War with the 4th Coalition: Jena with DoNB

 

Image "Snipped" from Wikipedia

Continuing my play through of the 25 Historical Battles featured in Steve Parker's Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte (DoNB), today's offering features the first in the two battles fought on October 14 1806. The French Army, having marched into Prussia, confronts the Prussians near Jena with some elements of its 180,000 strong force, under the command of the Emperor.

The French have their artillery on high ground and are able to take advantage of an early bombardment. The Prussians have two Line Infantry units in defensive positions (white markers) and some unreliable units held in reserve (purple markers).

"Boom!" (Thanks to MaudlinFX)

The Prussian Line Infantry on the opposite high ground have been shaken by the French guns and become unreliable.

Halfway through the battle, the Prussian's are already taking more casualties than the French and now the Emperor has unleashed Murat's Cuirassiers who start to chop their way through the Prussian Left Flank.

Apologies for the bleary photo

The French Army reduces the Prussians and the battle is soon won.

  Attention must now turn to how Marshal Davout is doing during the simultaneous battle at nearby Auerstedt; the Emperor eagerly awaits news...

New Acquisition

 Further to the previous post, I have gone further down the rabbit hole and acquired a second-hand Signal Box (or Cabin) for my toy railway. It was at a reasonable price from an online shop based in England, however once tracked mail, customs duty and administration charges were added, the price tripled!?! I have decided that any further building works for the railway will have to be home made... 

Anyway, there follows some gratuitous pictures of the purchase. There are a couple of chips in the paint but nothing to trouble the passengers. 

Out of interest I did a bit of digging on the internet and came across the Pre-WW2 versions of Hornby's Railway buildings which were made of wood but were still rather stylish. They have given me a bit of inspiration for future railway related projects! 

Dis-track-tion

 It seems that quite a lot of Wargamers also enjoy the delights of toy trains, including your humble author, though I didn't get an electric train set until I was in my forties and have never indulged in building a layout. Every so often I get them out and send them round an oval circuit on the dining room table, or possibly include some of the bits and pieces in a wargame.

Recently I considered buying a station (so that the trains actually had a destination) but thought I might make something first as the space issue for OO scale is quite inhibitive (as indeed is the cost). I am not a talented model-maker, so I based my little station on the Hornby Dublo range (c.1950) that were definitely toys, rather than more recent versions which are models. It's not too bad for a first attempt and has given me ideas on how to make a better version! There are a great number of wonderful videos on YouTube regarding making simple train layouts, so I may yet disappear down that particular rabbit hole...

Hornby Dublo catalogue (Brighton Toy Museum site)

Bit rough and functional but you get the idea

GWR No. 1466 on the through track

The Man behind the Green Door waves at the 4.15 from Paddington

Testing OHW Fantasy Game ideas

 John Y over at the 54mm or Fight! blog kindly shared ideas and mechanics he uses to adapt Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames (OHW) rules to Fantasy Wargames. I've tried some of them out this morning in a little game using some 10mm figures; here 2 foot, or 1 horseman on a base equates to a unit.

I have included a Hero on each side (Knight on the Human side, Ogre on the Orc/Goblin side) as defined by John and used the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic that John discusses for Heroes and for flank/rear attacks instead of a bonus, which seemed to work. For this game I gave all units 8SP to start with (this is convenient as I have some small 8 sided dice to track damage). I used d3 instead of d6 for firing and combat. In true OHW style I didn't use a morale check in this game so it was a bloody fight to the finish. The types of unit are a mix of different rule sets from OHW, as John states in his post, but as this is Fantasy that's par for the course!

The Army of men comprised:

A Knight, a company of horsemen, 3 Heavy Infantry units, a unit of archers and a unit of peasants.

The Orc/Goblin Army comprised:

An Ogre, a company of wolf mounted orcs, 2 Orc Heavy Infantry, 1 Orc archer unit and 2 Goblin Light Infantry units.

First encounter

The Orc army is blocking a pass through the hills through which the Army of Men must move. A pitched battle ensues. (Note: a grid square with a tree counts as wooded and has a defence bonus). Things started off well for the Men (apart from the peasants who were pitted against Goblins hiding in a wood).

Orcs attempt to out flank the Army of Men

The Orc Army began to fight back, and as so much depends on which side has initiative, a run of good luck meant that the Orcs could equal the early damage done by the Men.

Hero v Anti-Hero

Both sides lost their Heroes but fought on desperately.

The last remaining company of Orcs fought to the finish in true Fantasy style.

Two units of men were all that left the field

The mechanics of John's that I've tried in this game worked well and I hope to try out some more in another game in the future.

Another OHW posting

 OHW Scenario 2 has been posted over at my Battling through OHW blog. It features another pitched battle in Hyboria.

Inevitable

 I feel that, since reading the books pictured below, it has been an inevitability that I'd one day make an 18th Century ImagiNation Army. Having said this, it's taken a few attempts to get this far. Youthful exuberance led to attempts at 24 (or larger) figure units in plastic being planned; far too big for me to ever get painted. Later I wanted to do the whole thing "properly" with Spencer Smiths', but these proved too expensive for my modest means. The publication of The Portable Eighteenth Century Horse & Musket Wargame Rules in The Portable Wargame Companion (ed. Bob Cordery) led to a reappraisal of my former ideas, and some rebasing of figures.

Glorious tomes

Finally, I have pulled together one modest force, with plans to expand it of course. I now have to raise an equally sized army for the opposition. I have still to dream up some suitably daft names for each regiment etc.

As I have no game to report today, here is a parade instead.

Army of the Margravate of Moulle

Two regiments (12 figures) of Line Infantry at the back, divide into two battalions (6 figures)

Three battalions of Light Infantry (4 figures each) in the centre wearing fancier uniforms

Two squadrons of cavalry on the flanks

 Two batteries of artillery (the one on the right being manned by Sailors)

At the front, hatless, is the Margrave Edouard de Moulle, sporting his new bluecoat and best fighting wig. He appeared recently, unpainted, in the Box of Shame (could be a play by Voltaire?). To the Margrave's extreme right, the head of the Margravate's Armie de Terre, General Antoine Fond-de-la-Mer.

That's it for this subject for now; hopefully there'll be an update soon, assuming I get a bit of paint daubing done.

This parade was inspired by Neil Patterson's far nicer parades, for example THIS, and brought to you by the colour blue.

Dispatching the 3rd Coalition: Austerlitz with DoNB

 

Snipped from Wiki, with thanks

The next battle to be tackled in the Historical Battles section of Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte, is Austerlitz (the Battle of the Three Emperors). Great description of the battle at Wikipedia so I won't summarize it.

The Austro Russian force has control of the Pratzen Heights, courtesy of Napoleon's strategic withdrawal. The French have also weakened their Right Flank with some unreliable Column Infantry, hoping to lure the Coalition in...

My version of the great battlefield

Both sides took casualties in the opening turns. It's worth noting that the unreliable Column Infantry are still tussling with the Grenzers on the French Right, and that The French Imperial Guard (Grognards to a man) have ominously moved into centre.

 By lunchtime, the Elite French Cuirassiers have joined battle (and those unreliables are still there).

Later in the day, the Imperial Guard have smashed their way through the defenders on the Heights and can now out flank the remaining Austro Russians (Napoleon loves it when a plan comes together).

End of the day and its au revoir Third Coalition (and yes, those unreliable column infantry lasted the whole day). No embarrassing French loss to report to Josephine, so it's on to Jena, after a quick stop at Pressburg (Bratislava) for a Treaty signing. DoNB provides another fun little game!