Away Day: The Unpleasantness at Altenrode

On Wednesday of last week I travelled up north to the Stryker estates, beyond the Ancient Kingdom, to take part in one of Ian's splendid Napoleonic games. These days are always spectacular - a wonderful treat to see the current state of the armies - and a lot of work has gone into extending the Allied contingent since I was last there, so lots of new troops to enjoy.

Ian had set up a fictitious battle from the Befreiungskrieg period; you will find his official blog post - with details of the back-story and the armies, and far, far better photos then mine here. My partner for the day was the Archduke, who had travelled much further than I, and he (appropriately) commanded the Austrians on our right flank. I was Barclay de Tolly, no less, with a fine force of Roossians and Proossians - mostly new to me, and all very exciting. Stryker commanded the French army, which is as it should be. Because I am late to publish and heavily outgunned on the presentation front, I shall aim merely to add a few extra photos to Ian's splendid account.

 

From the Allied side, this is the Austrian flank at the outset. You can see two of the three villages which were our objectives for the day. Lots of guns on hills

 

This is my (Barclay de Tolly's) flank. Our Russian lads like things simple, so the order of the day was "if the river is on your right, you are facing the enemy". Each army had some reserves on the table edge, which could be deployed once the advance started. You can see the left-hand village, on this side of the windmill

 

Predictably, my cavalry advanced on the left. It is astonishing how those brave written-out orders look less reassuring when you start actually moving the troops. Here you can see some notable units; the Silesian Landwehr were present (what could possibly go wrong?) and two fine battalions of Russians in greatcoats - love them - proper soldiers. On the right here you can see some British artillery chaps, who had obviously come to repair the street lamps 

 

Barclay's cavalry got off to a faltering start, so I sent the Astrakhan heavies from the reserve to give them a bit extra clout

 

 

The Austrians went in vigorously, aiming to take possession of Altenrode itself

 

This is my big push to stop the French getting troops over the bridge. This advance is headed up by some Russian Jaegers, who didn't have a great day. At this point the French still hold the village to my front

 

My push made little headway, but the troops with blue counters here (which means they have lost their colonels already) set about trying to take the village

 

Over on my right, the Archduke is doing well at Altenrode. At this stage, I expected that we would hold this village, but I was less confident about the other two. In fact we took the other two, but not this one, which gives a good idea of how much I know about such things

 

The Russians have taken the left village, my cavalry are doing better than I expected, and the Prussian Guard have arrived, though they are not sure what they should do next

 

At one point I seem to have been getting a little despondent about my pathetic dice rolls - I took a picture of this example, which was about my worst of the day

 

To my surprise, the cavalry fight went better than expected - the Russian heavies did a good job here

 

Austrians in charge in the centre...

 

...and the French are a bit short of numbers on my side of the river - they did send a couple of battalions across to strengthen the centre early on

 

We got to complete Turn 8 - the official knocking-off time. The French threw in a lot of very prestigious cavalry at the end, but they were probably too late to make a big difference. The day was notable for the damage caused by artillery. Ian's account explains that the Allies won on Victory Points, which is gratifying but didn't seem obvious before the totting-up was complete

What a smashing day! Great food and excellent company, and it was also very good to see the Archduke so much recovered from his recent illness. I can only offer my thanks and appreciation to my hosts and companions - a fine game and a most enjoyable trip.  

Thank you.