The Battle of Zellerode - A Blucher AAR

After a long hiatus from gaming I managed to get a solo game of Blucher in this week. The game includes a couple of debuts in my collection. The first of my new toys are my Prussian 6mm minis from Commission Figurines . If you have not seen any of these minis and you game Napoleonics in 6mm go and buy them now! They are made from MDF so are very inexpensive and they look superb. The owner, Walt, is a joy to do business with, I highly recommend these figures! 

My next acquisition was via ebay and is a set of 75+ Geo-Hex terrain pieces. I didn't really get a super great deal due to some last minute bidding that drove up the price, but I am pleased with the purchase. It has made my table more aethetically pleasing and given me more options when it comes to hills. 

So, now the game...I used Sharnhorst to set up the battle which was in Northern Germany 1813-14. The battle of Zellerode (add your own umlauts) initial deployment is shown on the map below along with each army breakdown by points. 

French Army - 299 pts
Organization	Unit/Personality	Points	Elan	Traits
Subcommander
	Drout	5	N/A	Artillery
I Corps
	Veteran Inf/Art	14	6	Skrm
	Veteran Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Light Cav	7	5
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
		75
II Corps
	Veteran Inf/Art	14	6	Skrm
	Veteran Allied Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Veteran Allied Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Veteran Allied Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Light Cav	7	5
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
		90
III Corps
	Veteran Inf/Art	14	6	Skrm
	Veteran Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Veteran Inf	12	6	Skrm
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Conscript Inf	9	5	Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
	Light Cav	7	5
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
		69
Cavalry Corps
	Light Cav	7	5
	Light Cav	7	5
	Allied Cavalry	7	5
	Dragoons	10	6
	Dragoons	10	6
	Heavy Cav	10	6
	Horse Art Btty	9	N/A
		53
Break Point - 9
	Total	299

The French army is built for attacking with a large amount of infantry and a powerful cavalry corps.

Prussian Army - 299 pts
Organization	Unit/Personality	Points	Elan	Traits
CinC	Blucher	30		Legend, Mobile
Subcommander	von Roder	10		Cavalry, Inspiring
I Corps
	Elite Infantry	18	7	Skrm, Shock, Steadfast
	Elite Infantry	18	7	Skrm, Shock, Steadfast
	Line/Art	14	6	Skrm
	Line	12	6	Skrm
	Light Cav	10	6
	Heavy Art Btty	9
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
		87
II Corps
	Line	12	6	Skrm
	Line/Art	14	6	Skrm
	Reserve	10	6
	Reserve	10	6
	Light Cav	10	6
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
	Heavy Art Btty	9
		71
III Corps
	Line	12	6	Skrm
	LIne	12	6	Skrm
	Reserve	10	6
	Landwehr	6	5	Conscrpt
	Landwehr	6	5	Conscrpt
	Light Cav	10	6
	Foot Art Btty	6	N/A
		62
Cavalry Corps
	Light Cav	10	6
	Light Cav	10	6
	Light Cav	10	6
	Horse Art Btty	9	N/A
		39
Break Point - 10
	Total	299

The Prussian army is a defensive force with lots of artillery but a relatively weak cavalry arm.

In the setup phase the Prussians chose to place a road connecting the left and right flank (it did not come into play) and a hill on their right (it also did not affect the battle). The French added a hill on the left and a road on their side (both features played minor roles in the battle). 

Pictured below is the inital setup for both forces, the Prussians on the left and French on the Right. The French deployment suffered as a result of the Sharnhorst deployment, and as you will see the lack of coordination between the flanks will be the French army's downfall. 

The view from the French left flank

The French cavalry in the center

The French right

Prussian cavalry

Prussian Center

View down the French line of battle

And the Prussian

Opening moves...the Prussian I corps arrives on turn 2! (Edit: Should be turn 4, the Prussians second turn. Thanks Robert for pointing out the discrepency)

Opening moves on the French right...

The French cavalry deploy to counter the Prussian reinforcments

The Prussian III corps arrives on turn 6! Bad luck for the French.

                                       

The French counter attack on the Prussian right

Overhead view of the French attack

The French are stopped cold on the Prussian left

The French reinforcements finally arrive

The Prussian right holds

Close to the action!

