Combined Arms Achieved!

Had a long weekend and took the time to finish up the 1st Silesian Hussars and base and flock the backlog of stuff in the sand pit.

The finished product for the weekend:

 

 The Cavalry has arrived!  These fine Calpe figures were a birthday present from Monsieur Wright. M. Wright is of course one of the brain washed lost souls under the spell of the Corsican Upstart, but may be redeeming himself by supplying arms to the enemies of the Empire!  That or he is playing the long game and gleefully awaiting more fodder for his Grand Armee to crush on its path to extend the bounds of glory... 

 

Reconnaissance From Napoleonic Wars DLC!

So I picked up the DLC expansion on sale for $5 and gave it a whirl.

The Good: The game graphically is mediocre if you compare it to a triple-A title bankrolled by a major studio and millions if not tens of millions of dollars.  For a mod made by players in their spare time on an engine developed by a married couple from Turkey the graphics are solid.  Some of the uniforms just "pop" like the Polish Lancers.  The period detail I cant yet say I'm an expert in, but for the Prussian units that I've looked at extensively in selecting my miniatures for the uniforms are spot on.  Some of the small details like the unit and company information on the British canteens is really brilliant. Weapons include muskets, rifles, musketoons, various styles of swords as well as some really fun comical additions for the Russian Partizanis (levied peasants) who start with a random weapon from a musket to a pitchfork or even a birch tree limb.  The Partizanis get a broken bottle too as a thrown weapon! (I've actually knocked a Hussar off his horse with a well aimed throw--was rather hilarious.)

In addition there are some great extras.  Each army has its associated drummers and fifer and has period marches from each of the respective nations (Prussia, Austria, France, Russian, Britain). Oh! and dont forget the bagpipes!  Its pretty awesome charging with a few score of Imperial Guardsmen, while beating out Pas de Charge on the drums with the Eagle and fifer next to you. Inside many of the buildings are pianos which can be played--and some maps turn into "Defend/Attack the Piano!" to the background tones of Brahms or Beethoven.  The music, flags, and officers all give small buffs--very small--to reloading speed, melee combat, and musket accuracy respectively.  The only one I can really even notice is the music reloading buff.

The terrain can also be built up or destroyed by sappers through a building menu allowing the creation of earthworks, gabions, sharped stakes, etc.  Cannons, Howitzers, and Mortars also can destroy these creations along with blowing holes in buildings.  The game really comes alive though when you grabs some friends or convince some random pubs (players) to hop into a voice communication server, such as the public TS3 hosted by the devs and coordinate.  The most kills I had in a single 10 minute round was when I convinced another random player to get in the public TS3 and help me operate a cannon.  We got 12 kills that round and demolished the Frenchy's redoubt. Many "Regiments" exist which are player organizations for scheduled "line battles" with 125 players a side with everyone on voice comms and knowing what their doing.  The main "official" servers are 200 man servers and at least for me as a West Coaster I don't have any major lag issues when the server is at full capacity.

The game is really at its best when there is some coordination.  The sappers get some defenses up, the cavalry counter enemy cavalry, harass stragglers/skirmishers and try to discourage charges, the artillery softens up the enemy concentrations and the infantry hold the defenses/artillery/high ground until a numbers advantage develops or the time-clock runs down.  This coordination happens somewhat organically because losing isn't that fun and getting cut down one by one while you're charged by a coordinated group sucks.  Generally the sides clump together, but sometimes it can be frustrating as 100 self-appointed officers spread out in 100 different directions to be defeated and destroyed in detail... repeatedly....

That is all the good.....

The Bad:  the game still suffers from the clunky Mount & Blade: Warband combat engine.  It's less noticeable in single player, but online it is definitely awkward and off putting and the Mount&Musket (Napoleonic Wars) team may have actually made the clunky combat system worse.  Melee takes up most of the combat as muskets are really inaccurate at anything outside maybe 100 feet (and even then it seems hard to hit).  Its a lot of people circling and randomly stabbing and praying the lag/clunky mechanics work it out in the end.  Movement seems also feels like your a lumbering ox at the best of times.

