Russian Infantry in the Crimea

Activity at the painting desk returns briefly to push out a 23-figure battalion of Russian infantry for the 25mm Great Game project.  While the project is yet to see action in anger, Russian and vassal forces will be in good position when called up.

Figures are Wargames Foundry from the excellent 25mm Crimean War range.  As mentioned many times before, these Foundry Russians are terrific sculpts and the greatcoats make painting and readying for battle a snap.  The battalion seen here is the last of the Foundry Russian lead in The Lead Pile and march out in a mix of helmet and forage cap.  Four such battalions can now be mustered for action. 

Enough figures for only one more unit remain to complete before plans of project expansion.  In The Lead Pile are 23 figures to field one more Russian infantry battalion.  The figures this time are a test batch from Great War Miniatures.  At first glance, the Great War look a bit more chunky than Foundry but should look fine on the gaming table.

BatRep: Montebello 1859 Part 2

French advance on Austrian positions

Back to the replay of Montebello 1859 using Risorgimento 1859 rules.  To help reduce unit naming confusion, Austrian infantry battalions are prefaced  by "IR" wherein French infantry battalions have no such designation.  The two previous posts in this series can be found at:

Montebello Setup
BatRep Montebello First Hour of Battle 

Picking up where the battle left off, the battle has reached 3:30pm with Forey's French division's initial probes on Genestrello transforming into a hard driving offensive against Austrian advance positions.  Genestrello has fallen and Urban's command is reeling from a number of battlefield reverses.

Austrian hussars screen battered infantry

3:30pm.  Stadion grabs the initiative in an attempt to stabilize his situation.  Although his mission began as a recon in force, he seems to have smacked a hornet's nest and Frenchmen are swarming out of the Voghera hive and descending upon his overextended positions.  Everywhere! 

Schaafgottsche brings up reinforcements through Casteggio

In front of Montebello, Urban moves to join 3/IR39 which only manages to recover from disruption and not loss of combat effectiveness.  On the eastern approaches to Genestrello, Schaafgottsche attempts to rally 3/IR59 to no avail but the 3rd Jaegers rally.  No offensive actions are undertaken by the Austrians across the front as the bottom of the hour is spent consolidating lines and attempting to bring order out of the chaos of the initial contacts with the enemy.

Austrians fall back from Genestrello and prepare Montebello

Austrians regroup at Montebello

Forey continues applying pressure on Urban's positions between Genestrello and Montebello.  Beuret's brigade attacks Schaafgottsche.  The 3/84th pushes back 3/IR59, 1/91st disrupts 1/3 Jaegers, and 1/84th drives 1/IR40 back towards Montebello, disrupted.  Beuret drives all before him.  North of Genestrello, one squadron of Montferrato light cavalry attack one squadron of the 12th Hussars who are attempting to delay Blanchard's advancing French brigade.  In the clash, both squadrons take casualties and break off for the rear.

Cavalry clash north of Genestrello

4:00pm.  After pushing back much of Schaafgottsche's command, Forey maintains his momentum and presses on.  Leading the 1/91st, Forey attacks the 1/3rd Jaeger disrupting it and forcing it to retreat.  The 3/IR59, nearing collapse, is hit by 3/84th while Schaafgottsche attempts to rally this beleaguered battalion.  The French scatter 3/IR59th and Schaafgottsche falls, mortally wounded.  Seeing the destruction of its adjacent support and the death of its commander, 2/3rd Jaeger loses its nerve and begins a retrograde back to Montebello.  Before it can reach safety, however, the 1/17th Chasseurs catch the unlucky jaegers and force it back a second time.  The jaegers make their retrograde with a bit more urgency.  Keeping pressure up, the 2/17th Chasseurs close in on 1/3rd Jaegers.  Although Stadion himself intervenes, the jaegers fall back towards Montebello.  As the jaegers retreat, the light infantry passes through the already wavering 1/IR40 and 3/IR59 battalions.  Seeing the jaegers withdraw under pressure is too much and both battalions retreat as well.

