Copyright © 2011-2024, Paul Scrivens-Smith

Copyright © 2011-2024, Paul Scrivens-Smith

All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of the creator.

Thursday, 2 February 2012

Club Night - Black Powder Napoleonic battle between French and Austrians

I've not blogged for a couple of weeks, although I have had a rather splendid couple of games since then. On Tuesday 24th January Quinton and I had a rather spiffing game of Black Powder at Maelstrom Games in which his Austrians inflicted a severe defeat on my French. Then, on 26th January, Tom, James and I met up at the White Hart to play a game of Hail Caesar with Saxons against British and Picts.

In the first instance I took two photos' one of which was terrible and in the second instance I did not take the camera. But Tom has updated his blog with a report of the Battle of the Eye Watering Valley of Death

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. On Tuesday Night at Maelstrom Games  Quinton and I again pitted his nefarious Austrian schemers against my fine Frenchmen in another game of Black Powder.

My forces were:


Divisional General with Staff Rating 7
Brigade General with Staff Rating 8
Four Line battalions
One Line battalion with elite 5+
One Foot battery
Brigade General with Staff Rating 7
Three Line battalions
Brigade General with Staff Rating 8
One Hussar Regiment, Reliable and Veteran
One Dragoon Regiment
One Horse gun battery

Quintons Austrians were:


Divisional General with Staff Rating 7
Brigade General with Staff Rating 8
One large German Line battalion
Three German Line battalions
One Foot battery
One Hussar Regiment, Reliable and Veteran
Brigade General with Staff Rating 7
Three Grenadier battalions
Brigade General with Staff Rating 8
One Hussar Regiment, Reliable and Veteran
One Lancer Regiment, Reliable and Veteran

Both fairly evenly matched forces (we were both using 500pt forces from lists deviced by Adie McWalter)

This was to be a straight up fight to control the ground around a central field.

The deployment was pretty much face to face, my cavalry faced his, my three line battalions faced his three Grenadiers and my large brigade faced off against his. Quinton had some poor dice for orders and struggled to get his Germans motivated so was reluctant to push his forces forwards without their support, the French pushed on well, but lost the cavalry fight on my left very early on, although the horse gun hung around long enough to do a lot of damage to his Grenadiers enabling me to get the better in that conflict.

Despite the presence of the lone Hussar unit on their flank, the large French brigade accounted easily for their opposite numbers in the German Brigade and it was all over for Archduke Charles.

Small French Infantry Brigade deploys to the left of the field

Austrian Grenadier Brigade

Large French Infantry Brigade to the Right of the enclosure

Large French Brigade engaged closely with the Germans

The Austrian Grenadiers are hard pressed

The Greman Brigade gives way
A great game of Black Powder again.