A One Hour Wargame Scenario

 Scenario 1 from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames was fought this morning - the report can be found here. Having played through them all in order once I'm thinking of doing it all again (possibly, though on a very casual basis, not committing myself to anything!)

Pyramidal Redux & Coalition No.2

 After losing the Battle of the Pyramids in the last blog post, mainly on a technicality (the author not really knowing what he was doing), Napoleon was given a second chance this morning...

Snipped from National Geographic

Battle of the Pyramids (2)

The line up is the same as in the previous post only I've added a couple of palm trees to hopefully make things less abstract.

The French squares once again prove themselves a match for the Elite Mamluk cavalry

This time they are also fighting off the frankly unreliable Mamluk infantry who got the better of them in the first effort.

Order (and sanity) is restored with the historically correct conclusion

Having (finally) gained a foothold in the Middle East, Napoleon returns to France, sets himself up as First Consul and then goes back across the Alps to recapture the Italian provinces he had earlier taken.

Battle of Marengo

The Austrians have a great deal more artillery than the French and get a pre-battle bombardment. They also have a unit of line infantry fortified in the village (Monopoly hotel).

Part way through the battle, the French Elite Cuirassiers enter the fray and start doing all sorts of damage.

The Austrian Artillery is now established in the village and the Grenzers have been slain or chased away, and the Austrian Cavalry get to duel with their French counterparts.

With both sides reduced to half strength the battle is finely balanced

until

Another victory for Napoleon! 

I'm enjoying these games very much and will definitely continue to work my way through the historical battles listed in the rule book. I can quite easily get involved with the action when played with just a simple grid, but, as I've said before, a little bit of scenery definitely adds to the thing, so I'll be using it in future.