Soldiers of Napleon: French Imperial Guard in 10mm vs 15mm Austrians 1814.

 Napoleon has unleashed the Guard on an Austrian formation!
Mark and I met up for a game of Soldiers of Napoleon after last week's Sharp Practise skirmish, time for a Divisional Level game.
The battlefield was an empty stretch of farmland, with one small copse and a patch of bogggy ground that the Austrians had anchored their centre on and massed their artillery there. On the left, two units of dragoons and an artillery battery stood in front of the copse, hilding the flank. To the right, ominously, lurked four units of Austrian Grenadiers. Somewhere behind the lines, Austrian light cavalry was rushing frowards to help.
The Guard deployed en echelon right, with two brigades of Guard foot to the centre and right, the left was held by the fearsome Guard Heavy Cavalry Brigade, while the Guard Light Cavalry was somewhere off table in reserve.


The battle started with the guns of the Grand Battery of the infantry plus all tabletop batteries hammering the cetre right Austrian line infantry, upsetting the Austrian command plans as rallies were needed to sae the unit, but this exhausted one Guard battery's ammunition. They would pay no further part in the battle.
However, the Austrain revenge was brutal, as two batteries of Austrian 12 pounders tore into an advancing column of the Old Guard, who broke and fled! They were then joined by the Brigade's battalion of Young Guard that was to their left, leaving the Brigadier with only one live battalion and a battery of guns to face two batteries of 12 pounders and five infantry units with attached Jagers! This was an awful start for the Guard, as this ripped away a massive amount of our victory points in Mark's favour.


"LOOK OUT SIR! Oh, too late... MEDIC!"
To Mark's shock, at the start of the next turn, I played a random event where his commander became a casualty on a 5 or 6. I rolled a 5! This gave me a victory point boost, and stopped Mark using his rerolls and sliced through the amount of command cards he could access. What was even worse for him, I had the same card in my hand twice, so if the first attempt failed, I could have tried again!
 
On the right, the right-hand Guard Brigade forced a march across table, then crashed into the Austrian Grenadier brigade, who fought back vicously. These actions would last the rest of the game as both sides launched repeated assaults followed by retirements to rally off hits, costing both sides about a third of their victory points. I was slowly clawing back Victory Points now as my Guard kept winning fights, but had a long way to go to catch Mark after my earlier losses. The left hand Guard unit failed to charge the guns, losing me an easy kill. This unit falling short sat them in deadly cannister range, which they would repeatedly shrug off.


One of Mark's less successful attacks, Cannister at point blank range! My silenced artillery battery looks on with a bucket of popcorn!

Both sides stand in disorder after repeated assaults. Mark's Brigadier takes flight at this point, further hampering his cards next turn!


On the left, a perfect combination of cards allows the Guard Heavy Cavalry brigade, which had been patiently holding back and observing the infantry actions, to advance at the quick. Then the Grenadiers a Chevel launched a 'fierce cavalry charge' and smashed a 5 stand unit of Austrian Dragoons in line, forcing them back through the second unit that was in march column behind them, causing hits on both. The Empress Dragoons swatted away the Austrian horse artillery, and then the disordered Genadiers a Chevel took the advantage and slammed into the shaken column of Dragoons, pushing them back through the already breaking first Dragoons in line and off the battlefield! This destroyed the entire Austrian cavalry brigade in one turn, netting me a massive points boost and putting me back in the lead.


Guard Cavalry are a nightmare to face. Mark said that as soon as they get deployed, he knew he was in massive trouble because they can win the game by themselves. I really did get extremely lucky with my command cards though.


Left and centre as the Austrians start to retire, their cavalry has evaporated, my last central Old Guard unit is hanging on by the skin of it's teeth, but now the Austrian infantry brigade has the Guard Heavy Cavalry to contend with, and neither of our reserves had yet appeared.


On the right, both the Grenadiers and the Guard gave each other breathing space as they rallied off damage, ready to go again.


A win for the Guards, technically. The Heavy Cavalry saved the day, but it could have easily gone Mark's way if my cards had not come up with what I needed, or if he had broken any units on the right or killed my last Guard unit in the centre. I am sure he will be back for revenge soon.