The Battle of Eckmuhl 1809 - the Opening Moves

Yesterday I took a trip to Chris Gregg's to play the opening moves of the Battle of Eckmuhl, 1809. Normally the weather has been wonderful, but not this time, as it was 'bloomin' grim' to say the least. Despite that I arrived on time and met up with Paul and Richard, familiar faces from previous games, and Tony a new acquitance. Paul and I would take the part of the Austrians, with Paul in overall command as Archduke Karl (Chaz to his friends), with myself as FML Hohenzollern (Dave to his friends) and in charge of III Corps. Richard was in overall charge of the 'French' as Napoleon and Tony as Davout (?). 

As always Chris had done sterling work on the table, the OOB, maps, info etc, to allow us the players to get out plans in place before the action started. I say 'we', when in fact Paul brilliantly (to my mind) gathered it all together and came up with a plan and deployments for the myriad of troops available. I'm sure Richard did the same. See below the overall map and a detailed section of where the opening actions would take place

The main action for the opening moves took place from A-K and up to row 8, to help give you an idea when looking at the photos below. I was at Ober and Unter Laichling, facing Tony's troops, with Paul at Eckmuhl across to Pfakofer. The mass of Davout's Corps arrived from the South East, pushing towards the gap between the Laichlings and Eckmuhl

To begin with, both sides had the room on their own to familiarise themselves with the terrain, where the troops were (mostly blinds at this point) and to come up with a plan of action. This took some time but was nescessary, given the nature of the terrain and the sheer number to troops involved. Also there was off table movement to be considered, which was controlled by written orders which were passed on to Chris, to allow him to move those units as required before they appeared on the table.

Right, so onto the game itself. Our plan as the Austrians was to hold onto the the Laichlings and Eckmuhl for as long as possible, sacrificing the troops to try and slow the French down as much as possible and to create a traffic jam which would take time for them to sort it out. We only managed 2 Turns, but broadly speaking our plan was working out as we had hoped, but the French were poised to breakout with their cavalry, from the line between the Laichlings and Eckmuhl, into the wide open spaces beyond. However our bastions of Eckmuhl and the Laichlings we still held and so the French troops had the risk of exposing their flanks if they moved past

Given how much time we spent on the game, I snatched photos as and when I could, to give you an idea of the action and the terrain. Most of these are after the first Turn.

A view from the North West table, with the Laichlings in the right angle corner of the table. Richard (Napoleon) surveys the terrain.

A bad shot of Austrian troops in Ober Laichling.

Davout's Corps begins to arrive.

The Austrian gun line with Eckmuhl to the left of the line. Not quite a 'thin red line' ...

Columns of French troops arrive on the Austrian left flank.

A few guns are all that can be seen to oppose them.

Some of Chris lovely terrain and 3D printed buildings. You do get a much better sense of how the terrain affected a battle when you play on a table such as this.

A view from the Austrian left, with Eckmuhl in the centre, with Davout's Corps arriving from top left.

A view towards the secondary Austrian defensive position, but no troops are visible yet, only blinds and markers. This really does add to the fog-of-war.

The final defensive line along a river valley.

More very nice 3D printed buildings.

Clouds of French skirmishers.

The French begin to try and take Eckmuhl. Despite Napoleon's urgings, the troops do not move quickly enough on the first Turn, much to the Austrian's relief!

A worrying sight as lots of French cavalry begin to arrive.

Bavarian (?) troops being to arrive from off table to threaten Ober Laichling.

Skirmishers clash along the Laichling stream, which the Austrians have reinforced with abattis.

The French cavalry charge the Austrian guns and cavalry along the ridge. Amazingly the guns managed to defeat one unit of French cavalry and force another one to retreat, before themselves having to do likewise. Still a moral victory and it did the job of slowing the French down, which was the aim!

A massed cavalry clash, with honours comeing out about even, but the French had plenty more in reserve, wherewas we had none!

The French are in Eckmuhl, but it is still contested by Austrian Grenzers.

The French skirmishers have crossed the Laichling stream, but come up against formed Austrian Line Infantry.

