This (last) evenings game was a Napoleonic era game put on by Mr. John Bertolini. John brought out his beautiful 30mm Russians and French, which are a mix of old Scruby figures and his own castings. I couldn't tell you which is which. Maybe the Horses and the guns are bought while the infantry he modeled and cast himself...? Maybe John will post a comment/reply and set me straight.
The game we used was Ever Victorious Armies published by HLBS Publishing.
The players were Gary, Mr Miller, and myself. Because Mr. Miller is very clever me and Gary ganged up on him because two half-wits makes one full one, right? or do they multiply and make a quarter...?
John gave Gary and I the French. That was a bit of a switch for me because previously I think I have only played the Russians. I'd had a bad day and so I told John I wanted to charge something with cavalry. So he gave me the French.
Gary and I got secret orders in an envelope ( I always like that about John's games). They read as follows:
To French Commander:
The wily Russians have stirred from their winter topor and siezed the Slovenskaya Heights. You must counter-attack. Your forces are arriving from their far flung winter quarters You are the first to arrive accompanied by two regiments of light cavalry. A Brigade of infantry, a battery of artillery, and more cavalry are to follow. From where and when you do not know.
Take the height. Issue a sharp poke in the nose to the Russian Bear!
Tactical Notes
#1 Only troops deployed as skirmishers may pass through the tree lines on the hill.
#2 Cavlary may only access the heights via the old cart route. All other parts are too rough for cavlary.
So gary and I got to start with two regiments of Hussars. I to the ones that looked like faeries in the baby blue uniforms. They smelled prettier.
Mr. Miller had two battalions of infantry and an artilley battery deployed on the table to start. One was on the east side of the hill, the other was below the heights on the south west side. the artillery was set up above them on the heights. Neither were in skirmish order, so my initial inclination was to charge my hussars up to the top of the heights and sit there. Not being in skirmish order it would be difficult for them to maneuver and dislodge me as there was much woods between them and the middle of the hill. Also the gun battery would be on the other side of the church yard and also difficult to maneuver to fire upon me. I was convinced that that would be silly by... well... everyone...
My second inclination was to head straight over the heights and skulk around the rear to cut the troops off from any reinforcements that might arrive. That's what I set up to do.
Gary set up to flanks waaaaaay around the west side of the table.
One the second turn I decided to wheel off to the left and hopefully charge the infantry under the heights. Didn't quite make it. They formed a square and the next turn Russian cavlary arrived anyway so I tore off after them. Yay! Cavalry battle! Never mind that the two of those russian regiments totaled three times my own number....
the next turn we got some reinforcements of our own. A regiment of infantry and an artillery battery. We decided to give me command of the cavalry and Gary took the infantry and guns.
Here's my gay (by that I mean "happy", of course!) looking french horsemen galloping off after some Russian Cavlary that just arrived as reinforcements.
The newly arrived French infantry reinforcements. In the background are the other french light cavlary on their westward flanking maneuver.
I can't remember what happened over on the west side of the table... I think some russian infantry came on right in front of those french cavalry and I tried to run them down and the buggers formed a squared and I bounced...? Then some Russian cavlary came on over there and I might have chased them off but was eventually rode down by their cuirassiers that came on over there..?
I was more excited about the faerie blue boys charging these two regiments of Russian cavlary that vastly out numbered them!
There's Gary's infantry charging down the Russian infantry below the Heights.
Then the second French Regiment of Infantry arrived. As they were over by me I took them over. I formed one battalion up in a skirmish line to hopefully take the heights and the other three in columns to advance rapidly and deal with the Russian infantry that had just arrived opposite and deal with any cavalry I didn't manage to scare off with my hussars.
The big mess in the west. Gary did charge and wipe out one Russian infantry battalion, and later took the guns on the hill.
More of the mess in the west.
More of my Infantry regiment advancing. In the back ground you can see My Hussars chasing off some of the Russians. In the initial contact I charged, his second regiment counter charged my flank. Somehow I managed to scare them off. Must have been the blue. I pursued one, and caused it to ride off the table. I continued my pursuit.
Three French infantrymen on a stand all alone on the left foreground in this picture are all that was left of the first battalion that tried to charge the Russian guns after the Russian guns got to fire case shot at them.
There is a messy cavalry battle going on in the background. I think, at this point, Mr. Millers cuirassiers are in the process of riding down my (originally GAry's) hussars. They pursued throught then into the French Cuirassiers and scatered them to the winds. Again pursuing through into a French infantry battalion which also was scattered. Things started falling apart for Gary at this point. Two Russian battalions carged a French infantry battalion and wiped them out. I think when we called it ther only thing left on the table on the west side of the hill was one French infantry battalion sitting on the west side of the hill (the ones that overran the Russian guns). Facing them were the Russian Cuirassiers, and maybe three Russian Infantry battalions. there were the french guns too, but they were feeling a little vulnerable...
On my side three of my battalions advanced in column, then line, opposite two Russian battalions opposite. Two formed square for a bit as the surviving Russian Cavalry regiment galloped past heading for the French guns to the rear. The infantry had just started giving fire when we called it.
The battalion I deployed as skirmishers had been highly successful however. They dashed across the open in their extended line, charged up the heights and through the woods. They took cover in those woods and brought fire upon the original Russian battalion, that had been parked on the eastern slopes, eventually whittling them down to nothing while suffering only two casualties themselves!
Fun game! Thanks to John for running it and thanks to Mr. MIller and Gary for coming out to play. For the next SHMW Game Night, two weeks from tonight (well... last night...) Gary will be running a WW2 east front scenario.
Feel free to post comments below...
Thanks to John for running the game last night. The scenario was interesting because of the unknown amount and location of the reinforcements that kept popping up on each side! Great AAR and pix as usual Tim.
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