Battle of Ali-cante

On December 17th we met at our local club to play a large Ancient game using the Impetus rules. Originally we were going to play a 6 player tournament, Romans against The Enemies of Rome, but one had to pull out due to other commitments. Instead we played a fictional battle on a 12ft by 4ft table. The Romans had three players each with a 300 points army and the other side were two players with a Carthiginian and Moorish Army of 450 points each.

The two battle lines were drawn up, the Romans on the left side and the moors and Carthaginians on the right

I had the honour to control the center of the Roman line and was overall commander of the Roman Army. Although with only playing a few Impetus games during the summer (and losing). I wil admit that I leant heavily on the advice of my two flank generals Guillermo and Toni.

Guillermo's impressive objective camp stood on the edge just behind my position. I just hoped I didn't knock it off the table.

The Roman's right flank, which was controlled by Toni. He began advancing against the Moors controlled by Cristian. Toni due to his bad luck threw four "ones" in a row putting most of his troops disorganised. Cristian however was able to move his light cavaly from his left flank all the way to his right flank without any problems.

I steadily moved my Roman line forward towards Miguel's Carthaginians.

The Allied Objective (A small town) was placed on their far right flank, behind Miguel's Carthaginians. They were faced with Guillermo's Romans and he was soon charging across the plain to try and capture the objective.

My steady advance in the centre was beginning to break down and to further compound the problem, the Moorish Light Cavalry was bearing down to threaten my right flank. Although Toni was supporting me with two units of his cavalry.

The Moorish Cavalry all of a sudden turned away and the threat had passed. I was able to reform my line, just as the Carthaginians started to advance to meet me.

With the Carthaginian support gone from his left flank I was able to position my troops to outflank him.

The Carthaginans crashed into my legionnaires, although I took a few casaulties, I gave as good as I got and held them at the front whilst my right flank began to turn their flank.

View of the Roman right flank, Toni has started to engage the Moor's units in the rough ground, but most of the Moor troops are rooted to the spot neat their table edge.

With the help of Guillermo's troops on my left flank we start to destroy the large warrior double units.

My ballister acts as the starting point for my troops to act as a hinge and begin to close the door between the Moors and Carthaginians.

Although some of my troops are taking more casualties, they are starting to double up on the enemy units and even starting attacking enemy units in the flank.

On the Roman right flank, things have come down to basically a stand off, with no real gain and with the Moor main line refusing to move to meet the advancing Romans.

With the successes in the centre and the Roman left flank the Carthaginians reach their breakpoint of 50% losses and begin to flee the field. The Moors are still well formed and almost untouched, however they have lost 1 unit. This means now the Carthaginians have all fled the allies have now suffered over 50% losses and must leave the field to the victors, The Romans.

Conclusions

This was a very enjoyable game and I was very satisfied with the use of my troops ( I didnt lose a unit). However I was dealing with mostly legionnaires and a few skirmishers and If I had to use other troops I would have probably got into more trouble. For me the action that decided the game was Cristian stopping his Light cavalry from threatening my right flank. Like myself he hadn't played Impetus a lot and had deployed his troops too close his own table edge. Had he advanced his main line it might have lifted a little pressure from his allies the Carthaginians.

Lasalle Tournament Alcoy Nov 5

For a little change from all our campaigning activities, Jose had kindly organised a Lasalle Tournament in Alcoy. Each army had two supports and as there were eight of us, four with French Armies and four with Coalition armies (two British, one Austrian and one Russian, it was also turned into a team game.
There were to be three games, two in the morning, dinner and then another game in the afternoon and all be finished for half past six. I thought this was a little optimistic on Jose's part because playing with two supports can last over three hours
There were four tables already set out representing a Napoleonic battlefield and each player was able to play on a different battlefield in each of his games. I managed to take a few photos of mine and the other guys battles, but as I was trying to concentrate on my games it was hard to keep an eye on the other peoples battles.

