19thC AAR: The Battle of Nachod

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Bevan and I played another game using Neil Thomas’ 19th Century rules, this time using one of the scenarios included in the book: the battle of Nachod from the Autro-Prussian war of 1866.

There are three small towns above Nachod (which is the one with the pond): Wenzelberg, Wysokow and Aldstadt. The Prussians occupy two of them, Wenzelberg and Wysokow, with cavalry on the hill above and reinforcements on the way. The Austrians are just arriving near Wenzelberg. Victory goes to whoever occupies all three of Wenzelberg, Wysokow and Aldstadt at the end of turn 15, with any other result being a draw.

The Austrian infantry pushed the Prussians out of Wenzelberg fairly easily (historically they were cut to pieces by defensive fire) but rather than retreating the Prussian previous owners hung around and, together with the Prussian Uhlans and Jaegers, caused huge delays in the Austrian advance towards Wysokow.

Meanwhile, the Prussian reinforcements had also started to arrive.

The Austrian were pouring troops onto the battlefield, and lined up ready to begin their assault on Wysokov. Behind them, the Prussian Guards from Wenzelberg were still causing problems, and it took another two Austrian units to finally get rid of them.

This was all taking up too much time: the Prussian column was getting closer!

The Prussians in Wenzelberg weren’t waiting for the Austrian hammer blow to fall: taking advantage of a pause in the Austrian advance (the Austrians were “exhausted” for three turns i.e, couldn’t charge, and moved and fired at half effect) they advanced out of the town, formed line, and began blasting the advancing Austrian columns with fire from their breechloaders.

Meanwhile, a terrific cavalry battle developed between two Prussian and three Austrian regiments. The Prussian Uhlans were, however, on fire, as they were historically, and although the various cavalry melees would continue until the end of the game, the Prussian Uhlans would effectively fight the superior number of Austrian cavalry to a standstill.

The Austrian infantry were, however, doing better than their donkey-walloper comrades and, ably supported by artillery, were able to defeat the other regiment of Prussian Guards and occupy Wysokov. They then prepared to face the onslaught of the arriving Prussian reinforcements.

Keen not to allow the Prussians any time to deploy effectively, the Austrian columns marched straight out of Wysokov and straight at the enemy.

The Prussians had managed to deploy some of their regiments into line, but their guns were still on the road behind them, and although those that had deployed opened up a withering fire on the Austrians, there just weren’t enough of them ready to fight.

As the game drew to a close, the two sides were locked into a firefight that was slightly going the Austrians way: if only because their guns were deployed and firing whereas those of the Prussians were still limbered.

With two of the three objectives in Austrian hands, and with a superior tactical position, the game was declared a winning draw for the Austrians.

Aftermath

This was a tight-fought game with the Prussian Guards fighting for every yard: at one stage, two units of Prussian guard were fighting six units of Austrians and holding their own! It was only when the Austrian guns came up that the situation turned against them.

In the end, Austrian aggression won the day for them, although we probably had the width of the table too wide by 30cms or about two turns of road movement. A right-sized table would have let the massive Prussian column of reinforcements close with the Austrians earlier than actually happened, something that could well have turned the game in their favour.

So a draw was the right result: as the person playing the Austrians, I was not looking forward to facing the Prussian breechloaders should they have had the time to properly deploy!

19th C AAR: The Battle of Rigatoni

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Time for some 1859 Franco-Austrian War action using Neil Thomas’ Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 rules.

It’s what would become northern Italy, and the two small towns of Rigatoni and Bolognese are about to eb the subject of a major clash or arms.

On the left in the picture below are the French. They outnumber the Austrians in infantry and cavalry 6:5 and 4:3 respectively. The French are better commanded troops, a real advantage under these rules, and many of their units are Elite.

The Austrians, coming from the right, suffer from poor quality generals. They do, however, have more artillery (5:3), start the game uphill from the French, and begin the game closer to the two towns.

Both sides began the game by rapidly heading forward, with the Austrians reaching the towns first.

The French delivered three main thrusts: one on each town and one in the gap between them.

First in was the thrust against the Austrian right flank that forced the Austrian infantry out of the town. Good news from the French, but the Austrians rallied outside the town and punished the French with rifle and artillery as they reorganised after their attack.

One French battalion was wiped out as it took a battery of Austrian guns, the other was content to lurk amongst the safety of the buildings…and their accompanying cavalry was about to lap around the Austrian flank.

The French were also now approaching the Austrian left and centre, but the Austrian cavalry (much delayed by its painfully slow commander) had finally arrived:

Back to the left, and the French cavalry attacked the Austrian infantry that had been ejected from the town at such great cost to the French infantry.

The French cavalry charged forward, but were cut down in a hail of fire.

The Austrian left flank was now secure, and the town there could be re-captured…but only if the rest of the battlefield also remained in Austrian hands.

In the centre, the French infantry columns reached their destination and attacked. Again, however, although initially successful, the almost-victorious French infantry either exhausted themselves in an ultimately indecisive charge, or were shot down by the Austrian infantry in the town on the Austrian left flank.

That left only the Austrian left flank to be decided, and that was where the Austrian cavalry were massed.

Both sides hurled their cavalry forward, and a massive, swirling melee broke out. At first the French did well, but Austrian numbers soon began to tell, and eventually the remainder of the French horse were either dispersed or forced to fall back, especially when the Austrian horse-artillery rockets got into the action.

