"San Martino, Risorgimento in 6mm" Topic

Our first foray into Risorgimento. The Piedmontese divisions attack the Austrian VIII Corps at San Martino on the Austrian right flank at Solferino. We used a playing card system to delay the Piedmontese arrivals, 21 points (cries of Pontoon!)and your division finally arrived on the battlefield, to reflect the Italians slow deployment of the actual day. So far, we are about halfway through, the Austrians have the upper hand thanks to their Uhlans using determined charge to force the Piedmontese into square before pulling back 3 inches so the horse artillery accompanying the Uhlans can then blast them into disorder alowing the lancers to charge home (Black Powder 2 ). Austrian artillery is doing the most damage removing one infantry regt in the Piedmont centre as well.

My experience is that 6mm and black powder rules go together perfectly. The table looks fantastic and the period looks to be fascinating.

Thank you Captain. The more you delve into this period the more interesting it becomes.

Love the vineyards! Did you make them?

Brian

A very well presented game. I'm fascinated with this period having played quite a few scenarios between 1859 and 1866. The Piedmont troops are looking very well drilled, although sounds like the Austrians guns will disperse them.

bhall389
Thanks but I'm afraid they're not my handiwork.The woods and vineyards came from a local producer. I enquired as to whether he could make vineyards and after a bit of trial and error and some consulting between us he came up with the ones in the pictures. They're available here.
terrainshed.co.uk/scenics

RM
Thank you, I'm afraid the camera on that phone I used wasn't brilliant. New phone purchased this week so this Sunday night's photos of the denouement will hopefully be an improvement.
We gave the Austrian artillery the Sharpshooter rule (re-roll misses) to reflect the superiority of Austrian Artillery in this period. We also gave the Austrian infantry 24 cms range for having rifled muskets as opposed to the 18cms range we gave the Piedmontese for still using smoothbores. Given the sheer number of Piedmontese regiments involved the Piedmontese side expected almost a walkover, even though the Austrians actually outnumber them in terms of men and artillery represented, but so far it has gone more like the original battle with the Piedmontese arriving piecemeal and finding it hard to launch coordinated attacks, all the while whilst being whittled down by long-range artillery fire from the heavier Ausrtian artillery on the hills and Jagers hiding in the woods.

A really nice look overall. And where do the river sections come from?

Not sure whose rivers they are, they're my gaming friend's not mine, I'll enquire.

Bridges are Timecast, river sections are by S&A Scenics I am informed.

Well we played through to a conclusion last night, the conclusion being the same as the actual battle, with the Piedmontese lacking sufficient command and control to be able to launch coordinated attacks (we gave their commanders a rating of 7 to make it harder to activate)
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Their left flank spent all night getting over the bridge and forming line in order to advance. The Bersaglieri on the left flank did manage to advance but were halted in disorder by Austrian artillery and Jagers who were hiding in the woods on both of their flanks.
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Their only success was in forming their artillery batteries up and causing the front regt of dragoons (hussars representing dragoons in the game) to break and rout. This however spurred the other regt of dragoons/hussars to charge the Piedmont left flank which hastily formed square, being unable to give closing fire whilst doing so which meant the cavalry charged home. Unfortunately for the Austrians they didn't roll high enough and the +3 for formed square was enough to see them bounce off, much to the relief of the Piedmontese commander on that flank.
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Meanwhile on the Piedmontese right flank regt after regt stormed up the hill towards the Austrian extreme left, and were shot to pieces in the process.Another division shot to bits.
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And in the centre, one regt of Uhlans distinguished itself by destroying an entire Piedmontese division before the Uhlans were themselves broken. A Piedmont regt was caught marching behind their artillery in column in the centre on the way to attack San Martino, was targeted by the Austrian artillery, and wiped out. The only real success for the Piedmontese was the destruction of an Austrian regt on the road outside San Martino by their artillery in the centre.
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The Austrian commander Benedek looked on satisfied with his evening's work.
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Very nice, thanks for sharing. I am slowly plodding along with my own Risorgimento project, so this is inspirational.

Brian

Thanks Brian. The aim is to refight Solferino in 6mm, which could be another 2 years of painting I think. I've done 64 battalions of Austrians so far, I need another 8 for the 2nd Army, plus another 20 artillery pieces and 10 squadrons of cavalry, which won't take too long. The 1st Army is 95 battalions of infantry plus cavalry etc, then we come to the French of course, and the terrain. Some of this is going to have to be farmed out if I'm to ever get it done.