The Austrian position here is very weak and the plan was to make a covered withdrawl towards the next line of hidden troops.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was fun, but pretty intense, due to the sheer number of troops involved, both on and off the table. As always the game was played in the right spirit, with plenty of jovial banter being bandied about. It was great to play with Paul again and we certianly had the same ideas in terms of what to do as the Austrians. Tony was a great laugh and we had good fun battling against each other by the Laichlings. I didn't get to play against Richard in this game, as his troops were far away from mine, but a wonderful opponent as always. Of course many thanks to Chris from making the terrain, which was glorious as always, and for creating the scenario, getting the forces together etc.

There as still two days play left, so I, like you, will have to wait and see what unfolds. Chris will not doubt put up several excellent reports on his Blog in due course, which I will add a link to on mine as and when they appear.

I hope you enjoyed the above and as always comments greatly appreciated:)!

TTFN.

Cotswold Wargames Day - Sunday 19th October

Just a bit of a 'heads up' post really, in that it's not too long until this years Cotswold Wargames Day, which will be held on Sunday 19th October. Full details can be found on Keith Flint's Blog. If you fancy putting on a game, that would be great, equally it would be wonderful to see you at the show. It is a very relaxed atmosphere and with a lovely mix of games on show. More like a bunch of friends getting together for a days gaming really.

Dave and I are roughing ideas out for our game this year. No spoilers yet, other than it will feature rhubarb, as always, and will be set in North America. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or current affairs, is purely coincidental...

Luckily for once I have pretty much all the forces I need, but fancy painting up a new Brigade to help with the narrative. Whether I get the time remains to be seen!

TTFN.

Colours 2025

The harvest is being collected, the trees are beginning to turn and the nights are drawing in, so it must mean it's Autumn and time for the Colours wargames show at Newbury racecourse. A long term favourite show of mine, being relatively local and at that time of year when my mind turns from gardening more towards gaming. So after an easy and leisurely drive, I arrived just before 10.00am and there was already a very long queue to pay and get in. After a short wait it all started moving very quickly and not long after I was in the venue.

So first off photos from the show, which frankly is what most people want to see! Apologies for many of the shots, as the lighting was not ideal and the camera struggled, plus it was also hard at times to get a good view of the tables. Not all the games on show were as advertised in the brochure, but I have tried to be as accurate as I can.

Boscombe Down Gamers and the Battle of St Venant, France, 1940, using Chain of Command. A scenario based upon one from the TFL Pint Sized Campaign booklets, tweaked for the show.

I've been pondering making a cemetery for my games and this certainly provides plenty of inspiration.

Lots of little details dotted across the board.

A nice WWI memorial on show.

Most of the houses had an advert on the end wall, which really added to the look of the game.

Never Mind the Ruckus and a War of the Roses skirmish game.

Not sure who put this on, nor the period, but it looked like Normans versus...?

An ECW skirmish game I believe, the same rules as seen as the recent IPMS show.

Standing Ready Games and their 'Packing Heat' rules. It looks like 1930's America.

Anschluss Games and their 'Son of Stalin...And Golden Roubles' game. They re-used most of the board from their previous Kelly's Hero's inspired game.

Loved the church and the damaged buildings.

Newbury & Reading Wargames and 'Chariot Geddon' game I think. Certainly I've never heard of the rules in use. The unit labels were rather distracting.

Deeprose Games and their Battle of Cannae game using Hail Caesar! Epic rules and figures.

It certainly gave the lovely impression of a massed Ancients battle.

Always nice to see a good fort on the table.

Simon Miller and another demo of his 'Lust for Glory' rules for the WSS, based upon his very successful grid and card/chit based rules system.

Jackmanimation Gaming Club and the Battle for Hue.

Loads of lovely terrain on show.

An essential really to have for this period!

Wargames Association of Reading and the Battle of Maldon 991AD.

Certainly a massed shieldwall feel to the action at this point.

Flanks, who needs to attack flanks?

Liverpool Wargames and the Franco-Prussian War, using Eagles of Empire rules.

Gripping Beast and WWI massed battle.

I think this was at Partizan earlier this year.

Too Fat Lardies, General d'Armee 2 and Waterloo. A very popular game and hard to get a look in, even to take a photo or two.

Ecorcheurs! and Crossing the Somme, 1346.

Swindon & District Wargames, Battle for Berlin 1945.