And with the defeat of their cavalry, the French’s chances of victory slipped away, and the pantalons rouge were forced to retire.

A hard fought victory for the Austrians, whose troops managed to absorb the initial charges of the French attack columns before wiping them out with rifle fire: a great game much enjoyed by either side.

Here’s a shot of the battlefield as the game ended.

19C AAR: The Battle of Lederhosen

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With both the Austrians and the Prussians now rebased (see previous posts) it was time to get the armies back onto the tabletop. This would be their second outing after over twenty years in storage!

The Austrians

  • 1st Division

    • 1st Line Battalion

    • 2nd Line Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

    • Two artillery batteries

  • 2nd Division

    • 1st Jaeger Battalion

    • 3rd Line Battalion

    • Two Jaeger Companies

    • Two artillery batteries

  • Cavalry Division

    • 1st Uhlan Regiment

    • 1st Hussar Regiment

  • Army Reserve

    • 1st Dragoon Regiment

The Prussians

  • 1st (Jaeger) Division

    • 1st Jaeger Battalion

    • 2nd Jaeger Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

  • 1st (Line ) Division

    • 1st Guards Battalion

    • 2nd Guards Battalion

    • 1st Landwehr Battalion

    • 2nd Landwehr Battalion

    • One Jaeger Company

    • Three artillery batteries

  • Heavy Cavalry Division

    • 1st Cuirassier Regiment

    • 2nd Cuirassier Regiment

    • 1st Dragoon Regiment

  • Light Cavalry Division

    • 1st Uhlan Regiment

    • 2nd Uhlan Regiment

And that was where we had to end the game unfortunately.

I was certainly in a very good position on my left, honours were even in the centre, but I was definitely losing the right,. So we called it a draw, with a slight strategic advantage to the Prussians balanced by the extra casualties they had taken.

A great game, and I’m now rebasing the French so that they can join in the fun!

19thC AAR: Austrians vs Prussians

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As we’d been playing For King and Parliament almost exclusively for the past few months, my regular wargaming opponent and I fancied a change. He’d spotted my fairly extensive collection of 19th Century figures, so suggested we dust them off and have a game.

Good idea, says I, so the next question became a discussion about what rules to use. I wanted something simple, with no need for protractors and laser pointers and the like, so we thought we’d give Neil Thomas’ Wargaming 19th Century Europe 1815-1878 a try.

This compact little booklet contains a wealth of information. There’s a large background section followed by six pages of rules and then large numbers of army lists, battle scenarios and historical information.

Six pages of rules sounded good to me, especially as I knew that I would need to re-base my collection to play any commercially available rules, so would only need to expend a little brain power to work out how to use my existing figures and play-test the system before making any sort of re-basing decision.

We set up a quick encounter game using as many of my Austrian and Prussian figures as possible, and set to…

The Battle

As I said, above, we used my existing figures based as is, and made loads of mistakes with the rules - despite their simplicity!

I won’t therefore do a full AAR, just a gallery of the action. Suffice to say that my brave but outnumbered Austrians were soundly beaten: the breachloaders used by the dastardly Prussians proving highly superior to my Lorenz rifles!

It was a most enjoyable game, however, with the rules proving simple yet infinitely subtle. It certainly had the feel of a 19th Century battle: very pleasing as many rulesets for the period, in my experience, are a Napoleonic battle with a bit of advanced weaponry tacked on!

I’ve now started re-basing my troops to suit the system (and many other sets as there’s nothing too outre about what’s needed) and we’ll have more of a proper game next time.

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that none of the figures featured had been on the tabletop for over 20 years!

Massive Re-Base!

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My 19th Century Austrians have been languishing unused for some time: like years! This is partly to do with being occupied with other periods, but also because they are based in a slightly weird fashion.

Let me explain. In my twenties I wrote a set of home-brewed rules that combined Johnny Reb and Trevor Halsall’s set, Rules for Wargames: Sebastopol, Sadowa & Sedan. They were never intended for publication: just for home use. The basing system involved company-sized bases in line, with the correct number of figures at 1:20 ratio. As Austrians, at that time, had 140-man companies (paper strength), this meant I had battalions of six 7-man, strip bases. Looked good on the table, but very inflexible when it came to using other rule sets.

Now, many years on, I have decided to re-base the European armies from my 19th century collection to give me the flexibility I need to play the rules that my set of wargaming friends are playing. It’s a big job, but actually quite satisfying as the armies were based quite crudely: certainly more crudely than I can manage now.

My chosen basing is to mount each infantry or cavalry unit on the equivalent of four 40mm x 30mm bases. The infantry will be mounted on six bases: two 40x30 and four 20x30, with eight and four figures respectively. The cavalry will be mounted on four 40x30 bases, with three figures per base. Infantry skirmishers will go two figures on a 40x30 base, and guns/limbers and officers mounted individually.

First up, as mentioned above, are the Austrians: 172 infantry, 40 horsemen and 13 guns/limbers.

Bases were all from Warbases: excellent service as usual.

I even managed to squeeze an extra infantry unit out of my collection: judicious re-painting of cuffs and collars on spares and extra skirmishers, and adding a flagpole and flag to one infantryman figure.

Next up: the Prussians!