The Verdict:  the game is currently retailing for $10.  At $10 the games not overpriced, but there are a lot of free mods out there that incorporate gunpowder, and the whole thing places much more like a skirmish between light infantry due to the lack of coordination amongst public players with no voice comms.  I probably wouldn't pay retail, but if you're a fan of the period then mods and indie games routinely go on sale so when it drops to $5 or less I definitely think its worth it at that price point.    Again another great player driven expansion to Mount & Blade and independent gaming.

First some some in-game shots:

The floating symbols are so non-history buffs can tell friend from foe

The Redoubt

Below are some "reconnaissance"--officers and generals (like Blucher, Wellington, Schwarzburg, and Napoleon) get spyglasses that zoom.  I loaded a custom battle and took some fun shots of the Uniforms for reference.

Totenkopf Hussars

Prussian Reservists

Westphalian Landwehr Cavalry

Kings German Legion

95th Rifles

42nd Highlanders ("Blackwatch") Should have grabbed a pic of the Piper too!

Hussars and Light Dragoons (Inniskilling)

French Voltiguers

Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard! The uniforms are magnificent in game and the lance is great against  infantry

French Cuirassier

Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard

Polish Line

Silesian Schutzen (Taking notes, they up soon on the table!)

Silesian Schutzen

Lutzow's Freikorps and Kurmark Landwehr

Prussian 8th Line

Update

Its been a busy week.

The 2nd battalion of the 12th Line is done and moves on to the Sand Pit for basing.  I've started my test figure for the Silesian Hussars and have excellent source material between the knotel plate: http://www.grosser-generalstab.de/tafeln/knoe02/knoe02_29.html and Centjour Mont St. Jean.

In other news Mount and Blade has incorporated one of its many mods Mount and Musket and released Mount and Blade: Napoleonic Wars.

I haven't purchased the new DLC yet, but M&B is an excellent game and infinitely moddable which makes for great longevity. The original is a medieval/dark ages setting with great combat.  The real strength of M&B is its use as a modding platform where communities of players bring the game to new eras, locations and often improve on the games core mechanics beyond what the developers created.

Announcement Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPv56deYrsQ

Gameplay will likely mirror Napoleonic War's predecessor which there are some interesting videos:
French forming square:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPV3urKEV64

Its a multplayer game so experience will vary... such as the below! 2e Grenadiers & 2e Chasseurs take on some Brits:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHYxBYe6SJs
(WARNING! Mind the Language/Profanity--they are gamers)


Random other Video I came accross:
Mount and Gladius (ROMA VICTOR!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7zd2U3wZg4

Baptism by Fire

I love a brave soldier who has undergone the baptism of fire. 

                                               -Napoleon 

The Prussians got their first appearance on the table on Saturday. Kraft's 6th Brigade and my 4 battalions of 1st Brigade along with 3 foot batteries, 1 heavy foot batter and a horse battery received their baptism by fire.  Although it wasn't a  great day for the Prussians, I don't think the French will be gleefully writing their report to Napoleon either.

July 15, 1815 -- Somewhere in Belgium

Girard's 7th Division with a brigade of Pire's Light Cavalry division and the man himself are hounding the remnants of 1st Brigade across the Belgian country side as Von Steinmetz  attempts to save I Corps Artillery reserve from the disaster at Gosselies where most of 1st Brigade was broken and fled north towards Brussels.  Von Pirch I has sent his leading element, Kraft's 6th Brigade to try to secure the retreat 1st Brigade and the artillery of I Corps towards Fleurus.

The Prussians lack any real cavalry support and have only 1 squadron of the 1st Silesian Hussar remaining from Gosselies.  The Brave and Loyal Prussians turn to face the inevitable French assault and take up a defensive position along a line of hills.

The Field of Battle

Pire and Girard were however not as close on the heels of the Prussians as they thought and entered from the other side of the village.

