25e Regiment of Dragoons

We interrupt the game narrative for a Dragoon moment! 

The The regiment traces its origins back to 1665, when a new cavalry regiment was raised and named Bourgone in 1685, renamed in 1711 as Bretagne. It reverted back to Bourgone in 1751, becoming Royal-Bourgone in 1788. The Regiment became the 17e Regiment de Cavalerie in 1791 and the 16e Regiment de Cavalerie in 1792. It finally became the 25e Regiment de Dragons in 1803

The 25e regiment saw plenty of action during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars:  1792: Valmy, 1793: Hondschoote, 1794: Etreux, Mons, and Maestricht, 1800: Offenbourg and Holzheim, 1805: Elchingen and Austerlitz, 1806: Halberstadt, 1807: Ostrolenka, 1808: Baylen, 1809: Lugo and Alba-de-Tormes, 1810: Lines of Torres-Vedras and Ciudad-Rodrigo, 1811: Fuentes-de-Onoro, 1812: Arapiles, 1813: Vitoria, 1813: Dresden and Leipzig, 1814: Saint-Dizier, Brienne, La Rothiere, Mormont, Fere-Champenoise, and Paris

6 Colonels of the Regiment attained the rank of Brigadier or higher: 
Louis-Rene Le Mouton de Boisdeffre,  General de Brigade 1792; 
Nicolas Cugnot d’Aubigny, General-de-Brigade: 1794, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 1804, Chevalier of the Empire: 1810, Baron of the Empire: 12th April 1813;
Jean-Oliver Gaudin, General-de-Brigade: 1794;
Archange-Louis Rioult d’Avenay, General-de-Brigade: 1807, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 1808, Died: 1 June 1809 (Died of wounds received on 8 May 1809);
Antoine Rigaud, General-de-Brigade: 1807, Commander of the Legion d’Honneur: 1805, Baron of the Empire: 1809;
Philippe-Antoine Ornano, General-de-Brigade: 1811, General de Division: 1812, Count of the Empire: 1808.

The regimental facing color for the 25e- 30e regiments was aurore; I have used Delta CC “Calypso Orange” here. I think it looks quite striking! The figures once again are Piano Wargames by Lucas Luber. The next Piano Wargames Kickstarter commences October 14th!

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 4

 

The 2nd turn starts with the Swedes winning the roll off for 1 impetus; they act to go first and turn LEADERSHIP. 

With many units with UI losses (“hits”) and/or disorder, they choose to act upon it right away. Each command group rolls its modified Leadership die type against the opponents D8; the LD can range from D8 to D12+1; for this game I made everyone LD 10 to keep things simple. The Swedish roll fails to beet the opposing D8, so no effect. 

If the modified LD roll exceeds that of the opponent’s D8, Disorder will be recovered, and routed units will rally back to good order. 

The modified LD here is D6 because there is a modifier for rallying Routed units. If the modified LD roll is a “1”, then no more rally attempts may be made by that commander, and the free change of facing or formation on the L:EADERSHIP card cannot be used by that command. 

If the modified LD roll exceeds the opponent’s D8 by 3 or more, one UI (“hit”0 is regained for every 3 pips difference. Nothing here, though.  

No UI regained, but the Light Dragoons do rally from routed. 

Not having much luck with rallying!

Well,  that was a bust!

The initiative passes to the Danes, who turn ARTILLERY FIRE. 

Nuthin’. 

And Nothin again!

and yet again!

Complete bust for the Danish card action as well!

Swedes win even, and opt to take their 2 impetus. 

The “Wild Card!”

Swedes take it into their hand, and turn ARTILLERY FIRE. 

They act upon it right away. All smoke, no action here!

The fire causes some Disorder, but no significant losses. 

No effect!

The roll would cause Disorder, but the target is already Disordered; a second Disorder has no effect. 

Next card is LULL, but the Danes fail to seize the initiative. 

The first Danish card is INFANTRY FIRE; they act upon it now. 

1 Ui and one Swedish Army Morale Point (AMP) lost. 

Swedish return fire is ineffective; hardy surprising with 3 UI loss and in Disorder… as bad as it can without being elimnated (4 UI loss of infantry and cavalry, 3 for Artillery). 

Danish fire is ineffective, but the Swedish fire is not. The Danes are forced back 4″ (difference in die roll) in Disorder, take 1 UI, and lose one AMP. 

Danes are more effective here. 

Return fire causes them to become Disordered. 

No effect.

Target is already Disordered, so no effect here either. 

Same here. 
The second Danish card is MOVE, and they again chose to act now. Triple move, but no Magic!
The Norwegian Liv regiment moves to cover the battery. 

Double move, no magic. 

