Ulster Wargames Society - Montmirial with Field Of Battle 3 (who'd of thunk)

Club day and I managed to get Montmirial (scenario stolen from Gonsalvo) to the table with 2 players a side.

Dave T and Jeremy D commanded Napoleons bunch (so so many Guard.......) with Dave B and Tom controlling the Russian and Prussian defenders. 

Muddy conditions saw all artillery firing at Down 1

Allies had 52 units in 3 Russian Corps (2 Infantry and 1 Cavalry with 50 Morale) and a smaller Prussian Corps (1 Foot and 1 Cavalry) of mostly average status (couple of Prussian Grenadiers and heavy Dragoon types). 

French had a mere 38 units (46 Morale) in 3 Corps but with 6 Old Guard foot, 6 Middle Guard Foot, 2 Guard Lancers, 5 Young Guard Cavalry, 4 Old Guard Cavalry with Empress Dragoons in tow, 2 Old Guard artillery and 2 Old Guard Horse Artillery (!!) with support from some Line infantry and Cavalry, a formidable force indeed.

This could easily have been a quick pounding for the Allies up against such Elite French but the initial French assaults by their Guard were easily repulsed (the Guard Cavalry in particular failed to perform as expected) by staunch Russian shooting and bayonet charges.

However Sacken the Russian CinC suffered a bit of rush of blood advancing against the recoiling Guard infantry but failing make any further impression on the Guard.

Indeed having a Divisional Commander fall put his Division into Disorder and of course Napoleon then managed to easily Rally all his Disordered Guards and restore all hits then followed up by several vicious assaults (nice run of Move and Melee cards) against the staggered Russians crushing an entire Division of foot.

Russian reserves held the line but the damage to Army Morale was starting to hurt.

On Russian left their Cavalry Divisions engaged the opposing Guard Cavalry and results were mixed with both sides suffering or being successful in equal measure but with further decrease to Russian Morale.

Prussian on extreme left held their own by forming into squares which the Old Guard cavalry struggled to deal with, at least for a spell.

Russian fortunes took a nose dive (the swing from great to poor results ie dice was stark and swift) however as Guard quality shone through with a couple of Squares routed or destroyed (lowly Landwehr just not up to task) and Prussian cavalry was swept away.

The Guard Infantry proved unbeatable in center and French left as their assaulting columns took both villages (loss of 8 morale to Russians) and thumped opponents.

Again Russian reserves shored up front but Army Morale was now gone.

Russians survived first Army Morale card but things really went to pot for them as they handed their entire Morale pot to French and only lack of Army Morale tests allowed them to remain in action.

We called time as Allies simply no way to recover such grievous loss and victory went to the Emperor.

Another super game with FOB easily handling a fairly large game (90 units) and engaging all players.

It was notable that Russians were vocal early on but got rather quiet as game progressed.....................

 

Rather a lot of pics (as testing new phone camera)

Old Guard Infantry Division initial advance

 

Old Guard Cavalry advance against Prussians

Russian Infantry Divisions await 

French Line Infantry move forward in center

Old Guard Cavalry suffer initial reverses against Prussian squares as Prussian Cavalry arrive

Allied lines hold fast all across the battlefield

Russian Dragoon and Hussars Divisions face French Young Guard mounted force

Prussian cross stream as Old Guard cavalry rout

Things looking poor for French on both wings as central cavalry melee begins (much verbal abuse hurled from Allied lines)

Cavalry engage in center with mixed fortunes for both sides

Emperor surveys from hill alongside his Guard Artllery batteries as Russians on his left advance

Thundering of hooves and clashing of sabers

Russian try to extert pressure on faltering Old Guard

Forces engaged all across the field

French disengage temporarily from Prussians

Before rallying and getting back to it

Central cavalry engagement getting confused and messy with neither side gaining advantage

A major change of fortune for Prussian contingent as revitalised Guard Cavalry push forward 

Old Guard on French left have crushed the advancing Russians and central cavalry melee has started to go way of the French 

Russian lines starting to crumble with numerous Routing or destroyed units

End is nigh for Allies as Army Morale has collapsed (and taunting has hit mute button) 

Also at club

Chain Of Command in 28mm run by Jeremy and engaging several players. Normandy setting I think.

A Battlegroup 20mm game with Dave P and Adam

And a sci-fi (no idea as to system/rules) run by Charlie

L'Art De La Guerre - two games again

LADG at Stephens today.

He wanted to use his Justinian (Belisarius) Byzantines so I brought Avars, so lots of shooters on both sides, and it proved to be a really quick but ding dong battle decided by the loss of 6 of my 7 Light Horse.

We had another game (always a bonus with LADG) and I used Punic Romans against a Gallic force in a much more cagey game but the extra 4 elements Gauls fielded helped them envelope my left wing whilst my right failed to exploit initial advantage they had (I had a stellar set of  combat rolls on one turn but only one turn................).

Apparently a new version of rules in the offing but both unsure what changes are needed or indeed desired ?

Steppe nomads take on the Eastern Romani

Republican Rome faces the 'Barbarian Horde'

Snappy Nappy a little solo outing

Decided to give Snappy Nappy rules a solo outing as not used in a long while.

Random terrain set up and both sides chosen at 300 points from the booklet being French versus Prussians 1813/14 period

Both sides had 4 Infantry and 2 Cavalry Divisions with some Veteran and Guard units.

Very slick game so easy to play and pick up.

Lot of abstraction at its scale (eg no skirmishers) but it works very well.

Only real issue was fully comprehending the meaning of the Orders as to what restrictions say Screen has compared to Probe or Attack, get the feeling these are not that proscriptive in keeping with fast playing nature of system.

Some multiple melee situations also took a bit of sorting but nothing onerous

The Morale system and use of D10 can be brutal (especially with my rolling) but works well and the Sequence of Play is also slick and interactive.

Would love to try one of the multi-table campaigns the system seems to shine with but as a standard 1:1 game its fine especially for grand tactical level.