Austerlitz 1805

Austerlitz 1805 - Rising Eagles is volume II in the Eagles of France series designed by Walter Vejdovsky and published by Hexasim.

Units are regiments and the map scale is 250 metres to the hex. Turns represent one hour of real time.

There are links in the Resource Section below to replays of Quatre Bras and Ligny, both part of the same series.

The game gives us four scenarios, the first three are just 5 turns long, with each playing on a single map and focusing on a smaller part of the battle. 

The fourth scenario is the full battle game and uses two maps and is 12 turns long, representing 12 hours of fighting.

The scenarios are listed in the following order;

Davout’s stand in the south. The battle for Telnitz and Sokolnitz

Bagration, Lannes and Murat. Clash in the North 

Soult’s great breakthrough and the Battle of the Guards

Full battle game. The Battle of Three Emperors.

Today, we are looking at the full battle.

For the rest of this post, please use the ‘read more’ tab below.

The Prussian Steamroller at Plancenoit 1815

An intro scenario taken from the recently reprinted game of ‘Waterloo 1815 - Fallen Eagles II’ from Hexasim.

Waterloo was the first game in the Eagles of France series. In the re-print the maps have been updated to match the subsequent series games and this includes the addition of doing separate smaller maps for three of the scenarios that make excellent intro games - these being Hougoumont, La Haye Saint and Plancenoit.

Today, we are looking at the latter ….. The Prussian Steamroller at Plancenoit. This is just a four turn scenario.

Please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post, which combines a replay with some observational notes.

Ligny 1815

The battle of Ligny from Hexasim makes a return to the table. I was really surprised to find that my last outing with the full historical scenario was four years ago! There is a link in the Resource Section below that covers the fairly detailed AAR that I did back then.

For details of todays game, please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post

Attack St. Amands 1815

Scenario 1 from the ‘Last Eagles - The Battle of Ligny’ (by Hexasim) module goes onto the table. This is one of the two introductory scenarios in the package and covers the battle for St. Amand and La Haye.

The villages of St. Amand and La Haye sit on the right wing of the Prussian defence. Vandamme’s III Corps was tasked with taking control of these villages and to compel the Prussians to engage as much of their force as possible’.

This is a 4 turn scenario, commencing at 3 PM, with hourly turns, but each force gets to activate twice per hour.

The rest of this post covers this action, looking at turn 1 in some detail to pick up game nuances and then just gives an overview of the rest of the battle. Please use the ‘read more’ tab to continue.

Fighting in the streets 1815

'The Streets of Ligny' is one of the mini scenarios provided in Hexasim's Ligny module from the Eagles of France series.

I have just two boardgames in my collection that take their 'field of battle' type system and apply it to a single built up area setting, where troops fight over gardens, amongst buildings and in the streets and these street plan type maps fascinate me.

The first is The Men of Iron series (GMT) that offers 1st and 2nd St. Albans from Wars of the Roses and the other is this, a system that has covered the whole of Waterloo, Austerlitz, Ligny and Quatre Bras, but here puts a focus on a single village.

This post gives a brief look at my most recent replay. Please use the 'read more' tab for the rest of this post.

Quatre Bras 16th June 1815

Today is the anniversary date of the Battle of Quatre Bras, so Hexasim’s boardgame covering the subject has been up on the table. The blog has seen earlier posts covering the ‘Eagles of France’ system in some detail and links to those articles are provided in the Resource Section at the foot of this post.

This article is just going to be a straight AAR of the battle, using the historical scenario, which means that Ney is attacking later in the day, with the Anglo-Allied reinforcements already near the battlefield.

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Assault on Hougoumont

This is a three turn scenario from Hexasim’s Eagles boardgame package that covers the Waterloo battlefield.

Part of box artwork

Starting at 11am, with hourly turns, the French will win an instant victory if they capture the farmhouse. If this is not done by the end of the game, they will lose, unless the ridge behind Hougoumont is controlled by the French, in which case a draw occurs.

The farmhouse is fortified and a tough nut to crack in the game. The gardens, orchard and light woods around the farmhouse are all represented by orchard type terrain.

I am using the most recent rule set (from the Quatre Bras module), including the rule that caps a stack's strength points at 20 if made into or out of non-open terrain.

And so it begins

The French open up at range with their guns, without making much impact. Reille with so many men at his disposal is impatient and immediately launches infantry attacks to overwhelm the defenders in the orchards.

This opening attack has mixed results with 1st Léger pushing 2/1 Foot Guards back into the Farmhouse complex, but 2nd Léger completely wreck themselves attacking Sandham’s guns. 3/1 Foot Guards make a heroic stand, suffering heavy casualties, but managing to hold back the main french thrust.

The French launch their assault, 3/1 Foot
Guards take the brunt of the attack.

12 noon

The British continue to hold ground while taking very heavy losses. French guns are brought up within 400 metres of the farmhouse. Reille’s divisions are pushing deeper into the orchards, where they attack Kühlmann’s horse artillery, who lose half their guns before falling back a short distance to maintain alignment with Hougoumont's flank.

Alone, Kühlmann’s guns are vulnerable and cheers suddenly go up from the gunners as 2nd Nassau (counts as a British formation in this scenario) come down from the crest at the rear of the farmhouse and form up with the guns.

Heavy French artillery batters away at the Farmhouse, causing very heavy casualties amongst the Guards, but their morale holds up and they keep hold of the farm complex.

As the British perimeter shrinks, the French started to envelop the position and put in their strongest attack yet, attacking from three sides, but Kühlmann‘s artillery fires canister driving off 100th Ligne, while at the farmhouse, robust fire from The Guards causes 2nd and 92nd Ligne to rout.

