French Revolutionary Wars

I was perusing some photos the other day and I came across some from a game from a couple of years ago which I couldn’t post about at the time as I had run out of space to upload more pictures and I’d forgotten I had! As it was a bloody great days gaming and a fantastic spectacle to boot I thought I’d rectify that now. I can remember enough to give at least a broad outline of the events but there is tons of lovely eye candy to get your mince’s round so there is that at least!

I had been invited along with Des & Andy over to the Loughton club to take part in a large General d’Armee game which I happily agreed to. I’d been over to one before and had played in GdB games with some of the chaps from there before and they’d always been great games plus its always nice when you get to play with the author of the rules too. So it was an early start and I schlepped it across town to the leafy end of the Central line in the fair county of Essex and met up with Des who was on the same train. Upon entering the room that the game was in we were greeted with a satisfyingly huge table with an unmistakeable looking battlefield laid out. I must say I was a tad confused as Des had told me that we were doing a FRW game and that was definitely the field of Waterloo, but apparently it wasn’t the first time that French, British, Dutch and Hannoverian troops had fought over the same ground.

Des, Andy & I were all assigned to the Allied side and we were basically setting up in the same positions as the battle from 1815, along the ridge south of Mont St Jean with a garrison forward in Hougmont (apparently the lads in 1815 used loopholes made in this battle!). I was in charge of an Anglo-Hannoverian Division holding the far right of the line and also tasked with holding the famous châteaux complex and had Andy to my immediate left with a Division of British troops, as with all of these proper big battles I have no idea about what was going on elsewhere as soon as the action started apart from the fact that Des was in charge of the troops to Andy’s immediate left and that Martin was on the extreme left with a force of Dutch troops. Opposing us was the French Army of the Sambre et Meuse under Jourdan, with Dave Brown donning the large hat for the rascally sans culottes with a team of Loughton chaps taking various Divisions ready to smite us with revolutionary fervour.

The side table had Austrians taking the part of Prussians attacking the French at Plancenoit but apart from popping over there to take these photo’s I’m afraid I have no idea what happened there at all!

As to the battle, things are far too hazy for me to remember all the details but I do remember my defence of Hougmont didn’t go as well as the later battle’s defence did. I did manage to hold for quite a bit and caused the French attackers some problems in taking the complex but I was bundled out after a spirited defence. I do remember (as it is painfully seared into my brain) Andy and me both noticing a large gap opening up between the troops attacking the châteaux and those to their immediate right that we tried to attack into but were stymied by faltering units. Before we could sort the attack out however, Dave launched and an attack by ‘Panzer Dragoon Division Brown’ which steamed into the junction between our two formations and proceeded to carve through our units like a hot knife through butter whilst suffering next to no discernible damage, eventually ending up on our side of the ridge after causing multiple units to rout all along it’s route of mayhem. Elsewhere determined French attacks by the frenzied revolutionary levee en mass and excellent cavalry battered their way into our positions and although we had some local successes, particularly over on the extreme left early in the battle, we were forced back off the ridge in places and the battle was lost.

The game was great fun to be involved in, so many belated thanks to the chaps at Loughton Strike Force for allowing us to join in, and special thanks have to go to Gary who not only did a marvellous job of umpiring the game all day provided the figures which I’m sure you will agree were a joy to behold, it’s just a shame I couldn’t write it up at the time.

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!