Commands & Colours – Möckern

Yesterday we knocked the snow off our boots and convened at Goya’s house to play another Commands and Colours game; this time it was the Battle of Möckern, October 1813. For this scenario we used a standard board as we were only fighting the French left flank position. I played the French and Goya the Prussians, Tony acted as aide-de-camp and umpire.

The initial set-up - French on the left, Prussians on the right.
Mockern is the built up area in the distance covering a total
of 5 hexes. As you can see the troops were a bit thinner on the
ground than in our last battle Talavera.

These are some of my French forces preparing to defend
Mockern from the Prussian hordes. Possession of the town
gave a crucial 2 VPs to the holder.

Most of the Prussian were S-Range Minifigs from Goya's
collection. Goya had made herculean efforts to get the troops
ready for the game and very splendid they looked.

The game opened with an attack by the Prussians on this farm
forming part of the Mockern defences. A walled farm is a
tough nut to crack in C&CN so I was quietly confident I could
see off anything Goya could throw at me.

And he had quite a lot to throw - 22 units against my 14.
However quite a few of his units were Landwehr and
Reservists and his cavalry, although looking impressive,
were weak compared to my brave French troopers.

However, just like an England soccer game, we found
our defences shockingly penetrated within the first few
minutes of the game when a unit of Prussian Grenadiers
successfully stormed the farm.

I decided there was no real advantage in trying to re-take the
farm and withdrew the forces on my left to a safer position
behind the town.

The action now shifted towards the centre and right of the
battlefield. I didn't have very many troops in these sectors but
did manage to concentrate my artillery to oppose the Prussians
who were starting to creep forward.

Goya tried to silence my batteries with a manoeuvre that
looked suspiciously like something out of the Crimean war.
Those coins are 'iron will' tokens that Goya was forced to play
to keep his lancers from retreating!

Buoyed up by the excitement of seeing the Prussian lancers
broken on our gun line, the famous 15th Chasseurs charged
against a unit of Reservists. I fully expected to see the Prussian
 infantry flee but they rather unsportingly formed square.
No 'man of the match' award for the 15th this time around.

You may recognise these lads as my own 2nd East Prussian
Cuirassiers. Sadly they didn't get to do very much which was
a similar story to their last trip out at Vintage Leipzig in 2016.

These are some of the Prussian gunners I recently completed.
This battery did good work against my right flank and didn't
receive so much as a scratch in return.

I had some lucky dice rolls in this game and Goya had some
spectacularly bad ones which got me fairly easily to the point
where I had amassed 8 VPs (I needed 10 to win). In a bid for
victory I launched a sneaky attack up the left flank past the
farm - it almost worked.

The inevitable Prussian counter-attack resulted in an exciting
escapade for General Lagrange who eventually fell foul of
those lancers. However this little setback was not enough to
turn the tide of battle against me and in the end it was a 10-4
victory for the French.

It was another great day of wargaming (and talking toy soldiers) with a superb warming lunch served by Goya. This time however we gave the garden a miss as, being a soft southerner, zero degrees Celsius was a bit chilly for me although Goya and Tony would have been out there in their T-shirts and kilts given half a chance.