French chasseurs begin probing Montebello defenses

Austrian defense of Montebello

Advancing along the main road and into short range of the Szluiner Grenz, 1/84th unleashes a short range volley before the grenz can react and the Austrian border troops fall back with moderate casualties.  As the French advance continues, 1/74th and 2/98th in combination drive off a squadron of the 12th Hussars while the 3/74th charges the 3/IR40.  3/IR40 retreats before the French can close.  This unforced retreat uncovers 2/IR40 and opens it up to an attack by 3/98th.  Getting off a volley, 2/IR40 causes some casualties to the French and the attack devolves into a firefight as neither battalion is willing to give ground. 

Birds eye view of attack on Montebello

Concentration at Montebello from behind French lines

Desperate from the collapse of his positions along the main road, Urban's column focuses all efforts on stabilizing his dire situation.  While Urban and Stadion join wavering battalions to rally them, Austrian artillery in Montebello fires into the 1/17th Chasseurs causing casualties and slowing down its advance upon Montebello.

French prepare for assault

4:30pm.  With Urban's position collapsing quickly and no succor from either Hesse or Paumgarten's columns, Forey maintains the initiative and presses on.  The 2/Novarra light cavalry swings around Montebello and attacks 3/IR39 from above as Stadion is attempting to rally it.  Although wavering, Stadion's leadership allows the 39th to change facing and pour a volley into the approaching Sardinian cavalry.  Suffering heavy casualties, the Sardinians press on and scatter the remnants of the battalion with Stadion seeking cover.  With the destruction of the 3/IR39th, many of the battalions around Montebello become disrupted.  Unable to stand up to the scattering of IR39, Baum's artillery and 3/IR40 retreat back towards the Coppa River. 

Destruction of 3/IR39

Pressure mounts on Montebello

Beuret's guns pound the Szluiner Grenz and it falls back to the rear.  1/17th Chasseurs attack Schaafgottsche's guns after the fail to slow the chasseurs advance upon its position in front of Montebello.  Fire from the chasseurs is too hot for the gunners.  The battery limbers and makes its escape although a few guns are captured.  As Forey continues his advance astride the main road, fire from the 3/98th routs 2/IR40 carrying it off into the rear.

17th Chasseurs a Pied attack the guns!

Trying to relieve pressure from Urban's column, Hesse to the north launches an all out attack against much of Blanchard's brigade.  Despite an advantage in numbers, attacks by both IR31 and IR61 end in disaster for Hesse as both attacks are repulsed with heavy casualties.

Hesse's attack repulsed

5:00pm.  While Montebello remains in Austrian hands at the 5pm hour, Stadion considers his options.  Having expended his chance in the north to turn the French flank and much of Urban's column in retreat back towards the relative safety of the Coppa, Stadion abandons thoughts of maintaining a foothold on the western bank of the Coppa River.  With limited passages across the river, Stadion will put in place strong defensive positions should Forey consider a pursuit.  Urban abandons Montebello and will conduct a fighting withdrawal back to the river.  Forey will not oblige.  Unable to pursue and cross the Coppa in force, I give the French a marginal victory.

Postscript.  This replay generally mirrored the historical battle quite closely although holding Montebello until 6pm by the Austrians would have been a difficult proposition.  The tabletop commander, Baum, found taking Cascina Nuova too great a task; a task his historical counterpart managed briefly.  Capturing Cascina Nuova would have held up the French crossing of the stream and aided Baum's reinforcement of either Genestrello or Montebello later.  As it was, Baum's initial attack was bloodily repulsed and not only were the French not held up at Cascina Nuova but the battered Baum was unable to assist in the defense of Montebello.

Several factors conspired against the Austrians.  First, the qualitative advantage in both troop and leader effectiveness put the French in a position of local superiority at all critical points on the battlefield.  Although the Austrians outnumbered the French, poor leadership and a mission of a reconnaissance kept the Austrians from bring that numerical advantage to bear.  Not only could the French give out and take more punishment but superior leadership allowed French troops much greater flexibility in either responding to local threats or taking advantage of local opportunities.  

Another factor was that of reinforcement arrival.  French reinforcements arrived promptly and slightly ahead of the historical schedule while their Austrian counterparts were much slower in making it to the point of decision.  In fact, Paumgarten's Center Wing played no role in the battle except for covering Urban's retreat back across the Coppa.