The French take the Field (of Glory... they Hope!)

The Prussians pivot to meet the French. The three battalions of 1st Westphalian Landwehr, allegedly an untrained rabble militia, and the first battalion of the regulars of 12th Line anchor the right.

General Major Kraft pushes forward the 26th Line, a green reserve unit, and along with a horse battery position themselves at the heights near where the road takes a sharp turn.  The 9th moves up in reserve and the Elbe Landwehr, a trained militia, go to reinforce the Westphalians on the right flank staring down the discouragingly sharp looking lance tips of the 5th Lancers and a horse battery.

General Kraft appears to be taking a surprisingly aggressive posture despite the defensive nature of their strategic position.  General Steinmetz was becoming concerned.  The French it was rumored were rated as Crack infantry and cavalry... despite Napoleon losing 500,000 men in the little Russian adventure and then losing men across Poland, Saxony, Germany, the Rhineland, and to the gates of Paris for 3 years....oh and that whole abdication thing.... the Prussian's were facing the Cream of the French Infantry.

Girard was forced to extend his line and address the threat of the 26th line on his right flank and the rest of the division advanced slowly in the face of the Prussian artillery.  The I/11th Legere (formed from the Tirailleurs du Po) charged the advanced II battalion of the 26th line and were thrown back in disgrace taking  20% casualties and running for the rear.

Further disaster befell the French when (foreshadowing things to come) Freiweilliger Jagers of 6th Brigade shot  General Girard from his horse wounding him forcing his command to take a morale check.  The voltiguers of the 11th Legre, however, did manage to snipe and disrupt the crew of the Prussian horse battery.

General de Brigade De Villier took over for General Girard launched II battalion of the 12th Legre in the French center to clear away the Prussian skirmishers.  These brave souls over extended themselves and were charged by a column of the 26th line and in the flank by the 120 brave souls of the remaining squadron of the 1st Silesian Hussars. The French fled and the 60 remaining men of the Silesian Hussars followed up the French riding in amongst the fleeing soliders even as the French returned to the main French line. 

But the French had an ace of their sleeves. General Pire sent his 5th Lancers into a magnificent charge taking the column in column, clearing the entire front of the French line from left to right flank. The shot and shell beleaguered 12th Legere gave a great rolling cheer as the Lancers cleared the Prussian skirmishers that had assailed them.  The lancers sent the Prussian skirmishers running for friendly lines and caught the heroes of the II/26th celebrating their victory over the 11th Legere and in the middle of forming square.  The 5th Lancers offered no quarter and cut them down to a man, taking no prisoners.  The Lancers then took a nice victory lap around the hill to complete their circuit of the French position.  The 6th Lancers dispatched the exhausted remnants of the Silesian Hussars, but not before the Silesians returned the favor in kind, sabreing down the rest of the battalion of the 12th Legere.

General Pire continued to reshape the field of battle and launched the 1st and 6th Chasseurs a' Chaval against the Westphalian landwehr that had been dancing back and forth between line and square in the face of the French horse battery and cavalry. The 12th line was caught in line as well, and unable to form a hasty square and ran.  This did however buy time for the Elbe landwehr to form a hasty square and the courage of these plucky Prussians cost the 1st Chasseur's 50% casualties before they fell back.  But not before leaving the corpse of General Comte de Pire on the field who had lead the charge on the landwehr.

The Prussian Right as Pire's Cavalry charge

Pire falling to Prussian Landwehr!

Meanwhile the gunners of the Prussian 6lb and 12lber batterys on the heights were ordered to turn their guns on the charging cavalry. Despite the fact that the French cavalry charged some 990 yards to their current positions it was determined that no fire opportunities were to be had and firing on either regiment and that the meleeing 1st chassuers screened the movements of the 6th Chassuers.  Faced with the possibility of their commander firing on his own landwehr to cut down the cavalry, the lieutenants of the battery knocked their captain unconscious with a rolled stack of papers (entitled "the rules") and countermanded the batteries fire orders.

