Battle of Landsberg (Saxony) October 1813 - A Napoleonic batrep

It was quite packed out at Reject HQ over the weekend. Seven of us got together for an epic Napoleonic bash, including long lost Reject Dave. Who vanished in a puff of smoke some 2 years ago, but has now returned for a game and hopefully he'll return again for another game but next time it'll be shorter than 2 years time!!!

We picked sides out of the hat I picked the Poles along with Surj and our CnC Smiffy!

The Swedes CnC was Lee, along with Richard and Dave.

Lee's report can be found here!

OOB

CnC - Prince Poniatowski (Smiffy)

Polish Division (Ray) in the centre)

1st Brigade - 1st, 2nd, 8th, 14th Line

2nd Brigade - 1st and 2nd 4th Line, 1st & 2nd Combined Vistula Legion

3rd Brigade - 1st Chasseurs a Cheval, 2nd Lancers

4th Brigade - 14th Cuirassiers

French Division (Smiffy) on the right)

5th Brigade - 1st & 2nd 11th Legere, 1st & 2nd 2nd Line

6th Brigade - 1st & 2nd 4th Line, 1st & 2nd 18th Line

7th Brigade - 22nd Dragoons, 25th Dragoons

8th Brigade - 10th Chasseurs a Cheval

German/Italian Division (Surj) on the left)

9th Brigade - 1st & 2nd 5th Westphalian Line, 1st & 2nd Lieb Hesse-Darmstadt

10th Brigade - 1st to 4th 5th Italian Line, 2nd Light Italian

11th Brigade - Westphalian Chevauleger Guard, Hesse-Darmstadt Chevauleger

12th Brigade - Italian 2nd Napoleon Dragoons

CnC - Crown Prince Charles John of Sweden (Lee)

Russian/Swedish Division (Dave) on the left)

1st Brigade - 1st, 2nd & 3rd Permovsky, 1st, 2nd & 3rd Balostaksky, 1st Newu, 1st Petrowsk, 1st Lithuianian, 44th Jagers

2nd Brigade - Life Cuirassiers, Swedish Smaland Light Dragoons

3rd Brgade - Elizabethgrad Hussars

Austrian Division (Richard) on the right)

4th Brigade - 1st & 2nd Kavnitz, 1st & 2nd W Colloredo

5th Brigade - 1st & 2nd Reuss Griet, 1st & 2nd Vogelsang

6th Brigade - 3rd Erzerhog Ferdinand Hussars, 7th Liechtenstein Hussars (Elite)

7th Brgade - 5th Cuirassiers

Prussian Corps (Lee) in the centre)

8th Brigade - 1st 2nd & 3rd Silesian Line, 1st & 2nd 10th Reserve, 1st & 2nd 8th Silesian Militia, 1st Silesian Hussars

9th Brigade - 1st 2nd & 3rd West Prussian Line, 1st & 2nd 7th Reserve, 1st and 2nd 9th Silesian Militia 1st Silesian Militia Cavalry.

The Mega game at the start of play. Postie set up all the troops otherwise It'd take us half the day to set up!

Smiffy as our CnC chose to fight on our right, he was facing Dave. Our plan here was to move forward and play a defensive holding game here.

I was in the centre, facing Lee, our plan here was to move forward and enagage Lee's troops. But waiting until the Cavalry in the rear was on the hill with our artillery.

Surj was on the left facing Richard, here was to be our main thrust, mainly because we had some Guard Cavalry.

We won the choice of going first or second, we gave it to the enemy, who surprised us moving forward???? Hmm? Dave's troops were in quite a solid defensive position, why'd they move?

Lee also moved forward in the centre??? As did I.

Both Richard and Surj pushed forward. Surj made a hole to push his Cavalry up the centre.

In what would prove to be a decisive moment (or was it?) Surj fired his Italin Light troops at Richard's limbered artillery, next to the farm complex. He scored a hit.

As Richard's brigade leader was within 2 inches he had to throw to see if he became a casualty. Richard had to throw a D20. As Surj scored 1 casualty on the artillery, if Richard threw a 1, the officer would become a casualty.

Which he did!!!!!!

At the end of the turn Richard had to throw a morale test for the artillery which he failed and had to move back 1 move, then had to throw for a Brigade check as they'd lost their Officer. Which he also failed. So the whole brigade had to move back 10 inches!

Not a great start for Richard's Austrians!!!!

Surj took full advantage of the Austrians going back and pushed forward as quickly as he could.

With the hole in the Austrian lines, we decided to change the plan of my Cavalry and headed straight for the Austrian lines, to see if I could use my Horse there instead?????

