"The Battle of Fulda", the what if Napoleonic wargame after Leipzig part 2!

Everything was in place for the game to go either way............but the dice gods were watching!

Every turn you had to roll to see who moved first, fired first etc...., Richard charged his Legere into the Schutzen, they were lucky they were able to form before they were hit but the main issue here is his Corps commander is within 2 inches and any casualties caused on his unit will cause a D20 to be rolled and the amount of casualties caused is rolled could kill him, they were lucky.....

This is something that tickled me, these casualties on a Russian column are from his own rocket battery, fired 7 times and it only caused two friendly casualties....... 

Here they come again, Russian spirit, Lee's frustration............

All that cavalry and a big gap..........

Trying a little David Bailey, ruined by a Russian........

The Prussians crest the hill..........

The scene of battle at this time, the Prussians are steaming ahead.........

John throws caution to the wind and launches his cavalry forward against lines of infantry and squadrons of cavalry............

He slowly dismantles the entire Prussian left flank, wins round after round of melee, the only fly in the ointment was a drawn result which he won next round, we couldn't believe the Prussians run of luck on the dice, when he had to roll for pursuit checks he would pass them comfortably and retire in good order..........

We then felt a disturbance in the force and the mood changed, we had joked that we should wake Ray as he was on nights but we needn't have worried as Surjit had rang him earlier and woke him not realising he was not at the game, how we laughed...........

A morale check has gone badly and a hole has appeared in my weak lines, at this stage it was about exchanging volleys............

Lee steadies himself again for another assault, 3rd or 4th time is the charm?...........

Still waiting on a charge on a very weak point of my line, they never came.......

French cavalry rush forward to fill gaps.......

Ray sides with the Prussians, smug shit.........

The Legere after a Russian artillery barrage finally hits and morale causes them to fall back, is the way finally open for the Russians......

John has now caused routing and Brigade checks for the Prussians, entire brigades are falling back, Surjit has rolled nothing higher than a 3 on two dice 3 times........

I drop my Poles back to form a secure line..........

The Legere (disordered) rush forward and slam the door shut on the Russian columns.......

Ammunition on most artillery had run dry for me and the Russians by this stage (only cannister left) but what's this.......an ammunition wagon appears but too late......

A deflated, grim looking, couldn't roll well to save his life, blogging, sweating but in his natural environment blog whore......

Richard charges but is met by two Prussian squadrons.........

Lee and his Russians threw himself and them forward time and time again but to no avail, no luck again with the dice or in fairness his position, I actually started to feel pity for him near the end, this infuriated Lee no end........

Richard has routed both the Prussian squadrons and pursued and smashed into a trailing unit behind.........

A better view and the two routing Prussian cavalry.........

Richard routed the third cavalry squadron........

2 of these routing units would disperse after failing another brigade check which if the game continued would have brought on another divisional check............

John received man of the game (failing at not looking smug but I don't think he was trying not to), never lost a melee and caused brigade and divisional checks within the Prussian army.......

The game ended there with Postie adding up the victory points, 1 to 5 points difference is a minor victory, 6 to 10 points difference is a major victory, we got a 12 points difference (18-6) and Postie declaring a bloody thrashing victory!

In fairness the Prussians and their allies had no luck, never won a melee, failed so many morale rolls, failed brigade checks and got their asses handed to them and then we (the French) started to feel sorry for them, I think this hurt the most........

Good game, great result, well for the French anyway............poor Lee's dice luck continues, the only thing that could have made this better if Ray had been a Prussian.....hold on he was for a while!!!!!!!

Napoleonic "Battle of Fulda" 26th of October 1813, a fictitious battle after Leipzig part 1!

6 Rejects turned up on Saturday for a 15mm napoleonic game and a fictitious battle after the battle of Leipzig between seven countries, France, Italy and Poland on one side and Prussia, Austria, Sweden and Britain on the other.

"After his defeat at Leipzig, Napoleon retreated to Erfurt with the intention of then moving to Frankfurt, casualties at Leipzig had been severe, 68,000 men killed, wounded or taken prisoner and 300 artillery pieces lost. The French have implemented a plan  to stop the Allies from slowing down the withdrawal by taking various units from their own divisions and forming a rearguard corps with instructions to hold up any enemy troops that are following the main army.
                                                            The Allies not slow on recognising that an attack on the French line of March could be an easy victory, thus detachments from the various armies have been combined into a corps to pursue and attack the French while the rest of the army is attacking various French strongholds and garrisons in the surrounding area. Some corps are quickly trying to outmaneuver Napoleon by cutting off his line of retreat!"

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"The Game: The French have learnt that the fast approaching Prussians are only about half an hour away so have taken up a defensive line blocking their advance at the town of Fulda. The French must stop the Prussian advance to win the game, the Prussians must win so they can fall on the rest of the French army retreating only a few miles away.
                                                 The game is already set up for the battle to start fighting as I know you all want blood and to start the game. Artillery ammunition is limited due to heavy fighting in the last few weeks, thus supplies are low!"

*Kind words and description supplied by our benevolent overlord and all round good guy Postie!

