1809 Somewhere in Germany part 5, the Finale and defeat

Well on Wednesday we got to finish the last few moves of the game. To say my position was precarious after last week was an understatement as from the first roll the Austrians won the initiative and continued to drive in my right flank

collapsing flank

This caused yet another of my battalion s to break, only the church was acting as a bulwark. As fast as I could the troops on my left flank were trying to cross over to hold the line. However they had their own problem as the Brunswick Hussars continued to cause havoc before blown horses forced them to retire.

Brunswick Hussars continue their carnage

The remnant flee for it

Back in the centre things were getting worse, the decision was made to save the artillery and they were limbered up to begin moving off the battlefield. However due to routing units in my lines I had a large number of morale tests to take. Those battalions that had been going toe to toe with the Austrians saw their courage finally spent and fled from the foe. Suddenly the whole brigade need to test and promptly failed. In one move 4 battalions out of the 5 dispersed and were removed from the field.

The panic setting in (red dice)

C-in-C left rather isolated

The Guard has broken!! (well not actually guards)

Victorious Austrians

At this point we called the game, quick order changes were given to my left flank brigades to fall back while I would try and hold the Church to give everything else a chance to flee. Despite the defeat I have really enjoyed this game. I am growing to like the General de Brigade rules, a lot more complicated than say Black Powder which are fine for a club night, but give a good feel for the period. I need to work on the order system as I often got caught out not realising certain actions were unavailable depending on brigade orders. At one stage the Westphalians ended up advancing into a position where they had to test for morale due to a routing unit and promptly faltered.

Hopefully over the weekend I'll get some pictures put up of the last few Napoleonic units I've painted up.