a great game. Pity I missed it, it would have been good to meet you over the games table...next time maybe!
ReplyDeleteThank you Lee and it was a really great game! I'm sorry you missed it as I would have liked to have met you and if I get a chance to game again there I hope your able to make it!
DeleteChristopher
A grand report, looks like a splendid game.
ReplyDeleteThank you David it was a splendid game.
DeleteChristopher
Must have been a blast of a day Chris! I'm really a bit jealous, even if I normally don't care about Naps ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks and it was an absolute blast Nick! No question even with Naps you would have enjoyed yourself as the gaming atmosphere is just how we like it. Highly recommend gaming with them if you get the chance Nick.
DeleteChristopher
A great report Chris and I'm very pleased you enjoyed yourself so much. Your welcome back anytime! But you're not allowed to win next time!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ray I did enjoy myself very much and for the invitation back! A truly wonderful day! Not allowing me to win you say? Are you suggesting you will play find some nefarious way to win?? Don't you know resistance is futile! Muuu....hahahahaha.....
DeleteChristopher
There'll be something illegal in your sandwich next time!
DeleteLol! Then I guess we will have to order take out then!
DeleteChristopher
Cool looking event. You must have had a lot of fun there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike it was a whole lot of fun!
DeleteChristopher
Truly EPIC!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter and it was indeed epic!
DeleteChristopher
Glad to hear you had a good time over here Christopher and getting a game in with the rejects had to be the icing on the cake.
DeleteThank you Pat was indeed icing on the cake.
DeleteChristopher