Battle of Bratwurst: 6mm Napoleonic Black Powder

I apologize for the lack of updates, it has been a busy summer, with gardening, camping, a cruise in July, and general family skulduggery.  As Mrs. Tin Man is a teacher, our summer's get pretty busy.

I did get the awesome print for Father's Day of General Gordon himself!  It hangs proudly in the game room. 

Last weekend, Tom was kind enough to drive up for my first game of Black Powder with my 6mm Napoleonic troops.  In short, I really enjoyed the rules and think it gave a fast, but good game.  Nothing illogical happened, and the command rolls added a nice level of tension.

We played on my new 3' x 4' table, at 1/3 scale, which worked pretty well.  Infantry battalions in line had a n 80mm frontage (with 32 figures), a single infantry move was 4" and musket range was 6".  We played down the long axis of the table, which was the equivalent of a 9' by 12' table at normal scale!

During game prep, Bear the wargaming kitty registers his disdain, I think he is a 28mm chauvinist...

 I kept the scenario fairly simple, Austrians versus French somewhere in Bavaria in 1809 during the initial Austrian invasion.  Tom took the Austrians and I took the French.  The Austrians were tasked with seizing the village of Bratwurst to open a path for follow on divisions.  The Austrian OOB was:

• Avant Garde Brigade:
• Two battalions of Grenzers (in skirmish order)
• Two battalions of Light Cavalry (Hussars)
• Two Infantry Brigades, each consisting of:
• 4 x Line Battalions
• 1 x Position Battery

All entered in column on Tom's end of the table.

Tom sets up as I prepare to feel the full fury of the Hapsburg's!

 The French had one Infantry Brigade in a blocking position in Bratwurst and surrounds, with another infantry brigade and a brigade of hussars reinforcing from my end of the table staring on turn 2.  The French OOB was:

• 2 x Infantry Brigades
• 3 x Battalions of Line Infantry
• 1 x Battalion of Light Infantry (in skirmish order)
• 1 x Foot Battery
• 1 x Light Cavalry Brigade
• 3 x Regiments of Hussars

Things started heating up on my left flank, as the Grenzers moved to assault the light battalion in the wood.  They would drive me out eventually, but at the loss of one of the Grenze battalions breaking.

 On my right / Austrian Left, I had left my artillery battery exposed, which Tom, nicely took advantage of and sent his Hussars charging in!  He needed 3+ to hit, and when he rolled his attack dice, he rolled all 3's...  Needless to say, my battery was wiped out.  Lesson learned, don;t leave artillery hanging out by itself, unsupported.

What are the chances? 1 in 46,656...

 Here you can see my reinforcements slowly streaming on to the table.  I flubbed several command rolls.  Another lesson learned, put your senior commander where you need him most.  I should have had him helping the reinforcements come up faster.  Also, you can see Tom's light cavalry coming around my right flank, where they will delay my reinforcement column. (You can also see the musket and artillery range sticks I made.)

 Here are his hussars hitting my reinforcements, causing my lead cavalry regiment to flee.  I did swing around and hit him in the flank, breaking one regiment, but...

 ... that delayed me long enough that he was able to overrun my forward brigade in heavy fighting.

 Here is what the end of the battle looked like.  Tom had taken his objective with minimal losses, while I had seen my forward brigade mauled and my reinforcements barely getting engaged.  We called it at this point as an Austrian win, I really hope the Emperor gets here soon...

I greatly enjoyed the rules and I think Tom did as well.  We came to a decision in 3 hours of play, and that includes stopping to look up rules, snack breaks, etc.

Thanks Tom for a great game, and I cannot wait for a rematch!