"Ney's Folly" Enfilade 2019

In my third hosted game the critical part of the Battle of Waterloo was reenacted having Marshal Ney order much of the French cavalry unsupported over the crest line of the ridge only to find themselves unable to break the Allies infantry squares and be met with the one coming squadrons of Allied horse to force them away.

Preface:  one year ago at the 2018 convention....in one of our suites after-hours drinking beer... we decided that "it would be cool" to combine the Lion Rampant medieval rules to the showy uniforms and dash of the Napoleonic era into a fun ruleset.  I was tasked with making it happen.  After many trials, some of which have been previously documented in this blog, the rules seem to have operated well especially after having undergone a major trial of a convention setting, having 14 players move around 28 units ..and my voice virtually at a whisper from speaking in the din for the entire day.  Nevertheless, it seemed to go along well for all the players many of which painted up their favourite Waterloo units specifically for this game.

  I cannot describe much/any of the action as I was involved clarifying to the many players the charging procedures (a bit tricky at first but with experience players seemed to have them understood) but I wanted interesting action and not your standard "you set up there and they set up opposite" deployment.  So I had each side dice for their position in a random method: French from the south and west, the Allies from north and east. THAT produced some interesting angles!  I also used random bases of casualty figures as "terrain pieces" to provide delays in movement and charging (horses don't like treading on dead things and so will cause problems for the riders!)

Battle of Dresden - at Enfilade 2019

Battle of Dresden

This Napoleonic battle of 1813, was the second largest of the wars.  Our developing ‘big-battle’ rules is specifically designed to play these massive affairs but even these are challenged by the size.  However, the Allied command conveniently did not utilize large portions of their numbers and to fit it comfortably into a single game session with a convention table restriction and time restraints, I reduced the element numbers by some third.

As with the dedicated group enjoying these rules, the players each painted up their own command with a common basing which really helps with the look of the game increasing its ‘visual continuity’.  We had DaveB with his commands of Mortier (the French Imperial Guard foot) and Ney (the Young Guard), St. Cyr by James, all the Austrians done and commanded by Seth and the remainder filled in by myself.

viewing from the index area of the above map

The Prussian commander moving his heavy horse toward Dresden and the awaiting French. Later in the battle he would be reversing course!  While not strong, apparently the French artillery did sterling work.  

Overview- looking from the opposite westward view with Dresden on the right, the Allies to the left and the Great Garden (Grosse Garten) the landmark area of this battle made from a piece of hardboard for playability.

As I gave myself the “adjudicator” task, I was not intimate with all the actions of the game, moving from one small judgement situation to the next, but the game kinda followed history compressing the two days into one.  In the game, as on Day One, the Allies attacked in the middle forcing the French back to the artillery emplacements before the city. However, the French sprang back, in this case with good artillery support as per Day Two of the historic affair.  On the French right flank, BobE commanding most of the French cavalry with infantry outnumbered the Austrians who were separated from the rest of their army by a rain-swollen river crossable at only one point at Plausen.  Historically the Austrians were severely defeated in this area…as were the Austrian elements on the tabletop…

Marmont's French move to destroy the Austrians.  Elements of my French army.  While mine, the following photo shows four different painter's collections in action together.  They look good together.

the action in the centre and in the distance the Allies right/French left flank.

On the French left flank, DaveB, used the advantage of the French Guard elements to push back the Russians under Ian and Prussians under BobS to their breaking point.
See DaveB's blog post and his activities during the game/battle at: link with a very well written account.
We ended the game without the need to have the obvious happen having those commands inevitably rout off the board so ending with the situation very close to the historical battle.

Retreat from Moscow - the game

Well after a vacation to warmer climes, what type of game would you think I would like to do?  Something with steamy jungles? Perhaps an amphibious landing on a nice tropical beach? No, I decide upon the frozen tundra of Russia….. and the famous Retreat from Moscow of the Grande Armee!

