Last Saturday SLW member Des Darkin organised a huge 15mm Napoleonic game at the Warlords, a refight of the left flank of Dresden, 1813. SLW hosted friends from the Loughton Strike Force (LSF) on a SLW Big Game Saturday. The LSF & SLW Grand Alliance fought the SLW & LSF Empire. The game started off with the Austrians attacking the outlying villages thinly held by French forces, with French Young Guards reinforements arriving during the game.
This was using General de Brigade rules with some author mods for such a large game – this was one of the biggest games held at SLW for some time, by the end of the game there were 2500 infantry and 700 cavalry figures on a c 8ft x 18 ft table, involved in a desperate struggle to control the villages and suburbs of western Dresden.
The Kaiserliks kept on coming, as the day wore on the pressure told and when night fell the Austrians held four villages (ish), but had not got close to Fredrichstadt. The French did well to hold the line for so long. The fighting for the villages was intense, some changing hands several times through the day, others being battered by Austrian artillery.
The next day would have brought a ferocious French counterattack, but that is for another day (and game)!
Wargaming in the grand manner, great fun was had by all – for those who want to know more, here is a more detailed battle report from one of the SLW Austrian generals.
Pictures below (click to expand)
Above – The Grand Alliance (left) prepares to do battle with the Empire (right). The Allies had the advantage, the writer of the General de Brigade/Armee rules, Dave Brown, was on their side 🙂
Austrian advance across the battlefield (right of photo)
O’Reilly’s ChevauLegere’s of the Austrian Light Division move up
The battle develops….Austrians advance on the Thin Blue Line (right)
The Austrian pressure starts to tell….
….a gap is made in the French line, and the Austrian Cavalry reserve division move up to exploit it.
French cavalry desperately move to block the gap
The 2nd ( Archduke Joseph) Hussars push through the gap, breaking the French 11th Hussars en route. The French then defend desperately, throwing cavalry in dribs and drabs (as they arrived) at the Austrians as they came through the breach. Many French died gallantly against huge odds, buying time
French cavalry to the rescue……..the situation was stabilised, the centre may just hold until nightfall
At 9pm (game time) night fell, and the victory points and bragging rights fell (just) to the Austrians. Intensive debriefing was held at a local
den of iniquityBistro afterwards. Thanks to Des for all the organisation, and to the LSF team for their troops, bonhomie and beers.
Categorised in: Big Game Saturday
This post was written by Alan Patrick