Italians! Austrians! Our Front Room!

In the midst of a rather frantic holiday and prior to surgery my wife was to undergo, (She came through it fine although we still have some recovery to take care of, thank you.) Beth and I decided to run a Napoleonics game. We get in about one a year, although we have plans to do more smaller games to stay familiar with the rules. ("Shako") We both ran 1809 army lists. Beth's Italians were very regular with a few 2nd rate regiments, lots of skirmishers, and 6 cavalry regiments. My Austian whitecoats had large regiments, a whole division of 2nd-raters including some Grenz battalions formed up, 5 cavalry regiments, and a bit more artillery. I ended up grabbing a ridge line close to my side of the board and I decided to stay there. As Beth's center divisions advanced toward my line, her left flank cavalry (dragoons and Garde d'Honneur) attacked my hussars on the right. They sent the Kaiser's Hussars packing, never to return, but had to fall back as another hussar regiment came up with a cavalry battery. On my left, her light horse destroyed a Grenz battalion as it attemped to form square... it was not pretty... until my dragoons, chaveauleger, and Kurassier regiments met them head on and routed them. A rifle-armed jager battalion assisted.
In the center, it was an artillery duel. The Italians had loads of skirmishers while the Austrians had some. I kept them close to the ridge and fell back through my line infantry (all in Divisionmasse which moves slow like lines, takes hits like a column, shoots at a -1, but can bounce cavalry without resorting to square, although not as well as a square.) As her infantry moved up, Beth asked if I was ever going to leave the ridge line. I said "No." (I'm not a total fool, just partial.) So we called it a draw and went to eat dinner to end my holiday. As I said above, we've decided to run small, brigade sized actions to exercise our minds and the troops. I continue to work on British, French, Turks, and ocassional Prussians and Russians.
Shako might not be to everyone's liking, but it works for us. As I get older, I find myself preferring simple,  playable rules. I guess I don't have the time or brain power for much else.


IR#4 Hoch und Deutschmeister advances screened by Grenzers
(Each unit had a card tucked under it, giving it's designation and fighting value.)




The ridgeline I camped on with two 12-pounder batteries!




Beth's Italian high command and Dr. Larray (left) and a divisional
general (right)




An Italian divisional general with Beth's favourite figure - waving his shako.
























Hussar Regiment #1 "Kaiser" - last seen headed for Vienna.

 


Beth's two Italian dragoon regiments.



The Italian Guard Grenadiers advancing.



Another view of the defenders on the ridge -
Hungarian and German regiments




















Not a bad way to end a holiday. Today, Beth and my son were playing Warhammer Fantasy as Robby prepares to field a Wood Elf force. He's been checking through my Empire troops and they played to get familiar with the rules. I'm sure there will be more on this later.