French Revolutionary Wars GdB

In the absence from blogging I had the pleasure of taking part in a couple of FRW games put on by Des and Martin using their lovely collections of figures.

The first game was a cracking evenings entertainment with the glorious sons of the revolution (guess what side I was on) trying to overcome Austrian and Piedmontese troops somewhere in Italy. Des had devised a seemingly straightforward mission for the French, advance to take control the villages from the clutches of the Austrians and Savoyards. It certainly was a tough fight with the flank being held by the Austrians putting up a good defence, even though they were eventually pushed off of the ridge that they held initially the French losses were so bad that, if I remember correctly, they were pushed back by a counter attack (let me know if that is right chaps and I’ll edit it later!). Meanwhile over on my flank I had more room for manoeuvre and got ahead quickly only to be attacked by the Piedmontese aggressively handled by Martin and after a brutal fight that swung both ways I just held on to my target village (I think, again, sorry details vague so let me know if wrong someone!). A draw was declared and it was a cracking battle, Des’ figures were lovely and even Daren enjoyed it and he usually never dallies in the horse and musket period. Here’s the customary slideshow of 18mm goodness, figures from Des’ collection I believe with maybe a few from Martin’s?

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The second game was equally as good and even had some pre-battle movement which added to it greatly. Martin contacted me a few days before the game and asked me to split a force to cover some passes and also to denote the composition and placement of a reserve. He had also asked the attacking Austrians to do similar for their attack therefore our decisions would impact what forces were present on the table. The resulting battle was brilliant fun. A plucky French covering force (led by Andy) at one of the passes, above a broad plain surrounding a town, was pressed in front (by Des) whilst being outflanked by an advancing Austrian column (Martin). Help was on the way though as the French reserve column (moi) was also making its way to the point of crisis and along a parallel course to the outflanking Austrians. This led to the fantastic sight of two opposing forces marching virtually alongside each other whilst being totally ignorant of each other.

Once they both debouched onto the plain a fantastic swirling fight erupted as more and more of mine and Martin’s units entered the fray whilst Andy’s units covering force skilfully disengaged and retreated to join my column, all the while making things difficult for Des’ kaiserlicks to push through onto the plain too. The fight swung both ways all through the battle and I believe a draw was called at the end as although the French were forced back on the town the Austrians had received a bloody nose and would have had to retire to regroup. We all agreed that it was a cracker and discussed maybe doing it again but maybe extending the size to fit another pass in and to have more time to fight to a definite conclusion. The scenario could also be used for many other periods, Wellington vs Soult in the Pyrenees came to mind straight away. There is a Revolutionary Wars campaign being planned for this year and I can’t wait to get involved.

Here’s some eye-candy shots from the game, click on them to see a bigger version. I haven’t got any decent ones of the bigger picture I’m afraid (either my phone was out of juice or I was too busy dealing with all those Grenadiers!) but enjoy Martin’s lovely figures all the same!