The fighting is growing in intensity - can the British hold on?

The pressure is really on at the farmhouse

1 PM - A last push!

The assault is seeing Reille's entire Corps getting drawn into this cauldron, but surely one more push will do it!

Kühlmann‘s artillery becomes overwhelmed, having seen off 72nd Ligne, they are immediately counter-attacked by 100th Ligne and the gunners are lost. The farmhouse now stands in defiance ... alone.

The Guards manage to repel another assault and then another! but with both sides exhausted, the fighting dies down around Hougoumont, however any hopes of sustaining the defence for much longer diminish as 1st and 100th Ligne push 2nd Nassau off the ridge behind the farmhouse. The French take the ridge and Hougoumont is now isolated.

Conclusion - British losses have been huge, 6 units have left the map and only the battered 2/3 Foot Guards remain - demoralised! But French losses have been equally significant, with 2 units routing, 1 unit flipped and 5 units lost.

Though the French have failed to win the scenario, they can claim a draw due to their capture of the ridge.

With such a close ending, I of course felt compelled to see what a fourth turn would bring, and this saw the collapse of the British position at Hougoumont. Playing this extra turn just shows how tight the scenario is. It makes for a good intro scenario, but is also an interesting mini-game in it’s own right.

The full Waterloo battle now begs attention!

RESOURCE SECTION.

Commanders is my sister site, which is a bit more snippet based than here. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/

A previous post covers the STREETS OF LIGNY and has an AAR and description of the game mechanics. LINK

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-street-of-ligny-1815.html

The Battle of Quatre Bras 1815

Quatre Bras is the most recent module published from Hexasim’s napoleonic Eagles of France series and the available scenarios cover the historical battle, variants and a link scenario that allows the Quatre Bras game and the previous Ligny game to be mated up.

Today, we are just looking at the historical battle. The 7 game turns represent one hour periods (2 PM to 8 PM inclusive), though since everything within a turn has the potential to activate twice, some of the actions might be best thought of as sitting in a 30 minute time frame. Also some chaos enters the mix, with turns possibly ending early, without everything fully activating to their full potential!

I am going play a single 1 hour turn each day and at the end of each play, update this post with the unfolding battle report, so in effect, this post will become a rolling narrative over the coming week of the battle and the reader can return at any point to catch up with the latest developments. The updates will be added to the bottom of this post, so that it remains a cohesive orderly article for anyone visiting in the future or just catching up.

Obviously, it will be written in the present tense and without knowledge of how the game will unfold or end.

In an earlier post I made some observations on the mechanics of this game using the introductory scenario. There is a link to that article in the Resource Section below for anyone wanting some extra system detail.

please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post

Fighting for the streets of Ligny 1815

The streets of Ligny is an introductory scenario for Hexasim’s Ligny 1815 - Last Eagles game. It is an unusual scenario in that it shows an exploded view of Ligny village, with individual buildings highlighted and each side throwing a full corps into the fray. 

From the box cover

I put the 4 turn scenario up as an exercise to get back into the system before I visit the most recent module - Quatre Bras, for that full battle and so this post is just an overview on how the game went, with the Resource Section having a link to an earlier post that more fully describes the system itself.

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Quatre Bras 1815 - Hexasim

This is the fourth game, published by Hexasim in the Eagles of France series. Waterloo, Austerlitz and Ligny being the others.

I have looked at the system closely in earlier posts, so will not cover that ground again, though links to those posts are in the Resource Section below.

This post is just going to look at the physical package, changes to the rules and run a playthough of the introductory scenario.

please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.

Ligny - the full battle

Clash on the Ligny battlefield (1815)

This blog mainly concerns itself with wargaming in small spaces, due mainly to my own limitations on gaming space and the time that the space is actually available. A recent move has given me an opportunity for a separate but temporary playing area that is not subject to the demands on the family table and which allows for an all day game and even one that can drift into the following day.

As part of my restructuring plans for hobby time in 2018, I wanted to have some ‘wargame fest’ days during the year to use this space to get some bigger games in for a deeper level of play.

First up has been the rather splendid ‘Ligny 1815’ game from Hexasim, a two mapper, that with the historical scenario, we get three large corps on the Prussian side and three infantry plus three cavalry corps for the French.

I have already posted a detailed look at the system (see the Resource Section below), so this will just be an AAR  as at how the historical battle played out, plus some notes and observations.

please use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post

The Street of Ligny 1815

The Streets of Ligny scenario, from the Ligny 1815 module.

This is volume III in Hexasim’s Eagles of France Series (designed by Walter Vejdovsky), with the first two volumes covering Waterloo and Austerlitz. The campaign games are two mappers, though Ligny has two interesting smaller scenarios that use a single map and they are fun to play in their own right, also serving as a good introduction to the game, or allowing players returning to the system to quickly reconsolidate their knowledge of the rules.

The Ligny 1815 addition to the series line-up brings an interesting battle and the prospect of fighting through built up areas is more significant than in the previous two titles. To emphasise this, the smallest scenario (half a map) shows an exploded view of the settlement of Ligny itself and gives the French four turns to attack into the town and eject the Prussian defenders from key locations.

This enlarged view of Ligny allows this particular map to have over-large hexes and the resulting tussle has all the ingredients of good visuals and low unit count to give a very playable and enjoyable game, which is short enough to allow the session to also include as much rule referencing as the gamer needs to get familiar with the system.

I think this is a brilliant system and the rest of this post is given over to a closer look at the system in general via a replay of this particular scenario.

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