My first game was against Dani, I had a French Conquest infantry Division and for support Light Cavalry Brigade and a Veteran Infantry Brigade. Dani, had British Light Division and for supports Light Cavalry impetuous and Brunswick Brigade. I was attacking and set up first, the battlefield was based on Wagram and because we were playing with supports it was 60cms longer in length.
My initial setup was artillery on my left flank with all my infantry in the centre and my cavalry on the right flank to sweep around before he could bring his reserve cavalry on.

Everything started well, my artillery were causing havoc on his Brunswick troops. Whilst my cavalry thundered over the hill and taking out an artillery battery, but I had forgotten about impetuous cavalry throwing twice to come on the table and on turn four his cavalry appeared.

My veteran infantry in the centre, instead of facing just infantry now faced infantry and cavalry and by his combined attacks and rotten dice throwing on my half, I lost three infantry units from my right Brigade in one turn. The two left brigades advancing were also being checked by the counterattacking British.

Through my poor deployment my units could not advance and were being beaten piecemeal. My French cavalry were coming to the rescue but as they were held up by moving through a wood it was too late and my army routed.

The point system for the games was Major victory 3, Minor Victory 2, Draw 1 , Minor defeat 0, Major defeat -1

Therefore Dani was on 3 points and I was on -1 points.

On the table representing the Battle of Arapiles Miguel's Austrians fought Javi's French. This ended in a Major victory for the French proving that the Austrian avant garde can be beaten.

Therefore Javi 3 and Miguel -1

On the Battlefield representing Quatre Bras, Kiefer's British defended against Jose's French. Covering his left flank with a long wall, Kiefer set out his troops in one thin red line.

It wasnt long before the French managed to break through the British line and threaten the objective. But with equal number of pursuit cavalry, it was only a marginal victory.

Therefore Jose 2 and Kiefer 0

The last game of the first round was played on the battlefield representing Eylau. Toni's Russians against Cristian's French. This hardfought game ended in a draw so both players get 1 point each.

At the end of the first round the French were leading with 5 points and the Coalition had 3 points.

My next battle was against Miguel and his Austrians. After last games failure with my cavalry not supporting my infantry. I decided to mix them up a little, so the infantry were well supported. I was defending and placed a wall on each flank to protect my artillery.


This was the only other photo of this game because it was quite intense, Miguel attacked in force with his cavalry at the head of the charge, As they came down the hill my cavalry countercharged. This turned out to be disastrous and in the next turn I lost three of my cavalry units.
Once again my infantry were unsupported, but this time they put up a strong defence. It was a very bloody fight and on turn seventeen I broke, he was lucky, I had broken a few of his units and some more were on 5 DISRs, damn those large units. Therefore miguel scored 3 and and once again I scored -1 . I suppose I could argue two minus's make a positive.

As I have already said I didnt manage get around to take photos of the other games (sorry guys), the scores were as follows:

Toni's Russians marginal victory 2 points against Jose's French 0 points.

Javi's French drew against Dani's British therefore 1 point each.
Christian's French Major victory 3 points against kiefer's British -1 point


So after 2 rounds the score is finally balanced both sides having 8 points each.


The timetable of events was actually going on time and our host for the day, Rafa, took us to a restuarant up the road for a splendid "menu del dia".


After an enjoyable meal, we returned for our final battles, Kiefer's British were playing against Javi. Kiefer attempted to attack but lost the dice off and once again defended, this time learning from his earlier mistakes he decided not to over extend himself. But all was to no avail and with his open flank been threatened, the British broke. So Javi won 3 points to the French and -1 to the Coalition, making the scores French 11 points and Coalition back down to 7 points.




The next game was Miguel's Austrians against Cristian's French, although one of them was defending, it looks like they were both going to hold the middle ground. With the consqeunces of it all ending in a draw 1 point each. therefore the scores are now, French on 12 points and the Coalition back up to 8 points.

The penultimate game was against Dani's British and Joses's French. Jose was attacking and this was one of the few games where we used the whole length of the table. In the end Dani won a major victory scoring 3 points and Jose -1 point this changed the overall table dramatically and now both teams are on 11 points each. Which leaves one final game to decide it, mine.

