Wednesday, 25 January 2023

The Battle of Abensberg: 23rd April 1809 - A Napoleonic batrep

 


Last Sunday the Rejects got together in the Shed of War, for our first face to face game of the year.

Postie put on a French v Austrian fictional battle set in 1809.

OOB (Stolen from Lee's blog!) And here's a link to Richard's blog post

French - C/O Ovdinart - Part of 2nd Corp (c/o Surjit, 2iC Mark, 3iC Lee)
One infantry division consisting of three Brigades
One heavy cavalry division (c/o Nansouty) also of three Brigades of Cuirassiers & Carabiniers)
And one light cavalry division (c/o Lasalle) of two Brigades of Chasseurs a cheval & Hussars)


Austrians - C/O Kallowrath - Part of 3rd Corp (c/o Richard, 2iC Ray, 3iC David)
One infantry division consisting of three Brigades
One heavy cavalry division consisting of three Brigades of Elite Cuirassiers
One light cavalry division consisting of two Brigades of Dragoons, Chevaualeger & Hussars

It was a very strange game, as nothing much happened until the last few turns of the game? We think it was because both sides were very similar in size and quality, apart from the Elite Austrian Cuirassiers and the Elite Leger brigade. This kind of nullified both sides as w e were too cautious in moving forward.


The start of the game, our plan was for Dave to hold the flank on our left and let Lee squish himself forward to us. I'd attack with my cavaly on our right and Richard would set up to receive the French onslaught.

None of this happend!


My command
6 units of Elite Austrian Cuirassiers


'Orrible Frenchies
Lee. Surj and Smiffy


First blood went to Dave, who's Horse artillery knocked down a few French horsemen.
Postie wouldn't let Lee fire at Dave's artillery, as the shot would have passed through the edge of the woods. I wish I'd taken a pic of Lee's face.
He was NOT a happy bunny, the dummy was definitely spat out!!!


Dave moved around the flank


Mainly due to Surj's Legere, who were up against 1 Jager and a Lancer unit.
We knew we'd lose both woods and have them in our flank, so Dave had to go forward.


Smiffy took us all, even himself by surprise, in getting all his cavalry into a decent position, very quickly.


Not a lot going on here.


Hmmmm?


Dave charged his Lancers at a French Leger regt. He didn't reach, you can see how far he was away!


The French start to move forward, it was oh so sweet to see these two bickering like an old married couple. Surj wanted Smiffy to move his Cavalry up further to cover his infantry. Smiffy was having none of it!


We're close!


We're in! It didn't go my way, as the French won the first turn and charged half move before I could and made contact.


It was quite obvious Surj was going to try and charge 2 columns of Elite French up the hill at one unit. He'd only have to throw average dice to be successful.


Dave & Lee square up.


Alert Alert, Blog tart at work!


A view down the table.


Going into column, kind of buggered up Surj's plan.
Hehe!


What a mess!
Smiffy won some and I won some.


And they're in on our left too!


Again it was tit for tat.


Richard had a funny turn and charged down the hill at the French.


And was very succesful, knocking back several French units.


That's somthing you don't often see, 2 Austrian columns charging a French column!


Another French unit was routed.
Could Richard have turned the tide of the battle?


Uh oh
Smiffy's free Cuirassiers crashed into the flank of my Cuirassier, as well as hitting it from the front.


What a bloody mess!


And there the game ended, we were all knackered!
We all thought it was a close game and couldn't really call a winner, both sides lost many units, leaders and flags. But in the end it was a big victory for the French 15-27
Oh well!


And here they are, the victorious French!
Boooo Hisss!


But on the plus side Richard was awarded the Man of the Match, for his sterling efforts in the centre of the table routing loads of French infantry.


31 comments:

  1. Looks like a very enjoyable outing for you guys. Enjoyed your battle report. Lee seems to be on a winning roll. You might want to check his dice.

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    1. Tell me about it! He's a very dodgy character Jonathan, you have to watch him like a hawk.

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    2. Cheeky blighter. Nowt wrong with my dice rolling. The Rejects just don't like loosing to me after a decade of being the groups whippin' boy. Its about time the worm turned. 😉

      As for "Postie wouldn't let Lee fire at Dave's artillery, as the shot would have passed through the edge of the woods.".... I never wanted to shoot his artillery in the first place! I had carefully lined up my gun so I couldn't see the french artillery because I wanted to avoid being forced to target them (Stuarts 'Priority Target' rules seem to change every game!). I raised a perfectly fair objection (no dummies involved) to the fact that I had a clear and unobstructed LOS on the French Cavalry (my intended target) but Postie appeared to be inventing a new ruling out of nowhere, saying my gun was "too close to the woods" to fire on that target. I guarantee if the shoe had been on the other foot, you (or, indeed, anyone else in the group) would have felt this decision was equally unfair.

      Aside from that gross slur on my honour (he says, as he retrieves his dummy from outside the cot 😆), that was a good Batrep. Great pictures BTW, although its amazing how the green tiles always come out looking yellow in our photos ?!?

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    3. "I guarantee if the shoe had been on the other foot, you (or, indeed, anyone else in the group) would have felt this decision was equally unfair." I would never stoop so low......

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    4. Thank you Lee, and thank you for the entertaining answer!

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  2. I just finished reading Richard's report, so it was good to see this from your perspective Ray. I have never had much luck with Austrians and can't recall them winning in the games we have played with them.

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  3. The French? Cheese-eating surrender monkeys!
    Nothing like two dudes whining at each other like a married couple.
    And Ray, what is Fran up to? I emailed him last month but it bounced.

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    1. It was sickening to be honest! Not sure what Fran's up to, to be honest. I've tried calling him a few times, but get no answer. I did get a Christmas card form him though?

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  4. Thanks Ray, I am on a bit of an 1809 thing at the moment so am enthusiastically hoovering all such reports up at the moment.

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    1. It was a very strange game, far too caging for my likeing.

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  5. Lovely. Much easier playing in 15 mm.

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  6. Epic looking table!

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  7. This is the third AAR I have read on this battle now, and they all more or less agree, so obviously, no one is lying! Another hard day at the office for the poor old Austrians!

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  8. Great looking table and an interesting battle report, a good win for those sneaky French!!

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  9. And a good time wa had by all ? Who says history is always written by the winners ?
    Great looking game that must gave been a good start to the year for you all.
    Good looking setup and aar as alawyas and a bonus - no piccy of Postie.!

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    1. Thanks Anon, yep it was a good start to the year.....for the French players anyway. Postie is up there, under BigLee's armpit, in the blog tart pic.

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  10. 15mm Nap's is where I started my serious gaming many moons ago. Makes collecting easier and more affordable. Great game and lovely to look at too!

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