The Battle of Fraise - Part 2 the AAR

Ray, Steve and a number of Reject Zoom groupies got together to witness the first campaign battle just west of the town of Fraise.  See here for introduction.

For your information, the figures are 6mm MDF from Commission Figurines and the rules being used are Volley and Bayonet. 

Steve (French) as Augereau was defending the road in prepared positions.  Ray as Wurmser and Lee (Argenteau) were entering from the east.

Augereau had three infantry and one cavalry division at his disposal.  The Austrians had a considerable force of six infantry divisions and one cavalry division.  Plus, there were other troops arriving later in the day from further afield.

The French deployed on the hills straddling the road and their line of communications.  Most of the infantry being either behind earthworks or in the light woods.  Their cavalry was deployed further forward on the French left.

walls and lolly pop sticks making up for my lack of appropriate scenery.

The first turn was 12:00 noon.  Daylight was going to end by 21:00.  So, the players had the potential for 9 turns, each turn representing 1 hour.  Movement is big in Volley and Bayonet to reflect the time and ground scale, and the grand tactical nature of the ruleset.

Apologies for lack of early snaps.  However, in short, The Austrians drove their cavalry division of hussars up the road and sharply north to take a position on the right flank (facing the French left).  The French mounted responded quickly by charging the 30th Wurmser Regt.

Chasseurs a Cheval and Dragoons contact the near Austrian hussars.

Weight of numbers wiped out the hussars.  But dice rolling was good on both sides (this seemed to be a feature of the game), thus the Chasseurs were dispersed.

Meanwhile, Wurmser (Ray) painstakingly begun the process of advancing his infantry along the road and through the light woods in order to deploy for the hoped for decisive assault.

Augereau's infantry remain stationary and prepared in their defences.  The Austrian's may be moving, but the clock is ticking down all the time.

Wurmser's last hussar regiment is launched at the French dragoons. 

Luck is blessing both sides!  The dragoons are swept from the field.  However, the exertion has neutralised the hussars as force.

Augereau (Steve) pulls his remaining heavy cavalry and skirmish cavalry back to the relative safety of the hill.

Tick... tick... tick.  Wurmser's (Ray) and then Argenteau's (Lee, who unfortunately could not be present) infantry continue to trudge through the inconvenient terrain.  But slowly, the Austrians are deploying while the French watch and wait.

The Austrians are clearly concerned to avoid getting into French artillery range too soon.  However, they do take the opportunity to extend their line south in order to start overlapping the French, and swing a battery forward to engage against the 14th line, which does not enjoy the advantage of  being behind field works.

Tick... tick... tick.  More and more, the Austrians are getting into position.  But, the sun is dipping in the sky.

Some late arriving cavalry appears.  Wurmser decides to keep them in march column.

Cavalry in column can just be seen in the bottom right corner.

Cautious Wurmser (Ray) now starts to show some aggression.  Moving swiftly, he sends freikorps and two regiments into the heavy woods on the French right flank.  From the east the cavalry is emerging from the light woods and can gather some momentum.

Cavalry in column emerging from the woods.  Note the bases to reflect that they are in march column and that this is the length of that column's tail.

After slow progress through the woods (nearly an hour in tabletop battle time), Austrian infantry prepares to deliver volleys in support of grenadiers charging up the hill against the French 14th line.

Having put up a good and very close fight, the French regiment is forced to retire in disorder.  This leaves the grenadiers able to take the position and face the French right flank.  It's looking a little grim for Augereau (Steve).

Meanwhile, to the north the Austrian cavalry sprints forward and round to position themselves on the French left flank.

But the French commander is not going to let the Austrians have it all their own way.  Taking the opportunity to recover from disorder, the 14th is moved forward to re-engage.  Plus, the French flank turns to face the grenadiers.  The volley fire from both being devastating (I said the dice rolling on both sides was good) and wiping out the Austrian shock troops.  Perhaps this flank is not folding without a fight.

However, Augereau (Steve) seeing that Wurmser (Ray) was now in a position to assault both frontally and on each flank decided to play the long game and withdraw leaving the field to the Austrians.

The final positions before French withdrawal.

But... the French cannot withdraw without the possibility of an Austrian pursuit taking place.  

In the campaign, each side has a number of light cavalry (LC) points allocated across their corps and divisions.  This is an abstraction to enable strategic operations like scouting, and to be used as pursuit. They do not appear in battles.  Each side totals their LC points present.  If the winner has more they roll that number of d6.  Sixes cause a loss of one strength point off whichever division the loser uses as a rear guard.  Ray rolled extremely well and caused 5 strength points of casualties.

Analysis/Conclusions
Ray had two turns of the game left.  In Volley and Bayonet terms this is plenty of opportunity to cause an awful lot of damage.  Especially when considering that Ray was ready to engage/charge on each flank and along the whole French line.  Nonetheless, it's not a lot of wriggle room.

The woods held up Ray's deployment, but it was a great lesson learned about deploying from a road.  Plus, the woods which held up Ray also protected his troops from being harassed by the defenders as they arrived.  In short, the terrain permitted Ray to mass his infantry and bring them forward.  The only potential negative is having to march against the clock.

One has to wonder about holding a static position.  However, Steve was grossly outnumbered.  Given time, the Austrians were always going to be able to envelope the French.

I guess there was not a lot of combat, but it was an intriguing game of movement that led to a victory by one side manoeuvring the other out of their position.  I would imagine that a lot of generals would accept that sort of victory gained with little loss. 

Everyone seemed happy with the play, the rules and how the campaign translated onto the table top battle.

Seven turns completed in about 3 and a half hours.  I'm happy with that.

Now to administer the French strategic retreat and prepare for the next strategic moves on the map.

Happy Days!