February 2011 Date: 26-27 Borodino

Questions, chat, feedback and developments relating to REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE... Wargaming the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte.
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j1mwallace
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Post by j1mwallace » Wed Mar 02, 2011 12:42 am

good evening gents.
returned from my few days with my mrs. Had an excellent time.
Just to say that Tam and I had a great time on the Saturday. Agree with the others sentiments that it was very enjoyable, very intense and very hard fought.
Cheers Barry and Dave. Your brains must have been even more frazzled by the end of the 2 days. Excellent to meet old and new faces.
Gerry you had the best dice rolling I have ever seen. Great fun to fight but a bugger to roll against.
thanks gentlemen!!
Excellent terrain and very high quality figures!!!We'll be back
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Post by PaulMc » Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:08 am

Hello Gents!

I'm so glad to see the weekend went so well and that everyone enjoyed it so much. I was so disappointed to miss out on this as I was all set to come along.

The pictures are wonderful and convey a real sense of the spectacle. I fully hope to be back at the next event as normal.

Bob, we'll lead the Emperor's troops to glory yet! 8)
"We shall attack across the minefield, under cover of daylight!"
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Post by Rob Herrick » Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:57 am

I agree with MarshalNey. Cross the pond already! We'd like a RtE weekender in American too!
With Gen'l Custer Down in Mexico: Yes, one of the goals is to see how many times one can get him killed.
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Post by barr7430 » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:44 am

Pond Hopping will, I am sure, figure at some point!

As for intensity, you've got to care to be intense therefore I have no problems with a bit of intensity from players.. shows they are enjoying it! 8)
Last edited by barr7430 on Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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A question on tactics...

Post by barr7430 » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:19 am

Dave and I have been deep in the post match debrief and had some questions about the overall Russain battle plan..

1. Why did the Russians not reinforce a forward defence of the Semenovskoyie Stream and force the French to fight their way across? It seemed the Jager regiments (6 off them plus the skirmishing Cossacks) put up token resistance and pulled back. We thought that keeping the French disordered and crossing that embuggerance would have caused huge traffic jams and prevented their artillery from deploying in support.

2. Why was the Jager brigade from the 26th Division kept in reserve behind the right rear of the Raevski for so long? It could have inhibited Bill's (D'Sivray's Brigade) command from progressing?

3. Why did the French choose to hit the 2nd brigade of the 26th Division with the Grande Battery in the initial bombardment? We thought the obvious target was the 2nd Converged Grenadier Division (David Stokes) amidst the Fleches.

We were surprised that the Raevski fell so quickly and puzzled that out (we think) when compared to the monster struggle for the Fleches.

Our logic (some linked to above analysis):

1. Lack of forward defence
2. Targeting of 26th Division by GB thus removing it from play (smart)
3. Inclusion of woods amongst the scrub ground in front of the Raevski which prevented 2 turns of fire from the redoubt on the French. In future versions we will still consider this difficult ground but without the trees giving cover to the French!
4. Split fire rule for the Raevski


Would be interested in players views on overall army plans and tactics..
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obriendavid
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Post by obriendavid » Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:56 pm

Churchill wrote:Barry,
Great explosion markers from David O'Brien in the photo "100 Guns".
Ray.
Thanks Ray! I see some guy called DA has ripped off my ideas and posted an article in the latest W.I. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Cheers
Dave
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Post by toggy » Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:53 pm

The reason we targeted the 26 Division rather than the 2nd Grenadiers was because we felt that would enable us to take the Raevski from the flank, avoiding a costly frontal assault,which it pretty much did.

Also there were just so many units behind the initial Russian deployment it was felt they would still be able to reinforce the Fleches with ease, and taking out the Grenadiers wouldn't make the French attack any easier.

Bob
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Post by Gerryjd » Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:28 pm

A few thoughts from the Russian perspective on the Fleches Table. The other guys can correct me if I've got any of this wrong.

Having rolled the ammo for the artillery in the Fleches, I thought that I had far more than I would get the chance to use. If I recall correctly the North had 7 rounds, the Centre had 5 rounds, the South had 8 rounds and the main fleche had 9 rounds. We also had the " No Refit scenario rule" up our sleeve.

The plan was to get the Jaeger units out the road so that the artillery could open fire on the French as soon as they were sighted and that would get the " fire on a new target" modifier out of the road before they dipped down out of sight into the stream. It also meant that when the units reappeared they would get the full force of the artillery. The Combined Grenadiers were to position themselves between the Fleches as additional protection and then DI's Grenadiers were positioned on the hill either as cover if things went pearshaped or to enable them to come rolling down the hill when we counterattacked :lol: Tam's brigade from the 27th Division was similarly positioned to push through the centre as a counterattacking force, which he did quite successfully( IMHO).

Also by firing on the French from early doors, we thought that we could entice them to set themselves up to attack the Fleches after the artillery had fired 4 rounds and then catch them by surprise when they did attack by still being able to fire off our artillery as well, and then counter attack with our reserves( Tam and DI)

As it was DI's position became even more crucial after the GB had done it's work on Alan's 26th Division as it meant he was covering the flank of the main Fleche. David's combined Grenadiers didn't quite get into position in time( lack of MP's) before the French came after the Fleches. After that it all swung to and fro with us restricted in how we committed our reserves due to MP's and also being aware of what was happening on the other table.

Anyway that was how I saw it, but anybody is welcome to disagree :D .

Jim,

I just got very lucky with my dice, it'll be somebody else's turn next time!!

In fact , to borrow somebody elses phrase sort of " It was my best wargaming dicethrowing.......EVER!!!" :D :D
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Post by barr7430 » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:39 pm

All sounds ' sound' Gerry thanks.

The Russians did well there is no doubt about that.
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Post by valleyboy » Fri Mar 04, 2011 7:16 am

Sounds excellent
I just have to make it over for one of these games
will you be at Salute Barry?
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Post by barr7430 » Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:43 am

Yes, only decided this week. I am puttin on a Republic to Empire Peninsular game using the 'San Cristobal' terrain of a coulpe of years back. Victrix figures..
"If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are probably right"

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Post by 18th Century Guy » Fri Mar 04, 2011 11:37 pm

Any photos of the players after such a game? I'd love to see if they were exhausted or elated! Who were the players?
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Post by barr7430 » Fri Mar 04, 2011 11:56 pm

Believe it or not I just deleted a whole bunch of those as nobody ever asks to see the players.. maybe I have one or two left I'll look :oops:

The Russians:
Simon Breen
Gerry Donahoe
David Imrie
Alan Cuggy
Simon Davidson
David Stokes
Tam Nish

The French
Bob Talbot
Callum Dunn
Bill Robertson
Tom Hutchinson
Jim Wallace
Jim O'Neill
Dave Cooper
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Post by Qurchi Bashi » Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:55 pm

18th Century Guy wrote:Any photos of the players after such a game? I'd love to see if they were exhausted or elated! Who were the players?
I have posted some photos from the game on my website. I took several photos of players during the game, since other people had better equipment for taking close-ups of figures.

http://www.stokesinternet.com/games/Borodino/

Sorry, I didn't learn everyone's names, especially those on the other table.

-David Stokes
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barr7430
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Post by barr7430 » Sat Mar 05, 2011 6:07 pm

Yup looks like almost the entire Rogues Gallery is their except Mr O'Brien... where is he lurking??? :shock:
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