211 Borodino - Village of Borodino (7 September 1812)

211 Borodino - Village of Borodino (7 September 1812)

Date should be 7 September 1812
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino
www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/museums/files/Borodino.asp

French Commander: Eugene
Command Cards = 5

My French brought up the infantry in the centre and took both the village hexes of Borodino, but this cost them their Young Guard Unit and the Commander in that sector. The Russians brought up their Grenadier units and recaptured the village. After this the French were hardly able to activate in the leaderless centre, the cards just wouldn't come. I was obliged to attack on the flanks, mainly down the left which led to some success but Russian defence was stubborn. At 6-6 the Russian Grenadiers sallied out of Borodino to finish the game by eliminating the French artillery, which had been dormant for the latter part of the game. Very tight finish, a good scenario.

Grouchy eliminated the threat to the French left. Subsequently Eugene attacked the right. The town, garrisoned by elite troops was avoided until the end was in sight. French win 7-3.

As Evert and I work our way through the Russian expansion we have reached this scenario. For our first game, I play the Russians. This means that my first job is the Mother Russia roll. This allowed me to add an extra block to the Light and Line infantry centre-left, the artillery centre-right and one Light infantry on the right. (I'm using left and right as shown in the picture - and on Vassal, where we played - rather than from either army's viewpoint.)

As the Russian cavalry crossed the river and moved towards the woods on the left, French infantry charged Borodino in the centre. The Russian Guards (Light infantry) holding the town took casualties, but fought back. {A "Bayonet Charge" from Evert gets the battle off to a rousing start.}

The French continued to attack the town, but the Guards eliminated one French Line unit and repelled the others. {This takes the score to 2:0 as I already have a banner for holding the town.}

The French remained in range of the town, however, and fire from the Light infantry finished off one of the Russian Guard units. {2:1}

The Russian horse had been trying to outflank the French on the left and now pounced on the French infantry that had come off the hills. The Cossacks took a beating {but don't trouble the scorer}, but removed one Light infantry while a Line infantry formed square against the Light cavalry. {3:1}

A move by French Light infantry crossing the river into the woods on the right was countered by Russian Lights and the battered unit retired again while Line infantry advanced to engage the Russians.

On the left, the Russian Light cavalry retired from a French Line relieving the square, to the accompaniment of musket fire on the right. The Light cavalry returned to the fray with support from the Heavies under General Uvarov, putting the second French Line into square.

Gen Grouchy led the French Heavy cavalry into the fight on the left, eliminating the Russian Light horsemen and engaging the Heavies. {Evert got lucky with his dice - helped by the "Leadership" card he played and it's 3:2.}

Advancing Russian infantry opened fire on the Heavy cavalry, killing Grouchy, while Russian Grenadiers arrived in Borodino to bolster the remaining Guards. {4:2 and history is altered, much to Evert's dismay!}

The fighting continued on the left as the Russian infantry forced the demoralised French Heavies to retreat and eliminated one of the squares. In the centre, Russian Grenadiers advanced out of the town and removed the French Light infantry that had been shooting at them. {6:2}

The Russian Heavy cavalry pursued their counterparts over the hills on the centre-left and finished them off to complete the Russian victory. {A lucky die roll takes the score to 7:2.}

Well, that was my best result for a while and a resounding Russian victory - we don't have many of those. I did get lucky a couple of times, which always helps. The re-match will have to wait a few weeks, though, as Evert's off on holiday.

playing as the russians the french opened by bomabarding the villlage of borodino and then atttacking with inf i then reinforced with grenadiers and then attcked the frnch righ with light inf

Evert's return from holiday (and subsequent recovery from jet lag!) meant it was time for our return match. It was Evert's turn to play the Russians and thus start with the Mother Russia roll. This allowed him to add an extra block to the Artillery and Line infantry on the hills centre-right and the Line Infantry on the hills left of centre. (I'm using left and right as shown in the picture, rather than from either army's viewpoint.)

The opening French bombardment eliminated one of the Guards holding Borodino village, so the other retreated to shelter behind the buildings. Russian Light infantry occupied Zakartis village on the left and moved into the woods on the right. {A "Bombard" card takes the score to 1:0 as the Russians lose the banner for holding Borodino.}

General Eugene seized the chance to rush forward and occupy Borodino with Line infantry backed by the Young Guard. {"La Grande Manoeuvre" is such an entertaining card.}

The Russians pushed forward on the right, shrugging off the loss of a full strength Line infantry to the muskets of the Young Guard only to lose a second as the French right advanced to counter this move. {4:0}

Fighting in the woods on the right continued to no great effect while the Russian cavalry trotted across the river on the left and eliminated the French Light infantry in the woods. {Lucky dice for Evert's Cossacks and it's 4:1.}

French Heavy cavalry swung right from the centre to remove the Russian Light horsemen backing up the infantry and the French infantry in Borodino finished off the second Russian Guards unit only for the Young Guard to fall to the Russian guns and muskets. {6:2 - one more for a French win.}

The Russian cavalry attacked on the left but their French counterparts destroyed the Russian Lights. {7:2 and Evert unluckily lost on a Battle Back from the French Light cavalry as he pressed the cavalry attack!}

This turned out to be quite one-sided as the French got lucky to grab the town early on and never let go. Which makes the aggregate score an embarrassing 14:4. Evert will want revenge.

I find the illustrated version of these accounts far more entertaining, so a link the the BGG version
boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/147185/attacking-borodino

 

Evert and I may have played all the scenarios in the Russian expansion, but there are a few we'd like to re-visit. This is the first of these - I won 7:2 playing the Russians and 7:2 as the French. Evert wanted the chance to do better.

I played the Russians first and the battle started slowly, both forces advancing carefully. The first casualties were on the Russian left where I infiltrated through the woods and both sides lost a unit in the exchange of fire.

Then I took a chance to pre-empt the French cavalry by attacking with mine. The Russian Heavy cavalry obliterated itself and was finished off by musket fire, General Uvarov falling with them. Oops! (With the Russians gaining a banner for holding Borodino, the score is 2:3 to Evert.)

The skirmishing on the Russian left saw a second exchange of casualties and the French artillery bombardment of Borodino village finally paid off with the demise of a Russian Grenadier unit (3:5). Then the French cavalry hit the right end of the Russian infantry and two units, forced into square, fell to the supporting infantry's muskets.

And that was the battle: 3:7 to the French.

We re-convened a week later for my turn to play the French. Again, it was a slow start as both sides advanced - the solid line the Russian army made across the board looked daunting.

Apart from the traditional shelling of Borodino village, the fight proper started with a cavalry battle on the French left. Once again, the French horsemen triumphed. Gen Uvarov escaped this time, but was chased off the battlefield. (And it's 4:2 to the French with an exchange of infantry casualties.)

The French cavalry was poised to move onto the hills behind the Russian right - worth victory banners to the French. Instead, French infantry centre-left advanced on Borodino, clearing half the village and taking out enough Russians for a win. 7:3 to the French again, and a tie on aggregate - 10:10. Definitely better, from Evert's point of view, than the 14:4 it was last time.

What struck me about re-playing the scenario is how what happened the first time around influenced our approach this time. However, the cards are always going to be different, so there's not necessarily any point in trying to reproduce previous tactics. Here there were some similarities with our first plays - the skirmishing in the woods on the right, for example - and plenty of differences.

(I’ve also posted this report - with pictures - on my BGG blog: boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/153636/re-visiting-borodino-village )