The Napoleonic Wars, Over the Hills, 28mm

You really can’t beat a good Napoleonic scrap – and this was one of the best of them. Light all good club-night battles it involved limited forces – just two brigades of infantry and one of cavalry per side. Campbell’s Württemberg division had nine battalions in two brigades, backed up by two regiments of cavalry (one of them being my pink-faced Berg Lancers), and a battery of guns. My own Russians consisted of eight battalions in two brigades, plus the same number of cavalry and artillery, bolstered by a sotnia of Cossacks. That came to 12 units per side – an even contest – and a well-matched one.With Campbell being assisted by Jim, my co-commander Peter led the Russian infantry forward, massing against the left of the enemy line. He sent his two battalions of jaegers forward to capture the centrally-placed village first though – a move that took the Germans a bit by surprise. Their response though, was some devilishly accurate close-range artillery fire, that succeeded in setting part of the wooden village ablaze, and driving the Russians from the buildings. By then though, as the cavalry postured and manoeuvred on the Russian right, the main Russian attack had gone in.This seemed like a battle-winning assault – the Russians had achieved concentration of force, and not counting the jaegers in the village they outnumbered the enemy. Better still, in two cases the Russian assault columns were attacking in pairs, against a single enemy in line. What could go wrong? Well, Peter’s die rolling for a start. In Over the Hills (a really nice set of rules, by the way), you roll D10 for each attacking battalion, and apply modifiers. You then take the best score – and low is good. Peter rolled a “9” and a “10”. Not good. The same happened with his second attack, so that within a turn both Russian spearheads – four battalions were pushed back in disarray. The battle on that flank then evolved into a brutal slugging match, with increasingly spent battalions slugging it out with each other. From an impending russian steamroller victory, it looked like the Germans had the upper hand, and then it changed back in favour of the Russians, as a Jaeger unit broke. the second one rallied and charged the russian flank though, and victory again see-sawed in favour of the Germans. Finally the jaegers in the village came out, catching and destroying one Wurttemberg battalion in a flank attack – but eventually they too were either routed or left shaken and good for virtually nothing. It was a real hum-dinger of a fight- a real wargaming classic – but both sides were shattered in the process.Over on the Russian left an initial cavalry skirmish went in the Germans’ favour, as the Wurttemberg chevaux legers pushed back the Russian ulhans. The German advanced stalled though, and the Russian gun battery did the rest. It pounded the chevaux legers, allowing the Russian hussars to steam in when the Germans were unable to counter-attack, thanks to being shaken. The hussars swept the chevaux legers from the field, and the following turn they did the same with the Lancers of Berg, thanks to support from the guns and that sotnia of cossacks who had done nothing all game but hide in a wood. So, on the Russian left flank Campbell had three battalions of fresh infantry, but his cavalry was destroyed. Worse, when he formed square the Russian guns began pounding his battalions. That’s where we ended the game – with both sides claiming to have snatched victory in the final moments. In fact, both sides had lost five units apiece – five Russian infantry battalions, and three Wurttemberg ones, plus all their cavalry. We therefore declared the game a hard-fought draw, and packed our toys away, feeling enthused by what all four of us regarded as a jolly good game. That was the second game with Over the Hills, and we’re really getting to grips with it – a nice system, and a pleasant change from the norm.

Tags: Over the Hills