Banging around in Bavaria

  On Sunday 12/6/16 my local group pulled together to play a simply megagame of Blucher. We only had 6 hours of play which included setting up, explaining the basics of the rules to 10 out of 14 players who had never played Blucher before and giving of orders to corps commanders by the two CiC's.   We played a battle on a front of some 15 kilometers spread over 3 6x4 tables. 6 French corps including the guard faced off against 6 Austrian corps.  The game was an absolute blast. We had massive casualties but only in the north did any corps break .

      In the North the Austrians tried to cover too great a frontage and were blasted away and pursued from the table but too late in the day to move south onto the other table.
                            In the centre the two sides bled each other dry but neither could really take the villages required for victory but the Austrians were heard to give a sigh of relief when dusk fell. The number of brigades on 2 or 3 elan was unbelieveable.
                           The south turned out to be a real test of wills with two Austrian corps facing off initially against 2 French corps. It was this area that held 7 out of 14 victory points and both sides had set their sights on taking them. The french later threw in the guard while in the late afternoon the Austrians committed their grenadier/heavy cavalry corps here as well. Very exciting.

The OOB's were as follows

Austrian Army      (720)                                      131

1st Corps    Bellegarde  7att bats

Hvy art x 1

Avant Garde x 2

Div Von Ulm

                      3 x vet inf

Div Von Vogelsang

                      3 x vet inf

                      1 x dragoon

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2nd Corps    Kalowrat  7att bats                         125

Heavy Art x 1

Avant garde x 2

Hussars x 1

Div Von Treufels

               3 x vet inf

Div Von Brady

              3 x vet inf

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Res Corps    Liechtenstein 4att bats                          111

Horse art x 1

Cuirassiers Von lederer x 1

Cuirassiers von siegenthal x 1

Div Rohan

             4 x grenadiers

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4th Corps    Von Rosenberg  4 att bats                   111

Heavy Art x 1

Avant garde x 1

Div Somariva

               3 x vet inf

               1 x uhlans

Iv Hohenloe

              3 x vet inf

              1 x light horse

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3rd Corps    Hohenzollern-Hechingen  4 att bats    121

Heavy Art x 1

Avant garde x 2

Hussars x 1

Div St Julien

               4 x vet inf

Div Lusignan

              3 x vet inf

5^thCorps    Archduke Ludwig  4att bats           121

Heavy Art x 1

Avant garde x 2

Div Reuss-plauen

              3 x vet inf

              1 x hussars  

Div Von Lindenau

              4 x vet inf

French Army      (787)                                    

 Imperial Guard    Curial  3 att bats     160

Hvy art x 1

Horse art x 1

Old  Guard x 1

Guard inf  x 2

Young guard x 1

Gd Hvy cav x 2

Gd Light Cav x 2

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VIIth Bavarian  Corps    Levebvre  6att bats                         170

Hvy art x 1

Horse art x 1

Div Crown Prince Ludwig

         Line inf x 3

         Light cav x 1 

Div Von Wrede

         Line inf x 4

         Light cav x 1 

Div Deroy

         Line inf x 3

         Light cav x 1 

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IVth Corps    Massena 11 att bats                          188

Hvy art x 1

Div Molitor

         Line inf x 4

Div Le Grand

         Line inf x 4

Div Carra St cyr

         Line inf  x 4

Div Marulaz

         Light cav x 2 

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VIIIth Corps    Vandamme  3 att bats                   75

Heavy Art x 1

Line Inf x 4

Light cav x 2

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IInd Corps    Lannes 5 bats                          115

Hvy art x 1

Div Claperede

         Line inf x 4

Div Tharreau

         Line inf x 4

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Res cavalry  Corps    Bessiers                         69

Horse art x 1

          Cuirassiers x 2

          Carabiniers x 2    

We had little time for photgraphs but I do have a few impressions of how the day went. 

To the left is a view from north to south across the battlefield and to the right from South to North. A virgin view of peaceful rolling agricultural land.

Two views for North to south with the battle in full swing.

A close progression of events in the north . The French pinned the right flank and then swept round the Northern flank in overwhelming strength

 These two shots show the closing moments before the Austrians were swept from the fields.

 The centre was a battle of various surges and could have gone either way

The North was a very messy affair and I have very few pictures. I believe these were taken before either reserve was committed.





In the photo to the right you can see the advance of the Imperial Guard




       In closing I have to say I would probably try something as big as this again but not just yet....