Neil Thomas offered this battle as an example of a small action using his mini battle setting. His rules assumed a 2’x 2′ or 600mm square. So thats board game sized.
His rules say you do not need to rebase. Always a positive these days.
I have a mixture of units – a result of my lock down era painting activity tending to paint what I fancied than worrying about actual armies!
The action is straightforward – the Danes are retreating and use a bottleneck on the key route north towards Jutland. The Danish rearguard are buying time for their main forces to retreat to their last defence line in Schlieswig – the Duppel fortifications.
Their opponent was the geographic “Empire” effectively still the Holy Roman Empire but now really the German Confederation post Waterloo with Austrian and Prussian interference/support.
In this case the Austrians were attacking the rearguard.
The Danish Rearguard
- Infantry Unit A
- Infantry Unit B
- Infantry Unit C
- Infantry Unit D
- Artillery Battery E
The Artillery was Bronze Rifled while the Infantry were all Levy in loose order armed with rifled muskets.
The Danish troops are all deployed in the bottleneck.
The Austrians Attack starting at the river line comprise
- 9th Hussars – Average
- Artillery – 2 batteries both with bronze rifled cannon
Their main forces arrive from move 1 on the main road
- Jaeger Infantry unit – elite, rifled musket, loose order
- Skirmishers – elite, rifled musket
On moves 2 & 3 the following units arrive via the same southern road access
- Infantry Unit 6 – move 2 – average, rifled musket, loose order
- Infantry Unit 7 – move 3 – average, rifled musket, loose order
- Infantry Unit 8 – move 3 – average, rifled musket, loose order
Battle Narrative
With the objective to clear all danish forces from the road (at least 12cm from the road) essentially the Austrians simply went through the Front Door.
They had 10 moves to do it in with a win lose outcome and no draw.
Special Rules as suggested by Neil Thomas were used
- Colonel Muller personal leadership of the Danes means any one unit at the start of any turn can be elite.
- The Danish Artillery were quite ineffectual so get half the nortmal values in defence and attack
- The Austrians fresh from rough handling by the French in 1859 adopt bayonet charges in preference to distance firefights. They stay in column the whole game and can charge without restriction (no unit base quantity advantage required)
Some shots of the action
The stream has no effect on movement except Artillery must use the bridge. The town can be accessed only by Infantry. The lake is impassable to all troops while infantry can move through the wood.
The Danish front line are in line and not moving, supported by more mobile Column units behind. If infantry want to move in Neil Thomas’ rules they must be in column.
Note in this game I chose not to field the woeful Danish Artillery ( i.e. I forgot to place them on the board!)
An Austrian victory seemed to confirm Neil Thomas’ view that history repeats itself with his suggested set up. In his notes he offers several options to up the defence capability of the Danes.
In this case a very narrow Danish Victory suggests a well thought out scenario by Neil Thomas. Generally I have found Neil Thomas scenarios are fun to play because they tend to lead to a lot of action and no quick outcomes. So although asymmetrical in set up they seem to be well balanced games.
Footnote:
The Figures are Irregular Miniatures and Hat for the Danish
Elsewhere in the photographs the regular Austrian Infantry on show are Waterloo1815 1859 Austrians in their white coats – in 1864 it was bitter winter weather so soldiers actually fought in their greatcoats.
Neil Thomas offers the mini game as a quick affair and it certainly was. Lots of enjoyment from a two foot square, scenery, dice and some figures.
The Wargaming Erratic 