Lots of detail dotted all across the board.

Southbourne, The Battle of Consthum, 17 December 1944 and Chain of Command.

James Morris and Chums, the Battle of the Five Armies, using Midgard Heroic Battles rules. Another very popular game and a massive one too.

A neat idea to use the drawing from the Hobbit for the backdrop.

The Leggets and the Battle of Henrysburg. Looks like the French and Indian Wars.

A lovely looking game but the unit cards were too distracting for me.

Rapid fire Reloaded and Purple Heart Lane Breakout.

Simply done but very effective and exactly the sort of game you could put on at home.

A demo game from Peter Pig for their latest version of the popular AK47 rules.

Another AK47 game, but inspired by the film 'The Wild Geese'.

Baccus Wargames and their Battle for Lens, 1648. A nice idea to use the inside of a wall paper pasting table for the board, by the look of it. Sadly no one seemed interested in this game.

As I was leaving the show, I heard some planes flying overhead, which turned out to be a sort of Battle of Britain type flight.

Luckily they flew over again, allowing me to see that there appeared to 3 Spitfires, a Mosquito and a B-17.

As I drove away the Spitfires had peeled off and were flying over the racecourse on another lap to wherever they were doing their flypast.

The Haul

I collected a pre-order from Pendraken for some WWII British for use in Sicily and Burma, as well as some late WWII and 1950's Soviet AFVs for a future project, but more on that in another post. On the way down I realised I needed some more fences for my BUA's, so picked up a pack of 6mm and 10mm ones from Pendraken. 

Thoughts On The Show

I had a good wander around, bumped into a few fellow gamers I knew, but not as many as previous years. In the end I spent 2 hours there, which was more than enough for me these days. So a few ponderings on the day out in no particular order:

• Even though the show was busy, it just somehow seemed to lack any atmosphere this year. Hard to explain really but it just felt a bit flat to me. Still enjoyable but lacked a certain something, a spark or such like. 
• Chatting with Leon on the Pendraken stand, he felt that is was less busy than last year and you could certainly move around the ground floor hall, where most of the traders are located, much more easily than in previous years. I hope things picked up across the board for all the traders.
• As always the B'n'B was packed and I didn't even attempt to have a look, as it was nigh on impossible and frankly I doubt there would be anything of interest there for me.
• The organisers used a different entrance this year, which caused a bit of a log jam to say the least, leaving many traders left out in the cold for quite some time. Why they did this, who can say, but it didn't work!
• Some traders had taken others slots, which caused some last minute panic, rearranging and most likely some Anglo-Saxon expletives. Not good, not good at all.
• There were more Fantasy and Sci-Fi games and traders this year, up markedly from previous shows. 
• 3D printing was certainly on show in force this year, both terrain and figures wise. there seemed to be quite a few 'one man bands' on show, given the ease with which you can print stuff on demand these days. In a way it reminds me of the surge in MDF buildings from say 10 years ago. 
• There were fewer book sellers than in previous years, with just the two main ones I see at the show each year. Some of the prices being charged were yet again eye wateringly high! A real shame as normally I like to come away with a book or two.
• On the top floor of the show, the space is so large and airy, that the smaller figure games just get lost compared to the 28mm ones. Also a bit more terrain or a good games mat would certainly help. Certainly on the middle floor the game space felt more confined, so the games looked better than upstairs. The PP and Rapid Fire games being a case in point. 
• It was nice to see the PP and Rapid Fire games at a level that one could easily achieve at home or at the club. Whilst the 28mm big boys upstairs will grab the headlines and the magazine coverage, yet another Waterloo game or one without flanks and just headlong massed frontal assault leaves me cold I'm afraid. But hey, they were popular so what do I know!
• Skirmish level games were very much to the fore, which is not a surprise when you look at the rules out there these days. This is the first time that I can remember when there has been so many of them though.
• As always I came away from the show with plenty of ideas for my games, whether that be forces, terrain or campaigns, which is of course a good thing!

What Next?

Well next Friday I'm off to Chris Gregg's for the start of his 3 day game based around the Battle of Eckmuhl in 1809. So I need to get my Napoleonic head on in advance of this and read up on my orders, forces etc. After that, who knows?

Thanks for reading and as always comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.