Battle of Quatre Jambes with Hair Roller Armies and Portable Napoleonics

Nothing like inclement weather to provide an excuse to return to gaming with the Hair Roller Armies (HRA). This time I will be using the "Division rules" in The Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery and testing the efficiency of my Quick Reference Sheets (QRS).

                                       French forces                                             British

                                                    The Battle of Quatre Jambes

The British: General Cordery Division comprised:

 Colonel Crook’s Brigade (3 SPs)

 1st Infantry Regiment (4 SPs;  Average)

 2nd Infantry Regiment (4 SPs;  Average)

 Colonel Alan’s Brigade (3 SPs)

 11th Infantry Regiment (3 SPs;  Poor)

 12th Infantry Regiment (3 SPs;  Poor)

 1st Foot Artillery Battalion (2 SPs;  Average)

 1st Hussar Regiment (2 SPs;  Poor)

 General Cordery (6 SPs; Average)

The French: General Maxime’s reinforced Division comprised:

 Colonel Etienne’s Brigade (3 SPs)

 21st French Infantry Regiment (5 SPs; Elite)

 22nd French Infantry Regiment (5 SPs; Elite)

 Colonel Jule’s Brigade (3 SPs)

 23rd French Light Infantry Regiment (4 SPs;  Average)

 24th French Light Infantry Regiment (4 SPs;  Average)

 Colonel Laurent’s Cavalry Brigade (3 SPs)

 11th French Chasseurs à cheval Regiment (3 SPs;  Average)

12th French Cuirassier Regiment (4 SPs;  Average)

 2nd French Artillery Battalion (2 SPs; Average)

 General Maxime (6 SPs; Good)

 The battle begins at noon. Both the British 12th and the French 23rd fail to activate on turn 1

   French Chasseurs and Cuirassiers under Laurent's command attack the British 1st Hussar on the French right flank. Crook's 1st forms square while his 2nd supports Alan's 12th on the road into Quatre Jambes. French elite infantry attempts to overwhelm the British 12th on the road.

The British Hussars and Crook's 1st push back the French heavy and light cavalry while the British infantry holds firm around the road.

And then on Turn 6. Allen's 12th and Crook's 2nd muskets hit true. The French 24th and 22nd are pushed back from withering musket fire and General Maxime is killed. Sa·cré bleu !

 The battle now becomes the French inability to get orders on their right flank. The French artillery deploys, but fails to fire and the cavalry awaits orders. Hidden British snipers appear to be taking out French messengers.

Alan's 11th Regiment is fortified in Quatre Jambes and the 1st foot artillery deploys and controls the road intersection.

The British hold their left flank secure with Crook's 1st in square and the 1st Hussar and the failure of the French to rally and get orders to their left flank. General Cordery joins Colonel Alan's fortified troops in Quatre Jambes.  Night descends with a fierce thunderstorm on Turn 10. The French troops withdraw.

The Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery is available as an ebook (PDF)  here or here.

The Battle of Twee Heuvels with Hair Roller Armies

When I heard that Bob Cordery's  Portable Wargame system was adding rules for the Napoleonic age, I thought what a great opportunity to get  my hair roller armies out of storage and give the rules a test drive. Last week, The Portable Napoleonic Wargame rules were released and then it snowed 8-)

I decided to adapt my 9 X 8 squares board to play the "Big Battle" rules (there are 3 levels of rules). And, while I really like Bob's new approach to figure basing (any new Napoleonic armies I assemble will use his approach), using the hair roller army (HRA) bases would require a tweak or two. The new rules should work fine, my challenge was how to shoe horn my hair roller armies into them. Each HRA base will be a division. I will use dice rolls to determine if orders are received , rather than card activation. Also will try the new tables for wounded commanders.

Enough talking, let's begin …

2 French and 2 Allied divisions fail to activate on Turn 1

                         Dutch-Belgian Artillery unlimbers on hill northeast of the farmhouse.

Dutch-Belgian Artillery fires and hits causing a loss of a Strength Point to the French 4th division, but causes no injury to sub commander de Marbot

                                   Looking Northwest at the farmhouse occupied by the Allies.

 Artillery both miss

The French prepare to retreat from Twee Heuvels as they are outflanked by the 2nd Anglo-Brunswick Division with the King's German Legion. 

The French downfall was taking 6 turns to get all its forces into the battle. French Marshall Gerard had great difficulty communicating with his sub commanders, especially General Coignet's 6th division. The Allies gained control of the battlefield by having the Dutch-Belgian Artillery on the heights Northeast of the farm and withstanding counter battery fire from the French. 

Trying to use the Hair Roller Armies in this scenario and with the "Bigger Battle" rules was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I will attempt this next time using the Division rules. The problem was NOT the rules, but how my HRA are organized and the tweaks  required complicated play, requiring too much bookkeeping for my taste. Lessons learned. 

The Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery is available as an ebook (PDF) for $5.50 (with tax) here or here.

Back to the Future... Old School

Rules from this 1929 classic are worth a look.  Thanks to the Little Wars Revisited

blog for its After Action Report.

Battle of Quebec 1759 with No Paint Armies

Our battle, The Battle of Quebec 1759, will be using the 2003 Risk (tm) replacement figures (tricornes) and modifying Stephen D Smith's scenario from the Junior General website.

 British (red) bottom of picture, French (white) at top of photo.

 French (white) right flank, British (red) left flank

 The Center

 French left flank, British right flank

 French (white) charge on their right flank

 French take casualties and retreat from melee

 British continue to destroy Montcalm's French on the French right flank

 The French exchange casualties with Wolfe's British in the Center

 The French right flank also takes heavy casualties

 General Montcalm tries to retreat to Quebec 

The British army seizes the Plain of Abraham from the retreating French. Unlike history, both generals do survive this battle recreation. However, like the actual battle this was a decisive victory for the British under General James Wolfe.

With some common sense modifications to the rules and scenario (agreed to by both participants) this battle provided an entertaining and fun evening with the No Paint Armies.