This is the after action report (AAR) for the first game in the
One-Hour Wargames Campaign that we started recently. The idea was to begin with a neutral 'encounter' sort of scenario and see how it went from there. For this game my freshly painted 20mm Napoleonic French (Italeri mainly) would be up against Geoff's Prussians.
The scenario allowed both sides to have six units and the objective was to be in uncontested possession of the central village after 15 moves. For this game we used the One-Hour Wargames horse and musket rules, slightly amended. The book suggests that orders of battle be decided randomly. Consequently starting forces looked like this:
French
3 x line infantry
1 x light infantry
2 x cavalry (dragoons)
Prussians
3 x line infantry
1 x cavalry (dragoons)
2 x artillery
As you can see from this, the French started with more infantry (including light infantry) and more cavalry than the Prussians, who were lumbered with two artillery batteries. As we shall see, the lack of mobility, in what was suppposed to be an encounter battle, with both armies marching on to the table, doomed the Prussians from the start.
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| Scenario 16: Advance Guard |
My plan was very simple: to advance my line infantry rapidly to the objective, using the cavalry to sweep round the open left flank (see map). One of my infantry units would meanwhile hold the gap between the village and the wood to cover my light infantry into the wood on the right flank. The plan worked perfectly.
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| French troops rushing the village |
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| Cavalry to the left of me, infantry to the right |
In fact the Prussians had barely got going before the French were already in the village and were beginning to threaten both flanks.
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| Prussians caught flat-footed |
On the left, one unit of French dragoons immediately engaged the Prussian cavalry in hand to hand combat, whilst the other sneaked round the back of the melee to threaten the advancing infantry, forcing it into square. In the centre the Prussian infantry stopped to fire at my troops in the village whilst another French infantry unit moved up on the left of the village.
Meanwhile, on the right my light infantry had advanced (very) rapidly and had managed to get into the woods without being intercepted. Again the Prussian infantry had lined up opposite the French and started to engage in a fire fight.
From this point on things deteriorated very rapidly for the Prussians. On the left after a few rounds of back and forth, the Prussians dragoons were defeated and the French dragoons then moved against the flank of the infantry facing the village. Meanwhile the other dragoon unit had crossed the front and/or side of the square and charged the Prussian guns before they could bear, whilst the French light infantry in the woods had extended into line to engage the other Prussian battery from cover.
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| Not looking good for the Prussians frankly |
The last blow of the game came when the French dragoons crashed into the flank of the Prussian infantry. And there was nothing he could do about it.
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| Contact! |
Neil Thomas' rules for horse and musked are quite brutal (to say the least) and the Prussians were swept away in one go. And with the very real prospect of the adjacent Prussian line about to suffer the same fate, with the Prussians having basically no chance of getting into the village let alone taking control of it, that was the end of the game.
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| Endgame |
Overall, the game was a frustrating one for the Prussians. They were only able to deploy slowly because they had two artillery units and were deficient in cavalry. The fact that the French got to move first, combined with the rapid movement rates, long shooting ranges and brutal outcomes from any sort of reverse, which define the OHW rules, meant that right from the start the Prussians were always going to have an uphill struggle to win.
On the other hand, it was an emphatic victory for the French and even more enjoyable because for most of my troops this was their first battle. Perhaps it is true that the better the paint job the more likely one is to win, if I may say so myself (this thesis may require more research).
Anyway, with a win for the French the honour falls to me to choose the next battle and I have decided this will be #14: Static Defence, which will feature in the next campaign AAR.
The scenario allowed both sides to have six units and the objective was to be in uncontested possession of the central village after 15 moves. For this game we used the One-Hour Wargames horse and musket rules, slightly amended. The book suggests that orders of battle be decided randomly. Consequently starting forces looked like this:
Meanwhile, on the right my light infantry had advanced (very) rapidly and had managed to get into the woods without being intercepted. Again the Prussian infantry had lined up opposite the French and started to engage in a fire fight. 
From this point on things deteriorated very rapidly for the Prussians. On the left after a few rounds of back and forth, the Prussians dragoons were defeated and the French dragoons then moved against the flank of the infantry facing the village. Meanwhile the other dragoon unit had crossed the front and/or side of the square and charged the Prussian guns before they could bear, whilst the French light infantry in the woods had extended into line to engage the other Prussian battery from cover.
