Cavalry match at Bruceville 1863 (fictional)

 A cavalry match was established at Bruceville by the fictional 1863 Campaign game that we set up over the summer.

No one had enough cavalry to game this out - even at 1/3 scale with all of our cavalry combined.

So I decided to put my Fast Play Grande Armee tools to work, as this was an all horse match-up with some artillery supports.  All the sorts of things that existed in the Napoleonic era ... though the Union horse would have carbines - so I gave them a heavy cavalry unit to represent the extra firepower this might represent on the field.

This meant that the French would be representing Union troops and I chose Russians (because they were ready) to fill in as the Confederates.

 

Union job:  keep the Confederates off the two roads going south across the Monocacy River.

Confederates:  get any unbroken (more than 1 strength) brigades down either the road to Liberty (east) or Frederick City (west) so as to disrupt Union ability to  interfere with Confederate movements towards the east, either Baltimore or Washington.

the horse were fighting over Bruceville
just as the foot were tangling at Utica Mills

Custer was granted command of the 'heavies' and had the job to flank far right.

battlefield overview
(the tray holding Confederates were arriving from
the road to the north - left of image)

Union held in readiness to see what the Rebs were bringing

there were more Union cavalry coming from Liberty
to the south east, they would not arrive before noon though

Custer is in command of the Cuirassier, seen here in the distance
to the left

tale of the Confederate battle ... they could not get
the bigger numbers needed in combat die rolls

this caused many more losses to the Confederates

as usual an all cavalry battle was going to be a swirling mass of horsemen with the decision coming fast

Custer, top center, failed to attack - TWICE!

this allowed Confederate horsemen a clear shot
at a Union battery group

Pleasanton was just too far away to effect anything
much of a personal nature on the field

so the Union Division commanders were needed
to keep the action 'in-the-face' of the Confederates

1/3 of the Union guns were run over by Confederate horse

a lull came over the field just before 11 am

both sides had pulled back after an hour of furious action

in the midst of recovering some casualties - both sides failed their
break point rolls, though the Confederates failed their roll by more

remaining Union forces about 2/3rds strength that they
started with

Confederate survivors, they had been mauled
though all artillery survived, the horse were
at less than half strength they started with

 

Bruceville 1863 game timelapse

 

Now we know what all the situation of the 3rd of July will be ...

There is a small opening to the east, certainly north is open, west of course will achieve little.

South may be only an option if Longstreet can hold it open for two more days ...

Wither will General Lee and the remains of the Army of Northern Virginia go?

Blucher AAR - solo

A wonderful solo game has been posted HERE at Storm of Steel.

the 6mm minis on special shaped bases along with numbered and named tags that he uses on the tabletop

Blucher is the final game version of what I use Fast Play Grande Armee.

my own FPGA bases at Ath with the same SP indication system on the bases

Bonaparte's Day June 16, 1815 (fictional) part 1 - Yvoir

Within the Hundred Days Campaign that I have been adjudicating over the past few months, the forces under direct order of Napoleon Bonaparte had taken a flank march, crossing at Dinant on the 15th.

This was mostly unknown to the Prussian command as the message of the crossing and further penetrations would take almost a day to reach the ears of Blucher.

Then a day later Bonaparte himself could command a force of the Guard Heavy Cavalry in support of an assault by VI Corps of the French Armee Norde.

Now the battlefield would be set up for that morning ...

view from the south from behind the French lines

Prussians of III Korps make ready to hold off the French

along the French line viewed from the west looking east

Loubou was commanding and knew that his commander Bonaparte would be coming from the east later that morning, so took advantage of firing into the limited numbers of Prussians that could be used to block the one good crossing.

by 08h30 the battle for the crossing was started in earnest

while only one brigade was able to hold off the French infantry, it could not hope to keep them away indefinitely with the massed artillery moving up

by 10h00 the arrival of Bonaparte occurred

now the whole field would be brought into use

leading his black horse, Bonaparte himself was identified by Thielmann and messengers were sent to Blucher

Three brigades of the Imperial Guard Heavy Cavalry made for a terrifying sight to the Prussian light horse of III Korps

the field at 10h33

wasting no time the heavies were lined up against the light Prussian horse

a splendid sight - the whole of the Guard Heavy Cavalry

with Bonaparte looking on ...

The black horse charged in!

Shattering many Prussian horse, though not quite wiping them out, some Prussian foot were able to fill the gap in time before the Heavies could press on

meanwhile at the river the guns had started to pound out their deadly beat

within minutes of his arrival, Bonaparte had shifted the Prussians into a hopeless defensive stand.

Barely even an hour after Bonaparte's arrival on the scene the battle started looking already won for the French ...

the field tilted towards French Victory early

Prussian horsemen fought on valiantly just barely able to score some small victories against the superior French Guard Heavy horse

Thielmann could see the 'hat' of the hated French Emperor, yet was not in command of enough men to effect anything more than a gory delay of the inevitable

as the sun reached its zenith, Bonaparte took a number of ADC messengers from outside the tactical field of action.  Snapping shut his telescope a final message was sent off to Loubou, informing him of the Guard Heavy Cavalry success and that the horse would remain here at Yvoir under Loubou's command.  With that Bonaparte and his petit GHQ rode eastwards away from the field of action ... presumably some other action now needed his personal attention.

Still the action at Yvoir was not done.

A lull descended over the action, and it was not till 14h00 that the next significant events took place.

the river was nearly breached

while combined attacks by Prussian Horse and Foot delivered significant casualties to the French Heavies

Prussian Cavalry Commander Hobe was not going to surrender his command without a fight!

though the river crossing was temporarily held by the French, the Prussians did not stop with counter-attacks

Loubou realized that this was going to be a battle that could take all day

Guard Heavy Cavalry continued relentless attacks

French Artillery was also non-stop in their firing

Prussian numbers dwindled to a few wounded brigades and militia were pressed into hot action with regulars

undeterred the Prussians had resolved to fight to the end

Loubou had begun to withdraw wounded brigades from the river crossing and feed in new fresh units

the body count grew for the Prussians

still the French had not forced the crossing

Thielmann was down to only a remnant of his forces ...

At long last the casualty count had forced the Prussian troops into considering a retreat.

the river line was held to the very last man

outnumbered 4:1 this final brigade takes its last gasp in vain attempt to stop the French

not enough in the end though as the Prusians failed their 'army morale' check and the rout was on

Some more Prussians were lost in the rout that followed, they were unable to cross the river to the west and were forced to flee north in the forests of the western Ardennes.

The final surviving forces:

Guard Heavies lost 1/3

VI Corps was reduced to two under-strength divisions

All of Prussian III Korps was cut to one Landwher Brigade!

One bright spot for the Prussians, now they knew where Bonaparte WAS!