I was playing against Toni and his Russians. Unfortunately Toni rolled for weather and managed to get mud. I was attacking and so knowing that artillery are very slow in mud , I unlimbered them all and placed them on my flank. With mud there is no time for manoeuvre and so using the cover of the woods I placed the rest of my force directly facing the objective.

Toni's Russians had 4 batteries of artillery and they started to pound my mass ranks as they emerged out of the woods. Although the first blood was mine when a Russian Infantry unit entered a town in march formation and recieved nine hits from my "Grand Battery".

Due to the mud and The Russian Batteries my main force could not get near to the Russian line. I tried with two light cavalry units which was reminiscent of the "Charge of the Light Brigade". On my extreme right flank, my French infantry were victorious in crossing the wall but I had taken to many losses in my centre and my army broke. With Toni only having Cuirrassiers for cavalry, he was unable to pursue me. Therefore he won a marginal victory 2 points and I recieved a big fat zero

This meant the Coalition at the end of the day had won by 13 points to the French 11. As Wellington was believed to have said "A close run thing".

The top Players were Dani with 7 points for the Coalition and Javi with 7 points for the French

Thanks for everybody especially Jose for a very enjoyable tournament with a twist with it being also a team game. We only ran over by 15 minutes which was a surprise to the doubters(me)

Hopefully we can all get together for a rematch to see if the French can get there Revenge.

1806 Campaign Turn 2

Turn 2

Things are beginning to hot up this turn.

White Austrian under Archduke Javi is defending Dusseldorf with one corp whilst his other has entered his Russian allied territory.

Green Russians under Tsar Toni have begun to besiege Berlin with his army.

Red British under Duke of Valverde has advanced unto Salsburg and is preparing to besiege it.

Blue French under Emperor Phil have marched to Vauchamps

Yellow Prussians(Austrians) under Marshall Miguel has turned his army to counter the threat of Tonis Russians.

Orange Low countries(French) under Prince Jose has advanced on his old city of Dusseldorf to retake it.

campaign 1806 movments

Spring 1806 movements



colours correspond to the Nations involved in the war.

White Austrian under Archduke Javi
Green Russians under Tsar Toni
Red British under Duke of Valverde
Blue French under Emperor Phil
Yellow Prussians(Austrians) under Marshall Miguel
Orange Low countries(French) under Prince Jose

Arrow shows where the armies or corps have moved from. If the symbol has an "A" then it is he full army and maybe split into two corps on another turn. If the symbol has a "1" or "2" then it has split already and they are the corps.

The end of the campaign year 1805

On Friday we met to carry on with the campaign in Alicante, Marshal von Miguel joined the campaign taking up the vacant position of Prussia with his Austrian Army. Unfortunately Tzar Toni could not make it but he left some standing orders for his Allies to follow.


After losing the Battle of Waterloo Prince Jose of the Low countries retreated to Dusseldorf and Archduke Javi with his Austrian advanced and began to lay siege. With Autumn coming and the chance of his line of communication being cut off by the passes being snowbound, he brought up his transport ships and anchored them off the coast near Ulm.

Prince Jose retreated from Dusseldorf to Quatre Bras. Archduke Javi then assaulted Dusseldorf and was successful.

Meanwhile The Prussians under Marshal Miguel sallied out of Breslau to attack the Russians but the Russians retreated back to their newly conquered city of Danzig. The allies sent a messages to Tsar Toni (rang him up on his mobile) and his orders were to attack and it was the turn of the Prussians to retreat back to their city. This time the Prussians carried on retreating

on towards their capital Berlin. The Russians quickly besieged Breslau and on their first turn, just before the onset of winter they assaulted and took it.

In the western area of Europe, the British took the city of Limoges but with French blocking their path to Reims they stayed in the safety of the city. As Autumn turned to winter the French Army retreated to the city of Reims to its winter billets.

This ended the Campaign year of 1805, Russia has the most territory gaining 2 cities, although Prussia still has his full army intact. Austria has a foothold in the Low countries and Britain a foothold in France.

