A little bit Ligny

It's been many a month since I last got out my Napoleonic French chaps (7th July last year!) for a game so when Paul said last week that he would like a game of Black Powder I jumped at the chance.

Vive La France

We opted for 750pts pickup forces from Albion Triumphant II and I elected for the following French Army du Nord list.:
Divisional Commander (Durette) SR:7
Brigade Commander (Pegot) SR:7 plus 5 Line Infantry
Brigade Commander (Brue) SR:7 plus 3 Line Infantry

Brigade Commander (Schmidt) SR:8 plus 1 Foot Battery, 1 Line Infantry, 2 Veteran Light Infantry
Brigade Commander (Dubois) SR:7 plus 1 Hussar, 1 Lancer
Brigade Commander (Unknown) SR:8 plus 1 Horse Battery, 2 Cuirassiers 

Ranks of Prussian Landwehr

I am not sure what Paul picked for his Prussians, but I am pretty sure it was: 

Brigade Commander SR8: 1 Foot Battery, 1 Fusileer, 2 Large Musketeer, 2 Musketeer

Brigade Commander SR8: Sub-Commander 1 Foot Battery, 1 Fusileer, 3 Musketeer, 1 Large Landwehr, 2 Landwehr

Brigade Commander SR8: 1 half Horse Battery, 1 Dragoon, 1 Hussar, 1 Uhlan

After deploying (see image) we rolled up the commander characteristics. Durette had High Independence, Brue had High Aggression, Low Decisiveness, Pegot had High Independence while Dubois 'triple oned' and ended up Low Aggression, Low Decisiveness and Low Independence - donkey! The other generals did not have any out of the ordinary characteristics.

Paul took first turn and was soon failing Command Rolls at leisure, then it was my turn to do the same. Eventually though we did get to move some figures and we started to come to grips. Facing off against the large seven battalion Prussian Brigade I only had Schmidt with his small brigade so Brue was soon despatched to that flank.

Schmidt holds off the Landwehr

This left Pegot, who moved left, the Prussian centre was now advancing towards a void. Well when I say advancing, what I mean is failing order tests to move!

I ordered my cavalry up in support of Pegot but they refused to move. In my first four turns the Cuirassiers who had an SR8 Commander and were reliable had only moved a single 18" move and the light horse a mere 36" - dopes!

French artillery deploys

Schmidt fought well to contain the mass of Landwehr advancing on him and successfully held them off until Brues' troops arrived. In a very successful round of melee we broke one battalion and two supporting units. Paul countered by throwing in the rest of that brigade on to Schmidts' teetering brigade. The combats went very well for me and soon the seven battalion Prussian brigade had been broken although Schmidts' brigade was similarly buggered.

The Prussian cavalry finally started to move, redeploying from their right to the centre. My cavalry remained sluggish as did the Prussian brigade on the right.

Pegot under pressure

Pegots' Brigade engaged the Prussian right but were soon repulse, I emulated Pauls' actions on the other flank losing a battalion in combat and then rolling poorly for the supports to also lose those troops.

My Light Cavalry finally got moving and were soon able to force the Prussian right into square preventing them from taking advantage of Pegots' broken brigade.

Late in the battle
The Cuirass are still out of shot on the right. Dawdlers!

Things were now in the balance, I had originally held the upper hand, breaking one of Pauls' three brigades, but I had now lost two of mine. Calamitously, one of the Prussian units on the right was soon charging into one of Brues' battalions, breaking that and breaking my army. I had one remaining chance, Dubois gathered up one unit of Cuirassiers while Durette led the other and launched themselves in a Death or Glory charge into the flank of one of the Prussian columns. They broke taking the brigade with them.

I had lost three of my five brigades while Paul had lost two from three. Both armies were broken and retired from the field in disarray.

An excellent game and we have scheduled another for four weeks time.

Here are some more shots from the game.

Prussian Dragoons

Schmidt holds the line

Prussian artillery

Schmidt and Brue on the left

French Legere

Brue to the rescue

Prussian Fusileers and Musketeers

French Legere

Cuirassiers get their finger out and save the day

Pegot advances

French Lines