The prep work for my final of my series of Hundred Days' battles having been waiting around for months to be played out, I have finally and at last brought the thing to the table top. I'll just post a 'heads up' trailer here, with a bunch of pictures, and follow up with more set-up detail and battle narrative in due course.
Suffice to say, the Kavkaz campaign narrative will resume after a short interval.
The first four pictures show the starting positions of the armies before the first move.
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| View from behind the Prussian centre. Close to the camera is Pirch's II Army Corps. In the distance, Ziethen's I Corps is holding a salient line. |
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| View from the east, overlooking Thielmann's III Army Corps |
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| View from the east, overlooking the Cavalry Corps of Pajol and Exelmans. In the distance, Count Lobau's VI Corps, and elements of the Imperial Guard |
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| View from behind French lines: VI Corps and Imperial Guard; in the middle distance, Gerard's IV Army Corps is about to assault the Prussian lines about Ligny itself. |
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| Opening clash: Pajol's light horse encounters the Prussian III Corps cavalry. |
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| IV Corps d'Armee advances |
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| Imperial Guard advances to support IV Corps; VI Corps prepares to move to the right. A little bit of a traffic problem in the making, methiks! |
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| General Vandamme's III Corps. For the whole of the first turn, this formation did nothing, apart from a desultory (i.e. ineffective) bombardment of Saint-Armand, because the activation roll for all three of the formations that could move, was a '1'! |
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| Prussian II Corps moving towards the right flank. |
Of this action, more anon. The game has just started; more to come.
Another good looking battlefield....don't forget the ammunition supply......Regards
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Tony, but it's really beyond the scope of this (battle) game system. But you are right to bring the matter up, and may be something to consider another time.
DeleteIf I were to run a 'proper' Hundred Days' campaign, rather than the series of refights as I have done, the logistics considerations will be part of the overall scheme.
Cheers,
Ion
The battlefield certainly looks full and “busy” Ion. I bet you’ll have a job and a half simply moving all the figures - certainly no 2 minute job. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
Hi Geoff -
DeleteYes, it is taking a while, but I'm conducting this one in a pretty relaxed manner (even if the troops are finding the going strenuous). Ziethen's II Corps is just remnants now, but Gerard's IV Corps - especially 12th and 14th Divisions - have been pretty roughly handled. The depleted 14th Division is facing a powerful counter-attack by two Division-sized Brigades from Theilemann's III Corps, crossing the stream at Mont Potreaux. I really ought to have included the map in this posting!
Cheers,
Ion
A fine looking game there Ion, but I would struggle to move so many figures, quite happy to just move a few bases around these days!
ReplyDeleteSteve J.
DeleteLarge or small - so long as it's fun. But the occasional large game on my little board is, I find, good for my soul. Or something. On this occasion, though, certain issues cropped up that started me asking myself if maybe I'm stretching the Portable War Games system a little too far. There seemed to be problematic issues with the combat system. That will be a topic for the After Battle Report.
I'm now considering having a good long look at the rule set I cobbled together for my brief 'Vales of Lyndhurst' series of postings from four years ago (October/November 2018). Very similar to PW, but using my adaptation of 'Command and Colours' combat system.
Cheers,
Ion