Soldiers of Napoleon - French Imperial Guard vs Austrians - bad day to be a hussar.

Whilst down in Wiltshire for the Devizes comp, Nigel very kindly gifted me his 10mm Imperial Guard division from FOGN (Field of Glory Napoleonics), and although I had rebased the cavalry and generals (including painting some), the guard themselves were not finished.
I scrabbled together a 900 Soldiers of Napoleon list (which turns out to be illegal, read the rules Will), and fielded it Vs Mark's undefeated Austrians. My army, including reserves, was twelve units and Mark could basically do that in two brigades!

My list:

• Two brigades of two five Old Guard infantry, with two twelve pounders and full cassions.
• Guards Heavy cavalry brigade. Five Grenadiers a Chevel. Five Guards Dragoons. Three batteries of 8lber guns.
• Guards light cavalry brigade. Four Guards lancers, four Guards Chasseurs a Chevel. Three batteries of three 8lber guns.

Mark had:

• An Avent Guard brigade with hussars, artillery, jagers and two infantry units,
• two dragoons with horse artillery as his cavalry brigade,An infantry brigade with jagers, four batteries of twelve pounders and six(!) infantry units.
• His reserves never appeared, but it was probably another infantry brigade. 

He was outscouting me by +5 to my maximum +2, so would hold the initiative for all but one go. 

The game started with an all battery bombard, which targeted Mark's hussars in his Avent Guard brigade. It was not pleasant for them.


Ten hits was rather anti-social, but it was actually eight as my left hand foot brigade was out of range. So they targeted the guns as nothing else was in range or arc, one went through, disordering them too. Mark sneakily took two of my cards too with a 'Lost Orders' card, meaning he was significantly out ordering me this turn. Thus Mark, with spare cards, was able to rally off the hits on his hussars, saving the unit and a bucket load of morale points. Good news was, my Guard Light cavalry brigade arrived turn 1.


The start of turn two, Mark picked up a point froom me due to doubling my 'How goes the day; score, a roll each turn to see what happens to the units from the armies around. The right-hand Austrian battery also ran low on ammo thanks to a card I played. While the Grenadiers a Chevel and the Dragoons intimidated all around, I had an ace up my sleeve. 'At the quick' card allowed my heavy cavalry to move into charge range, and a 'Fierce Cavalry Charge' gives me an auto charge with the Guard Dragoons, who crashed into the Hussars, an elite unit vs a professional. Touch and go, but with more dice (and using the divisional commanders reroll), the Guard won by 1, pushing back the Austrian best cavalry. The great thing about elites is you can rally on EVERY morale card! Yes, it gave Mark points in return, but my cavalry was soon back in fighting shape, with two infantry units sitting right in front of them.


To whit, an ordered cavalry charge after more Grenadier intimidation and artillery fire, sees the Guard Dragoons in action again. Turns out Mark was using militia troops here, which my elite found an easy target as they failed to react well, or form square. Twelve points of disorder, one more and it would have been a massacre and extra victory points. Being militia though, their victory points were few, and they escaped with their standard too.


This left the Dragoons disordered, with Austrian Hussars in the backfield teeing up a revenge charge. The Austrian artillery, that was short on ammo, plus the unit of jagers with the avent guard that had been battered by horse artillery and cavalry intimidation, legged it.  My two infantry brigades had advances somewhat, but had not actually engaged. Be interesting to see what happens when they do.


It did not all go my way, the Guard Chasseurs a Chevel were bombarded into submission by the two Austrian left hand artillery batteries, a costly loss as a professional unit. It was either them or the Grenadiers a Chevel. I was still in double figures, but Mark was loosing morale points down to single figures.


Mark's hussars, disordered, charged my Dragoons, but again lost the melee, and retired off table, giving my French the win. The loss of a professional unit was always going to be costly.

Not a bloodless win by any stretch, and, yes, technically my infantry brigades were illegal, but it was the Guards heavy cavalry brigade that did the damage. A tight game until Mark's brigade disintegrated.

 The dice and cards were very much in my favour, Great game, a rematch will happen soon no doubt.