Drum Roll.........Napoleonics!

 This was a momentous event for me personally. This was the first Napoleonic gaming, just over two years after the digger started the project off by digging out the foundations for the Situation Room.
The project is far from complete, I doubt it will ever be!
I'll be doing at least three posts on the games that were played last week. We used lots of figures with new terrain and new rules which I hope to eventually publish. Without further delay, I've chosen to start with the fictional battle of Wachau, Leipzig suburb areas in 1813. The armies were French and Austrian.
As an aside, one area that was short of the finished article, was allied cavalry. There was none! So some plucky French types had to pretend and what a pretence they displayed! Picture 1 shows the French left flank with the major suburb area, made up of 4 villages, in the centre background.

The next picture shows the same portion of the front line from the French right flank.

The battlefield became affectionately named the Maginot line as it was difficult to breach. But that was in the game design. I had planned starting with games using Standard Grand Manner Rules, but after a day game to get back into things, everyone wanted to try the new rules. We did not regret doing so!
The next set of pictures are purely to show off some of the figures and the size of the units and overall scale.

This shows a 2 Regiment Brigade of Light cavalry in the foreground. In the background is a Division of Austrian infantry supported to their front by 2 Brigades of Light cavalry of 4 regiments in total.

This is a closer shot of the Austrian infantry Division above. It consists of 8 Battalions, a gun battery and some skirmishers. It amounts to over 1,000 figs alone. We had 16 such sized formations on table for this game.

This shows an Austrian attack on the French right flank. There is a French light infantry battalion deployed in a wood and the main defence is centre on the village.

An Austrian battalion in close up. All told, 150 figures. The allies were fielding 70 such battalions.

This is a closer up shot of the French defence on their right. The defence here eventually developed into a counter-attack!

Just because I like it, this is Wachau, the centre of the French defence line. Deployed in it are the French Guard, you are looking at about 10 battalions.

This shows a more general action on the French left flank where enemy divisions have come to grips in the open terrain. In the new rules, melees can be deadly affairs. The ultimate result in this area was a French victory but you can already see the Austrians bringing up cavalry to stop any further French advance.

A more general view of the action across the front. Everyone thinks the scale looks great with the terrain being used. They really like the "mass" feel of all the figures. The rules also worked well on their first outing. Most mechanics worked, tweaking as we say should see them develop nicely.

And lastly, the guys playing. We're short Bryan, he could only make a day. But we had a great time. This post is a bit of a ramble, all to do with the excitement of getting something posted. As a result, I've jumped all over the place!!! I have many more pictures and another game and so I will take more deliberate time on the next posts. I'll also go through a credit list of who supplied what. So, I'll let you slaver over this for a day or so before I post again!