The points at the moment are as follows

France 5

Low Countries 0

Spain(Britain) 18

Austria 18

Prussia 0

Russia 12

For the next campaign I am doing a few changes as the game evolves, first is each army can be split into 1 to 3 corps which only the player knows the strength, to make this easier I am putting a few more roads on the map. I am also making a rule for scouting the corps when they are on adjacent areas. Also we have decided to the campaign movements by Email and then meet to fight the actual battles. After the battle we can get the campaign map out and complete some more moves.

As always will keep you posted

Phil

Waterloo 1805

BATTLE OF WATERLOO 1805

Last Friday night as part of the Lasalle Campaign we played our second battle. The Austrians having crossed the Alps and meeting up with their allies, moved into the low countries of Holland and Belgian (Dutch). The Dutch having already retreating along their lines of communications from the Russians, who had successfully invaded Prussia, now confronted the Austrians.

View of the Campaign Map from the Russian and Austrian side.

The Dutch (French) Force of Conquest Infantry Division and Cuirassiers Brigade arrive on the east side of the battlefield.

The Austrian Avante Garde Division with Hussar Brigade arrive advancing along the southern narrow edge of the table.


The Allied French Support appears but due to losses in the Battle of Nivelle, it contains only one Chasseur unit but Emperor Phil with lucky dice throwing has sent his best cavalry General Murat.


Both armies begin to deploy, the Dutch and French extend their lines across the length of the battlefield whilst the Austrian Hussars move at full pelt in an attempt to get around the Dutch Allied right flank.


The British and Russian Allied reserves arrive on the board at the same time.


On the Dutch far left flank, Uhlan lancers prepare to charge a Dutch foot artillery battery.


The Austrian Hussars begin to circle around the Dutch Right flank.


The Dutch Cuirassiers are blocked from charging by an infantry unit that takes the full brunt of the hussar charge. Just in time the French Chasseurs and their herioc general appears on the flank.

The French Chasseurs ignoring the Austrian hussars threatening their front , charge into the flank of the hussars who in turn were charging the poor Dutch Infantry and rout the hussars, but in the process their general is tragically wounded and sadly (for me, that is) will not take any more part in the battle.

The French and Hussar cavalry watch helplessly as the other Austrian Hussar unit rides over the infantry who could not form square in time and rout.

The Dutch allied cavalry seeking vengance charge the other two Austrian hussar units.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Dutch flank the Austrian uhlans charged the foot battery. The Artillery held firm and fired canister and the Austrian although taking a lot of casualties charged home but were forced to retreat after the artillery men put up stiff resistance. The cavalry fell back a short distance and the artillery reloaded their cannons with cannister ready to finish off the cavalry. But all of a sudden an artillery bombard hit them on the flank and forcing them to limber.

The Dutch Allied cavalry on the right flank again charge the Austrians.

The hussars are pushed back, but the Russian cuirassiers begin to go around the flank.

The Dutch center is being slowly pushed back by the Austrian Infantry with help from their British allies.

After routing two Austrian hussar units, the French Chasseurs are surrounded by enemy cavalry and are finally routed.

With the French Chasseurs gone and the Dutch cuirassiers floundering, the Dutch right flank is wide open.

The Dutch center was putting up a stiff resistance, and then with Jose, Prince of The Low Countries throwing 3 or 4 "ones" in a row, his line collapsed. The Dutch Army had reached its his Army breakpoint. The army retreated of the field with the Austrian allied Cavalry hot in pursuit

View of the campaign area after the battle. The Russians a still laying siege the Austrians at Breslau. The Dutch Army have retreated to reform at Dusseldorf.

The scores for the Players after two Battles is as follows

France 5

Low Countries 0

Spain(Britain) 15

Austria 15

Prussia 0

Russia 9

After the Battle the French chasseurs managed to rally and return in glory to their main army in France.

Unfortunately we didnt have time to play any more campaign turns but hopefully we should be able to finish of the 1805 campaign season this Friday at the club. Will keep you posted.