La Rothiere, 1st February 1814

The all day game we played in September was a Napoleonic battle using 15mm figures and the Age of Eagles rules.  This interesting encounter Napoleon forced to use elements of his elite Imperial Guard to halt the allies pressing towards Paris. However the only game report received is from the Bavarian commander (who took little part in the action).

LA ROTHIERE

A Bavarian Victory

It's the 1^st of February 1814, the Bavarians under Wrede have been ordered to converge with other allies on the French army.  This given the snowy conditions means largely marching to the sounds of the guns.

As the gallant Bavarians approach the French left at Morvillieres and Beauvole Farm, they wisely allow the attached Austrians under Frimont to lead the assault with his artillery heavy force into what could be a narrow bottleneck killing ground. 

Under Wrede's guidance, Frimont covered his left with artillery including his heavy battery, with his limited cavalry in reserve while his infantry took the centre and his right had further artillery held back a little to bombard Morvillieres.

The left succeeded in holding off significant enemy cavalry by way of the massed artillery fire, meanwhile the infantry centre just managed to repulse a large cavalry attack, then proceeded to follow up the enemy, so forcing the gap between Morvillieres and Beauvole Farm.  This was achieved with very limited losses by Frimont.

Frimont's success enabled Wrede's Bavarians to enter the field of battle by the close of the action, without of cause suffering any casualties or effectively even  getting their nice cornflower blue uniforms messed up.

Wrede has been reliably informed that elsewhere on the field of battle, large numbers of Russians, Austrians and even some Wurttembergers died, killing equally large numbers of French, so he can honestly report to his government at home that February has begun well for the Bavarians.

The Race For The Bridges

(A Rapid Fire WW2 Game)

Saturday the 10^th September 2011 saw the club put on three games in a day.  An all day game of Age of Eagles and two smaller games on the normal evening club night.

In the evening one game was a chariot race run by Simon and the other game was a Rapid Fire one put on by Michael W. This game was an Arnhem scenario called “The Race for the Bridges” where the first and third battalions of Para’s were ordered to make their way to the Arnhem road bridge to support Major Frost who was already there with the second Para.

The third Para arrived on turn one using the Tiger route with the first Para arriving on turn two using the Leopard route. The German player was given an SS training battalion to stop the initial advance and then had poor quality reinforcements arriving on turn two in the shape of Luftwaffe ground troops supported by a 222 A/C and a flakgun.  A further infantry company a Pak 40 and a Wespe 105mm self-propelled gun arrived from the south on turn three.

The Para’s could win if they got 16 figures off table on turn 9 and would draw if they got any figures off the eastern table edge.  The German player deployed in the few buildings that marked the edge of the town of Osterbeeck with his Pak 40 to block the main road supported by an MG Company and two infantry companies, a further two infantry companies were deployed in the woods north of the town.

Turn one saw the Para’s moving on to the table using the speed of the Recon Jeeps, pushing fast to reach the Eastern table edge and making contact with the Germans deployed in the woods who managed to destroy one of the jeeps but failed to stop the other two exiting on turn two.

By now the Luftwaffe Battalion had arrived on table and the German Commander chose to attack straight away throwing his armoured car, flak gun and infantry straight into the first Para’s main line of advance. This he succeeded doing with early casualties, but poor quality German troops facing up against elite Para’s was always going to be a mismatch fight.

With the Para’s causing 18 casualties to the Luftwaffe battalion and taking out all the flat gun crew as well as close assaulting the armoured car with grenades which destroyed the armoured car, they caused the German to fail his morale test forcing them to rout off table.  All  the time this fight was going on the rest of the Paras were racing across the table with any Jeep they could possibly get men crammed into, with only four more figures needed to exit the eastern edge to give them a victory.

During all this both side were bringing down artillery rounds with the Para fire being a lot more effective, destroying the German Pak 40 as well as the 105mm self-propelled gun.  By turn six there was no way the German player was going to stop the Para’s from successfully achieving their victory conditions with three more full turns to play.  So it was declared a clear victory for the Para’s and the British players.

 For more photos click here.