Take Tellnitz Black Powder AAR

[Flynn]

So last Sunday, desiring an outing to air the uniforms of our miniature Napoleonic armies, we found Sparker's "Take Telnitz" scenario at http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/take-tellnitz.html#comment-form and decided to use that to play it out ourselves and see what happened.  There were 6 of us, three two a side.  The Coalition forces of Austrian and Russians were this time aided by my small brigade of the British Expeditionary Force, and we needed to take the town from the French, as well as throw infantry over the river, before French re-enforcements closed the window of opportunity.

At the opening of the battle, the Russians drove striaght on to the town, but still leaving a lane of fire for the B.E.F's cannon to soften up the forces waiting to contest the town.  Some French Voltigeurs popped up in the vinyard on the slops of the hill, but were quickly swept aside in a short but sharp fight.  This allowed Russian cannon to slowly make their way to the hill commanding the town.


The next wave were the Austrians marching in:

The French deployed a battery of cannon in support of the city, hurting the stoic Russian infantry but their steadyness kept them coming on.  This proved to be a mistake, as flanking Russian cavalry quickly ran down half the guns, which had been spaced out just far enough to allow them to be engaged one at a time, then sweeping around to take the other guns from the rear.  

But all was not well for the Coalition, as while the Russian guard was first into the town, they broke in the street fighting there.  It would be up to less illustrious units to carry the battle forward.
Meanwhile, from the far side of the town French re-enforcements were on their way:

From farther away you can see the overview of the battlefield: French re-enforcements streaming over both bridges from the right, and Coalition forces converging from the left.


While Austrian and Russian forces funnled into the town which was rapidly becoming a meat grinder, it was up to the valiant B.E.F. to block the nearby bridge.  Nothing could be done about the far bridge, whose stream of re-enforcements would keep the town fight hot for the forseeable future.  French cavalry on the town's other flank tried to dislodge the Highlanders from their end of the bridge, but they formed square and the frustrated French wheeled back.  Horse artillery quickly deployed facing French Re-enforcements and very luckily disordered the leading squadron of cavalry as they were crossing the bridge, frustrating the converging columns which were bottled up behind them.

And the view from the oncoming French:


This is where we had to call things for time, on turn 8 out of 12.  It was clear that while in terms of casualties, the coalition were doing well, strategically things were not looking good: it was clearly going to take a long time to clear the town, and only a few turns were left.  We also failed to get infantry over the river, which I confess should have been my task.  I should have seized the bridgehead for us to have much hope of getting that necessary victory condition, instead I used precious time to support the main attack on the town.