Nap Campaign: Battle of Tremleurr. 18th April 1808. Turns 1 - 6

 

The battle began with an artillery bombardment from both sides inflicting minor casualties so far. The only significant movement being the Dutch and British heavy cavalry brigades ordered to reposition towards the right flank in order to counter the large French cavalry threat. Ghigny's light cavalry Brigade had also been ordered to reposition but started the game with a Command Blunder causing it to retire a full move!

The allied cavalry made good progress repositioning.

In response to the allied cavalry movement the French 4th Cavalry Corps remained strangely static.

Continued -

A visibly angry Grouchy raced across the battlefield wondering why his heavy cavalry showed no signs of movement despite being ordered forward before the allied cavalry had a chance of properly deploying.

The view looking north towards the centre as the action hots up.

Bylandt's brigade has benefitted from successful command rolls and is in a position to launch an attack on the French 1st Division. One of the Dutch columns becomes disordered from concentrated French musketry.

The British 3rd Division enjoys similarly successful command rolls rapidly engaging with the French 2nd Division. The KGL on the left launches a charge into the French line. The British on the right opt to stop short of a full charge and utilise their 'First Fire' to pour musket balls into the French line.

On the allied left, the Hanoverians begin their assault across the open ground supported by horse artillery.

TURN 3

The French 4th Cavalry Corps of Cuirassiers begin their advance (top of photo) initially making contact with the Brunswick Hussars who, against all the odds, succeed in holding the initial charge. The British heavy cavalry brigades have successfully redeployed and move up to support the Dutch and Brunswickers.

In the middle left, Ghigny's Dutch light cavalry brigade manoeuvre to counter the threat by the Guard cavalry. 

A dramatic turn of events on the right of the photo when the KGL breakthrough the French defence of the fence line breaking the 1/25th Line and forcing the 1/21st Line back towards the woods. The 5th KGL Line maintains contact.

On the left the melee between Halkett's British Brigade and Noquez' Brigade continues to rage.

The 3 Hanoverian Brigades of the 1st Division make their approach to the French right flank and begin exchanging fire.

TURN 4

The Cuirassiers successfully repelled the Brunswick and Dutch cavalry, albeit the Dutch heavy cavalry put up a good fight. One Cuirassier regiment, having defeated the Brunswick Hussars, charge the first of the British cavalry, the 1st Royal Dragoons. The counter-charge checks the French cavalry advance with the combat continuing.

The Guard light cavalry makes its move with its Chasseurs and Lancers confidently advancing towards the Brunswick line. They are countered by Ghigny's light cavalry brigade. The Lancers are stopped but the Chasseurs initially defeat the Dutch Hussars before sweeping into the Belgian Light Dragoons who manage to hold them to a draw.

On the left, the 33rd West Riding Regiment (the Duke of Wellington's own) breaks the 1/46th Line leading to a collapse in the morale of Noquez' Brigade. One of it's surviving battalions, the 1/21st (far right of photo) puts up a heroic stand against the surging 5th KGL Line breaking the German battalion. A consolation victory for the now broken brigade. 

On the left, French battalions are falling back from the attack of the British Guards leading to a perilous situation in the centre of the French position. The 7th Division, held in reserve, is ordered forward but Villiers' Brigade (top right) fails its command roll including the Divisional Commander's re-roll.  

On the French right an initial Hanoverian attack by Halkett's Brigade is easily repulsed, not helped by the a command roll failure by Berger (top left) who should have been providing support. Best's Brigade (top right) enters a firefight with the French lining fences and hedgerows.

TURN 5

The entire Union Brigade is now fully engaged in combat with the Cuirassiers in the hope of stemming the armoured juggernaut.

The Union Brigade came very close to victory but the Cuirassiers did just enough to throw the British heavy cavalry back. All 3 Cuirassiers regiments suffered heavy casualties causing them to become shaken and not able to capitalise on their success. Fresh regiments have been brought up from the rear to maintain pressure on the allied cavalry.

Ghigny's Dutch light cavalry brigade put up a spirited fight against the elite Chasseurs and Lancers of the guard but greater numbers and quality won out in the end. The Dutch cavalry were thrown back with the loss of the 6th Dutch Hussars. The Brunswick infantry to the right hastily formed squares.

