The Battle of Brückenau, 1796 - "A What If" AAR

This pre-Christmas gathering saw seven Rejects muster in Postie's shed for a "what if" 28mm French French Revolutionary War encounter.

French carabiniers stand prepared.

Background to the Battle of Brückenau, 5th September 1796

36 hours after the defeat of the French Army of the Sambre et Meuse at the Battle of Wurzburg, the pursuing Austrians have caught up with the rearguard close to a river closing at Brückenau.  General Jourdan has given orders to his retreating troops to not just delay the Austrians, but to give them a bloody nose to deter any further pursuit.

The Austrians are in high spirits.  Meanwhile, the French have been retreating for weeks leading to a fall in morale and a crisis of confidence in their generals.  A victory here would go a long way to restore sunken spirits.

The aim for both Jourdan and Archduke Charles, the Austrian commander, is to severely damage their opponent.

Archduke Charles controls the initiative.

Rules: My own written rules
Umpire: Me
Figures: Mostly Elite Miniatures, Foundry, some Eureka.

The Armies
Austrian Army (Surjit, Steve and Stuart)
Commander in Chief:  Archduke Charles

Hohenlohe’s Brigade (Stuart)
4 infantry regiments (2xline; 2xveteran)
1 light gun

Hadik’s Brigade (Steve)
4 infantry regiments (2xline; 2xveteran)
1 light gun

Georger’s Brigade (Surjit)
4 infantry regiments (2xline; 2xveteran)
1 medium gun

Schottendor’s Brigade (Steve assumed control)
3 infantry regiments (2xline; 1xveteran)
1 Grenzer Sharpshooters (veteran)
1 medium gun

Not deployed and never arrived
Spiegelberg’s Brigade
2 units of Hussars (2xveteran)

Rosenberg’s Brigade
2 units of Dragoons (2xveteran)

French Army of the Sambre et Meuse (Ray, Dan and Colin)
Commander in Chief: General Jourdan

Legrand’s Brigade (Ray)
4 infantry regiments (4xline)
1 grenadier unit
1 light gun

Simond’s Brigade (Colin)
4 infantry regiments (3xline; 1xveteran)
1 carabiniers skirmish (1xveteran)
1 medium gun

Olivier’s Brigade (Dan)
4 infantry regiments (3xline; 1xveteran)
1 carabiniers skirmish (1xveteran)

Not deployed and never arrived
Klein’s Brigade
2 units of Chasseurs (2xline)

Ney’s Brigade
2 units of Dragoons (2xline)

Palmerolle’s Brigade
2 units of Dragoons (2xline)

Pre-Battle
The game started with a number of blinds and dummies on the table for manoeuvring to determine deployment.

The empty battlefield

The starting positions for the blinds.  Each side had a blind for each brigade plus four "dummy" blinds.

Each side had to move blinds, but also had the option to move an enemy blind in an attempt to thwart any plans for deployment. 

This proved to be a great example of how when multiple players on are the same side there is no need for command and control rules.  The Austrian commanders very quickly disagreed about deployment, positioning of blinds and battle plans.  Some particularly stubborn decision making actually allowed the French to move enemy blinds far more than they ought to have.

The Battle

The final positions of the forces.
The French clearly succeeded in separating Georger's brigade from the rest of the army.  But could they take advantage of this?  How quickly could the Austrians bring weight to bear on the French left?

Georger decided that discretion was the better part of valour and took up a defensive posture.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Austrian army started wheeling it's right flank to trouble and turn the French left.
As Simond advanced towards Georger, Legrand moved aggressively towards Hadik's brigade on the hill.  It seemed like a move to keep the two parts of the Archduke Charles' force apart.

Having seized the initiative, Legrand launched his grenadiers up the hill.  His skirmishers screened the following columns from Hadik's artillery.

As Hadik sought to defend the hill, the Austrian right was swinging round onto the flank.

Showing incredible resolve (and a shockingly amazing amount of luck with the dice), the Austrians inflicted a bloody reverse on Legrand's grenadiers.  Shaken at this turn of events and then hit by a counter attack, the whole French brigade was compelled to retire with units either anxious or shaken.

The view of the retreating French from Hadik's position on the hill.

After such a stunning and surprising success and seeing that the French centre was hurtling towards collapse, the order was given for a general advance towards the French left.

Even though the French right, Simond, had started to position itself on Georger's left flank, the centre was fragile and needed time to rally and reorder.  Meanwhile, the Austrians were bearing down on Olivier who, despite, holding a defensible position, was facing increasingly overwhelming numbers.

The French rear guard decided that this was not going to be the day to turn back the Austrians and made good their withdrawal.  An Austrian victory.

Afterthoughts
This was always going to be a tough battle for the French.  The Austrians held the advantages of initiative and more quality units.  However, the French enjoyed better tactical flexibility and better quality artillery.  

The defining point of the game was the French assault.  No rules could ever legislate for the Austrian dice roll that turned a likely defeat into a stunning victory.

