Battle of Castelnuovo del Garda - 6mm MDF Napoleonics

Over the weekend the Rejects gathered for another game hosted by Richard using his incredible 6mm MDF armies. This was a “What If” engagement set in Bonaparte's campaign in Italy in 1797. The Austrians have launched an attack to break the French siege of Mantua. Once achieved and reinforced by the large number of troops there, they were to push the French westward towards Piedmont. Hoping to hold Alvinczy’s Austrian forces at Rivoli, General Bonaparte and his divisions, nonetheless, failed to move quickly enough to reinforce Joubert who was guarding the approaches down the river Adige. Consequently, Joubert was compelled to withdraw his troops south and rendezvous with the forces of Generals Massena and Rey.

In this alternate history, Alvinczy was able to complete the junction of his three columns on the Rivoli plateau. After a day’s rest, he set the Austrian army in motion south to defeat Bonaparte’s revolutionary Army of Italy. As he approached Castelnuovo del Garda, Alvinczy got news of the French beginning to deploy. Bonaparte, now certain that the approaching Austrians represent the main strike towards Mantua – not the feint that Augereau is holding back around Verona - and he is determined to strike a blow against Alvinczy at Castelnuovo del Garda.

After deployment but before battle commenced

An example of the army list showing Joubert's
Corps and the Army Assets directly under
Bonaparte's command. 

Richard had sent us our army lists in advance and started the game with some map-making. One player from each side was allowed to go out to the shed-o-war and reconnoitre the battlefield. They then had 10 minutes to sketch the battlefield; observe the enemy forces and ask questions about the terrain. Returning to their fellow generals each side then had a further 15 minutes to come up with a strategy and write down on the map where their divisions were to be deployed. Only then were we allowed into the shed and given just 10 minutes to place our divisions according to our earlier sketch map. 

Richard was using the Volley & Bayonet rules for this game in what can best be described as a "Grand Tactical" scale. So each 3" square base represented a whole Brigade with each commander controlling a Corps of two or three divisions each. Each turn represents a whole hour, with movement distances up to 16" for an infantry division and up to 24" for cavalry. However, with each inch representing 100 Yards ranges are short. Artillery can fire about 10" while musketry is just a couple of inches. The effect of this is a very different game to that where the player is controlling companies or regiments. Combined with Richards's use of reconnoitre and deployment this game really does feel very different to other games. 

I won't go into too much detail - my brain is still hurting after this cerebral punch-up - but let's just say that Bonaparte wasn't endowed with much luck. We shifted our line to the right as we crossed the last couple of miles towards the Austrians. Our cavalry managed to secure a position on the Austrian flank after they had formed a static line and we immediately pressed that advantage. In the centre, Joubert's Corp kept the Austrian's attention firmly forward while our extreme left, over a mile away, kept them occupied and unable to get around our flank. But having gained the best possible advantage, and doubling up on every attack so we were always throwing more dice in melee than our opponents, we just couldn't land a killer punch. 

By the end of the game, both sides had fought themselves to exhaustion but the Austrians were able to claim a minor victory with their army in marginally better shape than ours. Frankly, our dice rolling was so poor I was surprised the end was as close as it was. 

Richard has posted his own take on running the game for us here and its worth reading for a different perspective of the game from the umpires position. Like Richard I didn't take nearly enough pictures to make a coherent storyboard of the game...I was too busy concentrating and enjoying the puzzle that was this battle. 

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.  

The Battle of Le Champ Glissant

Sunday saw the Rejects gather yet again in Posties Shed-o-War for yet another French Revolution period battle using Richard's excellent homebrew rules. These are the rules we used for our Demo game at Broadside in November and we all agreed at the time we needed to play more games to really get the mechanics of the rules pinned down. Aside from being an excellent game experience for all of us, I think it's also been a useful bit of playtesting, especially this game where we encountered some situations that we haven't had to deal with for years. 

So I need to start this Battle Report with a huge apology. I was so invested in the game that I hardly shot any pictures and certainly didn't have time to make notes, so this is more like half of an AAR. That being said I did get a couple of cracking shots that I thought worth sharing and hopefully, Ray will have a fuller write up on his blog Don't Throw a One. 

So this battle sees the action shift to the Lower Rhine (our earlier games took place in Italy) and the Austrian commander Archduke Charles has handled the Imperial army well, plays a careful game of manoeuvre with the French Army under General Moreau. The Austrians realise it is important to prevent a French breakthrough from the Rhine to the Danube and thus force an Austrian defeat. The French have however managed to bring about an engagement although the final position of the battle has yet to be determined (more on that in a moment). 

The French meanwhile have been trying to fulfil the orders of the Directory and push the Austrians back to the Danube to link up with the Army of Italy. This would force the Austrian Emperor to make peace. Archduke Charles has been successfully avoiding a pitched engagement but now the French have finally brought him to battle. 

The Pre Game Phase

Surjit and I took command of the French Army of the Rhine and for reasons completely unknown to myself, Surj trusted me with most of the troops in the centre of our line (I'm not known for my prowess with Napoleonic troops!). This effectively put me in charge as I would be taking on the bulk of the fighting and Surjits units had to coordinate with my attack. It has to be said we didn't necessarily know that when the game started because Richard introduced a clever mechanism for deployment and a chance to change the terrain, representing the two sides jockeying for position. 