Bit of a stale mate on the right. Smiffy puts his Line units into line formation. And advance his Horse to the hill on the far right.

Dave anchored his artillery on his flank on their far left.

Not sure why but Surj always seems to make a mess.

He pushes forward again, while Richard tries to get into formation.

Lee has a rather formidable line of Prussians there!!!!

There's no room for Smiffy to put everything in line this turn.

Surj's 2 columns charge the Austrian line, who run before they are hit.

Smiffy also declares a charge against the Russian Jagers, who pass their morale and elect to evade.

The thin Blue Line.

I move my Horse over the hill towards the Austrians, both my and Surj's artillery fail to make a dent on the Prussian lines.

What a mess! After his charge which failed to contact Surj chose to move the columns their full move, right into the enemy lines,

He also charged Richard's artillery.

Which fought well but......

was lost, Surj carried on his charge into the infantry behind.

An areil shot from the left of the field.

and from the right.

Surj wind the melee and captures the colours of the Austrian line (the blue marker)

From our left

And our right

Which line units should I aim for?

I had originally decided to keep my Cuirassiers in reserve, but changed my mind and followed my other cavalry up towards the hill.

I hoped Lee would forget to shoot at my Lancers on the hill.

He didn't, luckily he threw bad dice!

Richard's Austrians who fell back on the first turn have started to return to the field. My Cavalry should be able to help Surj and send them running again?

Surj charges the Austrian line, while Richard charges the Hesse-Darmstadt column in the flank.

The bigger picture on the left.

Richard's troops are back in play in the nick of time.

Its gonna be a close run thing on the flank???

Hmmm? After sitting for two turn the whole of Dave's command pushes forward???

And so does Lee's front line

But he's made a school boy error alright!!!!!

I looked at Richard and grimaced at the mistake, he knew what was going to happen next.

We're in firing range now. The white markers are first fire markers, which give you an extra dice.

After the Prussian move I still had my go.

So forgetting the Cavalry attack on the Austrians, I use my go to turn on the spot and face the flank of Lee's Prussian infantry.

Oh Lee.....what have you done?

At this range this is gonna hurt!

It was far too inviting to ignore......

Lee could have moved the last infantry line forward and wheeled to cover the flank?

The lone British unit on the battlefield

The Rocket troop.

Dave pushes his Cavalry forward to oppose Smiffy's

Dave shoots up Smiffy's 10th Chasseur a Cheval

Looking good!

The Enemy

Richard, Lee and Long Lost Dave

And a view of nearly the whole table. my new phone has got a great camera!!!

Another ariel view of the table top

Back to Surj and Richard's melee

And this is how it ended up.

Richard's Austrian unit were routed back, 1 column followed up and hit it in the rear.

The unit dispersed immediately.

Meanwhile Richard had a little more luck and destroyed Surj's column.

Charge!!!!

My original target can be seen to the left of my Lancers. Lee failed their morale test and they ran back, so the Lancers carried straight on and hit the next unit in the flank. I also hit 2 of the Prussian units with 2 of my Polish columns.

Dave's Cavalry are victorious and push Smiffy's back. 

Smiffy pushed the whole French line forward as we'd won the first turn, which also meant we fired first.

I pushed up my back ranks of infantry and my Cuirassiers.

A bit of breathing space for Richard. As Surj lost a unit last turn he had to throw for the Brigade morale. Which he failed!!

The brigade had to fall back 10 inches.

I've had to pinch this photo from Lee's blog, not sure what happened but the last few photos 

I took of the game have vanished???

The photo is taken from the Prussian side of the table and you can see carnage caused by my Poles.

Lee lost 1 unit completely, while the other two are in route. 

With their centre now collapsed they threw in the towel and left the field to fight on another day.

Conclusion

Another great game from the book of Postie, it was probably our largest game of the year, with there being 3 a side, something we've not managed for quite some time.

Lee's mistake cost the allies dear, there was no real way for them to recover. I'm not sure how the game would have gone if Lee hadn't moved forward as he did. I was always going to charge in with my columns, it was just about picking the right time. The addition of the Lancers just rubbed salt into there wounds.

Richard was awarded the best General medal, for his well deserved defence of their right flank. Poor Rich was under the cosh on turn 1 with 1 brigade being pushed back, and technically out of the game for another 2 turns. Surj played hard but couldn't make it count in the end.

Smiffy and Dave both stood firm with neither one gaining any real ground.

Wonder what would have happened if we carried on 1 turn???

Even though the game was already over Postie totted up the points which gave us a rather convincing 24-10 victory!!

Great game and great company. Well done to one and all!