Dresden AAR

 Is this a picture of the Austrian line advancing, or retreating? Read on to learn...

My friend, Jerry, was in town recently. He and I started playing Napoleonic miniatures in 1972. Our most recent game, in which my son, Brady, also played, was a scaled down version of Dresden. I've been wanting to play a Dresden scenario for a while, but hadn't been able to pull a big game together.
For this game I cut down the armies for both sides; one French player, me, one Russian player, Jerry, and Brady played the Austrians.
The game was set up as a desperate French defense. It worked well. 

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Dresden

 

One of the French redoubts

Russian Cavalry division

Austrian Infantry division supported by a cavalry division

I seen confused by the scenario design. How am I supposed to hold off these overwhelming odds?

 This turned out to be one of the closest games in which I have played. On the final turn, my final die roll decided the game.
The Russians were on the Allied right, the Austrians were their left. Both wings closed in on me from turn one. I received a Guard division as reinforcements and threw them into an attack immediately against the Russians. The Austrians pushed their artillery up to point blank range and started an assault against one of my redoubts. While that position held out, I attempted to deal with the Russians.

The French Cavalry attempt to defeat the Russians.

The Allied line pushes forward

 After 12 turns of furious fighting, the Allies made it to the outskirts of Dresden. By this point, every infantry division on the table was exhausted or collapsed. Volley and Bayonet used exhaustion and collapse to show the effects of combat on divisions. Once a division reaches it's exhaustion level, normally 50% casualties, the owning player rolls for collapse. To avoid collapse, the player must roll higher on one D6 than the number of casualties suffered by that division during the current player turn. I failed my final collapse roll and my last division retreated.

On to the 1814 battles...

Retreat From Erfurt

We recently gathered at my place for another Volley and Bayonet game; this one a hypothetical battle following Leipzig. War Artizan from the Miniatures Page posted an AAR and I decided to take his idea and run with it.
This battle assumes that the Allies were able to coordinate their pursuit of the French and cut their line of retreat. The battered French aremy must push through the Allies and get Napoleon off the table.
The French corps have all been reduced to divisions. Two corps have been left off the table; detached for one reason or another. The Allies start with one Austrian Corps on the table in a blocking position and two Prussian and two Russian Corps arriving as reinforcements from random roads. The Alloed Corps have all been reduced by 50% from their pre-Leipzig numbers.

The French advance from the top of the picture to the bottom. Prussians and Russians are moving on from the left.


This shows the farthest French advance, still two feet from the edge of the table. Although the French moved well, the Allies were able to close in on the French right and put two strong lines of troops in front of them. One Austrian brigade defended against every attack and didn't move back an inch, (M4 poorly trained at that.) In the end, the Allies held and the French retreat ended.


It was a table full of troops. Perhaps too many. But with seven players, everyone needs 8-12 stands to push.