Thursday 11 August 2011

1815 Mini Campaign. First engagement, "King of the Hill".

We have set ourself to play a small campaign. It's a ladder type campaign with three battles, the first is a "King of the Hill" type scenario. The outcome of this battle decides what scenario is played next. If the attacker wins its "Battle for the Farm" next, if the defender wins its "Meeting Engagement". The winner of a scenario is the attacker in the next. These are scenarios and campaign  ideas from the Warhammer Historical: Waterloo that we tweak to fit with General the Brigade. 
The first and second battles are 750 points a side, quite small engagements. These two scenarios represent two different fronts of the battle taking place during the first half of the day. In the third and final scenario remaining forces from the previous battles are combined, so this will be a bigger clash with battle worn forces.
We roll for replenishment after each fight, one D6 for each casualty, on a 1-2 the casualty is lost permanently, on 3-6 it is returned to the unit. Units that disperses are completely lost for the remainder of the day.

Today we played the first engagement, "King of the Hill". This scenario represents the first opening moves of the day, a race for a important ridge line.

French Order of Battle. 

Divisional General Foy
~
Brigade General Marbais
6x24 Line Infantry
18 Skirmishers
4x 6pdr's
~
Brigade General Houssin de St Laurent
2x18 Hussars 

British Order of Battle. 
Divisional General Picton
 ~
Brigade General Kempt
2x24 Line Infantry
1x30 Line Infantry
12 95th Rifles
3x 9pdr's
~
Brigade General Pack
1x24 Line Infantry
1x24 Elite Line Infantry
1x30 Line Infantry
14 Skirmishers 


French deployment.


British deployment.

The French infantry was drawn up in attack columns in checker board style and advanced hard and fast on the ridge line ahead. Well on top of the the hill the first three battalions deployed in line, the second wave waited in column behind the hill. The British engaged with both artillery and musket fire and caused staggering amounts of casualties. 
The French cavalry brigade, two Hussar regiments rode up to support on the infantry's left flank and immediately tried to charge a British battalion in line formation. The charge faltered and the British infantry brigade had time to form square. This situation locked down the action on  that flank for the remainder of the game.
The British firing kept causing casualties and two French battalions disperses, two other was in bad shape. The second wave of infantry was brought up to reinforce the foothold.
In the end the French took home the scenario objective and won the game, but took great losses that will effect the situation late in the day. Two battalions dispersed and will not return, another greatly reduced, 14 out of 24 figures remaining. Also Brigade General Houssin de St Laurent commanding the Hussar brigade was mortally wounded. The severest on the British side is a battalion reduced to 20 figures. This was after we rolled for replenishments.

We played a total of ten turns, 3 hours or so both in "in game" time and actual play time.










The next scenario is "Battle for the Farm" with Prussians defending and French attacking.

7 comments:

  1. Well, I think it's obvious where the French made a fatal mistake - whenever you fight the Limeys, the first thing to do is to make sure that Richard Sharpe is nowhere close to the battlefield. If he is (and judging from the number of Frogs that were busted up, he most certainly was present in your battle), then you stall until you find the fairest wench in the area and send her behind British lines. Then you wait until the bugger gets a whiff of her. Once that happens, it's just a question of time before he leaves the ranks to shag the lass. Then AND ONLY THEN do you attack! :-)

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  2. Looks like a great game with some lovely figures.
    Cheers
    Paul

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  3. Wow, that is a fantastic looking game, the photos really show some very nice figures and terrain.

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  4. Brilliant looking game, as always, David.

    I like the idea of a scenario continuing with the battle outcome determining the next game; great idea!

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  5. I like your figures!
    Regards
    Rafa

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