In the middle of the photo, Dutch militia has some success in defeating one of the French line battalions but make heavy weather of breaking through the outnumbered French.

The top left of the photo highlights the increasing isolation of the Brunswick infantry as French cavalry steadily advance around them.

In the centre the French 7th Division have moved up to steady the line while the British use the lull in combats to rally shaken battalions in preparation for a renewed assault.

Best joins one of his Hanoverian battalions as they charge the French right flank. The French are proving stubborn in their defence and refuse to give way.

All 3 Hanoverian Brigades are in a better position to renew their assault with Dornberg's cavalry now on hand to provide support. They just need a lucky break to punch through the French defenders.

TURN 6

The intense cavalry action on the French left flank has left many regiments shaken slowing the pace a little. The most notable casualty was the loss of the Belgian 2nd Carabiniers and their brigade commander Trip. This left their brigade broken adding more pressure onto the allied cavalry.

The gradual pushing back of the allied cavalry continues with the exhausted Cuirassiers unable to capitalise on their success. With one exception. The defeat of the Brunswick Hussars saw the victorious Cuirassiers conduct a sweeping advance and charge on the static shaken Scots Greys (middle top of photo). The Cuirassiers had the clear advantage but against the odds, the Scots Greys repelled the charge with heavy loss.

Many of the Brunswick infantry battalions had formed square in response to the close proximity of cavalry. Unfortunately for the Leib Guard battalion this proved fatal. 2 French Guard Horse Artillery batteries (bottom right) poured canister into the hapless square utterly shredding them. Morale collapsed and they departed the battlefield.

Chartrand's Young Guard Brigade closes on the Brunswickers adding to their predicament.

Guye's Young Guard Voltigeurs lines a fence preparing to pour fire into the flanks of Dutch columns assaulting the French centre.

An overview of the allied right flank highlighting the precarious nature of the Brunswicker infantry. They are heavily reliant on the British cavalry in particular overcoming the Cuirassier onslaught.

The centre was a different matter for the French who were suffering from heavy defeats. Bourgeois' broken brigade continued to retreat in the face of Dutch and KGL battalions. It would be up to the 2 battalions of Charlet's Brigade (bottom of photo) to hold the line.

To the right of the French 1st Division, their 2nd Division experienced total collapse as 3 of Schmitz' 4 battalions were destroyed leading to the loss of Schmitz himself. One of those was destroyed by the 2/1st Foot Guards (top of photo) clearing the way for them to advance. 

It now fell to the 7th Division to stop the British advance. Piat's 3 battalions in attack column formation launched charges at the British line. They managed to make some headway before being halted in prolonged combat with 2 British battalions (upper middle and left).

The Hanoverians were making no impression on the French right flank. An order to charge proved insufficient for Berger's 3 battalions to make contact and settled down into a firefight.

I would normally break down posts to around 8 moves but Black Powder is proving rather more fast moving, hence the slightly shorter 6 moves. 

A note about some minor changes I have made to the rules. An advantage over General de Brigade is less need to refer to charts or record casualties on a roster. The problem with playing a game of this size and in this scale is keeping track of who has done what and reminding myself of any 'useful rules' applied to different units. 

As yet I have not painted up any casualty markers and not sure whether I will do so in the future. It therefore relies on using micro dice to indicate casualties having discounted using rosters which would slow up play. Then there is the need to indicated disordered, shaken, victorious in an ongoing combat etc. meaning table clutter. For those I have decided to use different coloured micro dice and counters but there are more factors to consider.

'First Fire' where a bonus dice is awarded for the first volley of the game and 'Steady' where a unit passes a first break test would need to be recorded somewhere. You will see that I have added tick boxes to the roster but found that I was again having to keep referring to that roster to establish different unit's status. 

Early on in the game I decided to research alternatives to reduce as much as possible continual referrals to rosters and hit upon the following:

'First Fire'. This primarily applied to British and KGL infantry acknowledging their high level of training in delivering steady volleys. 'First Fire' has been replaced with 'Controlled Volleys' awarding one re-roll of a missed shot when firing to the front arc.

For 'Steady' the existing rule has been changed to a +1 on a break test. 

These changes negate having to remember, record or add a marker to a unit and so far appear to be working well with no abnormal results.