This was based on the excellent scenario "The Garrison of Tilsit" written by John Rae, author of "A Military Gentleman of the 18th Century".
Planning
What was supposed to be an action by Austrians against The Duke of Campari's men turned out to be an invasion by Hoegaarden instead as I forgot to pack the Austrians. However.....
We got set up and I managed to put the Faller buildings I have been keeping my eye out for on EBay. As you can see the large church is still a very big building one scale up from its intended use. I saw a similar building on the Cröebern 1813 (www.croebern-1813.de) site and book, so couldn't resist when I saw this on up for sale.
Defending the little border village were two units of The Duke's infantry, a unit of Grenadiers, dragoons and some light guns. Attacking were 2 line regiments, a grenadier regiment, unit of Croats and some rapacious Cossacks, attracted by the potential of plunder (yeah picking's must have been thin elsewhere!)
Things got underway when the morning mist cleared and the Garrison found the foe deployed in the fields across from the village. An artillery duel commenced while Hoegaarden troops advanced.
The light infantry screened the advance, but began to take some casualties as they shot at the exposed crew.
Campari's officers are disturbed from their devotions and observe the enemy closing on their positions.
From the flank, Campari's dragoons threatened the left wing of Hoegaardens army. The Cossacks were employed to disrupt this advance, ready to pounce on an exposed unit. It worked for a while and the cavalry danced for advantage.
By now the lines of white uniformed infantry were approaching musket range and closed to blaze away at the defenders.
However the light infantry had not been able to drive off the gun crew and the Campari guns fired into the foe with canister shot.
Facing this onslaught there was little the Hoeggarden men could do. And they began to fall back.
On the left the Dragoons had finally driven off the Cossack swarm and we're ready to engage the shattered infantry.
From the windmill, the Archbishop's staff ordered a withdrawal! His generals arguing about the quickest route back to safety!
A great game with some rather excellent inspiration provided, saving me form actually working much out. The positions of the defeated units varied slightly and the numbers of casualties varied greatly from the original, but that was a consequence of the rules.
NT's rules coped well enough with a slightly smaller game, but we both thought we could up the hits each unit suffered from 4 to 6 before losing a stand if we were going to play at this scale again.
Now we will see if Campari retaliates and opens a new front in the south. However his health and behaviour has become (more) unbalanced of late, so who can tell what the future holds!