The French II corps has "the slows"

The French redouble their efforts to break the Prussian right

The II corps finally enters the fray

The Prussian cavalry is driven off

The French army's last hope is to break the Prussian left

But command and control has broken down

This shot shows how the battle is really two separate actions in which the French were never able to coordinate to use their superior numbers to an advantage.

Shot of my MDF Landwehr

Prussian counter attack on the left...

...and on the right

The French attack stalls under the weight of the Prussian counter attack

The French withdraw with heavy casualties, the battle ends on turn 25.

The French end up losing 10 broken units and the Prussians 4. Using a highly "scientific" method that consists of total lost elan and educated guesstimating I put losses between 15-20,000 French and 10-12,000  Prussian.

The French really lost this battle for two reason 1) The early arrival of the Prussian reinforcements and B. poor initial deployment due to bad Scharnhorst-ing

I had a good time with this battle and it was nice to get my new toys on the table. I am still painting my Prussians and I have an entire Russian force waiting for paint as well, I hope to do Dennewitz eventually when I get through the mountain of MDF (seriously, go buy Commission Figurines figures!).

This is Not a Test: Pest Control Part II

My name is Hugh Jass and I am a businessman...I run the most profitable construction company in the Tri-State Wasteland. and jus' so you know, that ain't no mean feat! Specially considering that me an my whole crew are muties. 

It's hard out here for a mutant. 

Now, I didn't ask to be a mutant, but I sure as hell ain't gonna wallow in self-pity jus' cause I am one. I don't like to blow my own horns...but who else would have seen the potential for profit in being a mutant? Really, I am a genius... cause rebuilding out here is not like it was in the olden days. You got to deal with rad sickness, rad zombies, rad roaches, and all manner of nasty critters. Then you got the raiders who are out to rob you blind and the tribals who are protectin' their "sacred ruins." Hell, the peacekeepers shoot first and ask questions later if you are not in a "safe" zone. So I asked myself, "who better to rebuild out here than us?" I mean, radiation? No problem! And we can damn sure take care of ourselves in a fight! Then when the time comes nobody can weild a hammer or four like a mutie! 

It has taken 10 long years but I am on top of the heap...everybody calls the Hugh Jass Construction Company, mutant and norm alike. 

And now? Here we are, in the middle of BFE, and some pissant raider band, too stupid to know who they are dealing with, thinks they are going to take my hard earned Barter Script...well they are damn sure in for a wake up call today! Nobody fraks with Hugh Jass!

The board setup and scenario where outlined in part I, I summarized and reviewed the rules in the last entry, so...the following is how the game itself played out.

Assault rifle wielding mutant, Seymour Butts, takes cover behind a building as the rad zombies start pouring out of the ruins

Mongo (a big, dumb melee mutant) Mike Rotch charges straight into the zombie horde

Spanky XXVIII and his grenadier, Stymie,  advance towards a rad zombie nest while..

...His second in command, Alf Alfa Omega, holds the left against a zombie wave

Alf Alfa gets some backup from Butch

Mike Rotch fells two zombies but is quickly surrounded by more

Alf Alfa lays the zombies low but has his gun jam in the process, and more zombies are on the way!

The Mutant right is in trouble as both Ben Dover and Seymour Butts' weapons jam and the zombies just keep coming

Spanky has out distanced his troops in his enthusiasm to close with the enemy

While Alf Alfa has his hands full on the left

Seymour goes down, leaving the mutant right wide open

Ben Dover is quickly overwhelmed

Mike lays the zombies low and heads for Spanky

even more zombie hordes attack Alf Afla so Dorothy moves up in support

Ben Dover goes down while Al Coholic's sniper rifle is out of ammo. Hopefully Oliver Klousoff and his minigun can hold back the horde!

Hugh Jass sneaks around the corner and mows down Spanky in a hail of bullets!

While Spanky is bleeding out, Alf Alfa is fighting for his life!

As more zombies come down the street

Spanky's backup show up too late!

Oliver Klousoff falls to the zombies, things look bleak for the mutants

Mike Crotch is wounded but still on a rampage

Hugh comes to try and save Al...

Al is down but not out!

Mike takes out the zombie nest as Buckwheat charges him

Butch is taken down at the last minute...time reached, game over

A combination of zombie kills, the destruction of the nest, and taking out Spanky gives the mutants a costly win...

Stay tuned for my thoughts on how the game played out and an explanation of the post-game and campaign phase in Part III of the AAR