FRW Campaign. Breakout from Courtrai, part 1

The French on full alert and ready to counter attack.

Following on from the previous post here, the Austrians are trying to escape their encirclement within the city of Courtrai and have broken out on the left (North) bank of the Lys. By pure happenstance this sector was the weakest of the French besiegers, but the French sentries had been very alert and as a result all their troops were 'stood to' and ready to counter attack. The game ended up being another played down the length of the table, but nobody could complain (not that they would) as the scenario was one of the players' making. So, Colberg (Conrad), Clerfeyt (Paul) and von Klopff (Dave) were pitted against Shaun (Souham), Steve (Pichegru) and Richard (Jourdan). The characters Pichegru and Jourdan were elsewhere so Steve took MacDonald's brigade and Richard the Poles ( to my knowledge there wasn’t a Polish unit in the Armee du Nord but I had my Legion for the Italian campaign so just had to use them) and Bernadotte's elite Legere demi-brigade. I will try and let the photos (click on them to embiggen) and a brief commentary explain how things unfolded. The game started at 5.30 so the first two moves would be played in the gloomy light of dawn before sunrise at 6.30. During this time no close-up cameras were permitted. At 7am however the French launched their balloon and soon gained total air superiority (whatever that means).

The Austrians launched their cheveau legers towards MacDonald's brigade, forcing the two leading units into squares. The Austrians bounced.

MacDonald pushed his dragoons through to counter the Austrian threat, driving one regiment back in disarray but not without loosing heavily.

As it says, the Austrian Staff observing the battle atop the battlements of Courtrai.

The Austrian line holding a hedgerow against the French attack. Some of the units are a little flaky, being either recruits or still carrying losses from earlier encounters with the French.

Souham leading the army reserve forwards, a little slowly at times thanks to a perceived lack of enthusiasm among the army's elite.

Colonel Bernadotte as he was then advanced his three light battalions towards the enemy, but similar to Souham, experienced a few failed activation rolls early on.

Colberg brought on his reserve heavy cavalry, cuirassiers and uhlans. This brigade would be a serious threat to the French.

Now his cavalry reserve were on the table, Colberg decides to do a quick check on the 'Military Chest' to ensure nobody (but him, allegedly) has dipped their fingers in!

The Austrian cuirassier and uhlans ride past a bunch of cabbages. No, not the officers on the city walls!!!!

Dave in his GM von Klopff persona led the reconstituted and weakened grenadiers straight towards the Inglemunster road.

A battalion of Austrians (IR Graf Michael Wallis) collapse in the face of French artillery and skirmish fire. 

Bernadotte's light infantry remained in column in the face of Austrian artillery and  reached the ruins of a suburb demolished prior to the siege. One battalion took escaped taking heavy losses from the Austrian artillery thanks to some pretty poor shooting.

The grenadier brigade included two companies of artillery that could have been utilised elsewhere perhaps?

MacDonalds leading battalions redeployed into line and were pushing forward relentlessly. The Austrian Cheveau Legere were trying to pull out of danger as they had suffered high casualties from enemy fire and the earlier melee with the French dragoons.

Bernadotte's light battalions were now very exposed. Two battalions formed square and the other charged the Austrian artillery but failed and were forced to retreat.

The Austrian line facing the French onslaught. Would they hold? The Aerostatier Corps balloon can be seen in the background.

Another battalion of Austrians (IR Erzherzog Ferdinand) is routed after a vicious French bayonet charge. The  brigade is now faltering (for the second time actually. They survived the first time they had to test).  If they don't hold it could see the collapse of the Austrian right wing.

The Austrian supplies. Officers had been ordered to limit their baggage to no less than two carts and a dozen mules each. The other key baggage was the army war chest, and ammunition and all the stuff necessary to keep the artillery and wagons on the road. 

The leading and severely battered Polish battalion can be seen crossing the hedge into a gap in the Austrian line. 

The battle from the viewpoint of Richard (Jourdan/Bernadotte).

