Game of the Napoleonic war, Italy 1796.
Using Sharp practice in 28mm.
Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Jeremy Dowd.
AAR by David Maltman, as playing the Austrian commander it may be a bit biased against the Imperialist Frogs.
Players
French : Chris Caves, David Brown, David Smylie.
Austrians : David Taylor, Stephen Casement and David Maltman.
I has been reported that Napoleon, on being asked what a soldier most needed in war, answered, “A full belly and a good pair of shoes.” It is the second of these which forms the basis of this game.
It is August 1796 and the Austro Hungarian army in Italy are preparing for the French invasion of Lombardy. As part of this preparation it is decided to get a supply of boots to the Austrian army. The French Armee d'Italie have been campaigning in the Alps. Their uniforms are in tatters and many of the boots are completely worn out. A French spy in the area has got wind of the boot resupply and Napoleon has dispatched a force to capture the boots and rescue the spy. Word of the spy and the possible French intercept has reached the local Austrian commander so he has sent a force to meet the boot wagon at the village of Antipasti.
The forces.
Both sides are fairly evenly balanced each with :
- 2 line companies of 4 groups of 8 each, one of the French companies having only 2 groups but of better quality.
- 2 skirmisher groups of 1 group of 8.
- 1 unit of light infantry 1 group of 6.
- An ammunition wagon.
- Austrian have the wagon with the boots.
Leaders are a level III commander unassigned to any particular group, with some additional useful hangers on, such as a musician, physic, holy man. The musician being the most useful extra as it doubles the command radius of the leader to 18", allowing the activation of 3 units by the commander when his card is drawn, which could be up to 36" apart.
2 Level II commanders in charge of the line companies.
3 level I commanders attached to the skirmisher and light infantry groups.
Austrians have an additional level I corporal in charge of the boot wagon.
Victory conditions.
Major Austrian victory : Get the boot wagon off the table at point C and capture the spy.
Minor Austrian victory : Get the boot wagon off the table at point C.
Minor French victory : Get the boot wagon off the table at point A or B.
Major French victory : Get the boot wagon off the table at point A or B and rescue the spy.
The field of battle.
The French can deploy from either points A or B.
The Austrian boot wagon and its escorting unit of Grenzers deploy from point D. The rest of the Austrian units deploy from point C. The boot wagon has to leave the field from point C.
The unsuspecting citizens of Antipasti out taking the air before the armies arrive.
The Austrians started out with their senior commander and a skirmish unit interrogating the locals for the location of the spy. This turned out to be quite activation intense so we give up on that fairly quickly.
Meanwhile the wagon is ponderously working its way up the road towards the centre of the village, to meet up with a unit of Hungarian Fusiliers coming from the East. However, due to some bad dice rolling ( 3 ones on one turn, we may have a successor to Mr Smylies dice rolling crown ) they are nowhere near it. The Grenzers did not come on in the first turn so the boot wagon was very vulnerable.
The French brought a line company on from North with the main commander, heading for the Hungarian fusiliers. The Hungarian skirmishers move in to the vineyard to line the wall in preparation for this large French company.
Chris brought on the French light infantry from the western road. Some very good dice rolling got them within striking distance of the boot wagon. But the Grenzers finally deploy and get within shooting range of the French Light infantry, them having the only rifles on the table. Their shooting hits one soldier and the officer reducing his level by 1, to 0, so he is unable to activate the unit, thus giving the wagon a reprieve.
The view from behind the Grenzers.
The Austrian Fusiliers have come on from the east and head cross country towards the wagon, but their pace is slow. It was at this point the Austrian commander realised he had misunderstood that the wagon did not have to use the road, but could go cross country, but at a reduced speed ( 1d6 instead of 2d6 on the road ). This photo shows the position of most of the units now.
The 2nd French line unit comes on from the West and starts heading towards the village.
The new turn starts well for the Austrians. The Level III commander is activated and does 3 activations :
- The Hungarian Fusiliers fire at the French line to the north.
- The Hungarian skirmishers fire on the same unit.
Overall 2 kills and 3 shock on the French. - The Austrian Fusiliers get a good lick of speed to wards the wagons.
The wagons get activated and it's a 90 degree course change towards the Austrian Fusiliers
The Grenzers move up to fill up the road, putting them between the wagons and the French light infantry.
