The Order of Battle is fine, the stream is pretty good (I based it heavily on the Rousseau map), hills/contours are a bugger, and the Built-Up-Areas tricky. I ended up following SPI's Napoleon's Last Battles' Ligny map and set up quiet closely.
The terrain (except trees and roads) and figures are mine. Richard took the Prussians. Proving that no battle plan, eh, scenario, survives the first few minutes, Richard launched a major attack on the French right using the Prussian II Corps. Not what I expected or intended the scenario to allow, but it made for a good game.
I designed an early start at 14:00 with the French III and IV Corps moving onto the battlefield.
The 7th Division advances on St Amand.
The 14th Division tackles Ligny, but it doesn't go well and the Prussians are massing...
The attack on St Amand meets with immediate success,
the Prussians had been disordered and were in no state to defend the village.
Note: St Amand consists of two Built-Up Area (BUA) segments.
Note: St Amand consists of two Built-Up Area (BUA) segments.
The Prussians throwing all they have into an attack on the French right.
The French started to immediately withdraw.
Come 15:00 and Napoleon has arrived with the Guard.
(He can be seen in the next picture, lower right hand corner)
Milhaud's cavalry has been deployed to the left.
The Young Guard have been pushed forward to help in the attack on St Amand.
A Grand Battery has been formed between the III and IV Corps.
The cautious, but hopefully overwhelming attack on St Amand (centre).
The French have abandoned all thought of attacking the village of Ligny (top right).
The French right, just before the charge of the 7th Cavalry Division.
The French have completely taken St Amand with an attack lead by Vandamme in person.
The French attack the Prussian advance.
From here on the French IV Corps and the Prussian II Corps are heavily engaged.
That's the French 13th Division out there a bit exposed.
The Prussians counterattack.
They are repulsed.
Around this time the Prussians used the last of their Free Rolls.
In a stroke of good luck, part of D'Erlon's Corps arrives at 15:00.
This avoids panic in the French lines over just who the "dark masses" were.
The view from the Prussian side.
The Prussians still have a have lot of troops around Ligny.
They have been hampered from being able to freely deploy by the table edge and the brook itself .
I am sure Grouchy would have something to say about this.
The French are pushing ahead inexorably (they hope) west of the Ligny Brook.
To the east however they are possibly a little over extended.
The IV Corps is very depleted and the Old Guard are having to shore things up.
Nicely done. I like the representation of the battlefield. I have just bought the Osprey Campaign book for Ligny, just to see some of the accounts of local fighting and the nature at which troops are fed into battle as a sort of way of testing that my rules are doing what they should be doing. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Once I get it perfected I hope to fully publish the scenario and my sources. At 1" equals a 100 yards and one figure equals 120 men, it's a big battle to do, but obviously possible.
DeleteThe stream seems to inhibit the toing and froing over the villages. However let's see what develops in part two, now scheduled for Monday.
I always enjoyed the look of a large NB game and your Ligny is no exception. An interesting battle, thus far, and I cannot guess which way it will turn out. Awaiting Part II and your publication of scenario specifics.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Except that it is taking place on the edge of the table with all the inherent table edge problems, it is indeed proving most interesting.
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