1/72 Napoleonic Battle 1812 (Part 1/2)
Date: November 06, 2008.
Hi,
Our club member Geert has painted a lot of 1/72 figures, mostly Hät, and a small part of them can be seen on the pictures. He does like a lot my 54mm rules and asked me to use them for a battle with his figures. We played 2 against 2 in a more or less balanced deployment. Geert on the Russian right and Steven on the left. Ronny took the French right and me the left.
In my rule, I use standard battalions of 8 figures in 54mm and 4 figures for cavalry regiments. For the conversion to 1/72 figures, the stands Geert made used 8 stands in a unit for infantry and 4 for cavalry. The Russians received more artillery but had less cavalry. The French had a little more infantry but had to take the artillery redoubt in the centre. The French advanced over the whole line and on the opposing side, Steven moved forward with his grenadiers. Geert took a defensive deployment with two battalions in line supported by 2 more.
On their right he deployed has artillery, and cavalry. To counter Steven's advance I swiftly moved the larger part of my units to the centre. Steven received supporting fire from the redoubt and after a number of close fights the Russians returned to their inital position, also due to the threat of the two units of carabiniers of Ronny on the far right. They clashed with the Russian cuirassiers supported by the guard dragoons. The cuirassiers were swept away and de dragoons forced to fall back with the breakthrough. Ronny redeployed one of his carabineers units to threaten the centre.
Steven attached his general to his elite dragoons and charged the now unsupported carabiniers and swept them from the field breaking trough on the second carabinier unit who succeeded to stop the Russians.
I wasn't much inspired as I was more occupied with course of the battle and the use of the rule than with winning the battle. I therefore also failed to coach Ronny. When he started wargaming, Ronny always dashed forward, but has now turned into an overcautious player. On the other side of the table, the strong artillery of Geert has weakened my veteran unit. I charged with 2 infantry units his units in line and a horse battery with my hussars. Both charges were driven of with losses and again the artillery took it's toll.
My command started to get exhausted, with no other option but to retreat, and this while Ronny had not yet committed his infantry. Steven's situation had looked perilous for a moment due to the carabinier charges, but his redeployment and the dragoon counter charge made him take control of the situation. Geert stayed calm in in control on his side of the table, not giving me any opportunity to exploit. I failed to cooperate with Ronny, and he failed to coordinate his cavalry advance with this infantry. It was fun and the rules proved to be flexible for the use in other scales.
Dirk Donvil, Belgium.
Many thanks to Mr. Donvil.