To be honest, the vacation had little to do with it.  It really all started with a large white tablecloth I have had for years, and a chance encounter with WillB at the club when he was selling (giving away, really) some of his Perry ‘Retreat’ figures.  I couldn't resist. When I heard that the Seattle convention of “Enfilade!” theme is to be ‘Winter’ , well…….heck.

With my interest, Will later traded with me some further of his Retreat collection…seeing my weakness :}

The Perrys do packs of six foot and three horse, so I choose to continue that organization of units as not to make the whole project overwhelming.  In any rules, you can have various means “stretch out” the elimination of figures/units and I did not see the need for masses on the table.  This game is to be a lonesome party of stragglers in small units seeking a different way home from the mass of the disintegrating French army.

Because of the small numbers, or perhaps because of them, I saw this as another of my “convention games” to be played in a noisy environment by a bunch of guys not necessarily up on any particular rules or even the period at hand.  Certainly I feel overly complicated and ‘accurate simulations’ don’t really work at big events so I opt to simple and easy to command rules.  This often means I will need to make them myself to fit the type of game and the numbers I have.
So, in this case, while the Russians (mainly peasants as that is what I ended up with) could be commanded indeed by other players, it proved interesting putting them on “auto-pilot” by using a chart and basing their ‘commands’ on proximity to the enemy and a die roll to see how they react.

The rules, brief as they were, with myself putting in about a half hour of thought were kinda based on the ideas of Lion Rampant (with low amount activation, differing hits equal casualty amounts and differing abilities).  **spoiler - they proved to work very well indeed.

The individual groups of survivors make their way past a lonely Russian village through the snow of a Russian winter.....

Of course the other things to create the game are the painting and the terrain.  The painting was necessitated by Will’s units already done.  But this actually proved a blessing because while not my usual style, it gave me inspiration to keep it simple and basic.  Then, from examples of other painters of frozen conditions, dry-brush a light grey over all areas to give them a ‘cold’ look.  Thus unusually for me, I have another’s painting in my collection.

The 'Poles' leading groups of French dismounted cavalrymen and French infantry towards the lone bridge and survival

Russian Jagers behind the houses of the village.

As mentioned the ‘mat’ is a white tablecloth I had.  Not realistic, but practical.  The Russian houses were plastic ‘Pegasus’ types previously painted by me but not to my satisfaction so they were very much “re-purposed” covered in white paint and model snow.  The Russian church I had built a while back (see: my previous post on the church build)  also became “re-purposed” and covered like-wise. Undeveloped x-ray film provided by a doctor gaming-buddy of mine years and years ago (obviously as they are now have been digital for decades) provided the cold water stream.

OK, the game.
Firstly I told Will, Jim and Peter there are no morale rules.  Units can fight on until all the figures are eliminated.  The rational is thus:
“In these frozen winter depths of despair, if you surrender the enemy will certainly kill you.  If you run, it is into the white wilderness.  To give up is to die frozen.  The only option is to keep fighting until the bitter end or continue your trek home….”

Having no morale in the rules, certainly makes everything a whole lot simpler!

While not really ‘morale’ I put in a simple rule that units sustaining the most casualties in combat or any from shooting will retreat back a full move.  That simple rule, ended up to be used tactically by the players to ‘push’ the Russians out of the way in many cases thus shooting but so losing a turn of movement just to clear a better path.

My repurposed church and leafless plastic trees in the background

Movement and shooting distances are determined according to my painted wood dowels.  Surprisingly the only things NOT to chance within the game!  And, of course, painted as to 'blend in' to the terrain.  My OCD of wargaming.....

The winner is the player with the most figures off the far end of the table.  Jim, selected the mounted French contingent and the ‘Remnants’ (of the GrandeArmee) .  His cavalry raced literally directly through the countryside so having the terrain potentially causing harm.  But as I was rolling.... and sixes were needed, so he worried unnecessarily….( I think at one point I threw 48 consecutive dice and came up with only three individual 6s and so not enough to wound, let alone eliminate a single figure….)

