A Napoleonic Skirmish

With the club being in their temporary venue we are unable to play larger games as we have to pack up each night, so we decided to play a small Napoleonic Skirmish game using Black Powder. The scenario was that a Westphalian Division had to fight its way down the road and exit the table on the left hand side. A small Brunswick detachment were acting as a blocking force until relieved by some Prussians. Neither side new when these reinforcements would arrive, being determined by rolling a D12 each bound and once the total reach 200 they began to enter the table at a random point on the defenders side of the table.

The Forces - Westpahalians
1st brigade - 1 Jager battalion, 2 infantry battalions, 1 9lb gun
2nd brigade - 1 Chasseur regiment, 2 infantry battalions
3rd brigade - 4 Polish infantry battalions, 1 6lb gun
4th brigade - 1 French infantry battalion, 2 Dutch infantry battalions, 1 6lb gun
5th brigade - 1 Grenadier battalion, 2 infantry battalions

The Bruswickers
1st brigade - 1 hussar regiment, 1 light infantry battalion
2nd brigade - 2 infantry regiments, Sharpshooter skirmishers, 2 9lb guns

The Prussian Reserve
1st brigade - 2 Dragoon regiments
2nd brigade - 1 Grenadier battalion, 3 infantry regiments, 1 Brunswick light infantry battalion, 1 9lb gun

The battlefield

The Westphalians had to cross R to L

The game did not begin well for the Westphalians taking 3 moves before 2nd brigade advanced onto the table, led by the chasseurs. On spotting the waiting Brunswickers they began to swing North to try and flank their position while awaiting the rest of the army. The next few moves were all about getting the Westphalians onto the table.

Brunswicker's in position

The first Westphalians arrive

First 3 brigades move into position

Eventually I was able to bring on the 4th and 5th brigades who both swung South to try and capture the town and open the road up. Meanwhile to the North the polish brigade continued on a march to get behind the Brunswick position. The 1st and second brigades began there assault as the Chasseurs first held a charge from the hussars before sweeping them from the field. this forced one of the Brunswick regiments to form square, right in front of the deployed artillery. Now at this point we all thought they were doomed, however despite taking a horrendous number of hits from musketry and artillery fires it took 5 turns before they eventually broke, at the same time that the Westphalian 1st brigade was also forced to retire broken.

We'll go this way

Brunswick light infantry deploy

Form square

Finally the Dutch got themselves into position and swept aside the Brunswick light infantry before turning their attention to the artillery deployed on the hill. Surprisingly the artillery managed to hold up the Dutch for a couple of turns. To the North the poles continued on their advance and looked likely to achieve our objective and exit the table when the Prussian brigades made a timely arrival, crashing into the Poles and halting their advance. The Brunswickers in the center were finally broken under the severe pressure, but they had done enough to hold up the Westpahalians to prevent their escape.

The Dutch charge in

Now for the artillery

With time running out and needing to clear up we called the game a draw. Our conclusion was that this is a rather difficult scenario for the attacker as you must decide to either try and outflank the position or smash into it.