Tuesday 13 March 2018

Battle of Gorodeczna, 1812

Background

By late summer, Napoleon's Grande Army stand poised to capture Smolensk, deep in central Russia. However, to the south of Napoleon's advance,the Russian 3rd Army of the West took to the offensive and on 27th July, General Tormassov defeated Reynier's Saxon Corps.

Tabletop,with Allied base line to right
With the right wing of his advance now threatened, Napoleon had no choice but to order Prince Schwarzenberg's Austrian Corps to unite with Reynier and his Saxons to counter-attack the Russian Advance.

Just prior to the battle of Gorodeczna was a cavalry skirmish near Tychin. The Russian 'Vladimir Dragoons', 'Loubny Hussars' and some Cossacks were driven back by General Frolich's Cavalry Brigade.
Scenario Map
Frolich's cavalry consisted of 'Kaiser (Emperor's Own) Hussars' and 'Hessen-Homburg Hussars' and was considered the best light cavalry brigade in the Austrian Army. These hussars located the Russian camp despite being screened by General Chaplitz's force (Pavlograd Hussars, Alexandria Hussars, three infantry battalions and 24 guns).

Frolich immediately informed his superiors about the situation and Prince Schwarzenberg send him some infantry reinforcements to exploit what he had found.





Russian Jaeger Regiment

The Austrians were eager to avenge the defeat at Kobrin and resumed their advance. They met Tormasov's army near Gorodeczna. It is estimated that there were 13,000 Saxons and 25,000 Austrians facing Tormasov's 18,000 Russians.

The Game

Staged on March 9th & 16th  by John, using his huge collection of Austrians & Russians, supplemented by Mikey N's new Saxon Napoleonics and fought over an 8' x 6' table.

Russian Cavalry Regiment
Shako were selected as the rule set for the game and it was  scheduled to run from 11:00am to 16:00pm (15 game turns). In actual fact we managed to run through 10 game turns in the first week so John extended the game duration to 20 game turns to ensure two balanced weeks of game play....

The scenario has a couple of specific rules,notably that some commanders are classed as 'Charismatic' and can change orders immediately (like the French), everyone else suffers a turn's delay.

Additionally all Russian players get an additional '+1' on command rolls Russians deploy first,Austrians arrive at umpire's discretion and entry points are pre-planned.

As noted by John this is one of the few Napoleonic battles where there were actually no French troops involved.

Early stages of game in play
Victory Points are assigned to each side,with the Russians getting 1 VP per Allied unit destroyed and the Allies getting 1 VP per unit exited off the Russian base line.

Terrain & Weather: Marshy areas and the river are only crossable by infantry at half speed,other troop types may only cross by bridges. Woods are as per Shako rules. Weather is warm and clear.


Off the Work bench - Mike W, 13/03/18

What's on the Workbench, Tuesday 13th March?


Grenadiers awaiting paint job!
Vaqueros and Adventurers
Well there's the Tres Villas Grenadier company! 8 x 28mm Boot Hill figures plus dismounted versions of the 6 x Boot Hill Vaqueros and 4 x Texian Adventurers. 

The Vaqueros will bolster the two Tajano companies I currently have and the Adventurers will add more colour to the Texian Volunteer companies.


Juan Seguin in Mexican Army Uniform
Amongst the Vaqueros is Jean Seguin, Captain of the Tejano company and survivor of the Alamo... he is a somewhat controversial figure in that he supported Texas Independence and fought against Santa Anna but later he ran foul of Texan politics and ended up in the Mexican Army fighting against the USA in the Mexican-American War. He ended his life back in Texas, where he died in 1890.


Zapadores
The mounted versions of these figures will be tackled in coming weeks along with some additional Mexican regular Cavalry.

Also 4 x Boot Hill Zapadores to enlarge the existing small company of same!






Whats' Off the Workbench...

Yvon Barnikov's Swedes
As expected I completed the regiment of 12 x 28mm North Star 1672 Cavalry, painted as von Barnikov's Swedes in Dutch service.

I'm reasonably pleased with this unit but the colour combinations of the uniform were not as pleasing as I'd hoped. I added orange sashes to the figures and this brightened the figures up a little - so pleased with that decision.


Yukatan Activo Militia Grenadiers
The other figures off  the workbench this week were a company of 8 x 28mm Boot Hill Mexican Grenadiers plus supporting Officer, Sergeant and Standard Bearer for the Yukatan Militia plus a drummer I painted up to go with the Tres Villas Perminate Battalion I'm working on - see above...


Finished Zapadores Company,with Officer
Additionally I completed the 4 additional Zapadores, I customised these a little - swapping around their tools and adding slung muskets over their shoulders - all painted,based and matt varnished!

Yukatan Activo Militia Grenadiers, again!
With Drummer for the Tres Villas Grenadiers!

Tuesday 6 March 2018

Off the Work bench - Mike W, 06/03/18

Whats' On the Workbench, Tuesday 6th March?

Well I opted to paint a regiment of 12 x 28mm North Star 1672 Cavalry, modelling them as Swedes in Dutch Service and maintain the ability to swap out flags to allow redeployment for specific scenarios.  I have a hankering to be able to use them as Germans in Dutch Service or just plain Germans!

Horses being prepared
Men being prepared
I'm not 100% certain this regiment was actually in Dutch service during the Anglo-Dutch Wars but I liked a picture of the regiment as seen on the League of Augsburg website <here> - the unit in question painted back in 1993!

The unit in question is the von Barnikov Regiment, with navy blue coat and trousers with sky blue cuffs and linings with yellow trims.

Pictured are the horses and men as they were being prepared for undercoats - cleaning off flash and filing mold lines is key to a good finish to every figure....

The flag is what also caught my attention and I have reconstructed it below to be printed and used when figures complete

Anyway as you can guess the figures are not yet completed, maybe another day's worth of touching-up and then dipping and basing. Hopefully finished unit next week.

The yet to be completed von Barnikov Regiment

So what has come Off the Workbench, this week?

Just a random 28mm vignette from Wargames Foundry of five Generals huddled around a table and pouring over maps of a battle they are all involved in. The figures were obtained from eBay at a good price and although a little small (nearer 25mm than 28mm) and also designed for early Marlburian Wars settings - I'll be using these as a Command stand in some scenarios.
Dipped awaiting finishing touches

So I forgot to take a picture of the raw figures before I started painting so instead here are a couple - one just after dipping and the other after matt varnish and basing applied.
Final Vignette

FYI - maps were drawn with felt tip pens before being varnished, keeping to a few simple colours gives the impression of more detail than there actually is!