Germany 1813.

 Following the sucess of John's Volley and Bayonet game, I thought we should test the rules again, but this time with my old 6mm Napoleonic armies. They havent seen the light of day for several years now and a lot of the French and Austrian armies were rebased for Blucher.

 I still have very large Russian, Prussian, Swedish, and Britsih armies based for Volley and Bayonet so I thought it would be nice to fight a battle from the 1813 campaign on the plains of Germany using what French allies I still had based for the rules.
                                     
 I discovered I had more than I expected and 'found' that various French allied corps were still intact so much so that the original set up I did for our game contained far to many troops. I think there was something like 8 corps facing 9 allied corps with many still in their boxes. Yikes!!!

 After John pointed this out, we cut the numbers so that I commanded several French and allied corps against 3 Russian, 2 Prussian and 1 Swedish corps. Unfortunately one of my corps was the poor Neapolitans! backed up by the Army of Italy and Groucy's Dragoon corps.I also had a bit of the French Young Garde for which I had high hopes.

 To make things more interesting I put two rivers into the terrain and some difficult terrain hoping to cause the allies some issues. Sadly it didnt work out that way as the Russian juggernaut plowed across the river after throwing decent scouting throws to find various fords. I had expected that they wouldnt move so quickly towards my small Bavarian corps.The rapid movement caused me to commit the Young Garde cavalry in order to slow the allied progress down.

 Another error, as they took on a disordered and static Russian dragoon division who literally decimated them in one melee! Now that is quite unusual in Volley and Bayonet because normally one can expect your brigades to at least only retire, not be wiped out. I have touched on wargamers personal morale and me losing my beautiful Young Garde cavalry was just such a moment. I was gutted.

 In the centre I had attempted to fool John by digging in what appeared to be a sizeable and well equipped French allied Corps unfortunately made up of poorly trained Neapolitan's strengthened? by their Garde units. Unusually the Swedes sent against them, who are very large brigades simply minced in every sense of the word their way through these reluctant chaps. Again I had to send in the Grade, this time my Italian Garde who did steady the ship but denied me a large part of my reserve.

 My personal morale now hanging by a thread I had a rush of blood and sent in a corps of heavy cavalry led by the Westphalian cuirassier brigades. These managed to burst through John's lines and cause him to rush across his Prussian reserves to stop me attacking the rear of the Russian infantry. A stalemate!

Foolishly believing I had a chance of a victory I committed the Young Garde infantry to apply the coup de grace to his Russian infantry who unfortunately were Russian Grenadier divisions and the match of my troops, if not even better. By the end of the game I had little in the way of reserves left. My infantry in the centre were struggling to hold on, and my Garde were in the wrong place. John very kindly decided it was a bloody draw which I grudgingly accepted [ well I pretended to grudgingly accept]

 My Young Garde cavalry on review with the Emperor, I think it was fair to describe them as all fur coat and no knickers types of troops.
It was nice to get my 6mm armies out for a game even though the battle was a tad too large for two players.I hope we can squeeze in another battle before the end of the year and one where I actually manage to behave in a sensible way and not throw cavalry forward unsupported and not worthy of the title of Garde.