By 4pm we decided to halt proceedings (well I was knackered) and reconvene next Saturday to finish the game.  The game was very much in the balance as if the Austrians could make good use of their almost total cavalry superiority they would almost certainly give the French a drubbing and escape. But we will all have to wait. Casualties have been very high among units of both sides so it will be interesting to see how these much-weakened battalions and regiments impact on the end result. We used General d'Armée again and although I'm sure we did a few things incorrectly they worked well and we managed eight action packed moves.

One thing about facilitating a game by Skype is that the facilitator/umpire has to move ALL the troops, do ALL the measuring and do a great deal of talking and walking around the table. Next time I'm going to set my pedometer to see how far I walked. Walking of course is a killer for me and by lunchtime I was knackered. Talking about it over lunch with Katherine and Steve (and afterwards with everyone else) I now have volunteers willing to take it in turns to come to help move the troops which will be a massive help and I'm very touched by the offers to help.

For once the technology didn't fail us. One fixed camera/iPad went off about half way through, but the main fixed camera and the roving iPad kept going throughout. We have a second phone line into the house now as the original one was on overload trying to cope with three laptops, two tablets, three phones, Sky tv, the house alarm, 'ring' door bell, Alexa and security cameras. A bit of juggling and everything has since worked so much better.

Thanks to everyone for playing the game which I believe was enjoyed by all, and again thanks for the offers of some socially distanced help for future games.

I think I'm playing in a late Victorian era naval game via Skype on Thursday, then roll on Saturday! Once this game is over we already have another possible battle situation to resolve. Its certainly heating up quickly!

Back to the French Revolutionary Wars War campaign

The FRW campaign has still been moving on in the background over the past few weeks and it is now dawn on 14 September 1793.  Some of what follows is going to be news to both sides but a little 'soft' intelligence will do no harm.

The Austrians find themselves shut inside the city of Courtrai. Their commander the Prinz Von Saxe-Coberg-Saalfeld (Conrad) had plans for a breakout urged on by his Chief of Staff Colonel Mack ( some irony there) and endured several days under siege as after the French crushing victory almost a week earlier Houchard had manoeuvred the almost the entire Armee du Nord to surround the city. Siege operations were commenced against the city on the right bank of the Lys, with a bridge of boats (two bridges actually as they put to use the captured Austrian one as well) connecting each side of the river. On the left bank the French sought only to blockade the city as resources did not permit entrenchment to be prepared there as well on the right bank. They had to make do with two artillery redoubts  and a few unconnected and incomplete entrenchments and wolf pits.

It was long suspected that a Prussian force had moved into the area of operations around  Tournai/Conde and cavalry patrols had reported contact with a Prussian cavalry brigade two days prior to this battle on 12 September.  Almost half the army, under Pichegru and accompanied by Jourdan, marched South to intercept the expected Prussian relief column coming from Tournai. Houchard, Souham and Duquesnoy remained, and a new battery established in an undemolished suburb some 300 yards South of the city was ready to begin firing. This move coincided with the date of the Austrian attempted breakout. This was pure chance and I had to smile at the way things were playing out, as the Austrians were stronger against the French on either side of the river but not both and therefore might have a chance to do the French some damage, and escape the siege of course.

Before dawn on 14 September the Austrians moved out of the city towards the Inglemunster road on the left bank of the river. French sentries were very alert and reported the danger but underestimated the size of the force attacking them. So, an hour after departing the Austrians, had against orders, secured the redoubt covering the road to Inglemunster and driven off the pickets. The French division  on that side of the river under Gen Duquesnoy was by now however on full alert and had ‘stood too’ very quickly, so at 5.30am was ready to counterattack.

Two photos of the table on turn zero. The top one is taken from the Austrian perspective (story about the camera holder getting in the way), the other from the French. Courtrai is represented by the Vauban style works on the edge of the table.

The Austrians would have complete superiority in cavalry and artillery but the infantry were more evenly matched in numbers if not quality. Many units were carrying casualties from earlier battles and had been unable so far to recoup many of these losses other than the drastic means of  merging two-battalion regiments into a single battalion and stripping out troops to rebuild the shattered grenadiers. This was also true for the French as well of course.

The Austrians forgot to order their 6th Infantry Brigade to join the breakout so their entry would be much delayed. Likewise, much of the Austrian cavalry had not withdrawn into Courtrai but escaped in the direction of Inglemunster and Rosellaere, so this oversight meant that messages ordering them to support the breakout were only sent at 5.30am.

