Hosted after the two year hiatus, my big summer game of Napoleonics. I use the opportunity to do a scenario outside the era, and have in the past conducted Gettysburg and Antietam among others. This year using the War of Spanish Succession battle of Blenheim fought in 1705. A 'nice' linear battle with large commands enough for the five commands expected. The boys came from four different cities, indeed states, and would travel over 1200 kms to play. My thanks.
So on the Allied side was JamesC coming up from Oregon who was Eugene (using my Prussians), PeterM from Burnaby, who had Cutts' contingent facing Blenheim using my Saxons, and in the middle using Russians, I was a (poor) Marlborough. On the French side was SethT from Seattle as Tallard commanding, well, French; and DavidB from Vancouver Island as the Elector using my Italians and every green-clad cavalry unit.
I will add comments to the photos as expose' to the game.
A couple of early comments. As it was a battle from the Age of Marlborough, it contained much more horse than the usual Napoleonic affair. It brought an interest dynamic to the tactics which everyone enjoyed. Once could use combined arms much more effectively. The horse elements force the infantry into square, the artillery effectively pounds the squares, the infantry now roll over the weakened and out of formation enemy infantry. Attacking becomes more problematic and takes more thought and time. I did neither and so my grand attack, the attack which won Marlborough his fame and naming of a military era, did not occur. However, everyone else fought well.
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| looking from the south (the usual view of the Blenhiem maps) show Oberglau upper left and Blenhiem lower right. The French on the left, Allies on the right across the Nebel River. |
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| part of my contingent starting to cross the waterway |
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| My Saxons under PeterM's careful command. The wagon is that from my Dutch-Belgian contingent and represents his LOC if forced to retreat. The Saxons represent Cutts' mainly British formation of the actual battle going up against the village of Blenheim. |
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| For the Napoleonic Russian fan. The sticks are our measuring devices. |
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| View showing the early deployments. Each infantry stand represents ~2000 infantry, ~1000 horse. We still manage to put the large battle onto a 8 by 6 foot table with room for maneuver. |
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| Seth's dispositions very much replicated the actual deployment by Tallard in 1705. To have some semblance like that of the real battle, the French Victory Conditions were to maintain the villages. Thus they committed a large potion of their infantry to that task as did the French in the historical battle. |
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| A Marlborough, I ain't...... (The Perry representation of the Napoleonic commander Kutusov actually giving an order!) I used my Russians for my command. |
I leave you with a delightful AAR written by JamesC who had to suffer through a two-hour border wait but used the time to compose this wonderful narrative:
"The initial Prussian deployment was based on the feeling that the Franco-Italians would deploy as close as possible. (ed. note: I used a blind to keep the opposition deployments secret for the first time) The four Prussian infantry bases were tasked with crossing the muddy Nebel to capture Oberglau. The cavalry, all 8(!) bases, would swing to the right to hit their flank and also have some Light Horse run deep into the enemy’s rear to capture their LOC. In-between them would sit the paltry Prussian artillery consisting of one foot and one horse artillery bases.
That plan was undone when the screen was removed and Zeithen saw across the stream, in front of the town, was a mass of Italian Heavy Horse. The foot artillery immediately opened up on the enemy horse, causing a hit but also breaking their guns in the process, cutting the units effectiveness in half. The infantry (wisely?) decided that crossing the Nebel and being disordered within charge distance of some angry Italians on large horses would be unglücklich (Ed. unlucky) and held their place. The cavalry started their glorious advance, supported by the Horse Artillery.
The cavalry continued their advance over the next two turns while the foot artillery tried their best to make an impact on the pasta-loving horde. They reduced a base of HC to one pip and promptly decided they had done enough and packed it up for the day. The infantry crossed the stream and immediately found out that was, indeed, a bad idea as the lead left element was charged and pushed back across the river. The other lead element decided to block an HA from going into the Prussian center by moving in and (illegally as it turned out) going into square. The Italians sent a cheeky infantry base in and charged the Horse Artillery making them scramble to the rear.
On the right, the cavalry continued their pursuit of glory, sending some Italian light horse running and making short work of the cheeky infantry base.
Things settled into a bit of a stalemate as the Prussian cavalry was stymied by a screen of infantry in square. The infantry was content not to challenge the Italian HA in front of the town. The Horse Artillery moved up to start blasting the squares and soften them up for a glorious charge. A base of light cavalry was sent around Lutzingen for the Italian LOC.
By turn 10, the Heavies had had enough sitting around and two units hit one square and sent it packing. The same artillery softening followed by a cavalry charge was then done in subsequent turns to the remaining infantry base in square between the two towns.
Some smartly dressed Neopolitans swung around Oberglau to try and hit the Prussian squares. However, they did not count on the infantry across the Nebel doing the very un-Prussian like move of a disorganized charge into their flank. Even though it was an even fight, the sight of a horde of muddy, wet Germanic manhood was enough to make the Neopolitans long for the sight of Vesuvius again and they left the field.
Everything was going Prussia’s way. That was when a unit of Heavies pursued and destroyed some Italian Lights, but exposed themselves to artillery fire and were destroyed. The ensuing morale check on Turn 15 resulted in a Prussian withdrawal to think things over. This ended up being decisive as it meant the Prussian Light Horse was unable to reach the Italian LOC before night fell and hostilities ceased.
While, yes, the Italians did technically hold both towns, they were surrounded by vengeful Prussian horse and a largely intact infantry. Of course, the Prussian morale victory was in a tactical defeat for the Allied Prussian-Russo-Saxon side. As the sun set, all Zeithen could do was throw up his hands and let out an exasperated “Wir haben es versucht.” (Ed. We tried!)"
Again I would like to thank the efforts of everyone to attend.