The Prussians slowly began to withdraw and it was determined could make it off the field with their remaining cannon.  

The End Results:

The 9th Line was untouched and were veterans able to stand up to the French potentially.  The Prussians had 4 batteries intact except for one 6lber destroyed cannon. 75% of the Horse gunners made it off the field, though their 8 cannon were captured. Two battalions of Landwehr remained on the field. Prussian losses were lighter as most of the Landwehr (46% of the deployed Prussian infantry) routed from the field intact.

Estimated Prussian Losses:

240 Landwehr

840 Green reserves of the 26th Line

120 Hussars

60 Horse Artilleryman

8 guns captured; 1 destroyed

Estimated French Losses:

General Comte Pire

General Girard (wounded--would recover)

1020 Crack men of the 11th and 12th Legere

240 Chasseurs

Fun game and great introduction for the Prussians.  The Francophiles would say Girard's division gave the new Prussians proper instruction in their future deployments--how to run from the field, fast.  The true and honest sons of Germany however can be confident that they traded blows almost one for one against some of the best men Napoleon could offer and secured the retreat of most of I Corps' artillery.

The artillery would come in handy the next day at Ligny and the riflemen now had Girard's number for round two in St. Amand. 

1st Corps Gets Some Real Teeth (Part 2)

1st Corps Artillery will remain in the sand pit for basing for a little while longer, hopefully to be joined soon by the 1st Silesian Hussars!

Prussian Artillery comes in two fire modes:

French Smasher!

and IRON BACKBONE INJECTOR SYSTEM! (TM)

Iron Backbone Injector System is state of the art German Engineering Morale Improvement  Platform for use with the Landwehr

Mapping the Battle of Ligny

The four Brigades of [First] Corps had been very much mixed up together when occupying the Villages during the night, which will account in some measure for the promiscuous manner in which their several Battalions appear to have been distributed during the battle.

--William Siborne p. 201

Breakdown of locations of battalions per Siborne (the only source I've found that really goes into this level of depth). The brigades of 2nd Corps (on or near the road to Sombref) are deployed in "classic" deployment of "three lines of columns of battalions at deploying intervals".

Also note 4th Brigade is short the 13th Regiment which is garrisoning Mainz (corroborated by Mont St-Jean--link at right). 1st, 3rd, and 4th brigades are all accounted for. I/6th Line from 2nd Brigade's disposition is left out of Siborne's account.  For the battalions defending/garrisoning the villages I just placed column markers.

The battalions and dispositions of 1st Corps are very mixed. Jagow's 3rd Brigade is employed in both St. Amand and Ligny and this explains the confusion of various maps listing Jagow's command in either location depending on the time.

For easier viewing the full size map of the battalion deployments is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3t2umn7ilyk4lih

This second map helps illustrate better at a glance the "promiscuous" dispositions.

Stay tuned next week, same lead-saturated-time, same lead-saturated-channel for Mapping Ligny: Opening Assault!

1st Corps Gets Some Real Teeth

So approximately 2 months later I've finished up my 16 gunners and 4 cannons!  This is enough for four batteries  in our rule set.  Inclement weather has prevented getting them spray sealed and based but for the moment there are no more paint flakes to drive me nuts and they really are just in need of basing now! (I've been telling myself that for 3 weeks). Part of that was work taking up a lot of time and the rest being my ham-fisted painting.

Some teasers until I get them ready for the parade ground.

Horse Battery No. 7 (Silesian)  

Mixture of  two and three coloring techniques.

The other thing this project taught me was another factor to add to the list when evaluating figures.  Calpe's level of detail is amazing, but on the foot artillerymen with canvas bag, giberne, greatcoat roll + ramrod, prickers, etc. the figures were really "crowded"  there was a lot going on and it took 3x as long to paint.  Where as the relatively simple horse artillerymen with just one bag and not a half a dozen overlapping things on their chests were actually quick and fun.... the long and short of this is simpler figures have their virtues as well.

Next up im thinking something simple....warlord games landwehr maybe.