The Battle of Quisais - A French Revolutionary War AAR

I invited the Rejects into my cellar of chaos to remotely fight a fictional battle based on the French Revolutionary Wars using units and commanders from the Italy campaign of 1796.

Figures - 6mm MDF from Commission Figurines
Rules - Volley and Bayonet

The aim of this encounter was many fold:

• To have a good time.
• To become more familiar with Volley and Bayonet rules.
• To lay out the table, game and context as if it was part of a campaign (I am looking to start one soon, but need to iron some bits out).

To this end, I rolled up a table based on an encounter.

To inject some fog of war I did the following:

• Assumed poor reconnaissance which meant that neither side knew the strength and composition of the other.
• Instructed both sides to provide me with orders for their forces moving onto the battlefield and deploying.  I would then execute those orders simultaneously on the table before the day of battle, with all troops halting 12 inches or line of sight from opposing troops, whichever is shorter.  From the positions their troops end up is where the game will start.

Context for the Battle

After a few weeks of marching and counter-marching the Imperial Austrian and Republican French armies collide somewhat unintentionally near the small town of Quisais, with the opponents arriving from the northwest and southwest respectively.

The town of Quisais holds no strategic value other than its highly respected boulangerie.  The engagement is all about forcing the enemy to retreat, by either breaking the army or threatening their line of communication (LOC).

Thankfully, for the picnicking officers, the encounter starts after lunch at 2pm.  The sun sets at 8pm, with it being dark by 9pm.

Both sides may move their forces on from their designated LOC.  The assumption for this game is that all units have already shaken out of march column.

View of the battlefield that the opposing armies have to march on to.

The players were asked to see this game as part of a campaign where each side is trying to protect the flank of their main army, and possibly turn the enemy’s flank.  A victory would have a catastrophic impact on the enemy’s strategic position and possibly force a withdrawal.  But a defeated and badly mauled army could make your main army very vulnerable.

Victory conditions

The side with the most points wins:  1 point for holding your own LOC, 1 point for holding the opponent’s LOC, and 1 point for each enemy division exhausted (2 if morale has collapsed).  Alternatively, when one side decides to withdraw to maintain the integrity of its wider mission and still has at least 33% of its divisions in good order.

In the event of a draw, a second day of battle may occur.  In a campaign this may see the arrival of reinforcements during the course of the day.

The Armies

The Austrian army:

Jonathan, Steve and Surjit

The French commanders:

David, Lee and Ray

The Deployment

Both sides submitted their march orders and I executed those simultaneously.  The result can be seen below.

The Austrians are on the left, the French to the right.  Three light demi-brigades are making their way through the near woods in open formation.  Both armies have deployed their cavalry on the far flank, with the Austrians perhaps hoping to use their uhlans to worry the French flank.

The Battle

With the better light cavalry reconnaissance, the French chose to move first.  

Volley and Bayonet is very much a punch and counter punch set of rules.  Player 1, in this case the French, move and charge their troops, combat is conducted (including player 2 defensive combat), divisional checks are made, then player 2 does their movement etc.

Each turn represents an hour of time, each inch equals 100 yards.  Movement rates are big.  Infantry can move up to 16 inches, cavalry up to 20 inches.

The French advance along the whole line.  Moving out of the woods closest to us; engaging closely with Quasdanovich's grenadier division on the hill, and charging the Austrian cavalry on the far (eastern) flank.

A view from the French advancing towards the hill and Jonathan's grenadiers.

The French dragoons and chasseur a cheval charge the distant Austrian dragoons, only to be repulsed.  Such was the damage done, that the French cavalry division became exhausted and failed to avoid the collapse of its morale.  This effectively eliminated the division, and in the rout disordered a reserve infantry regiment (see yellow marker).

Volley and Bayonet rules includes the notion of divisions becoming exhausted.  Once a division takes a certain proportion of casualties (between 40 and 60% depending on the quality and experience of the division and its troops) it becomes exhausted.  This means that the units in the division are no longer allowed to charge into contact with the enemy.  In effect the troops are no longer combat effective, but may defend.  Whenever an exhausted division takes casualties it must take a test to see if its morale collapses.  If it does then all units become permanently disordered and routing troops are removed.  In a sense, it starts to make you think about pulling damaged divisions out of the line and using your reserves... if you have them!

Sandos' division engage with the 1st Grenadiers in a firefight and are able to dispatch them before the Austrians can use their shock advantage.
Lebley's division exit the woods but are unable to do much else.

With the French phase over having won some success on the hill but lost the cavalry division in the east, it is now over to the Austrian's to counterpunch.