Next time, the battle.

Landsneckts - Warning Health and Safety Hazard!

Not the 96 promised as I was never any good at my 8xtables and above. Just 72 newly based Landsneckts, some bought painted and tidied up to fit in and the other half painted by  me. All basing my my fair hand. The figures are a right old mash up of Old Glory, Artisan, Casting Room Miniatures and even Warlord plastics. I liked pai ting the Casting Room figures the best. The plastics were the least fun. Flags by Pete's Flags. I will check over the bases again this weekend as the photos have revealed a few gaps or mistakes, as is always the case.

I guess I could split them into two units. Depends on the game, the rules and my mood.

Big French Revolutionary Wars game from the campaign in the morning. Using Skype again so go gets crossed the technology does it's job.

The Production Line - more Italian Wars figures

In the previous post I mentioned the production line I have going when my painting mojo is on overdrive, as it is and has been for a few weeks now.

As an example, ALL of these figures reached completion this afternoon.  The gendarmes and the armoured ‘archers’ heavy cavalry were already painted but I did a bit of tidying up and did all the bases. The mounted crossbowmen were only started from scratch on Wednesday but they were very straightforward to do.

Venetian mounted crossbows

French ‘archers’ heavy cavalry

French Gensdarmes. Very pretty.

I hope to show a unit of 96 Landsneckts tomorrow, some of which I bought painted but had to tidy up and enliven a fair bit,  and the rest I did myself.

A few more Italian Wars figures

One advantage of my system for ploughing through the lead mountain is that with half a dozen units on the go at any one time (and full rather than partial ones) is that every so often said system starts chucking out loads of stuff almost all at once. And when my mojo wanes for a week or so every now and then I’m fortunate enough to have as couple of friends who paint stuff for me leaving the basing for me.

That's a rather long winded way of introducing today's output shown above,  which is a block of French pikemen (flags need adding to still) and a unit  (or two?) of Gascon crossbowmen.  I think they're all Perry.

And yes, I am in the middle of mustering a French force to join the Papal, Spanish, Venetian and and sundry other odds n sods like the Florentines.

Hopefully I will have another couple of units to show tomorrow if I can get them based up and flagged.

A Secret Weapon - Italian Wars.....again.

Ages ago I did a search on t'internet to see if anyone made one of the kits shown below in 28mm. Well, someone in China did of course, so I had to buy one. This is long before I decided to pull my finger out and resurrect the Italian Wars project so it was a strange purchase, but now it will take centre stage within my Florentine contingent.

The 'tank with new light gun and crew alongside for scale.

Close up. I think I'll apply some Florentine decals to brighten it up. 

Florenrine mounted crossbows.

Weaternised Stradioti. These are Perry metal riders on Perry plastic horses from the WoR light cavalry set.

The Florentines again. Not photo shy this lot!

The 'tank' is not of course covered in the Pike and Shot rules but does get a mention in the new Furioso set. I've not played the latter yet, as I don't think they will lend themselves to a Skype game, so under Pike and Shot it will have the following characteristics:

Movement 2D6" (any double and it breaks down for 1D6 turns). Blunders as normal.
Shooting :- count as two light guns that can fire in any direction. They MUST shoot together even if they have different targets in order to maximise the chance of the catastrophic double 1 for cannon).
Melee :- One dice to allow for running people over, re-roll if a miss
Morale saves :- 2+
Stamina :- 3

If it looses a melee the tank must take a break test. If it fails it  is deemed to have been destroyed by enemy troops fighting their way inside or otherwise disabling it.

I also have a few more units that I've almost completed today which should appear tomorrow. They'd all been working their way through the production line system I use  when my painting mojo os running on overdrive like it is now, which is how I get through lots of figures quickly so there's lots of grassing and tufting to do once I've unstuck my fingers!

Italian Wars heavy battery

I completed another unit of generic artillery last night in the shape of this heavy battery of cannon. If I use Pike and Shotte they will count as two guns for firing, but must always shoot together and at the same target, thus increasing the chance for a double one catastrophe!