The Danes move up and volley fire at the Swedish battery to effect. 

Cavalry get a Double Magic Move… CHARGE!!!

Round 1 of melee between the Danish and Swedish Dragoons sees both fall in to disorder, with the Swedes having 1 pip on the Danes. 

Round 2 to the Danes; the Swedes retreat 4″ with the loss of 1 UI and AMP. JHaving roled EVEN in the last round, the Danes can advance to “take the position”. 

The Danish Hussars are defeated, and forced back 4″ with the loss of 1 UI and 1 AMP. 

The last Danish command rolls a single move, and decides to stay put. 

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 3

 

The Swedes have 2 impetus; they turn INFANTRY FIRE. 

Eagle’s eye view of the battlefield, note all the “smoke”, indicating “unloaded” units. 

The Swedes, however, decide to hold the card, and draw MELEE. 

In the battle of the small cavalry units, the Swedes are victorious! 

The Swedish Cuirassiers change the Livgard til Hast… routing them!

Next, the Swedes draw Artillery Fire, and act upon it immediately. 

Accurate shooting by the Swedes cripples the opposing Danish battery. 

Just managed that overhead shot!

More well aimed fire!

The Swedes win the LD roll off even for 1 impetus. Now they decide to play their INFANTRY FIRE card. 

An ineffective volley – the Swedish commander call for a do-over!

BAM!  The opposing Danes are routed with heavy losses!

With a “chicken” (Disorder) and two rocks (hits/Unit Integrity losses), it’s not surprising this Swedish column’s fire has little effect upon the opposing Danish footguards. 

“Ja , der powder gevetted ist!”

The damaged battery’s fire disorders the Swedish battery, but causes no losses.  

Danish cannister empties many saddles in the Swedish Cuirassiers, but they hold firm. 
That’s a hit, Sven!
Whilst the Danes have 1 card remaining (a critical INFANTRY FIRE card), the Swedes have no cards left, so the deck is shuffled, and the Infantry Firepower card is unused. Note that if the opposing Leadership die rolls for initiative are tied, that will also end the card, with the decks shuffled, and any unplayed or unused cards are lost! That concludes the first turn of the battle; both sides are running low on Army Morale points!

Standoff in Scandinavia, Part 2

 

The Swedes turn TACTICAL ADVANTAGE; this card can be played at any time; it is now a reroll card rather then a simple UP 1 or DPWN 1 to any roll, potentially much more impactful. We will see. The Swedes hold the card (not technically in their “hand”). 

Swedes turn ARMY MORALE; this must be played, but with no troops yet in combat, and no lost or routed units, this card is is both “free” and without effect; thus another card is drawn in its place

Swedes tun LULL: this must be played, and the Danes attempt to seize the Imitative! 

If the Dames Leadership die for their C-in-C beats that of the Swedes, they get a “free” impetus point. That fails to happen here. 
The initiative passes to the Danes anyway, as the Swedes are out of impetus. They turn SPECIAL EFFECT (Wild Card). Each Danish Command individually can use this card as whatever they feel they need most. 

A Double Magic Move for the Infantry Brigade. 

The Cavalry rolled a single move; situation after both commands have acted. 

This Danish Brigade rolls a single magic move.
Situation after their move. 

Swedish infantry opportunity fires, causing one hit; there is no disorder as the Swedes rolled ODD. 

The Danes fire back, after taking into account the effects of the opp fire, but fail to have any significant effect. 

A triple Move (no magic) for the central Danish Reserve Brigade. 

The prior Danish Brigade now chooses to fire its “loaded” artillery, which it does to effect!

The Danish advance; Swedish opportunity fire is ineffective (being both disordered and with 1 hit didn’t help!). 

The fire of the Danish Livgards til Fods is more effective, inflicting more damage on the Swedes, and forcing them back! 

Double Magic move, with an EVEN roll, the skirmishing Danish Jagers will ignore the usual move penalties for the Class II hill.
The combined opportunity fire of the Swedish battery and infantry just manages to be enough to through the Danes back a bit in Disorder, and with some losses. 

A single move for the infantry and their attached battery. 

Single move for the Cavalry and Horse Artillery. 

Situation thereafter. 

2 Danish regiments volley fire at the Russian Jagers, diving them back in Disorder with losses.
The second Danish card is a MOVE: they opt to act on it rather than exchanging it for one of the other two cards in their hand. 

Triple Magic Move for the Danish Cavalry and their Horse Artillery!

“Hold on a minute there, Hans!”Swedish Horse Artillery Opp fire forces their Danish counterparts back in Disorder with losses; this also prevents them from unlimbering! Meanwhile, the Danish Fynske Light Dragoons and the Bosniaks charge home into Melee!

