Blackpowder Napoleonics, What if Napoleon had waited just a bit....Prussian vs Russian 1816

        To celebrate the return of The Trunkmonkey from his extended sojourn in Japan (sightseeing, not work) we decided to throw on a Napoleonics game (he had been working on his Russians before he left and my Prussians had been gathering dust since December of 2021). The scenario is based on the idea that Napoleon had gotten better info on the back-stabbing and infighting at the Congress of Vienna and sat things out while negotiations were degenerating into the Conflict of Vienna. With Napoleon still cheating at whist on Elba the Powers fell into hostility and then armed conflict. Thus we find the Prussians and the Russians arguing over who got what slice of Poland.

       The battlefield was a sleepy town in the plains of northern Poland, which we see below.

 

the Russians, being the smaller force, were tasked with defending the town and the vital road junction

they deployed on the hills and in the town along the upper edge of the picture

 

 

the Prussians deployed all along the right hand edge of the table

the innocuous looking stream that runs from the central woods then under the bridge to the edge of the table would cause the Prussians no end of trouble maneuvering 

 

after some hard pounding the Prussians took the long hill on the left and captured the timber-framed structure nearest the center of the table

 

in the center things looked rather grim as the Prussians were barely holding their own against the Russian foot in the town and the relentless Russian artillery

 

while on the right the delay imposed by the stream slowed the Prussian advance to a crawl,

 and the tenacious defense of the village was a rock the the Prussians couldn't crack

       I apologize to our readers as things got hot and heavy and I wasn't taking pictures as I should (who would have thought that not playing rules for a few years would leave me rusty?). The game continued with the Prussian left slowly rolling up the Russian flank, assisted by some unfortunate Break Test results. I will try to take more/better picture next outing.