Battle of "Benbrongo" 1813. Game at NBHW.

Last Friday night and all day Saturday at New Buckenham I took part in a fictitious encounter somewhere in central Europe in 1813. The game was played using the Shako 2 ruleset and was titled "The Battle of Benbrongo" (no idea why).
The Battle would see an Austrian and Russian force take on a smaller Saxon and Duchy of Warsaw force with possible reinforcement by Napoleon himself with a contingent of the Young Guard. The game was mainly an excuse to get some newly assembled units out for a game, in fact some of the Poles' bases were flocked just prior to hitting the table.

The battlefield and two objectives. 

The Austrians and Russians entered on the left with the Saxons and Poles on the right and occupying the two objectives. Any French assistance would arrive at the top end of the table.

I was given command of the Austrians who entered on the left flank  just above the larger town and this report will focus on my end of the table.

My starting Austrian command with some Don cossacks along to scout.

My starting force on the Friday was three brigades of infantry, one with an attached foot battery. I knew that on the Saturday these would be reinforced by a corps of cuirassiers.
The plan for the Austrians was to advance to the left of the town and swing into attack the left flank of the buildings and if possible get behind the defenders in this area. There were streams to this side of the town and at game start it was not known if they were fordable, so two units of Russian cossacks were sent ahead to scout them out. A third was sent to scout the woods at the top of the table to keep an eye out for French reinforcements.

First brigade moves to attack the flank of the town.

Rest of the Austrians with scouting cossacks heading to the rear of the flank.

The cossacks reported back that parts of the streams were fordable by infantry only, so the assault on the town and the supporting troops behind it went ahead. The side of the town facing the Austrian, Russian starting edge would be assaulted by two small Russian brigades.

The large Austrian battalions were awkward to manoeuvre at times.

The assaulting forces form up.

The Austrian attack went in first, well tried to, every attack was repulsed by defensive closing fire, gradually increasing the casualty count on the white coated battalions, this would prove telling late on the next day. However the defenders used up all their good die on me which let the Russian's capture the right hand half of the town at the end of Friday night and the other half early on the Saturday.

With the expected arrival of French reinforcements on the Saturday, I positioned one of my brigades and my sole artillery battery to cover the woods to my left flank, those at the top of the table, whilst the rest continued to attack the town and it's supporting units to it's rear.

End of play on Friday on my flank, with half the town now in Russian possession

Saturday morning saw the other half of the town fall to the Russian assaults which allowed me to turn my other large brigade around to try and position itself to take on the newly arrived French under Napoleon himself, who had arrived through the woods at the top of the table. More French arrived at the top of the opposition baseline and together soon saw off the scouting cossacks. 

Napoleon and some Young Guard arrive through the woods.

Fortunately my own reinforcements arrived in the form of six cuirassier regiments.

Austrian reinforcements!

This welcome cavalry advanced towards the French and when the opportunity arose charged the Guard Chasseurs à Cheval and Lancers

Charge!

After a bit of to and fro both Chasseur units were destroyed and the Lancers withdrew behind the infantry squares. this stalemate continued for the rest of the game and allowed me to dispatch one brigade of heavies back to the centre of the table with the intention to counter some marauding Saxon cavalry.

Things got a bit busy now which resulted in a lack of photos.

The other French formation soon hit my first brigade of Austrian infantry, one battalion of which was caught while deploying into line from column. At the same time the previously demoralised Saxons to the rear of the town recovered and charged into my smaller brigade wiping out one battalion and forcing the other to withdraw.

My third brigade now had to change formation again to meet them.

At this point the second French division inexplicably about faced and marched off, some say "Vive au roi Louis" could be heard, that or it was just their owner had to leave then.

Either way good news for me, or so I thought.

The final turns of the day did not go well for the Austrian infantry, the earlier casualties taken while attempting to assault the town now proving critical. Three columns were soon dispatched by Saxon columns, including their Guard Grenadiers and with only two battalions left out of a starting eight the remaining Austrian infantry decided Vienna might be nice to visit.

Fortunately this was the end of the game and with both towns still in Russian possession it was deemed a victory for the Russian and Austrians, just.

All in all a fun day and a bits gaming with some lively debate over some rule points, but as another member said "what do you expect when you stick a load of middle aged men in a small room with a load of toy soldiers". The result is some follow-up games are being planed to utilise more of the central European Napoleonic armies that club members have in production.

Again a load more photographs and full AAR, with more on the battle at the other end of the table, contained in the club Facebook Album

Tony.

Note: none of the figures are mine this time.