Hanau 1813 - part 2

The game commenced with an artillery bombardment and my poor carabiniers found themselves in the line of fire of two Austrian batteries. The gunners took delight in aiming at their shiny brass breastplates in a most unsporting way.

My guard artillery were not standing idly by however and a string of good dice rolls was soon whittling away at the Bavarian gunners opposite them.

The Austrian infantry now started to advance whilst on their left flank the cavalry of both sides engaged in a fierce melee. You can just make out my cuirassiers and light cavalry mixing it with the front line of Roy's troopers in the centre distance.

The Austrians came on confidently with banners flying high - or was it just the innocence of troops who had never been in battle before?

The situation at the start of turn 3

A close up of the cavalry melee. I forget the precise sequence of events here but I remember the melee went on for several turns. At this stage Roy kept back three of his cavalry units in reserve whilst I retained two (including the carabiniers who ranks had now considerably thinned.

On the other flank the Bavarians came on in column whilst I pushed forward in something of an ordre mixte. I had to do this to prevent being out-flanked as the enemy outnumbered me 2:1 on this part of the field. The Swiss are in line and about to feel the full force of two enemy battalions.

A view along the French line. In the middle distance you can see I have moved my guard cavalry up behind the Poles. What sneaky plan did I have in store?

This is not looking good - there are more holes in their ranks than in a Swiss cheese. The yellow counter denotes the fact that the 4th Swiss are disordered.

At this stage Roy hesitated slightly in his advance and I was able to get off a volley or two together with fire from part of the guard artillery. You will note the absence of skirmishers in this game. This was to help speed up play. I like to have skirmishing but it does slow things down a bit and rarely has much effect on the game so Roy and I have decided to drop them for bigger games.

Another overview of the table.

The Austrian columns stop and the front ranks deploy into line clearly Roy doesn't fancy the chances of these newbies with the bayonet. I brought up my two reserve line battalions to extend my right flank and start to pour volley fire into the Austrians. However things were not going too well with the cavalry melee by this time and my cuirassiers can be seen making a 'strategic withdrawal'.

"Load, aim, fire" The 105th put all that drill to good use.

Possibly foolhardy rather than sneaky. The guard cavalry charge into the flank of the Austro-Hungarian column but the dice favours the Bavarians who managed to react and form square whilst the Bavarian gunners can't believe their luck. The red counter means that the colonel of the guards is hors de combat.

To be continued.

I've added some 'Unit History' pages (toward the top of the side menu bar). These are for my own amusement but might also be of interest to some of you. I will add to them as and when I have time.