The French light infantry ( using blue flags to activate ) move out through the gap in the wall unto the road, but with low dice rolls don't get very far.
The Austrians are in a much better position than 2 turns ago.
Meanwhile, back in the centre the Hungarian Fusiliers and the French line infantry and still slogging it out in an uncontrolled firefight. The Hungarian skirmishers providing additional firepower from behind the wall of the vineyard, but with an eye on the approaching French skirmishers coming from the North. The Austrian skirmishers move in behind the Hungarians with the intent to blunt the French line infantry coming in from the West.
The view from the French lines of the firefight you can see that one group of French skirmishers are nearly at the vineyard wall. The other group have passed through the line infantry to engage the Hungarians.
The second French line unit attacks the Hungarians. Due to some careful previous maneuvering it's not a flank attack, just. Due to good dice rolls the Austrians manage to win the melee. The French officer is killed and the Austrian officer is knocked out, but recovers on the next turn. The frogs are very careless with their officers, to misquote Oscar Wilde “To lose one officer, Capitaine Smylie, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.”
The French light infantry attacked the Grenzers. after 2 rounds of fighting the French were dead and the Grenzers down by 2 men, but still a going concern.
Back at the vineyard the French have crossed over the wall and are moving down towards the Hungarian skirmishers. It's going to get violent amongst the vines.
The French line take another charge at the Hungarians but fail to make contact.
The Hungarians skirmishers in the vineyard fire at the French skirmishers with no effect.
The Austrian Fusiliers move up towards the centre to relieve the Hungarians. One of the groups was detached from the column, effectively under the commanders control. to go back east as defence for the commander or a block between the wagons and the French skirmishers should they get through the Austrian skirmishers in the vineyard.
The boot wagon slowly plods its way east to safety.
The firefight in the centre finally bring some results for the French with the Hungarians losing 4 kill in one French volley. You can see the depleted ranks, but they still fight on.
The Hungarian skirmisher and the Grenzers get into positions to bring fire on the French column to the west, forcing them to fall back.
The French skirmishers attack the Austrian skirmishers pushing them back.
You can just see the Austrian commanders little group in the bottom of the photo, vulnerable but still far enough away with all the intervening walls to be ok.
At this point Jeremy decided to activate the French spy who took a pot shot at the Grenzers. I was having none of that, so sent them of to run the rapscallion down, so off he scarpered to the West.
The Hungarian skirmishers kept the French line to the west busy.
The Hungarian Fusiliers continued their firefight with the big French line unit, attrition on both sides.
The Austrian Fusiliers charge into the large French line in the centre and get 4 kills and push 2 of it's groups slightly back.
A second attack of the French skirmishers in the vineyard breaks the Hungarian skirmishes and they flee. The Austrian commanders group is now potentially vulnerable.
The group of Austrian fusiliers get close to the commanders group so making him safe but still within range of the French skirmishers.
The boot wagon continues to plod its way to the exit point. There being little chance of the French now capturing it.
At this point Capitaine Smylie did the only honorable thing and ordered a general retreat. Typical French surrender monkeys, would not fight to the death, and they want to have an Empire. As we Hapsburgs know, if you are not prepared to sacrifice masses of peasants you do not deserve to have an Empire.
So the game was declared a minor Austrian victory as the wagon could not be stopped from exiting the table, but the spy had slunk away.
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Editorial comment.
Some of you may have seen this photograph doing the rounds.
While it is a perfectly genuine photo of the state of the dealt cards a few turns into the game, red being the colour of the Austrian cards. There is no truth to the perfidious French propaganda of dodgy card dealing or shuffling, it's fake news, fake news.
More than one person shuffled the cards and the whinging French still complained. They should look up the definition of random.
By the nature of how the flag cards need to be kept together until used and then put on the discarded pile, there will always be the possibility they will group after shuffling.
The only way to properly shuttle them is to use a riffle shuffle. But, it damages the cards at a much faster rate than an overhand shuffle and with the Sharpe practice cards costing £11 a pop from the Lardy boys web site I know I would not use it on my set. The French were offered on many occasions to shuffle the cards themselves, but always declined. Just shows they had no confidence in being able to do any better.
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Photos curtesy of the Editor.
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