Maximilian Battle Report - Supply Depot 1863

Hi,

We had a fantastic game on Wednesday pitting the French vs. Mexican Republican forces around a small town and supply depot. Mike and Brian were the French attackers, while I played the Republicans. (See the OOB in my previsou post)

We used 15mm figures, Piquet rules (with my Max tweaks), and had a 3 turn game limit due to darkness falling on the battlefield.

View from the French lines. Supply depot in the middle top of the photo and Mike's brigade on the far left, while Brian commanded the near French brigades.

Turn 1

In the first turn the French attempted to launch a general assault across the entire battlefield with Brian's "Blue Butchers" moving quickly into engagement range of the Republican cavalry, which scared the CRAP out of me as the Chasseurs d' Afriques got their nickname for a good reason! (D12+1 in melee!)

French Brigade moves to the assault against
the supply depot

The "Blue Butchers" move into contact!

Two French infantry brigades comprised of line, Turcos, Zouaves, and Chasseurs a Pied stormed towards the town, while Mike's larger brigade of line, Chasseurs a Pied, Zouaves, and naval infantry attempted to storm the heights in front of the supply depot.

Good view of the French assault!

View of the cavalry

My Republican cavalry managed to disengage from the Blue Butchers, and they never bothered to follow up from there as their focus moved to the main attack in the town and supply depot.

Turn 2

The second turn saw the French center smashing into the town and taking valuable terrain while scattering the forces of the Republic. Meanwhile, the French assault on the supply depot was shattered and nearly caused the French to lose the battle. The Zouaves were torn to bits by 12# canister fire, the Chassuers a Pied were nearly destroyed by Republican infantry rifle fire and the naval infantry was repulsed with heavy casualties.

Supply wagons getting loaded as French advance

French take rifle fire from Mexican line infantry

French near the entrenchments

Moment of Impact!

Meanwhile back in the town!

-Another French Line battalion thrown into the fray!

Chasseurs a Pied position for assault!

Deadly fire!! Chasseurs lose 3 stands and rout!

Chasseurs melee, but only manage to disorder

the determined Mexicans

Chasseurs in the town blast the Mexian National Guard unit

French line assault and take the town section
routing the Republicans

Things are beginning to look bad for the Republicans.

Republicans rout in 2nd round of melee

as the Chasseur a Pied take another town section

Mexican National Guard unit attempts to dislodge the
French Line in the town, but are repulsed and routed

making the victory complete for the French.

Dispite the heavy casualties on the French brigade attacking the depot, the Republicans have taken too much damage from the town fighting and French artillery. My Republicans lost the battle and the supplies! (Zero morale chips and my center was completely destroyed by the end of turn 2).

We plan on fighting this battle again next Wednesday.

Eric Burgess

Maximilian Scenario - Supply Depot

Hi folks,

Here is the scenario that I'm going to run on Wednesday night using Piquet's Hallowed Ground 2nd edition along with my tweaks to unit ratings.

Battle #1 - Supply Depot (1863)
This battle pits the French attacking a Republican town and supply depot.

Scenario Duration – 3 turns (1.5 hours before night fall)

French Objective: Drive Republicans from the village and the supply depot and capture as many supply wagons as possible. Due to nightfall approaching the French will need to push hard to achieve their objectives.

Republican Objective: Hold French off until nightfall so that the supply wagons can escape. Supplies need to be loaded wagons (one per infantry move in open card). There are six supply loads to remove from the mountain supply depot. These supplies are critical to the Republican effort as it is early in the war and supplies are scarce. It is also important to not have any units destroyed. Supplies move on Infantry Move card after loaded.

Maximilian Adventure – Sequence Decks
Cards                 Imperial Republican French
Artillery Move        2        2          3
Artillery Reload      2        2          3
Cavalry in Open       3        3          3
Deployment            1        2          2
Dress Line            4        2          0
Elites Reload         0        1*         1
Heroic Moment         1        1          2
Inf/Cav in III/IV     2        2          2
Infantry in Open      2        3          3
Maneuver              2        2          3
Melee Resolution      2        2          3
Musket Reload         2        2          3
Native Mobility       1        1          1
Officer Check         2        2          3
Total                 26       26        32

I have a ton of extra 4" x 6" photo paper from HP ink cartraige sets I have bought so I'm trying something different and printing out command group rosters on these photo paper sheets. If anybody wants to see the rosters I can email them the scenario along with the rosters.

French Army
3 Line Infantry
2 Chassuers a Pied
2 Zouave
1 Turcos
1 Naval Infantry
2 x 4# gun batteries (RML)
6 squadrons of the "Blue Butchers" - Chassuers d' Afriques
3 squadrons of Chassuers

Republican Army
4 Line Infantry
4 National Guard Infantry
2 Line Cavalry
2 National Guard Cavarly
1 12# gun section (SBML)
1 6# gun section (SBML)
Some photos of the game setup, with the supply depot on top of the large hill, near the river.

