Saxons

Here are the Saxon Units:

Saxon Musketiers

Westfalia Miniatures

Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 

 

 Saxon Grenadiers
Calpe Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

 Saxon Musketiers
Calpe Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

 Zastrow Cuirassiers
Eureka Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

Saxon Garde du Corps
Eureka Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

Grand Duchy of Warsaw

Here are the units that I have for the Grand Duchy of Warsaw:

 Fusiliers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Voltigeurs
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Fusiliers
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

 Fusiliers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Grenadiers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Chasseurs
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 8 lb Gun
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 12 lb Gun
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 Hussars
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 Uhlans
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

Uhlans
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

I really like the miniatures from both Murawski  as well as Front Rank, and these sculpts make excellent units.

The paintwork on them is excellent as well. All three painters do an incredible job.

French Allies: Vistula Legion Poles

I have been building out my French Allies so that I can fight battles from 1812 - 1813.  The project is finally complete.  I'll post a few units per day over the next few weeks.

The first up are the Vistula Legion Fusiliers and Uhlans.

These figures are part of the excellent Murawski Miniatures line, and were painted by Roger Murrow.

I just received them yesterday and based them today so they don't have their lances yet.

Eylau - Part II

Paul and I reconvened on Friday for Sushi and Gaming, and finished our re-fight of Eylau.

Paul's counter-charge with the Russian Cavalry on the south end of the battlefield drove off 3 units of my French Cuirassiers and took the pressure off of his infantry as they pulled back to Klein-Sausgarden.  Here is the historical layout of the troops at the beginning of the battle for comparison.
In our version, the French attacks have over-run the Russian guns at the south end of the Russian position and driven the Russian Infantry backward toward the woods.

 Steady fire from Davout's infantry drives off the Russian Cuirassier.

The Russian Hussars withdraw to the flank.

 

 

 Davout's Infantry and the Russian Infantry face each other while the French cavalry is rallied and re-organized in the rear.

 

 Meanwhile in the center, the Russians take advantage of the lull to launch a furious cannonade on the French Infantry in position in front of Eylau.

 

 French Cavalry re-organizing.

 

 French Dragoons.

 

 At 2:00 the battered, but re-organized French cavalry launches a new attack.

 

 The attack overruns the last Russian battery in the south and inflicts heavy casualties on some Russian Hussars.

 

 Meanwhile, on the north end of the battlefield, Lestocq's Prussian Corps arrives on the battlefield having left several battalions along its route of march to delay Ney's pursuing Corps.

 

 The Russian commander decides that despite the bloody battle raging in the south, that his new troops would have the most immediate impact by supporting an attack north of Eylau. Here they are coming into line between the Cossack screen and the Russian gun line.

 

 The Russian Infantry behind the gun line starts to deploy for the big attack.

 

 

 

 Napoleon starts getting nervous as the forces arrayed across from Eylau look imposing and the Russian artillery barrage has been taking a toll for two hours. He pulls back his infantry into the town and refuses his left flank. The best hope for a French victory is for Davout to finally break the Russian left flank and for Ney to show up behind the Russian right before the French center can be overwhelmed.

 

 Back on the south flank, Davout has finally got the French cavalry re-organized and committed to the attack again.

 

 Here a French horse artillery unit blasts a Russian Infantry unit that has been forced into square.
The casualties are immense and the unit is nearing the breaking point.

 

Charge'! 
Form Square!  The Russian line, now without artillery support and without significant cavalry support is helpless to do anything but form square and hope.

 

 Unfortunately my camera somehow lost the pictures from here. Not sure why.
Here is a chronology of the rest of the battle:

4:00 The Russian artillery continues to punish the French near Eylau
        In the south, Davout moves up his infantry to attack the Russian infantry now trapped in square.

5:00 The Russian line in the south cracks and flees north and east.

6:00 The French mop up the remaining Russian forces in the south and drive toward Lampasch and the main Russian line of supply.

7:00 The Russians launch a counter-attack with their infantry into the woods west of Lampasch that drives the French out, but Davout successfully seizes the town with a force of 2 infantry divisions and two somewhat battered cavalry divisions in support. They are now separated from the main French line, but are in a strong position to fend off Russian attempts to re-open the main route of retreat.      In the north, Ney's Corps arrives and seizes Schmoditten to the right rear of the main Russian position.

8:00 The Russians pull back their forces that were forming up for the attack on Eylau and face off the new threat from Ney. Lucky for the French they waited too long to launch the attack.

9:00 French forces from the south and west converge on the woods west of Lampasch and threaten the Russian forces there.  Fighting finally sputters out with the Russian army completely battered and almost completely surrounded. The Russians ended the fighting with 17 units eliminated and the French 8. Complete victory for the French. Vive le Emperor!