To fight Montebello again, I must consider and weigh all of these factors.  Historical accounts state that many of the Austrian troops lacked motivation and did not stand up to the French opponents in an equal fight.  Was this due to troop quality or the quality of its leadership?  Most of the Austrian command structure, I rated as either "Poor" or "Average" based on historical performance  Perhaps a "Poor" rating was too severe?

In a refight, perhaps Baum ought to fall back on Montebello immediately rather than marching forward to engage the French at Cascina Nuova?  Rather than keeping Urban and Hesse active at the expense of Paumgarten, perhaps, Stadion ought to focus on getting Paumgarten engaged more quickly at the expense of Hesse?  I may try that strategy next time.

Even after such a long hiatus with the rules, I am pleased with the progression of the battle.  A number of questions arose during play and several annotations have been scribbled into the game log for later consideration.  While the game was played using the QRS only, the time may have come to codify more of the intricacies of the rules and get those down on paper rather than maintained in my head or as a series of game notes.  I want to give Montebello another trial before the dust settles both over the rules and my mind again.  Getting this collection back out onto the gaming table after a two-year lull was great fun.

A Few More Moors - Cavalry for the Reconquista

Seems cavalry for the 28mm Reconquista project has been making a regular appearance on the painting desk in recent months.  Today's painting desk offering presents a four figure stand of Arab cavalry to join the growing cavalry contingent for the project.    

Two such Moorish stands were mustered out in December followed by heavy Spanish cavalry in January.  With the calling up of this more recent work, The Lead Pile shows few remaining Black Tree Design Warriors of Islam cavalry remain.  The Painting Log shows seven medium Arab cavalry units can be fielded for Impetvs.  That is a lot and does not include all of the light and heavy cavalry present in the ranks for the Almoravid/Almohad armies.    

These figures, like so many in the project, are BTD figures from their range of Warriors of Islam BIG cavalry figures.  Still, a few Arab cavalry remain in inventory including enough to field at least one more camelry stand but how many camelry units does one need?  Looking at The Lead Pile, I guess at least one more!

With the Arab cavalry supply almost exhausted, I need to re-evaluate the status of the project and see what options require consideration to rebalance the armies.  A large number of Spanish (Feudal) cavalry await in The Lead Pile from BTD's most recent cavalry sale.  Focusing on European cavalry ought to help rebalance the lopsided nature of the opposing cavalry arms.  More foot units ought to be under consideration too but other projects will be seeing activity first. 

BatRep: Montebello 1859 - First Hour of Battle

French close in on Montebello

After having Montebello out on the gaming table for a week or two, I finally pulled figures from their storage boxes and deployed them onto the table.  To refresh memory of the scenario setup, Order of Battle, and brief historical commentary, see the earlier post, Montebello 1859 Setup.

Initial Deployments

View of battlefield from east

As seen from the Initial Deployments photo above, Urban's command holds a forward position along the main road and railroad.  Schaafgottsche's brigade is dispersed with units in Genestrello, Montebello, and Casteggio.

Genestrello

Montebello

Casteggio

Urban's second brigade under Baum is poised ready to attack one battalion of the 74th protecting the railway bridge at Cascina Nuova.  Forey, with his two brigades, is hurrying to the front with a few elements already in position guarding the stream along the line of Genestrello-Cascina Nuova.  The allied northern flank is protected by four squadrons of Sardinian light cavalry regiment Aosta. 

While skirmishing had been heard in the vicinity if Genestrello for about an hour, Stadion in Montebello along with Urban order Baum to push the French from Cascina Nuova and capture the railway bridge crossing the stream.  Urban orders the defenders in Casteggio to take to the road and come up in support. 

With orders in hand and without artillery to soften up the defenders, Baum launches an attack on Cascina Nuova at 2:30pm led by two battalions of IR40.  The French 1/74 Line coolly holds its fire until the Austrians close to short range and then unleashes two quick volleys.  Taking moderate casualties, the fire from the 74th stops Baum's attack in its tracks.  Both battalions of IR40 are disrupted.  The 2/3rd Jaegers, in front of Genestrello, target 2/84th Line inflicting enough casualties to disrupt the battalion.  Being nearby, Beuret attempts to rally the 84th to no avail.  To the north of Genestrello, Hesse's column begins to challenge the Sardinian light cavalry screen.  In an attempt to break through the cavalry screen, the 3rd squadron of the 12th Hussars charges one of the squadrons of the Aosta Regiment.  As it closes and the Sardinian cavalry responds, the 3/12 Hussars loses its nerve and breaks towards the rear in rout. 