The French (Richard, John and myself) looked at the table and saw our doom, the Allies (Lee, Surjit and Smithy) saw better things but the dice gods saw something else maybe?

We also (French) at the beginning had to roll a dice to see how many of our units were conscript class, I was the only unlucky one with just one Polish battalion being conscript, the Prussians had a lot more due to the make up of their army (infantry and cavalry).......

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Orders of Battle
The French
c/o recently promoted General Ricardo Corps Commander

1st Infantry Division (French) c/o Richard
1st Brigade: 21st (2 battalions)/ d'illyne(1 battalion) both line class/ 24th legere (1 battalion) elite class (french)
2nd Brigade: 4 battalions of the 5th (italian) line class, 2 medium batteries of artillery (one was second class/italian).

2nd Infantry Division (Polish) c/o Francis
3rd Brigade: 33rd line regiment (3 battalions)/  4th legere elite class (1 battalion) (french)  Light Cavalry
4th Brigade: 1 battalion each from the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 8th line regiments (polish), 1 medium and 1 light battery of artillery.

3rd Cavalry Division c/o John
5th Brigade: 1st and 5th Hussars both line class (french) Heavy Cavalry
6th Brigade: 15th Lancers/1st Chasseurs a Cheval both line class (polish)

4th Cavalry Division Reserve c/o Richard but divided with John early on......
7th Brigade: 15th and 23rd Dragoons both line class (french)
8th Brigade: 3rd and 10th Cuirassiers both line class (french)

The Prussians
c/o recently promoted General Smithy Corps Commander

1st Brigade: 3 battalions of the 1st west Prussian line regiment/ West Prussian Grenadiers (1 battalion)/ 1 battalion each of Westphalian and Elbe Landwehr (2) conscript class/ a battalion of the1st schutzen elite class (half strength)/Elbe conscript Landwehr cavalry (prussian), 1 light battery of artillery
2nd Brigade: 3 battalions of the 1st Silesian line regiment/ 1 battalion Silesian Grenadiers elite class/ 2 battalions of Silesian Landwehr conscripts (prussian)/ a battalion of the1st schutzen elite class (half strength)/ Silesian conscript Landwehr cavalry (prussian), 1 light battery of artillery

1st Russian Division c/o Lee
3rd Brigade: 2 battalions each of the Polotek and Elets regiments line class (russian)
4th Brigade: Smalonel Light Dragoons line class (russian)/ Life Cuirassiers elite class (swedish), 1 battery of heavy artillery and 1 battery of the royal horse artillery heavy rockets (british)

5th Brigade: 5th Brandenburg Dragoons line class/ 1st Kurmork conscript Landwehr cavalry (prussian)

6th Brigade: 7th West Prussian Hussars line class/ 1st Westphalian conscript Landwehr cavalry (prussian)

7th Brigade: 1st Kaiser Franz Hussars line class/ 4th Vecsey Hussars line class (austrian)

8th Brigade: 1st Silesian Cuirassiers line class/ 4th Magdeburg Cuirassiers line class (prussian)

1 battery of heavy prussian artillery.

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Some pics of the initial set up, no forces could be moved or changed just dice to see who gets initiative every turn!

A ruined monastery is a focal point of our defence and the italians have made good use of it..........

John and his light cavalry........

The town of Fulda..............

Smithy, Surjit, John and the Despoiler of dreams.......

Richard and Lee........looking hopeful but Lee's is misplaced because he will be facing my Polish boys.......

French cuirassiers and dragoons......

French hussars, chasseurs a cheval and lancers........

French infantry and legere............

My Polish and French infantry with two fronts to defend, the field is no penalty to moving.......

My left flank, the bridge.......and the river is unfordable due to heavy rain the night before.........

The heavy rockets of the RHA, this unit had a chequered game, very funny for the French though.......

The Russian, British and Swedish forces on my left flank..........

The French stand in defence of Fulda, the white markers denote first fire bonus........

The Prussians ready to advance on two fronts.........

Austrian and Prussian cavalry emerge from the tree line...........

The Russians start their advance throwing 4 columns of infantry across the bridge, now we debated whether the cavalry would have been a better idea first but other matters conspired to affect this decision.......

The legere await the onslaught, the bridge could only be crossed in column.......

The Prussians advance towards my division with schutzen out front protecting the line regiments and columns from damage........

My polish regiments backstep to deploy at rear of hill to deploy in a better line for defence......

The log jam at the bridge but the heavy artillery battery is letting it's presence be known.......

John is winding up the Prussians (Smithy and Surjit) with his steady advance towards and through their cavalry, Smithy was the c/o but as the Rejects know Surjit doesn't listen to or take orders whilst wargaming, the bickering was a constant source of amusement to the French and even the Russian player/ally Lee!!!!

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At this point we received a message from the high command to say there were no reinforcements coming and what you had was all you were getting........oh bugger!  

I'll stop here for now as there are more pictures and you're probably bored between all the words/pictures  and run out of tea, there will be a part 2 with the last of the pictures and the result which resulted in Postie having to make it up!