Should make for an interesting game.
Eric

Maximilian Adventure in 15mm

I have a new period to game and a new collection! My friend Hal Hood wanted to trim down his miniature collection and offered to sell me his Maximilian collection, which is very extensive.

I picked up some additional unpainted lead at Historicon and bought his collection after Historicon. I now have a monster 15mm Maximilian collection, which is nearly complete. I touched up some of the figures, labeled all the bases, and based about 10 new units. I still have some work to do and want to rebase the figures on thinner bases to match my other collections. (Litko will have a nice order coming!)

When I rebase I will add all the flags at that point. I don't want to work too hard on the current collection as I can play with it as is.

Here is my muster for the period:


Imperial Mexican Army
5 x Line Infantry units
2 x Light Infantry units (Cazadores)
5 x Municipal Guards (Town Militias)
6 x Line Cavalry units
1 x Exploradoras Cavalry unit
1 x Empress Lancers

Foreign Units
4 x Austrian Legion Infantry units
2 x Belgian Legion infantry units
1 x Austrian Mountain Gun section

To Be Done:
2 x Cazadores
1 x Imperial Line Infantry
4-6 x Gun sections
2 sqdn x Belgian Legion Cav
1 x Austrian Mountain Gun section
6 squadrons x Austrian Legion Hussars
6 squadrons x Austrian Legion
4 squadrons x Contra Guerilla Cavalry

Republican Army
7 x Line Infantry units
1 x Supremos Podres Unit
9 x National Guard units
4 x Line Cavalry units
3 x National Guard Cavalry units
3 x Gun sections

To be done:
3 x gun sections

French Army
3 x Line Infantry units
2 x FFL units
1 x Sailor unit
2 x Zouave units
1 x Turcos unit
4 x gun sections
6 sqdn Chaussers d' Afrique
6 sqdn Chaussers

To Be Done:
2 x Chausser a Pied units
2 x Line infantry units
1 x Imperial Guard battery
1 x Egyptian battalion
1 x Siege battery
1 x Sailor gun section

Mexican Auxiliaries
Can be used for any army
4-5 x infantry units
6 x Cavalry units

To Be Done:
2 more infantry units
2 more cavalry units


Here are some photos of the collection in their storage cases. I hope to have more photos of them in action after next week's game. I will be using Piquet's Hallowed Ground rules.

Republican Mexican Army

Imperial Mexican Army

French Army

Auxiliaries and Austro-Belgian Legion

Cheers!
Eric

Russo-Turkish War "River Crossing" Battle - 1877

Hi,

Brian Connollly of the Charlotte Garrison, broke out his new 15mm 1877 Russo-Turkish War figures for us to game with. He picked up this painted collection at Historicon in the flea market. I believe it was part of the estate sale for Mark Hayes who passed away. Mark, your figures are being put to good use!

We used Piquet's Hallowed Ground 2nd edition rules to fight the battle which had the Russians attempting a river crossing against entrench Turks in a rugged hill area.

Russian Forces: 18 Infantry battalions, 3 Cavalry regiments, and 4 Rifled Muzzle loading artillery batteries
Turkish Forces: 10 Infantry battalions, 4 Krupp artillery batteries

All terrain is CLASS II (half move), except on roads.
River is CLASS IV, with a ford (CLASS II), and a completed pontoon bridge.
Entrenchments were CLASS III.

The scenario was quite enjoyable and the Russians learned some lessons with regards to being a little more patient in destroying the Turkish guns before attempting to cross the river. The Turks had better rifle range and artillery range than the Russians. The Russian managed to reduce 3 of the batteries to half stength gun sections, before they launched their assault across the river, only to be torn to bits on the pontoon. The ford area was being crossed with good affect, but we ran out of time to finish the game (we got a very late start).

Russian (and Bulgarian\Romanian allies) used Extended line formation for their fire formation, while they used column of companies to cross the pontoon bridge and ford.

We will refight the battle next week with some minor tweaks. You can also see my nearly finished river sections. The ford piece with the island is waiting on the appropriate tree models to be purchased then I will finish it.

Some photos for your enjoyment.

PHOTO 1: Overview of the Battlefield. Turks on left side of the river in two redoubts\earthworks


PHOTO 2: Turkish Redoubt closest to the pontoon bridge.


PHOTO 3: View from the other Turk redoubt.


PHOTO 4: Good overview of what the Russians were dealing with.


PHOTO 5: Russians advance in Extended Line formation


PHOTO 6: Turks are ready!


PHOTO 7: Russian Allied Brigade prepares to move across the pontoon


PHOTO 8: C-in-C stand with Bulgarians and Romanians nearby


PHOTO 9: One Turk battery hit and disordered


PHOTO 10: Russian form column of companies to cross the ford, but are hit by artillery and disordered.


PHOTO 11: Crossing the pontoon into a whirlwind of Turkish artillery fire.


PHOTO 12: View of the attack


PHOTO 13: First Russian unit routed, and Romanians hit and disordered. (green marker)


PHOTO 14: The ford is being crossed in mass.