Jim sat back to watch Peter and Will leap-frog each other, fighting off the peasants and the much tougher Russian Jager regulars.  Yes, the Cossacks were there (of course!) but insisted to but be merely be a presence and only coming into range once to be shot up by Will’s commanded ‘Old Guard’.  Surprisingly to all the players, after initial fears of being slaughtered, Will and Peter exited with the same numbers as Jim so all were considered survivors …until perhaps the next village is encountered!

The "Old Guard" appropriately providing the final rearguard.

Some good ideas for further betterment of the rules were offered and so I will go into the next game with Version B and knowledge it will probably work for a good game and entertainment of the players.

"What the FLaK??!"

“Myya planna, az sa Italiano torpedo pilot, isa tooa fly straighta and low, denna turn left to the carrier. To hecka witta Brits and da flak…..”

"Iya doa datta wella, butta myya fish mustta beena duds, as Iya coulda notta throwa the required 10 onna the cueba."  Momma mia!

The flight of three Italian torpedo bombers I controlled to help take out the HMS Illustrious:

British fighters on patrol defending the British carrier in the distance:

The British fighters fly past my rear.  I manage to shoot one down and damage the other.

Coming through the flak.  As the attackers came from all directions and communicated little, it was surprising that we ended up with had multiple waves of attackers near the same point.   I am the third wave.  The first from the far side earlier had a hit on the carrier. The second attack is closer to the ship.  The forth wave is the German Stuka dive-bombers above my planes :

The attacks were ultimately unsuccessful. Either blown out of the sky or completely missing.
Good game nevertheless. Thanks to Kevin and Dave.
See their blog posts at :  link  and  link

Battle of Eylau 2018

Rather than snow …. or lots of baking powder all over the table….we decided to do this January 1807 battle in the summer.

Start of the game.  Eylau is represented by the yellow church in the middle

Showing James' fine work.  He did these French AND a Russian command!

Murat's huge heavy horse command.  Murat is the single horseman in the centre.  DaveB's nicely painted Imperial Guard is in the background.

Looking upon the Russian Right/French Left flanks

Showing Davout (commanded by myself) coming onto the battlefield near the village of Serpallen only to be stopped by a good defence by Ostermann (MarkS) and reinforcements coming in.  

Showing late in the battle with the Russians advancing with infantry and artillery.

I debated whether to add sandstorms (rather than snowstorms) add/or downgrade the Russian command and combat abilities, but in the end did not add any variations.  Probably should have.

One result is the Russians actually saw how few French were in front of them and immediately advanced.  By not lowering their maneuver pips and thus they moved at uncharacteristic speed for the Russians of this era.  Using group moves  (the now banned after game casual debate over lunch and beers), they managed to move troops to the beleaguered left flank to which Davout (myself) was attacking.  My attack along with all the other French commanders were stymied by the good Russian commanders.

Lestocq (and yes that is the spelling; and no, I have no idea how to pronounce;  we went with "la-stock") the lone Prussian finally entered at the historical time and immediately started marching toward the French.  However it was clear even at that point that the French were done and the Corps Morale rolls were starting to affect the outcome in any event (as they should)

It was a bad day for the French and our first a-historical result using the rules.  Should have gone with the original plan.  Must revisit this battle with such changes and see if the result will be different and, as interestingly, a historical one.
Nevertheless the game was a good one and as the players are now well familiar with the rules, the game chugged along at a good pace.  We had 95 elements on the table, with 9 players and concluded the affair in one time slot.

Thanks to all the players and to those who contributed the time and effort in painting and basing your figures for the game.

Dressing Quintuplets...