Steve, commanding Reuss' cavalry division plays havoc with Gallic nerves by charging forward.
In the centre, Quasdanovich launches his remaining grenadier unit into melee, whilst Ocksay sends a regiment to assault the accompany demi-brigade in Vial's division.  Both French units are sent reeling backwards as well placed Austrian artillery support the charge.  The casualties on Vial's division leave it exhausted and unwilling to carry on as they fail the test and see their morale collapse.

Luisignan's division charge at the French troops newly emerged from the woods.  But came off worse overall, losing two out of three combats.

However, at the eastern end of the battlefield, Reuss' cavalry division is causing mayhem.  With two charges, the corps artillery is destroyed and a demi-brigade routed.  With Uhlans being moved wide on the flank to threaten the French line of communication, plus outnumbered by cavalry regiments, this side is looking very exposed.

Meanwhile, Liptay moves his division around the back of the hill to bolster the centre.  Just as well.  Quasdanovich's division on the hill has become exhausted after its exertions and, whilst it avoided its morale collapsing. can no longer take offensive action.

With 2 divisions with their morale collapsed, heavy casualties on Sandos' division in the centre, and a threatened line of communication the French commanders decide to withdraw.

Analysis

The pregame deployment phase worked well, in my opinion.  The game was swift, bloody and decisive.  The players seemed to come away with the correct notion that just because you can move long, doesn't mean that you should.  Having said that, I am considering whether to halve the movement rates.  this is reflect both the closer starting proximity of the armies, and to take into account that my table is only 4 feet wide.  A change may permit some manoeuvring during the game.

The players were all extremely kind and patient with me, and aided me tremendously by reminding me of rules.

The French were perhaps a little too bold with their cavalry in launching light against medium cavalry, and may have been a little cramped in the area between the woods.

The players seemed to have a good time - one aim fulfilled.

We all know the rules a little better - another aim ticked.

The players thought in campaign and strategic terms - tick!

A big plus for me, was completing a remote game to a decision in one sitting.  I think as the Rejects become more familiar with Volley and Bayonet the games will move along faster.

This was a first trial with Volley and Bayonet Road to Glory.  I've only used the original version in the past.  My verdict... I like them very much.

Battle of Montebello, 20 May 1859 - AAR Part 2

Jonathan played host again as the Rejects gathered online to play this second part of the Battle of Montebello.

For part one click here.

The situation was balanced with the French pushing the Austrians away from their points of entry, but good handling of reinforcements gave the Austrians a formidable looking line running south to north, from which to defend or launch attacks.

Here is the table as it stood at the end of the first part.

The second session started with the French centre having to retire in order to avoid exposing too many flanks to the Austrians advancing from the north and east.  

The Austrians advanced onto the hill south of Montebello causing Beuret's advance on Montebello to stall.

With reinforcements arriving (and splendid dice rolling), the Austrians were repulsing all French assaults and causing damage to increasingly depleted brigades.

And so at this point, with Austrian reserves replacing damaged units and brigades, the French command conceded defeat and congratulated the Austrians on a game well played.

Analysis

In some respects I think that the French were a victim of their success at the end of the first session.  With units exposed, further advance would have left them victim to counterattack.  This was perhaps compounded by the French not having sufficient units in reserve to guard those flanks and/or press the attack.

This helped the Austrians to press forward with their reserves and pull back their depleted brigades.

Perhaps the French should have pressed straight towards the bridge at the start.  However, dogged defence put paid to any such plans.

I believe the fog of war, that Jonathan created, was really good and worked to make the commanders act as such rather than gamers. For example, if one Austrian wing lost one more unit their whole army would have retreated. With this knowledge I think the French would have made moves that might have been more game like and less in keeping with what ground commanders might do.  That's just my view.

The Austrians played an excellent game in first containing the French by being surprisingly aggressive from the start, and then by good use of their reserves to keep their front line fresh.

Well done and thanks to Jonathan for this excellent game and being such a gracious host, as usual.

Camping and Glamping

I was supposed to move onto painting some figures.  However, a couple of unfinished items called to me, both of them 2mm terrain pieces.

First up are two camps for opposing 2mm armies.

I wanted camps/baggage so that if cavalry lost control after a victorious melee there was a target for them to race towards and plunder.

All models are from Irregular Miniatures.

I used compact discs (CD/DVDs) for the bases.  I can't claim original thought here.  The inspiration came from YouTube - follow the link to Prasutagus The Orwell Wargamer and his TYW 2mm camps.  His look better than mine, but I'm pleased nonetheless.

So here is the first camp.  Hopefully you can make out the line of wagons arriving.

This second camp have the wagons parked and the horses grazing.

If camping is not your style then how about this?

This is from Brigade Models 2mm buildings catalogue.  This is sold as a Mediterranean hotel.  However, I think that I might be able to get away with using it as some sort of walled or fortified manor.  What do you think?

Now... I really must get back to painting some troops!