Napoleonic Russians Vs French : Valour and Fortitude

This weekend saw the first run out for my Napoleonic French against Martin’s Russians, given the scale of our forces and wanting to get everything on the table we would give Valour and Fortitude a first run out. No particular historical context but a simple scenario as below. Both forces would be split into 3 sections with predetermined entry points unknown to the enemy. Only the rearguard would have a random entry point. The French would come on from blues entry points and the Russians from the red. The woods we designated light woods. Both armies have 4 infantry Brigades and 2 cavalry brigades and 4or5 artillery pieces.

Battlefield about 8x7 feet as an L shape

The French vanguard infantry arrives on the right

The Russian vanguard of Cossacks and infantry have by chance arrived opposite them, in the distance French light cavalry advance

After 3 turns the main armies start to arrive, French heavy cavalry on the left

The French bring a second brigade on to the right with supporting artillery but they get slightly bottled up waiting for the vanguard to move forward

The French light cavalry cover the centre and managed to bottle up then Russian main army who struggle to form up

French infantry reform into attack formations and start to advance

Before the French heavy cavalry can sweep forward Russian cavalry arrive on the battlefield

The French heavy Cavalry now has to choose which target ?

french reserves also advance and deploy into attack column 

On the right some of the french have been forced into square

…by the Cossacks now in the light woods

The heavy cavalry charge against each other, initially the French get the advantage

But then they are recharged by the Russians and although both cavalry brigades are ‘blown’ the Russians roll better and the french cavalry are beaten from the field

French reserve infantry form into line

Russians grenadiers arrive on the left

Although a long shot the Cossacks charge the french squares but are beaten back 

In the centre the French light cavalry have held up the main Russian force, giving time for the french infantry to get into a strong position

French pushing forward on the left as well

They form into attack formation and go in with their bayonets.

Although the Cossacks have been pushed back the Russian grenadiers are attacking down the road

And break through the leading French regiment

The French are now in control in the centre and on the left

At this point we brought the battle to a close a French victory as the Russians are on the back foot. A great run out for the two armies. The rules worked well and it didn’t take long to get the hang of them. We made a few mistakes but nothing significant. A few odd results as we both felt the french cavalry should have won the context but they didn’t roll well enough. Secondly the French light cavalry seemed to hang on too long holding up a lot of Russians but again this might just have been above average dice rolling. A few anomalies around infantry in line getting an advantage in melee but the rules worked pretty well for this scale of battle.

Hopefully some more gaming soon and I have been working on painting but nothing yet to share. Obviously I have an eye to paint lots more Napoleonic stuff especially the artillery limbers which have been prepared.

Thanks as always Matt