Horse and Musket Gaming: Schlacht bei der Brücke über die Unruhige Wasser

We held the second FaceTime game this afternoon. Start time was 15:30 and we ended at 18:30 with a short tea-break in the middle. Thirteen turns were played when we had to call a halt due my son's impending quiz evening with his mother's family spread across 6 houses! The game had virtually reached a conclusion anyway.

I haven't worked out how to capture photos whilst FaceTiming yet so the only pics are before the game and at the break. I didn't get any shots after the game as I was packing away whilst having a chat with my son and clean forgot.

The rules used were Polemos Marechal de l'Empire which we played without the Tempo Bidding and with only 1D6 worth of temp points per turn. The order of movement, once the Prussians were deployed, was British first, then Prussians.

Here is the briefing I sent him shortly before the game.

It is 1812 the Kingdom of Prussia is allied with the Emperor Napoleon and a corps of the army is preparing to march with the Emperor to Russia. The perfidious English have unexpectedly landed a force in the mouth of the Eble, seized Schweinburg and have marched upon Stillesund to secure a base on the Baltic. This daring plan would isolate Denmark from Germany and force the Danes into renouncing their alliance with Napoleon. The scheme has been cooked up by the devious baronet Sir Edmund Blackadder who has the ear of the Prince Regent. The English high command at Horse Guards and the Admiralty has bowed to the Regent’s will and denuded reinforcements bound for Wellington in Spain. The plan was attractive to the Prince also because it opens the door to the reconquest of Hannover, the original seat of the royal family. The plan might also lead to other German states including possibly Prussia falling away from the Napoleonic sphere and dealing the Corsican Ogre a devastating blow. The Prince Regent will be the darling of Europe.

The English force under Lord Flasheart consists of several brigades of infantry with brigades of light and heavy cavalry in support. After initially prospering the plan began to fall behind schedule due to the incompetence of the English general and his staff. They are camped near the town of Bad Bach a short march from Stillesund but Stillesund is well defended and the English desperately lack supplies to conduct a siege. They are known to have sent out a strong force of cavalry to forage for supplies to the west of Bad Bach.

The Prussians hesitated at first not sure what course to follow. If the English are successful the Prussian will have an opportunity to throw off the hated French yoke. If they fail and you do nothing, Napoleon will march in with his Grand Armée once more, and this time finish off Prussia as a state. As the English plan begins to fall apart the Prussians are persuaded to act as Napoleon would wish and march to attack the English. The Emperor may allocate some more territory to Prussia at the expense of its neighbours - maybe even Hannover.

You are Graf Daun-Daun-Tieffer-und-Daun, a count from an old noble family. You have a corps of the Prussian army and have been ordered to destroy the English and aim to do so by seizing the bridge over the Unruhige Wasser at Bad Bach and cut them off from their supplies. Isolated they will have no alternative but to sue for peace. Your scouts tell you that around the villages in front of the river they have infantry and artillery.

The map given with the briefing:

The Prussian player (my son) was told that he could see 5 infantry brigades and their locations, the 4 artillery bases and three heavy cavalry brigades. The Prussians have 12 brigades (4 large Prussian brigades) of infantry, 8 batteries, two brigades of hussars, two of Uhlans, one of dragoons and one of cuirassiers.

A couple of shots pre-game:

Prussian array on the right. This isn't the actual deployment. The Prussian player decided on how they were deployed. He opted for 4 combined arms divisions, two the the Southwest of Polzeimon and two Southwest of Alt-Garfunkel.

Wider view of the battlefield. East to the top. The dark diagonal line is the Unruhige Wasser, the pale lines are the roads.

View after 5 turns. Tea break time! The column on the road at the bottom is the British light cavalry which accompanied the supply train. They came on after 4 turns - determined by a D6 roll at the start of the game. One British infantry brigade had been routed off the table by this stage. A crushing Prussian victory looked on the cards.

The centre of the battlefield around Polzeimon. The Prussians at the bottom are two different divisions. One which had routed all the way from the Prussian left wing. Before they could recover they were attacked again by two infantry brigades and routed off table. The division to the left assaulted the village of Polzeimon, were repulsed, tried again and were hit by more British brigades and were driven from the field. What did for the Prussians here was being too crowded in - when brigades at the front were repulsed they had to burst through the troops behind leaving them shaken too.

By game's end, 13 turns in, the Prussians were down 16 bases (counting generals as one each) to the 13 British (including some of the supply train. The Prussian left wing cavalry saw off the British lights and were chewing up the supply column but the British heavies were returning to the fray after being routed. In the centre/right, the Prussians had lost their numerical advantage and had not got close to the bridge. A narrow tactical victory for the British, but, as my son pointed out, they were in a parlous state from a supply point of view. A capitulation in which the British were allowed to march back to re-embark at Schweinburg would have been likely.

Congestion and chaos on the centre right

An enjoyable game. The rules came back to us pretty well despite not having played them for years. The first few turns were a bit slow but once divisions began to disappear, and we had refreshed our memory, the turns speeded up. Marechal de l'Empire still gives a good game.

Comments this evening from my son:

"Very difficult attacking infantry in a town but I think that’s probably accurate. (Dice rolls didn’t help).

I’d say heavy Calvary vs light Calvary having +2 was harsh but maybe makes sense (I’m not as good with the specifics).

Attacking the flank should maybe have a bonus. Not necessarily because they can’t turn to face but the vast majority of the brigade.... can’t see so there’s the element of surprise.

However I thought the combat worked really well, surprisingly well matched considering how much I outnumbered you by. I always enjoy when extra bases come on after a few rounds. The scenario was strong and very believable. I think the system of rolling for messengers/tempo but scrapping the bidding worked well and sped it up.

Certainly the workings of a good fictional scenario there. Maybe there should be a goal for the prussians to take a certain strategic point/ the supply chain but if the brits hold out for a certain number of rounds then they win by virtue of reinforcements arriving to support.

Worked very well as a remote game actually yeah. Nice wide field to split it into chunks that I could visualise. I had a pad and paper so I could write down where the forces were and who was moving etc so I could keep track better than the first game we did."

Couple more pics from Friday's action: