My Metal Meneken: 1813 - The Battle of Commandwitz

Thursday 30 May 2024

1813 - The Battle of Commandwitz - Fictional Napoleonics

It was Napoleonics again, 28mm, Black Powder 2 (plus some CoE additions) with Bart leading the Duchy of Warsaw and John as his secondant, while me leading two infantry brigades of Austrians and Tim having the honour to play my Prussian brigade for the first time! As this was somehow attached to a certain superstition, he was also in command of the finest cavalry of the day - a heavy cavalry Austrian brigade. 800pts each side, two roads and two forrests (each worth 10 points if held longer than 2 turns) - what could go possibly go wrong!

The French (as I shorten them up here) had their Uhlans on the left flank opposite our formidable Cuirassiers the rest of the lines pretty much infantry and artillery - where the French outnumbered us, but within the rules!

The French moved first and the battle started they shelled us heavily but we formed line. We captured our part of the forrest and so it was a draw point-wise from there onwards. Bart crashed first into the Cuirassiers two time but could not break them. Then Tim charged with the Dragoon veterans (possibly cuirassier light heheh!) AAAAND nearly broke them but Bart was lucky!!! That could have been our victory!

Our centre was pretty much untested the whole time and at the last bit the Prussians even managed to get the French forrest (alas too late to get the points).

On my side, jaegers held the forrest against many heavy bombardements over many turns until they had to with draw. Then the Grenadiers stepped in and held that as well - so no problem on that centre part. The same German brigade deserves a honourable mentioning as the withstood Johns attack for over 5 turns with 3!!! breaktest Shaken - which they dusted off and continued the fight, a true Iron Brigade.

On the other hand my Hungarians (I know its just Germans with shakos, but because of leather boots I'm not investing into metals, no sir!) - as veterans they had Elite 4+, but what use is that if you are NOT MOVING for the first 4 (FOUR) turns!!! Ouch! Greetings from the Austrian shitty command system!

This and Tims exhaustion of the heavy cavalry (I mean he had no other choice, but to do so.) cost us our victory.

Eventually the "Iron brigade" was breaking, there was a limit to what they could possibly bear, and my centre collapsed. Tims Cavalry was shaken and spent - no break through on that flank. And my Hungarians were in the side of Johns Flank but comfortably refused by fresh troops. Tactically a disaster - The woods would have fallen in the next turns and we had 3 lost units vs 1, so even if we had an advantage point wise, we conceded defeat as our position was untenable. Very well done Bart and John!