Post Script:
The Russian commander, desperate, orders his army to attempt to break out to the east and to re-form as best they can at Friedland. Some units blunder into Ney's forces around Schmoditten or Davout's men near Lampasch. They are rebuffed in disorder, adding to the confusion of the retreat. Others are lucky enough to head cross-country between the French forces and escape. However the confusion and disorder wrought on the remaining Russian forces makes them easy fodder for the pursuing French cavalry the following day. The harassed and demoralized Russians that manage to trudge, exhausted into Friedland are easily defeated and scattered by Soult and Ney's fresh Corps over the following days.

Eylau - February 8, 1807 - Part I

Since it has already been a very cold and snowy winter here, I thought that it would be appropriate to do a refight of the Battle of Eylau using my 28mm armies and my homebrew rules based on the Command & Colors system. I took on the role of the French and Paul Niemeyer took the Russians. Today we played the first three hours of the battle. We'll be finishing the action on Monday.

Turn 1: 8am
The French and Russians are deployed near each other, but cannot see each other well due to a raging snowstorm. (Imagine the snow blowing fiercely and covering the ground.)

 French troops in front of Eylau. Notice the Brigade of infantry wearing white uniforms. I was very pleased to have some of these to deploy for the battle.

The Russian Line across the way. Notice the Grand Battery dominating the ridge.

 Augereau's Corps deployed south of Eylau.

 Russians across from Augereau.

 More Russians north of Eylau.

 The Emperor with his guard on the hill behind the town.

In order to simulate the confusion on the field due to the snow storm, I gave Paul a unique 'card' to play at any time: He could reposition any two of my infantry units before taking his turn. Naturally he couldn't wait and played it immediately before his first turn. In an ode to history, he moved Augereau's corps right up to the muzzles of his grand battery and opened fire on them.

Both brigades took some losses and fled.

 My response was to order Murat and the Cavalry reserve to charge the southern end of the Russian position on the ridge to (hopefully) clear off his artillery.

Six Brigades of Cuirassiers and Dragoons rode forward.

 Charge!

 Due to the snow the artillery fire wasn't very accurate and the charge succeeded in overrunning some of the guns.

9:00 am The fighting swirled for a couple of turns as the French cavalry pressed their attack home. Here the Carabiniers attack the Russian guns.

 ...and overrun them, but sustain heavy losses.

 Paul felt that he couldn't allow me to take possession of the southern end of the ridge as this would break his line and cut off his left flank deployed to meet Davout's corps, which was arriving on the battlefield to the south. So he played a 'Drive them Back' card...

 ...and launched a counter-charge with his Cuirassier and Dragoons released from his central reserve.

 They not only swept the weakened Carabiniers from the ridge...

 ...but killed Marshal Murat (sadly I don't have a Murat figure...I need to remedy this). This not only weakened my command control of the large cavalry force in the area, but reduced my over-all command control rating by 1.  Not good. Now both armies had a '5' rating.

I was forced to spend a turn regrouping my forces. I drew back the dragoons, moved up a fresh division of Cuirassier, and had Davout ride over to the left of his corps to take command of the cavalry action.

10:00am  The Russians bombarded the French near Eylau, and the French launched a renewed attack on the critical hinge of the Russians position in the south. In this picture, Davout  directs a brigade of his infantry to assault the village of Serpallen, while the Imperial Guard Heavy Cavalry makes a 'glorious charge' (+2 dice; retreat flags have no effect) on the embattled ridge.

 Charge!

The impact of the 'Big Boots' is tremendous! They ride right over the Russian Dragoon brigade, up the ridge into and over the Russian Cuirassier brigade, and on into and over the depleted Russian artillery unit that had just moved back onto the ridge.

 Finally coming to a halt in the face of a fresh artillery unit. What a ride!

 11:00am Paul, desperate to force the now swarming French cavalry off the ridge sends forward the only troops available: a unit of Russian Musketeers and one of Hussars. The French response is merciless. The musketeers are charged by Cuirassiers and Dragoons, and when they form square are blasted with grapeshot at close range by the French horse artillery. All that remains is a heap of corpses, and the Russian Hussars fall back off the ridge under pressure from the French Dragoons.

 Davout's attack from the south starts to make headway, and with the success of the French cavalry on their left, the entire Russian left flank is in danger of being overwhelmed.

 The Russian left flank opposite Davout's men as they move up through the forest.

The Russian commander reluctantly decides to pull his men back to retain contact with the main Russian position. 

 Davout doesn't want to let them get away unscathed, so he decides to keep up the pressure and orders the heavy cavalry to press them. The Russian infantry forms square, but is now pinned and can't continue the withdraw to their new line in the woods.

 Unfortunately this aggressive move leaves the French cavalry open to a counter-attack on their exposed right flank by the Russian cavalry.

 A Russian Cuirassier and a Hussar brigade charge home and scatter two French Cuirassier brigades.

 The Russian cavalry charge removed the immediate threat to the Russian infantry on the Russian left.
More to follow on Monday.