Is it usual for parents of twins, and heaven forbid quintuplets, to dress their children exactly the same or is it more difficult but better to make each an individual?  I was faced with that problem when I decided the current set of building I have for the 28mm Napoleonics collection, needed to be a bit different for the upcoming battle of Eylau we are presenting at the "Enfilade" convention in Olympia, WA this weekend.
Eylau was in Prussia and I wanted a bit less the central Europe look than my current collection of buildings, so digging around in my paper buildings scraps, I found an intact building (well, OK the same side of one single building....) which I thought had a more, Prussian-ish feel.  [ don't tell anyone that it is from the Hougomont the Belgium complex of Waterloo fame ]  Lots of dark brick anyway.

I need four buildings to represent each of the important towns around the battlefield and made a fifth just in case.  it would have been easy just to make all the same with plain fields around each, but it might look a bit 'regular' on the tabletop, so I tried to make each a bit different to lessen the sameness.
Proof will be in the pudding as the old expression goes, and so we shall see the images of the upcoming game to see if they stand out or indeed have we made individuals of all the quintuplets.....

The Battle of Borodino - finally, the game!

The convention game finally played!













Finally the day arrived when we could finally place down all the miniatures on the table to do the game which many of us had done much effort to create.  I was worried (but had plans to compensate for) any of the boys not coming through with the figures they had promised to paint.   But they all came through.  Thanks guys.  Good job!

The battle deployment as seen from the southwest.

The French and allies

The Russian deployment.  Six painters contributed to create this army.

Mind you I still had one gentlemen who had me extremely concerned as, even on the morning of the game, he said he was going to apply the flocking and it should be dried in time if he left them in the car to bake in the sun!  He offered beer to calm my heart.  It helped.

After an extensive “training” session so that players would not make poor tactical decisions thereby granting their figures more time on the table, we got to it.

The deployments were based on the historical model but I allowed the players to rearrange within the area to their own whims.  The two what-ifs I allowed was the possibility of Napoleon releasing the French Imperial Guard but only if he thought the battle was won.  However the battle might only be won if the Guard was used. Nice Catch-22……

The other was the use of the Russian artillery reserve which was not used during the real battle. However if used too much the Russian army counts down in their morale (which did indeed happen)

Obviously those who painted up their corps commanded those and a few who are regulars to the rules had their pick of commands.  Seth and I were the umpires and later commanders; and we had a good number of the players with good knowledge of the rules to mentor the others, so we had very little of the usual rules confusion you encounter in many other types of games at conventions.

Russians:
DavidB with his Tuchov’s Corps and of Sieven’s cavalry
RonP  commanded my Borozdin Corps
StevenN commanded his painted horse of Korff
RodF with his Dokhtorov’s corps
JamesC commanded his Raevsky corps in the centre and his Karpov’s cossacks on the left
BobS commanded his Baggovout’s corps on the Russian right


The French and allies were all painted by me and were commanded by:
BobE with Murat and Ney (he went through all the tutorials and could handle both easily!)
Morand by Keith
Eugene on the left by Lance.
Junot’s Westphalians by Preston
Davout by ShawnMcElvoy
and Pontiatowski by Mark Serafin


The ratio of artillery to troops in this historic battle was the most of any major engagement and so the artillery in this game was truly a killer.  The players soon found that their forces were weakened well before any combat began.  For those who played the rules before, this was expected, but for the couple of “parachuted” players who signed up, this proved not the usual easy-go style of wargame for them and I was extremely annoyed that they had the audacity to whine and complain that “I can’t even do anything!” Or in otherwise, gleefully charge and win. What did they expect?!  For what I and the many other players, understood to be a realistic representation of the horrible blood-fest of the Napoleonic battle. Davout complained that “there is no way I am going to win”  Well, you are in the middle of the battle and facing lots of artillery and must take a heavily defended fortification!  No one said war is fair. Or we have Poniatowski faced with retreating cossacks and a defensive position on a hill, but certainly not admitting that his movement/command rolls were well under average, yelled at me (!) that “what can I do with all that against me!!”  Again, who said war is fair.  Either leave or try your best I respond.   Like I say, extremely annoying and a real buzz-kill to the enjoyment of the all the others who committed a lot of energy into this project.
(footnote: their side decisively won nevertheless….)

opening phase.  

my Polish (Murawski Miniatures)

The game itself turned out to be roughly to the historical form.  The vast amounts of Russian artillery weakened the attacking French, while the French “grand battery” of Davout’s ground down the Russian numbers.