Should Legrand have come out and assaulted the hill?  or should he have come out and sought to shoot and retire?  Could Olivier have stood behind the stone walls and defended, after all the Austrians could only charge with one unit at a time?  Only the commanders can answer those questions.

Perhaps, and maybe probably, the issue was with my scenario design.  Something for me to reflect on.

The Battle of On Alti - A Russo-Turkish 18th Century Battle

Continuing the 18th century theme of recent remote games, Surjit and I got together to fight a fictional encounter between a Russian army and an Ottoman Turkish force at a field of battle called On Alti.

Now, my ownership of 18th century armies is limited to an Austrian and a French collection.  I have have no intention of buying or painting any other armies for this period, and certainly not for playing via Zoom.  So, for the sake of flexibility, I painted up MDF bases into red and blue armies... and BOOM! I now have whatever horse and musket army I want.

I know that this particular development may be offensive to some.  For me, this is a logical step in remote gaming for these reasons:
1. The players are not really going to enjoy the aesthetics of the painted figures via Zoom.
2. Experience has shown that even with figures, remote players often need regular updates on which unit is which.
3. The important scale in wargaming is the base, not the figure.
4.  All wargames bases of figures are essentially very aesthetically pleasing counters.  So, why worry about the figure when that aesthetic cannot be enjoyed.

Anyway, enough justification, onto the game.

The rules used are my hex adapted version of Koenig Krieg.
The armies were constructed from my adaptations of army lists from the Age of Reason (1st Ed.).

The Red army are the Russians, the Turks are blue.

The Ottoman army (played by me) consisted of:

5 units of Janissaries

1 unit of Levy

2 units of skirmish troops (Seyman and Azab)

4 regiments of Akinji light horse

4 regiments of heavy armoured cavalry (including 2 Guard Visierial regts)

2 medium and 1 heavy artillery.

The Russian army (led by Surjit):

7 units of line infantry

1 unit of Grenadiers

1 unit of militia

1 unit of Jagers

2 regiments of Dragoons

2 regiments of Hussars

1 regiment of Cuirassiers

1 unit of Cossacks (skirmishers)

4 medium guns and 2 heavy guns

This was an intriguing clash of assymetric forces.  The Ottomans holding a heavy cavalry advantage, while the Russians had strength in infantry and artillery.  Much of the Russian army being regular, but the Turks containing many irregular troops potentially prone to running back at the first sign of trouble.

The Russians slowly edged forward.  Clearly intending to bring their artillery advantage to bear, and to deploy their horse to try and counter the Turks.  Both sides were seeking to push out on the flanks.  The Ottoman armoured cavalry flew forward on the left flank.  Meanwhile, the Akinji moved out onto right, hoping to avoid shooting from the Russian jagers now holed up in the village.

The Ottoman plan was simple.  Keep the infantry at a distance and let the heavy cavalry defeat the Russian horse and turn the flank.  The light horse on the right were to perform and occupy enough Tsarist infantry to stop them overwhelming the Janissaries in the centre.

The Russian infantry brushed aside the Turkish skirmishers, but were yet to make their artillery advantage tell.
Meanwhile, a big cavalry showdown was developing on the left.

Surprisingly, the Ottoman commander was able to seize the initiative in the charges.
From L to R: Armoured Spahi vs Hussars; Armoured Spahi versus Hussars; and two Armoured Grand Visierial regiments charging the flank of a Cuirassier unit and the front of Russian Dragoons.

The outcome was suitably bloody.  The lighter Russian horse were unable to withstand the armoured lances.  Hussars and Cuirassiers were thrown back in disarray and a unit of Dragoons was destroyed.

The Ottoman's were not going to let this moment slip and proceeded to exploit the situation.  With most of the Turks realigning themselves, one Visierial unit ploughed straight into an already damaged Dragoon unit and despatched them without quarter.

The Russian flank was now open and the infantry cruelly exposed.

The Russian commander was asked the question at this point, "what would you do now, if this was part of a campaign?"  His response was, "I would retreat and leave the field to the Turks."

Nonetheless, we played on just a little longer.

The Ottoman's, with new found confidence, made a general advance.
The Russians desperately turned infantry and artillery to protect their open flank.  However, the Turkish cavalry slammed into them before they had the chance to form square or any other such defensive action.

A view of the battlefield looking towards the exposed Russian flank.

At this point, we had to call time on the game.

We agreed that this was an Ottoman victory and that the Russians would not want to hang around to see what would happen next.

After thoughts

That was a lot of fun.  It was very interesting having these very different armies square up to each other. 

There were a lot of artillery exchanges in the centre with casualties being taken by the Turks.  However, the dice rolled kindly and kept the Ottoman irregulars in place long enough for their heavy cavalry to do their job.

The Russians couldn't quite get all of their artillery into the fight and never quite made their foot advantage tell.

The use of the red and blue blocks worked a treat.  There was no confusion about what each unit was.  In fact, Surjit was able to follow his units clearly as cavalry and infantry were easier to identify than my 6mm troops.

I'd be interested to hear how much of a wargaming heretic you think this makes me.

The next 18th century remote game I'd like to do is a SYW battle in India.