Both sides were given cards each representing a Brigade plus a couple of dummy cards. We then had to decide where to place these along our sector of the table edge. This done, both sides were then given another pack of cards with a range of options written on them. We each had to choose 12 cards from the deck and two sets were then shuffled into a 24 card deck. Three cards were then dealt with each side. Each turn of this 'probing phase' we drew an extra card from this deck and had to play one card from this set of four. The cards included things like: Placing a Farm or hill on the Tabke; Removing terrain items; moving terrain elements sideways or across the table; Moving units (we still didn't know which were real and which were blank at this stage). This continued until either one side had picked up two 'disadvantages', or both sides agreed to stop, or when the main deck had been used up. The result was that neither side had total control over the terrain or their own deployment. 

With this phase over Richard then set up the Brigades where our unit cars indicated and both sides were then given a frantic ten minutes (and not a second longer!) to change formations or shift the orientation of units. The earlier phase meant that most of our units need up in a single 2ftx2ft square and it was so cramped it looked a bit like Picadilly Circus! We had a plan though, and so long as we didn't get our units muddled up, or hesitate with our moves, we were confident we could win the game. 

The French Plan

So our plan was simple. Form as many units into Attack Columns as we could, with some regiments in skirmish formation to the front to shield the columns behind. Then we pointed ourselves at the enemy and marched as fast as our little french legs would carry us towards the Austrian line! Unfortunately where we were positioned necessitated a slight diagonal march to reach the part of the enemy line we wanted to hit but in the end, we only lost one turn of movement to get all our units aligned for a simultaneous attack. 

My command was the main attack with five Regiments in attack column pointed at the centre of the Austrian line. Surjit was assigned to protect my right flank and I had some cavalry on my left that kept the Austrian flank sat in position for most of the game. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy and the Austrians were not idle in allowing us to do whatever we wanted. Initially, our plan worked, hitting the enemy in a coordinated attack that threw them back from their positions. The follow up was less well coordinated due to casualties and moral reductions...but I'm jumping ahead of myself a little. 

The Austrian Plan

Well, it's hard to put words in their mouth but given the way they were deployed, I think it is fair to say they took a defensive posture from the start. Using a line of forest and hills (and some late-appearing wall) they lined up and dared the French to attack! 

The Action

The first couple of turns worked perfectly for me and Surjit. Richards rules involve an opening phase with Artillery Fire, Skirmish Fire and then Volley Fire, if the commanders choose to do so. Any actions used at this stage reduce the actions available in the following Action Phase and while it may be beneficial to fire as quickly as possible, there are also advantages for a defender in letting the enemy get closer. During the Action Phase each side then rolls for initiative and the winner can choose to move one of his Battalions or force the opposite side to go first. This worked for the french because the Austrians had opted to hold their fire until we got closer, but by forcing them to use their remaining actions before we moved we remained out of rage (or at long range with their medium gun). The result was we were able to shift our columns into position largely unmolested and begin the advance on our targets. 

By the end of the second turn, my brigades were in a position to smash into the Austrian line. My Skirmish units had done their job and the attack columns behind were largely unscathed. 

Unfortunately, Surjits start position meant he was slightly behind me and then didn't move forward aggressively enough to support my flank. Ideally, I would have liked to have had one or two of his Regiments in attack column next to me. However, he was rightly concerned by the Austrian Cavalry on the right of this picture. That being said he had another Brigade out of shot on the right that I think ought to have pushed further forward to hold the cavalry away from our centre...but hindsight is a wonderful thing and rarely suffers the uncertainty all commanders deal with in the middle of a battle! 

My attack goes into the centre winning all but one of the Melees. I destroy one gun, force another to retreat and send three enemy regiments reeling backwards. But the Austrians have prepared their defence-in-depth and I bulk at the idea of throwing forward lone units into the Austrians. At one point one of the retreating regiments had its rear to me and I was certain I would hit it, but a good morale test and they were able to turn around. In Richards rules, units from the same Brigade may provide supporting fire against charging enemy regiments and I considered the cost of a follow-up assault to be too high. Was I wrong? Ray thought so, but I was thinking about the casualties I had already taken and wanted to conserve my fighting force. 

Meanwhile, the Austrian Cavalry charge into Surjits Brigade. They sweep aside the skirmish screen and plough into a regiment of Grenadiers in a square... it doesn't end well for the Austrians, but it was a valiant effort and a sight to behold. 

Our attack has stalled. Many of my units have dropped morale grades and I use actions to make morale checks to recover them to 'Steady' so I can get them back in the fight. Meanwhile, Ray and Steve are doing the same with some of their regiments. But with the Austrian cavalry repelled Surjit has started to push his flank forward and I feel ready to renew my push in the centre. My Brigade in front f the woods changes its facing slightly towards Steves Brigade (this Brigade has spent much of the game sat in a standoff with my French Cavalry, much like Surjit and the Austrian Cavalry at the other end of the Battlefield). 

More or less the final positions of the game. We were running out of time (we'd been playing for eight hours at this point!) so Richard called it over and then we all waited with bated breath to find out who had won. Both sides had fought hard. The French controlled much of the battlefield but the Austrians were by no means out of the battle so it was unclear who had the upper hand as darkness fell. 

A narrow French Victory. The points for melee's fought and casualties taken are a testament to the intensity of the fight in the centre of the line. 

Not sure if you can actually read this, but these are the Orders of Battle for both sides and the record of casualties taken. 

Conclusion & Analysis

Well, once again I have to say we had a cracking good game with Richards rules. They play pretty fast and while they seem complicated to start with there is a definite flow and logic to them that we all enjoy. The additional mechanism used at the start to arrange the battlefield was an added element of fun and was almost a mini-game in its own right. Amazingly this is my third consecutive win of the year with a period that I have not had much success with in the past. 

I should also mention that we were joined by a new recruit to the Rejects, Steve. We met him at Broadside in November and as he lives relatively local we decided to invite him around for a game. He played well on the day, took the defeat in good humour and most importantly laughed at all our jokes! We hope to see him again at future games.