James' Raevsky Corps defending the Redoubt.

Around the Redoubt there was heavy fighting and the French finally took the Fleches (two of the main victory points)

My Russians of Borozdin's Corps defending the Fleches

Murat's Cavalry Corps in full stride.  My version of Murat in the rear (see making of at: link)

Cavalry reserves managed to get into it after the infantry losses gave them the room to maneuver and the clash of Murat’s heavies vs Korff’s horsemen was one of the highlights.

French and Ally cavalry, with Westphalian infantry, advance against the Russian center

The clash of swords!

However, as is the case of many Napoleonic battles the reserves, or lack thereof, would determine the outcome.  It was thought the time had come that the French Guard could be committed and Napoleon released the Young Guard to secure the Fleches and the Guard Horse to support Murat.  Likewise, Lavrov’s cuirassiers were sent to support the middle.  However both failed to engage and it was the hard work of the centre commands of the French to force the victory.

Tolstoy's corps ensconced around the village of Gorki.  It did not move as ordered to the center to support the defence there.  Such is the tide of battle.  However strategically it remained intact to fight effectively another day.

Lavrov's Guard horse dispatched to help Korff in the centre but was not engaged.

With both elements at pip 1, it was a fight to the death for the control of the Fleches

Over on the Russian Right / French Left, the Kolocha River divided the battlefield. (which while not uncrossable, did disorder which has great effect on the troops) Both Platov’s horse (which historically went for a ride into the French Left) was also followed by Baggovout’s infantry corps;  moved over the river and seemingly had a mutually agreeable standoff with Eugene’s large corps.  Observing that “not much is happening over here.  Are you having fun?”  They both said yes at the same time.  So I left them to it.  Can’t complain if the boys are enjoying themselves!

The mutual standoff of the French Left Flank

The "casualties" grouped into their respective commands.  Some hard hit indeed.  Our elimination is combat effectiveness than straight kills.  All will come back to life in a campaign albeit slightly less effective.

Tolstoy’s command was originally assigned but that player unfortunately needed to leave (telling us in advance politely) and it was reassigned. Apparently while “orders’ were given that it move to the centre and while some movement was done, it was largely forgotten in its defensive roll to protect Gorki (another victory point).  Together with the inert Russian Guard of Lavrov and Baggovout’s corps, the Russian Right was intact and was deemed to be able to withdraw without difficulty.  The Russian centre was however destroyed and Tuchov’s corps was on its last legs and Karpov’s cossacks nearly eliminated.  While the French were in bad shape, the battle gave no doubt as to the victor.  The French gave a tired hurrah. A long battle.  As Seth suggested not only are the command morale flagging but that of the players as well.

The centre of the battlefield now very thinly held by both sides.  Hard fought and bloodied 

A quick presentation was given and a couple of artillery models were given to James who held up well defending the Redoubt against heavy attack with his well based figures and his good attitude.  The Tzar model was given to BobE for his help mentoring others and the hard slog in the middle, again without complaint.  He knew what to expect. It was The Battle of Borodino was it not!

Battle of Waterloo - Enfilade 2015 - the player's deployment

Having completed the historical affair, we reset for the "what-Napoleon-could-have-done-with-his-deployment" game.

French Commanders:
Ron - Lobau,  Reille and Milhaud
Doug - D'Erlon with detached Guard guns
Bob - Druout and Kellerman

Allied Commanders
Stephen - Perponcher and Picton
James - Uxbridge and Prince of Orange
Seth - Clinton and Brunswick

Having a better grip on things, I recorded the players and their commands, and as was playing this time, had a bit better grasp upon the events.  But only a bit better mind you.

