Tuesday was our National holiday here in New Zealand so Goldie suggested a game at his place. So we played a Napoleonic Game using our Black Powder points system. It was set at 200 points which is what Goldie can field his Prussians as. I took along Russians.

Below is Goldies Prussian point list

Below is my Russian point list. I upgraded the Jager to Reliable for reasons that will explain in report(apart from having the points spare!)

Below is my Russian set up. My force was divided into 4 brigades. This was a standard Russian division of 3 brigades with 2 being of 4 Musketeers EACH and the 3rd of 4 Jager. I upgraded the Jager to Reliable/Elite 5+ so they could be ordered on CC9 instead of 8 and have a change of rallying from a Disorder before the order phase if disordered. The 2 Musketeer brigades each had an artillery battery. The last brigade was of 2 Hussar units which allowed me a free Cossack unit(under our army system rules).

Goldies Prussians had a brigade of 2 Dragoons, a brigade of 2 landwehr cavalry, a brigade of 2 Grenadiers, a Jager, horse battery and Leib Hussars then a brigade of 6 landwehr. A foot battery was in there somewhere as well!

Terrain was a village( 1 defensive zone) in center of table, woods either side of it and a farm on one table edge with a couple of small hills in the Russian side of table.

I managed to just beat the Prussians into the village.

Goldie takes a gamble and charged Landwehr cavalry into my right side of table battery. My battery gets 4 shots, hitting on 3s with hits having a -2 effect on saving throws. The cavalry save on 5+ so they have no saving throw. Any unsaved hits while charging artillery result in an automatic break test from closing fire. That plus the unsaved hits and a poor break test roll from Goldie meant the unit and its attached commanders were destroyed. Being marauders the remaining unit does not suffer any brigade morale test.

A good start for me!

As I beat Goldie to possession of the village he threw in Grenadiers with supports to try and take the village. I managed to disorder them by my closing fire which is great result as now they need 4s and not 3s to hit in combat. I manage to hold in the combat.

Goldie had placed his horse battery on his left flank….he then ordered it to move to the centre. Sadly, that move was only partially successful and they ended up flank on just past the woods. So I dutifully charged them with Hussars…..destroyed them and continued a ‘Sweeping Advance’ into a stationary Dragoon unit. I managed 3 wounds so they were now shaken. Goldie did 2 on me and I retired. Another good result.

Shaken Dragoons looking at Russians in distance.

On other flank I had managed to get a unit of skirmishing Jager around the farmhouse that Goldie had a Landwehr unit in and put 3 shots into the Leib Hussars who were now shaken.

I did this so they were not available to charge me when I moved my Jager’s in skirmish formation through the open terrain between the farmhouse and Village.

Poor dice rolling by Goldie meant the attacking Grenadiers lost the continuing Village combat and were destroyed when failed the break test. The other units did not care.

The undamaged Dragoon unit charged a column I had advanced to the edge of the woods who passed their test to form square and the Dragoons retired. With no artillery on this flank and infantry busy attacking the village…there was no risk to them….there were Prussian Jager in the wood…but they had been forced out.

Between the farmhouse and village I have moved up 2 skirmishing Jager units supported by columns. This was so I could move forward with a skirmishing line and shoot up and hopefully destroy the Prussian battery next turn with no fear of cavalry now interfering.

The Jager who shot up the Leib are retiring back towards their lines. The troops in the farmhouse were unable to inflict any damage on them.

Skirmishing Russian Jager have advanced on Prussian battery and shaken it from shooting. Hussars are now positioning for charge on Prussian landwehr column next turn…which will form square…the Hussars will retire and the Column with then charge the now formed square. If they don’t manage to get charges in…there is a battery positioned to damage the column and 2 Jager units will be positioned to shoot it.

I have moved a second unit up to block the gap between the wood and village.

On Prussian left the Prussian Jager have been pushed out of the wood, my artillery have disordered and put 2 wounds on the surviving landwehr cavalry and a unit of Cossacks are poised to charge them .

Goldie made another attempt to attack the village..it failed and we called that game as a Russian Victory.

Fun game…….Goldie had some poor dice rolls at critical times…..but charging into a village when your artillery has not caused any wounds or disordered the troops inside is always a risky task. Taking out his Horse artillery and stopping the turn 1 charge on one of my batteries was a great step in winning the game.

The Whisky of the day is the Aberlour 16.

This was another Xmas present.

I won’t bother with tasting notes….except to say it has won multi awards and deservedly so!

The comment I found online pretty much sums this one up.

‘A fruity and spicy release from Aberlour, this 16 year old has been matured in a combination of sherry butts and first-fill bourbon casks. Jim Murray scored it 94.5/100 in his 2015 Whisky Bible, describing it as ‘a malt of unbridled magnificence’.

This is one NOT TO BE SHARED!!

Until next time…Terry out.