The Battle of Hal 1815 - A Fictional Napoleonic Batrep

The Rejects got together last Sunday, well 6 of us anyway to play possibly our last weekend game of the year, boo, hiss I here you cry!!!

Warning!
This is a long post, so you may need to go and make yourself a cup'o'tea and a sandwich before you start!

Postie the evil GM had been planning this "What If" scenario for ages and a mighty fine fight it was too. Pop over to Fran's and BigLee's blogs for the French side of the story, for the Brit, Dutch-Belgian and Hanoverian side of the story keep reading...........

The Battle of Hal 19th June 1815

Yesterday Blucher's Prussian army failed to turn up at The Battle of Waterloo, thus giving Napoleon a very quick victory. But Wellington had already planned for this failure, he retreated North-West between the town of Hal and Brussels. Wellington had left an army postioned as a rearguard,  full of mainly conscript Dutch-Belgian's and German's commanded by the Prince of Orange's younger brother Prince Frederick. This morning Napoleon sent out his scouts who informed him of the army waiting at Hal, he then ordered part of Reilles corps to attack Prince Frederick's intact army which had been covering the British retreat.

A word of warning, Posties collection is massive but he doesn't own every regiment, so some units are being subbed by others.

The Dutch Division commanded by myself Lt Gen J Steadman, with the 

CnC Prince Frederick of the Netherlands in the centre.

The 4th British Division under Lt Gen Sir Charles Colville. Commanded by Reject John

The French opposite me, Commanded by Smiffy, the CnC Comte Honore Charles Reille, 

I was a little perturbed to find that the first 7 units were all Leger regts and all were Elite!!!

The French, opposite Hal commanded by Fran, the Comte Maximilien Sebadtien Foy, 

while BigLee, Comte Hippolyte Marie Guillame Pire, commanded the Cavalry.

Prince Frederick of the Netherlands.

 In the first turn I pushed my 2 units of skirmishers out on my flanks to harass the French while Smiffy, changed into skirmish formation with all 7 Legere units.

Bloody hell!! Hanoverian reserves arrive on the first turn behind Hal,  the Prince Regent's Hussars 

and  the Breman and Verdun Hussars, move around the town of Hal to hopefully put a stop

 to the advancing French Cavalry

In the background you can see the advancing French while in the foreground the British 

allies are trying to get into a better position. All the units with red flags are 

Hanoverian Landwehr, not really what you want in the front line of defence!!

 OMG!!!

Fran squashes his left testicle again, laying on the table trying to reach his troops!

Note the empty crisp packet behind him??

Smiffy started to make pretty patterns with his troops, instead of charging forward,

 my force consisted of 2 Jager units, 3 Line units and a whooping 6, yes 6 bloody Militia!!!

 John had to move a unit into Hal, but this left us with no reserve.

And moved a Hanoverian line unit up to the hedge to plug the gap.

The positions at the End of turn 2

 The French keep winning the first move, that also gives them the first fire, not we you need!!

First contact, 4 charges, but who would be the victor?

Postie came and whispered to myself and John, that our re-enforcements have 

been spotted, we looked at him blankly, the FOG of War had struck, we both 

wrongly read a note he gave us previously and thought our reserve force was 

behind the main Dutch-Belgian army, so it was as much of a shock to us as it 

was to the French!

The units with the Orange/white and blue flag are the Dutch/Belgian Militia.

 BigLee moved his 2 Lancers regts up behind his 2 charging Chasseurs. And also gets his Cavalry reinforcments on the table, Baron Nicolas Francois Roussel d'Hurbal commanding the 12th Cavalry Division, consisting of 2 Carabiniers and 2 Cuirassiers!!! They move straight on heading for the centre of the battle.

 As Smiffy advanced I pulled back my Jagers.

It's not looking good for John's troops?!?

The Prince keeping his fingers firmly crossed.

If only Smiffy hadn't advanced to the hill, the whole French flank would be open.

2-0 to the Hanoverian's, they thrash both French Chasseurs who both flee. Big-Lee caused 

No casualties at all!

 One units flees through a unit of Lancers (on the right)

Both Hanoverian's follow up and carry on their charge straight into both Lancer regt's

 Polly want a cracker!

 Un-bloody-believable!!!

John throws great once more and beats both units again, losing only 2 figures for his trouble, both Hanovarian Hussars capture the colours of the French Lancers, the 5th Lancers rout straight though the flanks of both the 1st Carabiniers and the 2nd Cuirassiers, disordering them, while the 6th Lancers rout through the already fleeing Chasseurs.

What a mess!!!!

Lee wasn't happy, he he!

So what looked like a devastating Cavalry advantage, was quickly becoming 

more even, but could or would  John carry on his magnificent assault on the French??

 Meanwhile down the other end of the field, I charged the French gun with a small unit of Combined Grenadiers  unfortunately they managed to evade me just in the nick of time, I was 2mm out!

The men and units of the Indian Brigade under Col de Jong, consisting of East and West Indian regts!

As Smiffy had moved a major part of his force to contain the Dutch Indain Brigade, I advance

 my best troops forward leaving the Militia where they were, if I moved them at all, I'd have 

to throw a D6, on a roile of 1 the unit would be disordered. Its bad enough having an army 

of mainly Militia and you certainly don't want then disordered!!

Fran moved up to close range and gave a devastating volley, aiming at the Hanoverian

Landwher, to try and make them fail their morale.

Oh Sh!t said Lee, as John carried on with the charges the next turn, hitting the disordered Carbiniers in the flank and the chasseurs in the rear. The yellow markers are disordered markers while the blue mean the unit has captured a colour, this gives points at the end of the game. You can just see the black marker on th Chasseurs at the bottom left unit, that means they've lost a colour, obviously that's not good!

John moved forward his best units the Brits to fire on the flank of Fran's stationary infantry.

Oh dear, we can't believe it???

John won both melees again, the Chasseurs were destroyed by the Breman and Verdun Hussars, while the Prince Regent Hussars made the Carabiners rout?!?

By this stage we were all in a state of shock. Poor Lee's dice were absolutely appalling!

And it got even better for us as Big Lee then failed  2 Brigade checks forcing all the 

French Cavalry to retreat a full move back. 

You should have seen Fran and BigLee's faces!

 Look at that hole??

I moved my skirmishers up to fire at the French gun, but we lost the first move/fire again!!!

Smiffy continued to make pretty patterns, what a nice curve.......

Both sides continued to whittle away at each other.

Our first real disaster a fluke shot onto the 18th Dutch Militia, hit and killed the 

Major-Gen de Eerens, this could be trouble as it could cause a brigade morale check.

Which it did, the now leaderless 2nd Brigade withdrew 12 inches back!

Not good news for us.

The Hoya Landwher were pushed back away from the front line due to a failed morale check.

On the otherside of the field, Smiffy attacked and fired with gusto, knocking back both Jager units.

Guess what? 

Yep! John charged once more, the Breman &Verdun Hussars hit the French Lancers in the rear AGAIN, 

wiping them out. The B& V Hussars fought 9 melees, they won 7 and drew 2, only losing 6 casualties, while the Prince Regent Hussars fought 3 melees and won 3 melees also at the cost of 6 casualties. 

Smiffy then destroyed my combined Grenadiers with musket fire, which caused a

 brigade check, which I only just passed.

But it was all too late for the French, as it was getting dark. The points were added up giving a massive victory of 20-10 to John and myself. 

A dejected Fran huddles in the corner trying not to be noticed.

John receiving his very well deserved  MVP award!

I did feel sorry for BigLee and his bad die rolls.........but not for long!

What a game!!!!