Quatre Bras(ish) Nap HITS Mini-event: 16 May 19:30 British Time

To give some of us a last chance to get our commands in order before the big event on Saturday (and the bigger event on Monday!) some of us are planning to get together on Thursday evening and give our men some practice at obeying our inspired tactical orders.

A little bit earlier than usual as requested, it will be at:

1930 BST, 1830 GMT, 1430 EST, 1330 CST, 1230 MST & 1130 PST

So far it's looking like being a tidy little affair, with Ike, Digby, Leffe and myself expressing interest.

Usual gig with meeting on the HITS teamspeak a good 15 minutes beforehand, and we'll see where we go from there.

Quatre Bras reference is just down to it being two days prior to the bigger, better known Napoleonic event on the 18th.

Yes, count me in by all means. I will be on the TS server close to 1400 and will attempt to assign permissions to permit moving folks around on the TS server. I do not expect good results on that, however, as my understanding of the process is evidently flawed.

In case it's helpful:

Permissions
Advanced Permissions

Walkthroughs

Barring any changes in work commitments I should be able to saddle up.

Thank you, Khryses!

I have granted members of the Guest group power to move another to another channel. I think I have granted the whisper power to them as well. We'll see tomorrow afternoon - my time.

Khryses wrote:...and the bigger event on Monday!...

Ok, what have I missed this time?

Peninsula Campaign kickoff - or that's when the orders for Turn 1 are ideally to be in by anyway

Looks like I can make this one too.

Martin (J)

Khryses wrote:Peninsula Campaign kickoff - or that's when the orders for Turn 1 are ideally to be in by anyway

Monday was the START of your time to get orders in, not th edate I actually need them in by - I can't make that date!

We still have a couple of players needing orders from higher up too, though if that deadline is missed it isn't a big problem, no war has begun like a footblal match with both sides being ready when the starting whistle is blown!

Mr. Digby wrote:

Khryses wrote:Peninsula Campaign kickoff - or that's when the orders for Turn 1 are ideally to be in by anyway

Monday was the START of your time to get orders in, not th edate I actually need them in by - I can't make that date!

We still have a couple of players needing orders from higher up too, though if that deadline is missed it isn't a big problem, no war has begun like a footblal match with both sides being ready when the starting whistle is blown!

Oh!

Well...

Are mine alright then, or would you prefer I reformat / clarify / delay them?

No, they're fine. Carry on.

Uncle Billy has been developing a mod to make cavalry behaviour more realistic. He has changed the speeds of this arm and horse arty. He has asked if we would mind giving it a try in today's game. The changes are as follows:

1. All walk speeds of all types of cavalry has been increased from 4 to 4.2. Infantry is 4.

2. Gallop speed of Lt Cav changed from 15 to 18, Med. Cav. 15 to 17, Hvy Cav 15-16. Note, infantry is 15 and Horse Art is 18.

3. Speed of the commanders increased so they don't slow down the troops when road marching. Gallop speed increased from 15 to 18.

Only the host will need the file. I'm not sure who the host is, but if folks are happy to try this, let me know and I will send you the file and installation instructions.

Martin (J)

This feels more realistic - I'm happy to give it a try, although I won't be hosting. If you send it my way though, will it also take effect in sandbox games?

Sounds good. I was wondering if we could increase the speed of horse artillery.

Khryses wrote:This feels more realistic - I'm happy to give it a try, although I won't be hosting. If you send it my way though, will it also take effect in sandbox games?

On its way.

Martin (J)

Mr. Digby wrote:Sounds good. I was wondering if we could increase the speed of horse artillery.

I wonder where is the difference of horse artillery to foot artillery in the OOB? I thought they have the same class type?

The mod sounds good, we should give it a try today. If needed, I can host. But I can only play until 21.30pm UK time on a weekday.

I wonder where is the difference of horse artillery to foot artillery in the OOB? I thought they have the same class type?

They are two different classes. The foot artillery has a walk speed of 4 and fast speed of 12. The fast speed is slower than that of the infantry. The horse arty is 4.2 and 18. It can keep up with the cavalry.

Has anyone given any thought to size of game, map etc? It would be quite nice to print-off the map if one has been decided upon.

Martin (J)

Martin wrote:Has anyone given any thought to size of game, map etc? It would be quite nice to print-off the map if one has been decided upon.

Martin (J)

For tonight? No idea, but I'd enjoy using the Chancellorsville or South Creek ones. Crampton's Gap is interesting too, but really I'm happy with anything.

Yes it would be quite nice to play on a map with buildings again. Haven't done that for a while.

Martin (J)

Was pottering about the Chance maps earlier today and ran into buildings, pigs and incredible fields of trees - lousy Napoleonic ground, at least for arty and cav.

Myself, Khryses, Hayes, Digby, Martin and Leffe7 signed onto the TS server around 1300 CDT/1900 BST and first of all, my efforts on the permissions were fruitful and folks can now move themselves around the rooms on the TS server for private in-game chats.

After the usual, "Oh, Ike, you forgot what??" , the battle began with Austrians being Martin, Digby and Khryses and French Stefan, Ike and Hayes, each with a division. Two foot divisions and one cavalry division per side. Stefan and Martin had the overall commands as well as the cavalry divisions.

