Country Life?

 No - this post isn't really about country living but this rather bucolic view is taken from the scene of my latest (well, only) wargame with actual people. In this delightful spot we refought the battle of Marengo using 30mm figures provided by our host, Ian Kay of Irregular Miniatures.

The French take position around the village of Marengo.

The Austrian right immediately moves to outflank them.

The French chose to weather the storm.

French hopes rested on the arrival of this lot from San Guiliano.

Here they are again in close up (NB - I didn't take any notes during this game and some of my pictures weren't very good but you get the idea!)

I commanded the Austrian left and here my troops begin a bold march round the French right flank- We were using un-adapted Volley & Bayonet rules and the moves are HUGE!

Meanwhile Marengo was subjected to a frontal assault.

 

... and the Grenzer began to snipe from the woods.

The battle in this sector soon became fierce with more units being fed in by both sides.

While in the centre Austrian cavalry sought to slow the advance of the French reserves. (we then had a nice lunch provided by Mrs Kay - for which; many thanks!).

Some Austrian units did suffer reverses but generally we felt that the odds were stacked against the French, Using strict V&B rules, they had trouble keeping their units under command, suffered heavily from the fire of the battalion guns embedded in most Austrian units and were completely finished off by 'divisional exhaustion'. 

By this pint of the game the Austrians had taken Marengo and suffered very few casualties. The larger units of the Austrians meant that they still had plenty of troops left whereas the French were pretty much finished. This was pretty much the result of the first stage of the battle historically but we felt that in this game the arrival of Desaix would have made no difference to the result.

The French general said had he known that the Austrian units were stronger and had better fire power he would probably not have tried to hold the position on the from stream but we all agreed that it was a pretty hopeless situation altogether and after lunch the result was never in doubt. Although disheartening for the French player it was interesting to try this early Napoleonic battle and great for me to get out and have a game with other people for once!