""Road to Smolensk" July 1812 Black Powder AAR" Topic

AAR for the Battle "On the road to Smolensk" 25 July 1812.
After a year of painting I now have two 28mm Napoleonic Divisions 15th Italians Davison of the IV Corps and the Russian, 7th Infantry Division of the VI Corps to include enough Russian and Italian Cavalry to make a division of each. My Italians have been in five Black Powder battles so far, beaten the Austrians twice and lost to the British three times. Last Sunday would be the first Black Powder fight with my Russians (I finished the last unit just the night before)
The battle "On the road to Smolensk" is based on the "The Battle of Gross Eckau" found in the Clash of Eagle supplement, pg 126. With the Italians replacing the Prussians. There are 8 turns in the game and we used the Victory Points listed in the scenario.
Both sides had a Division of Infantry and three artillery batteries. The Russians had a Cavalry BDE made up of Hussars and Lancers, Horse Battery. The Italians had a Cavalry Brigade too made up of two Dragon Regiments and a Horse Battery.
Turn 1: The Italians enter from both starting points. With the 1st BDE crossing the river and preparing to assault the Village of Eckau. The Dragoons race forward to protect the left flank. The 2d BDE ether on the top right flank and occupied the high ground setting up an artillery battery to bombard the village and pushing the Léger forward to skirmish against the Russian Jaegers. The Russians counter with advanced the Jaeger Regt into the skirmish battle above the village. The Hussars charge into the Dragoons, but do to the Russian rule where NO BDE orders are allowed their support Lancer Regt was left far behind due to a bad command roll! The Dragoons beat the Hussars but due to be shaken stayed put.
Turn 2: The 3rd Btn 2d Italians Regt assaulted the first Bldg. in the village defend by the 3nb BTN Moscow Regt. This hand to hand fight was a beast and lasted until the 7 turn before the Russians drove off the Italians. The Dragoons charged the Lancers but they were beaten off and fell back. Above the village the Russians countered with an Infantry assault that successfully drove off the 1st Light Regt and halted in front of the French battery.
Turn 3: The Italians 2d BDE launched a full attack charging the Russians and locking in Hand To Hand. The Italians in the village continued their assault on the Bldg. but did manage sneak their converged Grenadier Btn into one of buildings and capturing it! The Dragoons stayed put and decided to rally one of their shaken Regt. The Russian horse then charged and after two HtoH combats drove the Dragoons back to the edge of the battlefield. The Russians are feeling very confident after sending after routing one Italian INF Btn in the 2d BDE! The Russian 2nd Infantry BDE continues to have trouble entering the battle due to bad command rolls and limited space taken up by friendly troops. It does manage to get their Jaegers into the skirmish fight.
Turn 4: The Italians continue to fight for the BIG bldg. The 2d BDE converged Grenadiers capture an unoccupied bldg.….both sides now control 2 of the 4 buildings in the village of Eckau! The Italian artillery continues to bombard the village but causing few casualties! The 2d BDE does route one Russian Inf battalion…who in turn rolls TWO "4s" routing two of its support battalions! OUCH…to make things worse the two Dragoons REGT charge into the Russian cavalry. At the end of the HtoH the two Russian and one Italian Regt routed leaving the sole Dragoon Regt controlling the right Italian flank! The Russian are now in fear of disaster! The reserve troops do manage to march onto the battlefield but must go into Square due to the Dragoons 18" away! The only bright spot for the Russians is that they are successfully continue to beat off the Italian Infantry assault in the village.
The next two turn turns bots side attack and counter attack and fight HtoH with little results until the end of the 6th turn when a whole Italian Regt routes!
Turn 7 the Dragoons make a bold move and charge through the village to shore up the 2d BDE who just lost a full Regt of Infantry….this forced most of the Russian above the village to go into square.
Turn 8: The battle is bloody and tiring for both sides… The Russian take pot shots at the Dragoons in hopes to routing it but with no effect! The Italians assaulting the Bldg are finally sent back in a rout taking one of the support Btn's with it! The Russians being weary pretty much stay put and remain in control of their two buildings!
With nigh fall both sides calculated their victory points! The Italians had 28 points to the Russian 31 points…giving the Russians Infantry a Victory for the Czar and Holy Mother Russia! (Ok it was a minor Victory!)
I am very proud of my Russians and their first fight. Word is General Barcaly is considering upgrading the Moscow Inf Regt into a Grenadier Ret after holding off the Italians assault for 7 turns!
The Russians are a blast to play despite all their quirks (special rules) in BP…both sides fought historically and remained in attack column for most the battle. Despite losing the firing dice the extra command point and morale makes a BIG difference.
Next on the schedule in July will be an ALL Cavalry fight, from the 1813 campaign in Germany. It will based on the "The eve of Waterloo" scenario in BPII pg162. The Challenge will be to our group if you have a Cavalry Brigade or Division from 1813 bring it to the fight!!!

Glad to see you are doing some gaming Ron. The Chicom virus has me locked out of gaming here in Ohio.

Tom

Nice report. We just finished a Black Powder game with Russians and Austrians versus French. The French are much more agile but the Russians are hard to shift if they decide they want to slug it out

Ron where are you Virginia

Great report – but it never happened if there are no pictures!!!

The Italians don't get enough table time against the Russians.

"Great report – but it never happened if there are no pictures!!!" It has been so long since I wrote a comment and posted a photo on TMP I have forgotten how to add a picture :( and I have plenty

Game Photo test
link

"The Chicom virus"? Really?

Maybe stick to issues Napoleonic eh?