First round between the Danish Light Dragoons and the Sweuish Smalands Lette Dragoner results in an 1 pip edge to the Danes; the Swedes are Disordered. 

2nd round is another 1 pip edge to the Danes; the Swedes are already Discorded, and the Danes rolled even so they keep good order. Note that the highest possible score is “12”, not 13!

The 3rd round is different, and the Swedes are Routed with heavy losses, while the Danes maintain their cool and their Order. 

In the charge of 2 small units, the Bosniaks get the short end of the stick, but the Swedes are disordered (rolled odd). 

Double Magic Move!

An inefective Danish Volley… but wait; the Danish C-in-C plays his Tactical Advantage card to re-rol1 his D12. 

It works, and the Swedes suffer fairly heavy losses, but stand their ground in good order. 

Double Magic Move!

A missed opportunity when the skirmish fire of the Jagers fizzles. Wheres that TACTICAL ADVANTAGE card?  Oh yeah…
Single no frills move; the Danish Artillery opens up on the Svea Livgards, and causes heavy losses!

Situation after the move, and some more ineffective fire, this time by the Kings Livjagers. 

Single Magic Move. 

Situation thereafter. 

Single move.

The Danish infantry finds comfortable lodgings in the village, and decide to practice some hygge. The Cavalry are less sanguine, rolling a big fat 1. Uff da!  No move for you boys!  
Having finished that run of initiative, we’ll break now until the next part! 

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 1

For this variant, the small sequence deck mis in many ways similar to that used in Battle Command – each side has 9 cards. Additional cards could be added for arrival of reinforcements, unique events, weather changes, etc. The Special Event card here is used as the “wild card”. 
As always, the action begins with both C-in-C’s rolling their Leadership Die; to keep things simple, for this game every commander is rated as LD 10; ordinarily, they might vary form a low of D8 to a high of D12+1. Red dice will represent the Danes throughout this reports, whereas blue and sometimes yellow dice belong to the Swedes. The Danes have won the first initiative, and as their roll is EVEN, both sides will get 2 impetus. Having won the roll, the Danes opt to act first. This is pretty much as in Battle Command. The first of their 2 cards is ARTILLERY FIRE. With most batteries having little or no targets, the Danes take this card into their hand, hopefully to be used later. . 
The second Danish card is Tactical Advantage. This must be played, but as in FoB and Battle Command, it can be held and used at any time of the player’s choosing, even when they do not have the initiative. The Danes hold the card, which does NOT count against their hand limit of 2 cards. 
The Danes still have one more impetus to use, and turn ARMY MORALE. With no units lost or routed, it does NOT cost an impetus to play. With no combat yet having occurred, no Leader Survival tests are needed, either.  
Thus, the Danes turn yet another card. This is MELEE, which allows most units to charge and imitate melee if they are within 1/2 move distance of the enemy; once again, no units would qualify, so this card is taken up into the Danish hand. 
The Danes turn LEADERSHIP. This cards allows units to rally off hits, recover from Disorder, and rally routers. Once again, with the game having just begun, there is little to do with this card, which does also allow units to change facing or formation, and allows leaders to move. Having reached their hand limit, the Danes MUST play one of the three cards. The choose to play the LEADERSHIP card, and the officers carefully inspect the formations of their troops. The initiative passes to the Swedes!
The first Swedish card is MOVE; this is pretty much a no brainer to act upon right now, which they do! 
A “Triple Magic Move” for this brigade of three Swedish battalions (won even, with a difference of 6+ pips). The “Magic” (won even roll) allows one segment to be used for changing facing or formation of the units of that brigade. This was not felt necessary here. . 
Positions after the advance. 
The Swedish cavalry roll a “1” – which means they cannot move, but instead consume their rations of Lutefisk. 
A “Double Magic Move” for this Swedish brigade
Post move positions. 
7 – 1; a Triple move, minus the magic. positions of the Swedish reserve after executing their advance.
Positions of the next brigade after a Double move (9 – 4). 
Last Swedish infantry brigade’s positions after a single move (3 – 4). 
What is it with the Swedish cavalry this initiative. More Lutefisk to the front!
The second Swedish card is MELEE; with no possible use for the card at the moment, it is taken up into the Swedish hand. 
LEADERSHIP is turned; the Swedes decide to act upon this card now, even though there are no troops to rally. 
An attached Russian battery unlimbers to target some Danes across the shallow river. 
An attack column is formed for potential crossing of the flod. 
The left flank Swedish brigade changes facing to cross the river. This completes the first initiative for both sides. 
It’s getting late, and Blogger has decided to insert all my photos in reverse order today, so we’ll pick up the narrative again in the next post!