More SYW action

I finally received my rules and am in the midst of trying out my first "real" game using the entire set of rules. This encounter featured a very large Prussian army assaulting a Russian force defending an elevated position. The cavalry of both sides was lined up on the right Prussian flank so I could continue to test this part of the rules.

The Prussians had a very rough go of it. In the middle, their infantry took heavy losses from several Russian batteries. But on the third turn things really turned south. In the huge cavalry fight, the Russians not only won every mele, but rolled double sixes on two of them! This doubled the casualties and sent three Prussian regiments scrambling back. The Russian horse grenadiers rolled an 11 on their pursuit test, which meant they wouldn't even be unformed from the combat.
In the shot below you can see the results of the combat.

Here is yet another shot of the Russian's tremendous victory over the Prussian cavalry.

The shot below shows the devestating effect of the Russian artillery on the advancing Prussians.
One unit has already dispersed and a second has taken close to 25% casualties.

On this same turn, on the Prussian left, a battalion advancing in column was hit by a Russian battery which rolled double sixes, the third of the turn. In this case, the Prussian brigadier was killed and the battalion faltered, which stopped the attack cold for the foreseeable future.

I have learned that it is very costly to attack enemy artillery and that cavalry combat can be very unpredictable. It has been a lot of fun thus far!

SYW Pictures

As I said yesterday, my rebasing project is moving right along. I finished the last of the infantry tonight. Now I just have the Austrian cavalry and some Prussian hussars to go.
The picture to the left is from a test battle I put together to try to familiarize myself with the Die Kriegskunst rules. The Prussians were taking a serious beating from the Russians sitting behind a stone wall. I learned a few things about the firing mechanics, to say the least.

The second photo is of my Prussian heavy cavalry. I increased them from 16 to 20 figures. They are an intimidating force!

After this shot was taken the dragoons to the front clashed with some Russian hussars. The dragoons were victorious on both fronts, routing their opponents. But the dragoons' joy was short-lived as two regiments of Russian horse grenadiers were in support. They were far enough behind the hussars so as not to be unformed by their retreat, and they withstood the morale check. The next turn they convincingly revenged their countrymen.

Rebasing update

I need to accept the fact that sometimes it is best to add a post even if there aren't pictures to go along with the post. I am nearly finished with my rebasing project. It has been quite enjoyable to see the improvement in the stands and the units take their place on the field. Today I will finish the last of the infantry, two Prussian and three Bavarian regiments, each of two battalions. I will paint up four more batteries of Austrian guns and then about 72 cavalry figures to fill out my Austrian and Prussian hussars. I still have loads of figures, so I will try to add some more exotic units for some variety and then hopefully sell off the rest.

I have three months until my summer class. In weak moments I begin thinking about going through the same process with my AWI collection. After a hard day's work I find it very relaxing to go out into the garage and go through the process and seeing the results. It really goes pretty quickly once everything is set up. But there is more to do on my SYW collection before I can do anything else.

3rd General de Brigade game

On Saturday afternoon six of us gathered in my garage for a third General De Brigade game. Two of us had some experience, but the other four players were just getting acquainted with the rules. The game was a fictional scenario that had the British and Brunswickers trying to push beyond a bridgehead. The photo below shows the attack force just prior to setting out.

The allied strategy was to pin the French right and make its major attack on the weaker French left. The Brunswickers were particularly aggressive on the extreme left of the allied assault. One of the highlights of the game came on about the fourth turn when the 95th rifles rolled a double six. The French brigade commander was within range, so had to roll. The youngest member of our group, at 14, tossed snake eyes and saw his general run away in a panic!

The allied attacks on the left tied down most of the French forces, but at a very high price. Two highlander battalions took severe casualties while trying to drive off a French battery. The gunners were eventually driven off, but not until both highland units had suffered over 30% casualties.

The French commander, Tim, was very aggressive on the right flank. His swift counter-attack basically shattered the tightly packed Brunswickers and sent them fleeing back across the bridge.

The British attack on the French left, however, was much more successful. In the photo below the British unit fired a volley at long range and caused only one casualty, but the morale roll was a paltry three, so the threat was turned away.

In the last turn of the game, a second British unit charged a battery of horse artillery, which chose to stand. It passed morale, but was destroyed on the consequent mele. This created a hole in the French line which would be hard to plug as there were no reserves on this side of the battlefield

Everybody had a good time. We were able to get through seven turns in about four hours. Not bad considering our inexperience with the rules.