Battle of Saltanovka July 1812 : Valour and Fortitude

I travelled over to Martins new house yesterday to test out his new gaming room with our combined Napoleonic collections. The Battle of Saltanovka from July 1812.. 

Plenty of information on the net including this really useful map, Davout and Bagration would be facing off across a small stream close to the villages of Saltanovka and Fatova, reserves for both sides would arrive on D6 roll. The Russians hold a numerical advantage with their objective to take the two villages.

Our setup the stream is crossable but will slow movement, the marshy area around the bridge blocks movement completely 

The french left wing already in Saltanovka with two small detachments holding the bridge behind a barricade 

The french right wing is in the open and they form line as the Russian infantry advances towards the stream 

The french also hold Fatova but here the Russians are already across the stream

The french artillery does its best to slow the assault but the Russians are in open order and the guns have limited impact

Russian jaegers are now assaulting Saltanovka, Russian grenadiers can be seen also fording the stream

Having driven off the jaegers the cannons at Fatova fire canister into the advancing columns and french infantry forms into attack column to counterattack

The Russians have broken the french centre and the french are in a dangerous position

Although weakened the Russians column are now also assaulting Fatova

And again despite being heavily weakened they are assaulting Saltanovka, the battle is really in the balance 

just in time and after several failed rolls the the french reserves arrive in the centre and the light cavalry immediately move to plug the gap

The reserve french infantry is sent towards Saltanovka to distract the Russian assault there

The first wave has final,y been pushed back but two more columns await their turn

The french light cavalry plug the gap and drive the Russians in the centre back, unfortunately Russian dragoons have arrived across the stream

Eventually numbers count and the Russians take Saltanovka

French heavy cavalry cross the stream to outflank the Russian left

But as they approach the Russians form square for protection

Infantry on both sides are now close to exhaustion and it is only a matter of time, after a particularly brutal round of melee the Russians break first and run in the centre

Suddenly gaps open up everywhere, the French manage in the last turn to recapture Saltanovka and the remaining Russians suddenly look very isolated

The french heavy cavalry fail to charge the Russian squares but now the French infantry advances across the stream. The battle was now over with a french win as they were still holding both objectives, but it was an extremely close run battle, at no point did I think the French were ahead and they only just managed to hold on. A really close scenario and a great battle. We used our slight amendment to V&F giving troops in Attack column plus one to their tenacity and this worked really well and felt balanced. Looking forward to our next battle.

There were a couple more quirky photos to share from our Naples trip……

Turns out the church around the corner from where we were staying is the final resting place of Vlad the Impaler

We also visited some of the catacombs in Naples, where they had for a time very odd burial rituals, with rich clients paying to have their bodies entombed in cement

They then had pictures painted of themselves on the outside 

This give a very macabre situation, the holes are where there actual skulls would have been ! All in the name of religion !

That’s it for now thanks for checking by and commenting

Back to painting this evening 

Matt