I couldn't remember for love nor money how to move the entire division, so had to ask. (I have to thank my fellow players today for their patience and help as well as for their companionship in the game.) About half-way to the objective, I hit the wrong key or probably several wrong keys and got my brigades of infantry and artillery commanders dashing ahead at a gallop and the infantry battalions advancing at the run .. got them all to stop but couldn't regain unified command of the division. Situation: one brigade at the destination - it ran all the way - myself inbetween the two brigades of foot, the artillery quite a ways behind the lead brigade and the second brigade quite a distance behind. Tried everything, but couldn't get them to move as a division. Stefan came up and we went into a private chat room and he patiently walked me through several possible methods, but I ended up having to TC each battalion and gun to get them to move up. Then, I had to gallop forward to try to pull the lead brigade back as General Digby's infantry and Martin's cavalry had taken the opportunity to deploy against my lead brigade and send the cavalry around. To make a long story short, in what must have been the longest ten minutes in the history of the universe, I managed to retrieve my leading brigade, bring up the second brigade and line up the guns. Fortunately, we held the slight ridge that made up the high ground on the battlefield, and that helps of course. Stefan was maneuvering part of his cavalry to screen my disorganized division as it struggled into position. After that, except for a couple of rallys, I left the AI to deal with it. Interestingly, the brigade O/C's took over battlefield command quickly and the regimental O/C's of course were fighting their regiments. The AI seems better than it was when I stopped playing by the way. Finally, the Austrian infantry began to crack and then withdraw and finally route away from my beleaguered division. I was entirely wrapped up in my own difficulties and cannot say much about the course of the rest of the battle. Maybe next time, I won't mess up from the start and will be better able to report on the other parts of the field.

I had a great time, I think we all did. Listening to Martin and Stefan describe the cavalry skirmishes and maneuvering was interesting and a learning experience as well. Everyone had a great time, I believe, and the next one-off battle will be even more fun. Thanks, gentlemen, for a fun game!!

We all had a lot of fun, and successfully ironed out another one or two kinks in our mutual game setups - I may even be able to host one of these days!

In the end we settled on Random 6.3 for our battle, and Stefan kindly set us up in a smaller area of the battlefield with two objectives that - while uncapturable - would help to draw us all in within a reasonable timeframe.

On our side we had one larger division (Digby's), one smaller division (mine) and about 800 light cavalry (Martin's).

During our abbreviated 5-minute planning session, we determined that we were quite close to the objective so Digby would advance on our left to secure the low ridge just NW of the objectives, I would advance to his right to secure the hillock to the NE of the objective and Martin would sweep ahead, recon the objective and screen our advance.

All was going well until we started receiving reports that the French had successfully secured the rise ahead of us, and appeared to have a few thousand men in what appeared to be a pocket division aligned on the top overlooking the objectives, though their guns had not yet come up. To their right was a reasonable body of horse, so we arrayed Martin opposite them and set Digby to roll up the smaller division and presumably a reserve regiment or two behind the crest. When the second French division came into view on our right and started milling in the trees, I decided that I could probably spare the smaller of my two brigades (1000 and 5000 men respectively) and sent them off to seal Digby's victory. When Stefan's horse began to move in that direction, uncovering the French grand battery I sent Martin after the guns, and subsequently there was a spectacularly chaotic cavalry engagement in the center of the field, with four batteries firing into it from one side or the other. With Billy's cavalry enhancements the all-light-cavalry fight moved incredibly fast - so fast that while we later found out both cavalry commanders thought they had lost, I thought Martin had won and proceeded over to support Digby and Digby never saw hide nor hair of an Austrian cavalryman.

As it turned out the French had twice our numbers in cavalry, so while most of those engaged were hors de combat (Martin managed to save and nurse back to health a single squadron) Stefan had another 3 or 4 somewhere else. When I saw Hays come out of the trees and start to head over to support Ike's division (still stubbornly holding on, though I wasn't quite clear on how - or that they'd actually started winning!) I intercepted them with my larger brigade and so began a long attritiony fight against slightly larger numbers - which I seemed on the whole to be winning through sneaky deployment, though it could still well have gone either way.

At one point I turned back to bring up another regiment to throw into the line and spotted French cavalry peeling around my flank. Bear in mind that at this stage I still thought Martin had drubbed the French cavalry and driven them off, so I just took this as a straggler and countermarched back. The French charged and seized a gun from my battery I promptly took it back before it could fire and the French retreated. I moved my infantry back into the fight, keeping one eye on the French horse.

But dear god they move fast! Next I saw of them three full units were pelting down toward me, one peeling off to engage my closest infantry (who I was frantically trying to get back to my battery to form into square) and caught him before he could fully square up. My regiment broke, while the other two squadrons seized my entire battery and turned them against my brigade from behind.

At this point my line collapsed, and while I managed to get four regiments back into fighting order by the time we conceded it was too little, too late.

An incredibly fun, thoroughly educational battle and one in which we were simply outgeneraled, outfought and outmaneuvered.

And I have a whole new respect for Napoleonic cavalry, having now been on the receiving end of a battle they clearly won.

Saturday... will be interesting.

Does anyone else want to take command?

Anyone?

I hate it when I think we've won we actually had our heads handed to us. That sounded like quite the chaotic fight.

My vote still goes to Digby for command Saturday.

That cavalry battle was a lot of fun, and very chaotic. I think both of us thought we had lost because we each had 3 out of 4 squadrons routed, and didn't realise how much the enemy had suffered too. On a number of occasions one squadron triumphed and was then charged and routed in its turn by a fresh enemy squadron. Both Stephan and I were close up with our troopers, and feared for our lives as at times we seemed to have enemy on all sides.

I think it was the most exciting, swirling cavalry fight I've been in, and it all seemed pretty authentic to me.

I think we were happy with your mod Uncle Billy. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Martin (J)