It was the great might of the Russian Empire facing off a retreating French & Allies column as winter ravages the landscape, one end of eth table being covered in snowy landscape whilst further to the south the snows were clearing.
Participants were:
FRENCH
Rupert, Dave, Steve & Mark
RUSSIANS
Phil, Nigel, Warren, Paul, Mike N, Mat (Friday only) & Mike W (Saturday Only)
UMPIRE
John
Setup and 5 Game turns were completed on Friday 4th March during which time the Russian forces closed most of the potential exit routes available to the French. Saturday 5th March saw most of the fighting as the French tried their best to punch a way out of the closing trap.
It'd be too tedious to add captions to all photos but below is a roughly sequential series of shots showing how the game developed, with a few notes added.
John noted - Eleven players at one time or another is a huge turnout and really makes it all worthwhile. It was great to see some old friends once again who also made a big effort so thanks for that Paul and Warren. I for one thought it went really well and everyone seemed to enjoy it and without too many umpirical slip ups as well, Phew!!
And most importantly of all the Umpire's judgement of the outcome was as follows:
Well, a tactical win for the French (not again I hear you groan!) by getting off all the baggage train and the best part of two Divisions plus the elite Brigade of Steve’s. Napoleon will be pleased. With no regular cavalry to dispute the movement of the French the Russians would have had to let them go. Although Phil’s Cossacks would have harried the rear meaning Steve’s cavalry would have had to deal with them, but he still had two brigades of Light cavalry to counter them plus his Cuirassier Brigade in reserve, plenty of resource in my view. Well done Frenchies.
However, strategically a good result for the Russians, Rupert's French Division of three Brigades was destroyed despite Rupert's valiant efforts to hold Liakhova against the might of Mikey, Paul and Nigel, a force too hard to resist. This has denied Napoleon valuable Frenchmen to assist with the retreat and will not go unnoticed amongst his Marshals plus Densisov is still in the field with a decent force despite losing his regular cavalry and one of his infantry Columns. Well done Ruskies.
