Wednesday 13 March 2013

Eckmuhl (sort of)

Here's 1 of the battles we had just before the new year. The battle was roughly based on the Eckmuhl scenario from GdB. Cameron was commanding the Austrian forces while David jnr and myself were in control of the French. This was my 2nd time of trying the scenario and the 1st time I was gubbed by Robert after some initial success.
  
The French had to take both BUA's for victory and also the forest for a stunning victory. We didn't have 100% of the troops that were listed in the scenario so we filled in with what we had. After a short discussion with David I was charged with assaulting the church yard.
  
Austrian forces from Cameron's collection defending the village on our right (48 man Austrian battalions can look pretty frightening!).

Russian cuirassiers filling in for Austrian light cavalry exploiting our lack of French cavalry.

Minifig line (filling in as legere) getting caught in the open! I'm pleased to say that young David has finished 1 battalion of AB legere and is now well on the way to finishing a 2nd!
   
David's French look to be on the assault. David was given the task of taking the right hand village however it looked to be a very hard nut to crack.
     
After Cameron crushed my legere battalion he slowed down my assault by forcing more battalions into square. However the assault did continued if very slowly.
    
David seemed to be doing a merry dance in front of Cameron's position.
  
For some reason David didn't get to grips with Cameron's troops. It's an interesting scenario as the French have a superior force in quality however the numbers are pretty much balanced and the small Austrian cavalry unit serves as a wee bit of a head pickler for the French commanders.
  
My troops preparing to assault the church.

The assault finally went in and the 1st couple of battalions were given a bloody nose however next round I did manage to crack the defence taking the church and things were looking a little fragile on the Austrian left.
  
Young David was up against it on our right however Cameron's own assault thankfully faltered. In the end we ran out of time. We called it a draw or a tactical victory for Cameron. It was a really enjoyable game and both this game and the 1 with Robert raised some interesting questions especially over assaulting BUA's. It will be interesting to try it out again at some point when we have the right troops painted up.
  
To finish here are a couple of new French command bases by young David. These have been needed for a good while now!

Figures from Old Glory.

Happy wargaming!!

15 comments:

John (VonBlucher) said...

Paul,
Great looking game. The way your getting units painted, soon you won't need to substitute for missing figures.

Millsy said...

Magnificent! Looks like great fun. Thanks for sharing.

PS. You need to spend an hour basing your trees. It took the gloss off slightly seeing the cardboard bases ;-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Gonsalvo said...

Looks good; I am guessing the GdB scenario is based upon the attack upon the village of Laichlimg?

lesfoudresdelaigle said...

Un grand bravo très belles photos et de superbes figurines, j'adore ta peinture sur du 15mm. A bientôt Christian

Phil said...

Great looking game Paul, I do like figures (of course!) but also the church, very nice building!
Cheers,
Phil.

Paulalba said...

Hi John,
Thanks and you are right should be able to hit the missing troops soon. I am finding the scenarios a good way to hit the units that are lacking from our collection. Even if the are not the exact regiment at least they will be the same unit type.

Hi Millsy,
Thanks, yeah the trees were borrowed from my friend Dunc (he was also concerned he hadn't completed the bases! ;0), I have taken note of what terrain pieces I need to do and they will hopefully be done with airbrush and based the same as my troops to match the matt. The church bugs me as I want to go to ton on it however it will do until the units are in a good place.

Hi Peter,
Thanks and yes it will be, part of Davout's command assaulting. Apparently the cream of the french army? Can't remember muh about French units as my heads in Prussians/Russians. Once My Allies are under control I'll swtich to reading on the French.

Bonjour Christian and Phil,
Merci for your kind words!

Hopefully next I'll post some pis of my completed Silesian Kurassier or a wee post on my basing process.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Nice looking game!

Christopher

Mike said...

Very good looking game and sounds like it was fun. My Austrian cuirassier have pretended to by Prussian once or twice.

Ken said...

Splendid looking game. Nice to see french battalions with fanions and not just eagles!

Gonsalvo said...

In 1809, Davout's Corps was certainly the cream of the French army, especially absent the Guard (which was still on its way from Paris at this point in 1809). Indeed, as I reviewed James Arnold's account of the battle, he relates how Davout directed Bertheneze to assault and seize a village. "With my lone regiment?" he asked, somewhat flabbergasted. "Of course!" replied the Iron Marshal.

GaryA said...

Blimey, nearly missed this one and that would've been a shame. Great post and inspiring piccies. Good job!

:O)

warpaintjj said...

Hi Paul, I simply love your 15mm collection - the AB stuff is great but so are the Minifigs infantry, never under estimate those, we have thousands! Those buildings look like Faller or similar, I especially like the church. Thanks for your continued support at marauder moments and on the GdeBrgd site- maybe we can prop each other up?
Thanks for posting, best wishing,
JJ

Stig of the Dump said...

looks like it was a great game, roughly how long did it take to play?

Steve

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much again for everyones kind comments! Work is slowing my free time down again but managed to upload some of Craig's collection, very nice the are.

Ken, we eventually decided to move away from eagles only :0) the flags for the lads do perfect 18mm french flags for 1812.

JJ yeah you put into words what I had been thinking myself over on GdB.

Steve the game took roughly 6hours with snack breaks. Was good fun but we don't play enough to solve the grey areas we hit.

Best
Paul

Steve h said...

Hi Paul

Great looking game! i'm hoping to do the same in 28mm after the next 18 months of painting austrians...

cheers
Steve