Beuret attacks Genestrello

Reacting to the aggressive Austrian activity, Forey sets his division into action as Beuret advances on the Austrian held village of Genestrello.  2/84 rallies as 1/84 moves up in support and forces the third battalion of IR39 back from the stream north of Genestrello, disrupted.  Beuret brings up his 4kg RML battery and unlimbers near the bridge along the main road.  The 1/3 Jaegers positioned in front of Genestrello is the battery's immediate target.  Not able to hold fast against bombardment, the jaegers take casualties, are disrupted, and seek safety behind the lee side of Genestrello.  As the jaegers are being driven back in front of Genestrello, the 17th Chasseurs a Pied and three squadrons of Novarra light cavalry work their way around the south side of Genestrello.

Austrians abandon Genestrello

As the 17th comes up on the Genestrello defenders from above, it engages both 3/IR59 and 2/3rd Jaegers.  Both Austrian formations take casualties and are driven back from Genestrello.  Adding into the collapse of the Austrian forward Genestrello position, the 2/84 and Beuret's battery pour fire into the 1/3 Jaeger and 3/IR39.  Both formations retreat out of Genestrello, disrupted.  Near Cascina Nuova, the 1/74th pushes IR40 back even farther from the crucial railway bridge.

French attacks and Austrian retreats

With Genestrello separating the retiring Austrians from the rapidly oncoming French, the 3rd Jaegers and 3/IR59 shake off their disruption.  Its combat effectiveness teetering on the brink, 3/IR39 falls back in search of safety while 1/IR40 moves out of Montebello to cover IR39's retreat.  Schaafgottsche's Casteggio garrison continues its repositioning towards Montebello.

Urban's fighting withdrawal to Montebello

That concludes the first hour of the battle.  The Austrians have lost Cascina Nuova and Genestrello by 3:30pm.  Historically, both of these outposts fell around the same time.  The difference in this replay is that Baum, suffering from a sharp repulse against Cascina Nuova, is in much worse shape than his historical counterpart.  Falling back towards Montebello as he did historically, the combat effectiveness of his less motivated troops puts his command in grave danger.  Both have an effectiveness down to two which makes for a brittle command.  

A good portion of Schaffgotsche's command is in trouble too.  Taking heavy casualties from the French assaults on Genestrello, support from the Casteggio garrison will be needed soon to shore up the defenses at Montebello and allow Schaffgottsche's troops a bit of time to recover.  Historically, Gaal's brigade began reinforcing Montebello by about 3pm.  That will not be the situation this time.  Gaal is still at least an hour's march from Montebello.  He needed to move out with more alacrity but not to be this time.

Hesse on the northern portion of the battlefield has been delayed by the Sardinian cavalry just as witnessed historically. Spillberger's column approaches the railway bridge spanning the Coppa River but he, too, is too distant to offer immediate assistance.

The French, for their part, moved quickly and thwarted the attack on Cascina Nuova and overpowered the Genestrello defenders without suffering many casualties.  French artillery and the well-trained chasseurs a pied made a defense of Genestrello a tough proposition for Urban.

3:30pm positions looking from Voghera

Many of the Austrian infantry are of poorer quality than their French counterparts and once the starch was knocked out of the tunics, fighting toe-to-toe would be a losing battle.  The larger Austrian battalions never made their superiority in numbers felt in this first hour of fighting.  The Austrians also suffer from a disadvantage in command quality.  In this first hour, Austrian commanders were several times outplayed by their French adversaries.  The flexibility offered by good or excellent French officers proved powerful when compared to the poor or average Austrian command structure.

As for the arrival of French reinforcements, perhaps, some arrived on the battlefield a little earlier than expected.  Still, the game timeline follows the historical battle chronology quite closely.

