We played a Montmirail 1814 refight at the Hutt Club which was designed for 6 players , however on the day sadly we had 2 no shows so we ended up with Goldie and I being Allied players and Rob and Russ the French.

The table was 15 foot x 6 foot with the Russians set up on the Western side of table and deployed on the Southern half of the table. The Prussians to arrive on turn 2 from the North.

The French would arrive from the East with locations/turns on their Orbat

Being 1 player down I took on playing the Russian force of 24 bttns, 6 cavalry regts and 4 batteries. I was going to be exhausted!! Goldie had the Prussians of 4 cavalry and 12 foot. Their artillery was bogged down back up the road.

The French Orbat is an impressive list of units! I never quite got my head around it totally…but Rob was Marmont, Rob also had the Division of the Middle Guard and also started with the Young Guard cavalry but as the game developed Russ took over. He also had Ney. Russ had the Old Guard Cavalry, Old Guard infantry and the artillery and absorbed the Young Guard cavalry as well plus Napoleon and Lefebrve!

Now having far more units than I normally command I was very much focused on my sector and neglected to get pictures of other parts o the battle so up front apologies for that.

The Russian cavalry was placed on the open left flank.

Beside the cavalry I had a strong defensive position with a wood, a gap and then a 3 defensive zone village.

Then on the other side of the village there was another open gap to swamp with a wood to my front. I figured I should be able to defend this!

French Guard cavalry advance onto the table.

The view of the arriving French. From the top to bottom they are: 2 divisions of Conscripts to the front, Middle Guard advancing up road, Old Guard to Northside of road, Garde d’Honner with the Conscripts, Young Guard cavalry then Old Guard cavalry with a horse battery. The 2 Guard batteries were off table.

In my turn I managed to move my Dragoons and Hussars out of charge targeting by the French except for the Cossacks who declined to move. Idiots. Thankfully the French were a bit confused and didn’t manage to contact them.

Rob threw his conscripts forward, I forced one into square by charging them with Dragoons, and then charging them with a column and moving the skirmishing Cossacks up as a support. It took a few combats but eventually the square popped.

So Goldie arrived from the North. He moved his 4 cavalry on….not any infantry. So 2 Dragoons and 2 Landwher cavalry marched on just so they could give Russ the pleasure of introducing his massed Guard cavalry to them.

Rob spent the day shooting up the village but without any artillery he had no show of kicking me out of 3 defensive zones. I plugged the gap with a battery supported by 3 columns and held 2 bttns Jager in reserve. My Hussars and Dragoons were behind them. From the wood to the table edge was another brigade of a battery..4 Musketeer bttns and 2 Jaeger bttns.

After several turns of a cavalry massacre for the French this was the situation. Notice the lack of Prussian cavalry.

Meanwhile in the centre the Middle Guard have entered the fray and I have tried the cavalry to front, form square and charge in a column combo again. Sadly, Middle Guard are tougher proposition.

After taking out the Prussian cavalry a unit of Guard lancers was flank on to my Hussars who managed to get a ‘Follow me’ into them. They destroyed the Lancers and carried on into the Horse Grenadiers but did not destroy them. I then rallied them back to face the Horse artillery that would now rock up and destroy them. I figured it was a worthy sacrifice in the scheme of things. Some Cossacks had wandered over to guard their flank and offer support. They would soon be destroyed.

Back in the centre another Dragoon charge has forced another Middle Guard into square so they could be charged by a column. Rob then started deploying the same tactic on me!

Prussian infantry march on face the Guard cavalry with the Old Guard infantry closing in.

My Cossack commander admiring the Guard Horse artillery, presume he is trying to locate his troops.

Hmmm… Old Guard v Prussian landwehr…surprisingly they actually did okay and shook some units according to Goldie.

Lovely paint job as ever Russ.

Sadly my camera played up…the light gets dodgy in the hall in the afternoon and the pictures from this flank were to blurry. But I had taken the flank wood…. put batteries either side of it and was moving 8 undamaged bttns forward supported by Dragoons. Below is final part of turn…Dragoons forced a square and 2 columns hit it…French survived!

So in the end the Prussians were destroyed but the Russians were largely untouched with only the Cossacks and 1bttn destroyed. So being as biased as ever…its a draw leaning towards an Allied victory!

Be nice to try it again but make the villages smaller as those huge buildings of Goldies really dominate the table. Rob was never going to take the village without any artillery but there was no room for him maneuver around it. Equally in the North send the Prussian infantry on first…..then the cavalry behind it so the infantry has opportunity to form firing lines supported by the cavalry…who knows …I might then venture out from cowering in my corner and attack the French!

So after the game I rushed home, showered and headed into the Central City for the night as the neighbors in hill above us had left a wee note in the letterbox advising a daughter was having an 18th birthday party and it would be loud(ouR other neighbor’s report it was VERY LOUD). So we evacuated to the Sofitel….had a lovely room….. they gave us an upgrade…we went and dined at a lovely restaurant while watching our local Football team on the screen and retired back to our room where I had a tasty whisky and was asleep….early!

The tasty whisky is the Oban 14 which I enjoy when staying at a Sofitel/Novotel Hotel.

Tasting notes are:

Palate Smoky, creamy palate with notes of marmalade, toffee apples and pear cider. A development of cloves comes late palate. Finish A long, malty finish with toasty oak and spice. Overall A true classic, Oban’s 14 year old is a great coastal dram for lovers of lightly smoked, fresh malts.

As ever I really don’t taste all that…all I know that after a tiring week…and a tiring game….it was the perfect way to end a good day. I will be buying a bottle soon.

Until next time…Terry out.