Battle of Rivoli 1797 - A 6mm wargaming using Volley & Bayonet 2nd Edition

Last Weekend was my first wargame of the year with the Rejects in Stuarts Shed-o-War, and for a change, it wasn’t Stuart running the game. Richard brought his 6mm MDF figures from Commission Figurines to the shed to refight the Battle of Rivoli in 1797.

This would be the fourth attempt at relieving the French siege of Mantua and as the Austrian commander, I was advised that troops and other resources were almost exhausted and unlikely to be replenished. The plan was to send a diversionary force further to the east and to catch and destroy the French forces east of Lake Garda, centred around Rivoli.

The game began with the enemy outposts having already been pushed back from La Corona to Rivoli. The Austrian players now had an opportunity to trap the French by attacking across the Trambolore Heights, assaulting the Rivoli Plain from the Adige. Simultaneously a separate division would march up the Osteria Gorge in an attempt to turn the French flank. A third detachment would also be sent over Monte Baldo to appear in the French rear. The question was, could these elements bring enough pressure to bear before the French reinforcements arrived? 

...and the answer was no, we couldn’t.

Surjit just couldn’t fight his way out of the Gorge to get into the flank of the French Position, and while I was able to take control of the Trambolore Heights, taking them broke my Brigades and exhausted the Division. 

In the end, we just didn’t have enough Brigades left in fighting condition to exploit any of our gains, and all the while more French reinforcements were marching onto the plain.

This was a great game, exciting right to the very end, and I think we have all decided we like Richard’s use of the Volley & Bayonet rules. I’ve no idea when he’ll be running another battle in this period, but the sooner the better as I thoroughly enjoyed this game, despite the hard-fought defeat!

Battle of Fessealair, 1796: A Remote game using Volley & Bayonet 1st Edition

Sunday's game in the Shed-o-War had to be canceled because our umpire for the game had fallen ill with Covid (yes folks, it hasn't gone away!). Thankfully he is up to date with his vaccines and while he felt a bit grotty, he was still well enough to host a game remotely over Zoom. So instead of playtesting his rules for the French Wars of Religion, we played a French Revolutionary game using Volley and Bayonet. The result was an excellent encounter that kept us busy all day. The only thing missing was Stuart's Spam sandwiches at lunchtime. 

I took a few poor-quality screenshot photo's during the game that gives an idea of the action. However, I recommend checking out Richards's blog where he has posted some much better-quality pictures taken during the game: My Wargaming Habit

As this was a meeting encounter both sides were marching on from points on opposite sides of the table and would need to form up to engage the enemy. I was the leader for the French Side but as I hadn't played these rules before I relied heavily on the guidance of Ray, my second in command, on how the game played. We had time for a brief strategy session before everyone else Zoomed in and Richard began explaining the game. 

Volley and Bayonet have been around for a long time (1994 I think?) and Richard was using the 1st edition book for this game. It is very much a grand tactical scale battle, with each 60x60 base representing a battalion of several regiments. Movement distances are generous but that just helped to speed the game along with each turn representing about an hour of action. We managed 5 turns which roughly equaled the time we were playing in the real world. I think Richard is considering using these rules for a big campaign and has been experimenting with different rulesets to find the best choice for remote play. Frankly, these rules worked a treat and I'd be quite happy if we used them for our games, but that's a decision for Richard to make. 

Incidentally, all the figures for this game are MDF flats from Commission Figurines. Richard has made an excellent job of painting these and frankly, you have to get a lot closer than the standard '3ft rule' to tell they aren't 3D metal figures. 

So as mentioned our Divisions entered the table in columns with a gap between each base to represent the 'strung out' nature of marching along a road. So Ray & I decided not to rush and to only take a part move with the lead battalions so the following ones could catch up. The aim was to get each Division into a line as quickly as possible so that individual battalions would not be vulnerable to flanking attacks. In my sector on the left of the French zone, I had a wood which was both an obstacle and also provided a good anchor point for deployed divisions. The only formations that moved significantly forward were my Cavalary Battalions on the left and Rays on the right. 

I was facing Surjit on my side of the table and true to form he rushed his Battalions forward to close down my room for maneuvering. Both Cavalry Battalions were soon engaging with the Austrians and I pushed forward my forward infantry division and artillery to support the attack. Unfortunately, my dice rolling was less than inspiring and this division suffered as a result. However, this gave me room to deploy and take up static positions with the following division and then fall back the damaged one to form a fairly solid line. 

By this stage, both I and Ray had settled our divisions into a good line and would now get a bonus in combat because our Battalions were stationary. If the Austrians attacked they would do so at a disadvantage. And that is precisely what they decided to do, attacking simultaneously along most of our line. On the receiving end, it felt quite alarming, but the dice gods were smiling on us and the resulting battles broke the Austrian army with acceptable losses on our side. 

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game and a set of rules I hope we get to play again. I strongly recommend having a look at Richard's post on this, plus as already mentioned there are some better pictures of the figures to enjoy.