Looking north eats over the large central plateau from the south west. Sofonovo juts up abruptly from the corner of the ridgeline . |
I created the battlefield & scenario, it would pit all of Russian Tony's Russians plus my Russian Life Guard corps versus a comparable French army from my collection. I came up with a "pre-game protocol" to decide who deployed where. Each side could commit any number of light cavalry regiments and ADC's to the manoeuver phase. Each added 1d6 to the pool, these are rolled and the total wins. The Russians put in 4 Cossack pulks & an ADC, the French 3 regiments of hussars & one ADC as I recall. The French won by just won point chosing to attack. Then we rolled 1d6 for each scouting regiment, a 1 meant the regiment was lost and wouldn't return in time for the battle; 2-5 = 2-5 casualties; 6 = no losses. For ADC's 1 = lost, 2-5 just fine. The Russians were forced to defend the plateau & therefore deployed first leaving the French free to deploy second but with comparable forces to attack with, they'll need that advantage. The French losses were scant but the Cossacks took a thrashing!
Russian heavy cavalry deployed ready for action, up front, close & personal. |
Countless massed Russians strung out along the ridge line with supporting batteries & half batteries. Sofonovo looms above proceedings. |
Russian foot awaits the onslaught in the shade of a wood on the Sofonovo ridge. |
I have lost the pictures from week one showing the initial moves so these depict moves 3 to 7 played on week 2. Week 1 was the pre-game scouting, planning, deployment & first two turns only.
A great way to spend an evening frankly; a beer, a map, an orbat & a fiendishly cunning plan.
You might spot the odd Prussian battalion or skirmisher. Tony is frantically basing a few more battalions to replace these proxies. Maybe they are Russo Prussian Legion? |
The pictures above depict large numbers of Russian cavalry massed on the extreme Russian right flank. Basically three formations! Opposite was a wide open valley rising to another ridge line on the French lines. To the left of this was a wooded hill. By deploying all of that horseflesh so brazenly the French could either counter it with there own cavalry reserves thus nullifying both sides mounted arm OR
they could shove some infantry in square with more in the woods plus a battery and simply seal off the flank. In effect this neutralized the Russian threat by emasculating it simply through lack of opportunity. Possibly there is French cavalry off board here who knows? Time will tell.
Sofonovo and its defenders and considerable support in depth. |
Russian 12lb foot battery outside Sofonovo. Fire from this battery caused some initial "wobbles" amongst the Bavarians. |
Great close-up of one of Tony's lovely Russian battalions. Lovely paint job by Tony, hand made flags, finials by Bicorne. Wargames Foundry models - real characters all of them. |
The arrival of the French Imperial Guard.
Middle Guard. These are the 1st Tirailleurs Chasseurs with the 2nd Tirailleurs Chasseurs behind them. Elite minis with Front Rank mounted officer GMB flag. Painted by tony Laughton for me. |
|
Since discovering the Elite Minis Classic range I will in time replace these four battalions with Elite Classics and convert these to 1809 Young Guard proxies by a simple repaint.
The Guard infantry from my collection under Friant. The two forty strong Old Guard battalions bring up the rear. See my last post for details on these. |
More French & allied batteries.
Dupont's foot battery deployed near the farm complex. Seen here bombarding the Russian centre to the north of Sofonovo. |
Things are happening.
Pressure builds in the east as Poles attack with the Imperial Guard foot in support. |
The Italian attacks on the Russian left - the forthcoming struggle for Sofonovo Abbey.
Italians virtually queuing up to attack Sofonovo as Lecchi & Delzons "go in"! |
Sofonovo Abbey is defended by the Opelchenie - gentle kind hearted souls who utterly respect the sanctity of nuns. |
On reflection I shall introduce a rule for the Abbess & photograph her for you. I think that while she stays in her burning Abbey her inspiring presence will provide a morale bonus to the militia, possibly making them "enthusiastic". Once she leaves with her flock this is lost. something like that anyway.
Russian infantry in line along the escarpment fending of French skirmishers. They have already seen off an attack by French light horse. The storm is about to break. |
Pajol's light cavalry were shaken by the loss of the 3rd Hussars in a spectacular but costly charge. For now they are content to sit behind their guns and take pot shots at the Russians. |
The attack by Lecchi & Delzons on the Abbey of Sofonovo. Russian militia clench their buttocks & nuns grit their teeth as the storm approaches. |
Russian infantry in support of the left situated behind the Abbey. The big battery was displaced from the centre as it fled so disgracefully from Dupont. |
Meanwhile back in the centre...
The Russian centre has run away leaving two battalions of Militia to fend off Dupont. Supporting formations rush to plug the gap before a disaster becomes catastrophic. |
General Seivers heavy cavalry. 2 x 32 dragoons, 1 x 32 uhlans and a horse battery. 112 cavalry models plus 3 guns. |
General Duka's cuirassiers. The Novgorod & Starodub, each 32 strong. |
The skirmish screen for Tony's Grenadier division is made up of drummers, a superb idea which I wish I had thought of. |
There we leave The Battle of Sofonovo for this week. Hopefully I'll get an update out next week after we play again on Tuesday. This is building up to be a classic Marauder Slug fest with lots of unknowns to be revelaed.
Feel free to comment, we Marauders appreciate every word.
Marauder HQ as never seen before.
A rare peek behind the scenes at Marauder HQ. This is our scenery store room. As you can see it's bursting at the seams! Infact we plan to sell some off on ebay, possibly as boxed sets for both 28mm & 15mm. I'll keep you posted re these sales and the pending sale of various models including many Napoleonics from my collection which is being restructured.
This is a bit ridiculous really! |
The Grand Redoubt bottom left! |
See ya!
Jeremy