The view high above the Allies right flank from the west.  For those viewing from the upper bleachers, Hougomont is in the near middle with La Haye Sainte, and Papalotte in the middle and upper middle respectively.  Allies to the left, French on the right. 

Milhaud's Cuirassier Division deployed just to the east of La Belle Alliance 

For this battle, James took the Allied commands of Uxbridge and Prince of Orange while Steven, our newest "recruit" and fresh from deployment in Afghanistan and in his second game, took Perponcher and Picton, with Seth taking Clinton and Brunswick's forces.
The French were Bob with the Guard and Kellerman's heavy horse; Ron with Reille, Lobau and Milhaud and myself with D'Erlon and much of the French artillery.

The French planned to have the Guard swing around Hougomont to assault the Allied right flank rolling it up along the crest line while Lobau's corps will take on any reserves in the area and D'Erlon will  hold the attention on the Allies left with pinning attacks and heavy artillery bombardments.

The left wheel punch by the French but the Allies still holding the ridge ( represented by the road ) as it is difficult to coordinate combined arms attacks in the confined area this battlefield offers.  No doubt in the back of Wellington's mind.

Reille's forces under Ron's command.  Both he and I had very poor dice luck this game.

The French plan was perhaps good but our dice luck was extremely poor.  I rolled four 1's in consecutive turns for maneuver and thus could not bring up much of my numerous artillery to any thing like full effect ( I guess the ground was STILL muddy ! )  and even with hits, these were brushed away by equalling rolls by the Allied players.  Sigh.

The Allies withdraw from the crest to avoid the French random artillery fire - ineffective as it proved firing blind over the crest line and unable to maneuver to the crest.  The columns of French moving seemingly without much enthusiasm due to my pathetic dice.

On the French left, the Guard detached half of the Young Guard and a portion of the Old Guard to screen Hogoumount from their advance, with Kellerman's cuirassiers sweeping out around the French left. As they approached the ridge, the Guard cavalry took advantage of several mistakes on the part of Clinton and beat back the Foot Guards from the crest line, combining charges with barrages from the Guard horse artillery and bayonets from the Young Guard. Though they were pushed back quite a distance from the crest line, Clinton managed to re-organize and establish a new defensive position a short distance away. As Clinton was being pushed back from the ridge, Kellerman's cuirassiers found the Brunswick infantry exposed in open ground outside of Braine L'Alleud.   Brunswick attempted to stem the tide of cuirassiers around the allied right, and in the process made a powerful claim to assume the name "Die Hards" from the Battle of Albuera fame. Despite catastrophic losses, the Brunswickers refused to quit the field, merely falling back to a position where they could support and be supported in turn by Clinton's Foot Guards. At this point the French center and right had been pushed back from the ridgeline, and the assault was largely spent. The screening force around Hogoumont was still fresh, but likely too little to late, and the French acknowledged that the First Empire had likely well and truly run its course.

Lobau's Corps.  The green labels can be removed and replaced with other commander names for other scenarios. The black dice record combat effectiveness.  Paperless. Just the way I like it!

The French left earlier at the start of the battle before it went downhill :-))

The Allies kept commands tight, unlike in the historical affair.  One does wonder about Wellington's command structure, and it would suggest he allowed all his commanders only local control and was predicated on the idea that he would arrive in time to control in any disaster. It seemed to work however.  The hand is moving the Dutch 6th Hussars representing the Merlen's Brigade of light horse.

One of my infantry brigades in square - note the cube marker on the right - having bounced the Netherland horse (in the distance ) but now about to receive close fire from the Royal Horse Artillery supported by the Belgian heavy horse et al.

the action from Action 5 News 'copter!

Like the veterans of Napoleon some thirty further years into their lives as old men looking back at the good-old-days, we wargamers remember only the glory of the battle, won or lost, on the war-game table some days after the event.