Prussians at Quatre Bras.

Last weeks game was a Volley and Bayonet game played with mainly Prussians and French. A division of British turned up towards the end to help out though.

The French marching toward the crossroads.

The thin Prussian defence.

 Prussians began the game with a division holding the town and crossroads.

 As the French neared the town their cavalry encountered the first Prussian reserves coming up on the Prussian left.

 The first attack on the town saw the French force the Prussians back. Next move however and the Prussian were back in the town. More Prussians entered the battle, this time on the Prussian right.

 The French charged the town again driving back the Prussians for a second time.

 More counterattacks from the Prussian saw them regain the vital town at the crossroads.

 Quatre Bras changed hands almost every turn. Neither side was able to get a firm hold of it.

 Over on the French right the Prussians were forced back with some successful charges from their cavalry.

 Bossu wood was finally cleared of all Prussians and more pressure was being put on the town.

The Prussian line through the centre of the table held firm.

 Finally the French heavy cavalry arrived and were sent to break the Prussian centre.

 With the French once again in possession of the town the Prussians brought up their British allies to sort out the situation.....

 ... and they did. By now the casualty count was getting high on both sides, but for the French it was too high. Unable to move the British out of Quatre Bras the French began to withdraw.  If only d'Erlon's I Corps had turned up.

An enjoyable game with plenty of action.

Dark Age Bash.

The boys last get together was a Dark Age game using the Hail Caesar rules.

 

 

 Both sides lined up opposite each other. The largely Norman army behind the river.

 The mainly Saxon army had a few units in a rather advanced position near the bridge. The rest of the Saxon army began back at the base line.

 The Norman army moved off over the river to attack the exposed Saxons along with some of their cavalry.

 The Saxon cavalry charged towards the Normans. With neither cavalry commander wanting to fight in the river itself along with a number of "blunders" the largely cavalry wing of the battle did not come to blows until almost the end of the battle.

 Slowly the rest of the Saxon foot advanced up in support of their friends near the bridge.

 A couple of cavalry units from each side did meet in the centre of the table with the Saxons getting the upper hand.

 When the lines of foot troops finally clashed it was the Saxons that were to come out on top. The Normans were now in a rather poor state and were forced to quit the field,

Thanks to Chris for supplying all the troops and running the game.

15mm Marlburian Battle

First game for the year for the group was a 15mm Marlburian Battle using Volley and Bayonet rules.

British and friends on one side up against the French and their friends on the other.

 The objective was to capture the three main town sectors across the table.

 The centre town sector about to become a French held town.

 The British grabbed the two flank towns while the French grabbed the centre.

 The French lunched several attacks at this town sector without success.

 Reinforcements arrive for the British.

 After many attacks the French finally pushed the British out of one of the flank towns but had lost the centre town. Buy now though they had suffered too many loses elsewhere and were forced to concede battle.

Great game. Thanks to Adrian for supplying all the troops and the towns.

Lion Rampant game

The groups last game for this year was a Lion Rampant game. Originally planned using our Medieval armies, until the organiser realised that we didn't have enough Medieval troops painted. With 6 players a fair number of troops are needed to keep our boys happy for a night! So out came the Dark Age armies instead.

This was the first game for most of us and as a result the scenario was relatively simple with not too many different troop types.

 An encounter game with both sides entering from opposite table sides. Three objectives, the village, the bridge and the ford in the river.

The ford. Not quite lining up with the track through the trees.

Defending the bridge.

Action around the bridge.

Crossing the ford.

The village.

By this stage the troop numbers were getting thin.

Not too many left by the end of the game.

With so much happening I am not even going to try to explain what happened, but, long story short, there were a lot of melees and in the end all commands were getting very weak and we called it a draw.

An enjoyable game with most of the guys keen to have another go and even some buying up some medieval troops for the next encounter.