Battle of Kressenberg

Battle 3 of the War of the Imperial Succession

With my recent perusal of Absolute Emperor, I have been in a horse and musket mood. Therefore I decided to try out my new gaming table with a battle set in Francesia. I last played a battle in this setting back in February.

After his recent victory, General Hogwaffe of Bluderia is back on the offensive. His mission is to push Redgravian forces out of the empire, allowing his king to seize the throne.

Hogwaffe finds his Redgravian counterpart, General Spengler, holding the strategic positions of Kressenberg hill (L) and the village of Nesselrode (R). Hogwaffe sends a small force against the village while the bulk of his troops head towards the hill.

Hogwaffe's left flank drives off some cavalry while a firefight rages on the right.

The Bluderians press the Redgravian horse (L) but lose the light infantry protecting the artillery (R).

Massed volleys cut down the cavalry. On the right, Redgrave sends some infantry toward the hill while another brigade attacks the guns.

But the guns (R) cut down their attackers

Fortune seems to favor Hogwaffe. Bluderian attacks force the enemy off the hill and out of the village.

But success is short-lived. Redgrave re-occupies its positions while its artillery cuts down attacking infantry (L)

Finally, the Redgravian infantry comes to the rescue. It attacks the Bluderians from behind. Combined with sustained artillery cannister, the Bluderian attack collapses.

The officers of his remaining units beg for one more chance to take the hill, but Hogwaffe is rather pessimistic about the odds. He decides to call off the offensive. Spengler has won the battle.

Notes

This was a good test of my new table. It was much better than playing on my coffee table because I did not have to bend over. I also had a lot more space around the board for rules, unused markers, casualties, etc. Also, I played the game early in the morning and I was worried I would wake me wife because my table is in the room next to our bedroom. Fortunately, I did not disturb her. I would say that it was a success.

This was an interesting battle. For a moment, when Bluderia cleared enemy units off the hill and village, I thought they could win. At the time, I was really wishing for some cavalry to swoop in and seize the positions. Alas, such is the cruel fate of random armies. So now Redgrave (as usual) has the advantage in its war with Bluderia.

As usual, I played the game using MicroBattle. I used One Hour Wargames to determine the scenario and force allocations. The scenario was # 14 - Static Defense.

And In Other News

I'm already waffling on my decision to stick with 3mm. Whenever I peruse photos of portable wargame set-ups, I am enamored of the look of larger figures. They tend to have a toy soldier look. This has got me considering either 6mm or 10mm. I'm not going to divest myself of my 3mm set-up; a larger scale will simply be a supplement.

Anyway, I ordered some sample horse and musket figures in both scales from Irregular. I want to test out different basing schemes with different grid sized. I may move up to 2 inch grid squares.