Last Friday night and all day Saturday at New Buckenham I took part in a fictitious encounter somewhere in central Europe in 1813. The game was played using the Shako 2 ruleset and was titled "The Battle of Benbrongo" (no idea why).
The Battle would see an Austrian and Russian force take on a smaller Saxon and Duchy of Warsaw force with possible reinforcement by Napoleon himself with a contingent of the Young Guard. The game was mainly an excuse to get some newly assembled units out for a game.
The Austrians and Russians entered on the left with the Saxons and Poles on the right and occupying the two objectives. Any French assistance would arrive at the top end of the table.
I was given command of the Austrians who entered on the left flank just above the larger town and this report will focus on my end of the table.
My starting force on the Friday was three brigades of infantry, one with an attached foot battery. The plan for the Austrians was to advance to the left of the town and swing into attack the left flank of the buildings and if possible get behind the defenders in this area. There were streams to this side of the town and at game start it was not known if they were fordable, so two units of Russian cossacks were sent ahead to scout them out.The cossacks reported back that parts of the streams were fordable by infantry only, so the assault on the town and the supporting troops behind it went ahead.
The Austrian attack went in first, well tried to, every attack was repulsed by defensive closing fire, gradually increasing the casualty count on the white coated battalions, this would prove telling late on the next day. With the expected arrival of French reinforcements on the Saturday, I positioned one of my brigades and my sole artillery battery to cover the woods to my left flank, those at the top of the table, whilst the rest continued to attack the town and it's supporting units to it's rear.
Last thing on Friday and first thing Saturday saw the town fall to the supporting Russian assaults. My attention was now on the newly arrived French under Napoleon himself, who had arrived through the woods at the top of the table. More French arrived at the top of the opposition baseline.
Fortunately my own reinforcements arrived in the form of six cuirassier regiments.
This cavalry advanced towards the French and when the opportunity arose charged the Guard Chasseurs à Cheval and Lancers. After a bit of to and fro both Chasseur units were destroyed and the Lancers withdrew behind the infantry squares. this stalemate continued for the rest of the game and allowed me to dispatch one brigade of heavies back to the centre of the table.
The other French formation engaged one of my brigades and saw off two battalions before marching off the table, some say "Vive au roi Louis" could be heard, that or it was just their owner had to leave then.
The final turns of the day did not go well for my Austrian infantry, the earlier casualties taken while attempting to assault the town now proving critical. Three columns were soon dispatched by Saxon columns, including their Guard Grenadiers and with only two battalions left out of a starting eight the remaining Austrian infantry decided Vienna might be nice to visit.
Fortunately this was the end of the game and with both towns still in Russian possession it was deemed a victory for the Russian and Austrians, just.
None of my figures involved this time but a great knife edge game.
More on this game on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming
Tony.