With the start of the 3:30pm turn, Stadion grabs hold of the initiative.  Perhaps he can sort out his far flung commands and give them a chance to prepare for the next wave of expected French assaults?  Having much of Schaafgottsche's command reeling back from Genestrello followed closely on its heels by the victorious French, will Urban be able to prepare a solid defense of Montebello in time?  The answer to these questions will be answered in the next installment of the battle.  

Stormin' Normans

After having made my first purchase from Casting Room Miniatures in late fall to take advantage of their Christmas sale and liking what I saw, I placed a second order before year-end to reinforce that success.  In that initial order, was a three figure pack of Norman Knights Charging.  The photos on the website looked promising and my thought was these horsemen would fit in well with the Reconquista project.   

Well, when the three-pack of figures arrived I was quite impressed.  Terrific sculpting and the riders show great motion.  They certainly look set on riding down their victims.  Since three were not enough to field a complete stand, I quickly fired off a second order before the sale expired.  Added into the mounted figures were a few packs of dismounted spearmen.  Those look equally as nice. 

After painting and basing these figures, what is my impression?  To my eye, the figures are brilliant and are of no lesser quality than the mainline Wargames Foundry figures.  I love 'em and would enjoy adding another stand or two into the collection.

Canon de Campagne de 4 - Modèle 1858 La Hitte.

The French Model 1858 La Hitte 4 "pounder" remained a puzzle for me since the days of fielding French guns on the tabletop Mexican battlefield during the French Intervention.  Why would the French field such a comparatively small caliber gun in such large numbers?  During the French Intervention and the earlier Franco-Austrian War, Orders of Battle were dominated by these 4 "pounders."  I always wondered why until recently.

Recently, that is until re-reading Richard Brooke's Solferino 1859 book.  Therein he mentioned the French pieces de quartre fired a 4kg shell.  A 4 kg shell rather than a 4 pound shell?  Maybe there was some confusion?  Providing even more confusion was Luigi Casali's, The Second Italian War of Independence listing the French as having 37 batteries of 4 inch rifled muzzle loading guns.  Even Dr. Stephen Summerfield's recent The Italian Campaign of 1859 describes the French as having a 4 pound rifled muzzle loading gun.  Pounds, kilograms, and inches all given as units of measure for the French pieces de quartre.  What is going on?  Many game rules also list a French 4 pounder as the dominate gun platform.  Bruce Weigle in his excellent 1859 rulebook lists the French as having a 4 pounder but later clarifies that it, indeed, fired a 4 kg shell.

After investigation into this seeming anomaly, evidence points to the French Canon de Campagne de 4 - Modèle 1858 La Hitte as firing a 4 kg conical shell.  Actually the weight of the projectile is listed as 3.7 kg.  Could the confusion stem from the caliber or bore of the gun?  Firing solid shot, this caliber tube fired a 4 pound projectile.  With the introduction of rifling and conical shells, the weight of the projectile could almost be doubled.  Thus a "four pound" gun firing a four pound shot could now fire a four kg elongated shell.  Even though that same bore could now fire a four kg projectile, perhaps the old nomenclature was hard to drive out.  Or, like the French name of the gun, itself, no mention to the unit of measure was made.  The gun was simply the Canon de Campagne de 4 - Modèle 1858 La Hitte.  

    

Early French Legere in 18mm II

The sister battalion of French legere marches off the painting desk following closely on the heels of its first battalion.  With this battalion, the OB for Montebello looks complete.  Figures are from the fine line of AB Miniatures' early Napoleonics.  Excellent sculpts!  Shakos with side plumes make for an interesting contrast from the later, front and center plume or pop pom. 

Now, four battalions of French light infantry can be fielded for battles in this early war period.  More will be needed as the collection expands and more potential battles become possible.  As seen, none of the French light battalions carry flags.  I need to find samples to use as templates for creating early light infantry flags. 

Like the Austrian jaegers mentioned in the last post, this battalion empties The Lead Pile of French legere.  Seems an order to Eureka might be warranted.  Luckily, I received a Eureka voucher for Christmas!  First, I plan to paint down some of the early period cavalry before placing my next order.  With a focus on fielding Austrians and French for Montebello 1800, the Russian contingent has seen no action on the painting desk in a very long time.  Perhaps a unit or two of Russians can find their way into the painting queue?  My last order from Eureka included Russian cavalry and guns.  That might be a good place to start.