Bachwald Schloss 1813 - part 3

The Battle of Bachwald Schloss has proved gripping so far.

The view from Bachwald Schloss which lends its name to this battle.
The castle has fallen into ruin and the forest grown up around it rather like in the fairy tales.
The story here is sadly less romantic. Apparently the architects fell foul of the labyrinthine Imperial planning laws & abandoned the project to nature. 

Back at ground level a Russian priest blesses the bayonet of this young musketeer.
As we know from Russian military manuals;-
"The bayonet is a hero, the bullet is a fool!" 

Horn's boys attack the Saxon Grenadiers whilst Russians melee with the Von Sahr light battalion. To the left more of Horn's lads assault the Saxon held cabbage patch. 

We have rattled through about 12 turns or so mainly due to the maneuver nature of the build up which is still happening. Now that there is far more intense fighting to be done things have slowed down a bit, that's fine as we can play through every phase at our leisure, one of the luxuries of having a permanent set up  

The allied left. Seivers's cavalry charge again with infantry & limbered artillery in support. Yorck's battery is deployed to cover the Prussian infantry attack off screen right. Stienmetz arrives on the left hand margin.

Similar scene to above but from the French side, looks scary! 

Yorck's infantry attack went well - it broke the Bavarian infantry but the pesky battery remains to pour out grape and scorn!   

Elite Miniatures battery painted by Alan Tuckey fires from the grassy knoll.
Limber is by Prussian specialists Calpe, who else? 

Poles occupy the walled orchard, (hence tress removed). Russian infantry advance in penny packets against the Polish battery, that's gonna hurt! Clouds of skirmishers pepper the Brandenburg Uhlans who won't charge - bah!
Tony has ingeniously concealed his own 12lb battery with his own men. 

The Emperor with staff and loitering marshals.
Here we see Middle Guard & Old Guard waiting whilst two reserve heavy batteries move up.
Impressive but it won't last.

Foundry Bavarian battery fires on my advancing Prussians to great effect. I think the caisson is Front Rank, I picked it up ready painted on ebay and simply rebased it, I think its excellent! 

The writing on the wall offers Tony a way out, he's obliviously unaware as usual - just chuffed to have the warm embrace of real ale, daft friends and mountains of toy soldiers to play with  - heavenly!

The Saxon position creaks under the pressure 3 Russo Prussian divisions attacking. The batteries are masked and there are retreats to deal with. What could possibly go wrong for the allies? 

As some Saxons are evicted the plucky Poles make good headway.

French & Italian reserve heavy  artillery batteries move up - is there really space for two 12lb batteries?
Note the Middle Guard are still behaving, just wait. 

A chance for Seivers to show his worth? Maybe? The first charges go in - heavy dragoons against conscript squares - they bounce. Not to be outdone the Mecklenberg Strelitz Hussars do exactly the same against the Corsican square, finally the Lithuanian Uhlans show them how it's done by running down a square & killing them all - gulp - the brigade stands!   

Yorck's boys attack the Bavarian battery and get counter attacked by Polish Cuirassiers - who actually bounce and retreat!
Yee Gads. The Bavarian battery sees off the columns - this battery is becoming intensely irritating!!!   

Horn's attack ultimately fails and his brigade is repulsed falling back to regroup.
The Russians to the right though cut down the Von Sahr and force the Saxons back including the two batteries.
Scharnhorst arrives with the Prussian Guards and a 12lb battery to support the Russian Grenadiers .
Q: Is Chris's beer glass is half full or half empty?

This is a first for the Marauders - a side table!!!
Both sides had flank marches which collided so we set up a smaller 6 x 4 to play out the action.
Here Duka's cavalry brigade deploys to engage French light cavalry and at least two infantry brigades.    

A nice shot looking south west. The Saxon grip on the nameless village is very tenuous but the allies simply can't exploit the weakness. Note Saxon batteries in retreat screened by the Saxon light horse who prepare to astound us all again.
Tony points at something with his strangely muscular left arm!  

The French left is stronger than the last shot implies as these chaps are sitting right behind the Saxons.
Here we see 32 Westphalian Cuirassiers and 24 French Cuirassiers. 

Meanwhile back in the centre Polish and Saxon Cuirassiers move up to counter Yorck. 

Tony holds a fluffy yellow chick with great care - maybe it's just his yellow dice actually. 

With one conscript square cut down the 9th Hussars move up to counter the tide of Russian heavy cavalry.
Their morale falters in the face of the Russian dragoons so they'll have to take it at a halt.
The supporting Nassau brigade senses danger and form square! Clever boys. 

The Polish Cuirassiers charge but lose very badly, in fact so badly they retreat onto the rear table!
The Bavarian battery blasts the Prussians back as French supporting infantry attack Yorck too.   

Tony with paperwork - in complete control naturally!

That's right just pop it under your chin for now.

The French rear. There's some heavy duty formatoins here just in case the fragile centre succumbs to Yorck's
attentions before the flankers turn up.  

Zooming in a bit on the Westphalian and French heavies. 

One for Tony - A peaceful scene on the French rear table - flufftastic.

The Saxon lights fancy a pop at the Russian Grenadiers - all 6 battalions of them.

An almost aerial view.
The models almost are the scenery in some ways as most terrain features are deliberately small & wide spaced. 

Seivers horse battery discharges some canister into the conscript square at point blank range - they stand!
Russian hussars fancy a bit of Corsican action so line up a charge. 

Russian infantry mass behind Seivers to exploit his expected break through...

The imbecile Jurgass rides up to support Strelitz, he leads some good kit though, Dragoons & Leib Hussars.
Note Yorck has three retreating units which need to be rallied.

Blucher intervenes to personally order Horn back onto the offensive.
Once again loads of Allied troops making far too little impression on the Frenchies.

Good shot along the centre and French left.
In the middle Yorck has been repulsed by a combination of cannister. infantry attacks and cavalry counter charges;-
sounds like classic combined arms at work to me! 

As you can see we are getting there. This game is still building and building. It seems that the French plan is to pin the allies with an all arms centre, albeit a very weak one, while the presumably stronger forces make either one or two flank marches. Napoleon can sit tight on his knoll alongside the Guards, heavy cavalry reserve and two heavy artillery batteries to either prop up the centre or execute a coup de grace when the flankers arrive. This is a ballsy strategy which might just work as the allies seem to have taken the bait ie attacked with everything in the hope of defeating the French pinning force before the flankers arrive to spoil the party. The allied attacks are being held across the front but there are signs of weakness creeping in amongst the French front line units whilst the allies have fresh second brigades supporting. Both sides have struggled to effectively deploy artillery except the Bavarian and one Prussian battery.

I might combine weeks 4 and 5 because on week 4 we only played one or two turns as French Tony was absent without leave. Everyone is on a high about this battle, French Tony is even muttering about collecting his own 28mm Napoleonic army, French of course. With luck he'll do some Young Guard, which ever he decides you know they'll be pretty.

Be good, best wishes, Jeremy