The Napoleonic War, General de Brigade, 28mm

This Saturday we all headed north to Kirriemuir, in north-east Scotland. The town is host to Targe, a small but enjoyable wargames show, which marks the end of the annual wargames calendar. Our Edinburgh club put on two 28mm games – “Toulgas 1918” (Russian Civil War), which pitched Americans against Bolsheviks, and Arcola 1796 (French Revolutionary War), which saw the young Napoleon Bonaparte charging over the famous bridge! Of the two, the RCW game had the better terrain, while the Italian affair was the more spectacular of the two. We even managed to clean up on the prizes, winning the best demo game for Tourgas and a runner’s up award for Arcola. All in all it was a good day for the Edinburgh club. In the Arcola game, Chris Henry supplied the French, and built the terrain, while I supplied the Austrians, the trees and the buildings. The buildings were commercially built, then heavily modified, while the trees came from a florist – grass stalks that had been stuck into bases, then sprayed green. Chris’ terrain was a labour of love, but the ditch of the river was a little deep, largely because that was the size of the polystyrene sheeting he used to make the banks.The marches to the west of the bridge and a few of the fields to the east were simply laid on, then blended into the table with flock. The real problem though, lay with the river. Chris’ resin hadn’t dried, so throughout the day the river kept on flowing slightly, towards the downstream table edge! As this was at a wargame show we played the game in real time – which meant that the whole refight took the best part of the day, and reinforcements and flanking columns came on when they did historically. Chris’ French launched no fewer than five attempts to cross the bridge, each of which was repulsed, some with heavy losses. The most successful of these  – led by Bonaparte himself – actually reached the muzzles of the Austrian guns, only to fail to charge home at the critical moment.Instead it “faltered”, and was sliced and diced by musketry and canister. Amazingly, Bonaparte survived the failed charge, and made it back off the bridge with the routing remnants of his assault column. Earlier in the day, General Massena had been wounded trying the same thing, so clearly frontal attacks over the bridge were a damned dangerous proposition. So, just as he did in the real battle, General Bonaparte resorted to “Plan B.” This involved a crossing further downstream, so at 3pm a large French demi-brigade arrived on the Austrian bank of the river, and rolled up the Austrian defences as far as the bridge. Unfortunately that was when we had to pack up, but the French were poised for a final bridge assault, this time supported by French troops on the Austrian flank.Historically it worked – but we never did find out if the wargame could repeat history. Still, it was clear that the now heavily outnumbered Austrians were on the ropes, and only a miracle would prevent them withdrawing from the field.  Despite not quite finishing the game we had a great day out. The table attracted a lot of interest, and people were drawn by the unusual period – not really the Napoleonic Wars at all, but their Revolutionary precursor.

Tags: General de Brigade