Le feu sacré

After 12 years using only Napoleon's Battles for wargaming, I am going to try a new set of rules, Le feu sacré, available from the TooFatLardies web site. It is a Corps level system and according to the web site's FAQ :
"These rules are written by a Napoleonic warfare fanatic, and wargamer of 20 years standing. Le Feu Sacré places command and control above musket calibre and march rates. They are aimed at gamers who wish to experience a large scale battle at the battalion level. Players command Corps and Divisions, and manoeuvre by brigade, regiment or battalion. Avoiding the usual omnipresent control that players are so often allowed over the minutiae of battle, Le Feu Sacré concentrates on encouraging historically correct grand tactics. The rules use the familiar TooFatLardies card driven system. The Lardies' emphasis on battlefield "friction" allows the better, bolder generals to take the initiative, and recover from unexpected reverses, whilst less competent, cautious commanders need to stick to predictable battle plans, or risk coming unstuck. We present to you a set of rules where Austrian troops can be the equal of the French, but the Empire can still repeat history! Vive l'Empereur" .
If bought the ruleset and the A La Baïonnette Scenarios book, as pdf fies, by means of PayPal at GBP 6.00 (8.05 € or US$ 11.90) each. There is also a yahoo group devoted to the rule set lfslist with 294 members and addititonal scenarios and lively discussions.

The ground scale is 1" = 50 yards, one move = 15 minutes. and the figure scale is 1:40 or 1:50 so the rules could be a good alternative to my divisional Napoleon's Battles modification, because the actual combat elements are simplified.

I plan to use Le feu sacré to fight the Wartenburg Scenario but only after I played it with my one-half Napoleon's Battles, in order to make a comparison and to draw the adequate conclussions.

Viva la XV Brigada!

Christy Moore wrote the song Viva la XV Brigada! about the Irishmen who went to Spain to fight against Franco and the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The tune dates back to the Napoleonic Wars according to Christy Moore in his book "One Voice", written in 1983 whilst he was in Spain and inspired by Mick O'Riordan's book "the Connolly Column".

A tribute to all the women and men that fought in Spain against the fascism and whose memory still lasts in the Spanish people!



Viva La Quince Brigada
Christy Moore

Ten years before I saw the light of morning
A comradeship of heroes was laid.
From every corner of the world came sailing
The Fifteenth International Brigade.
They came to stand beside the Spanish people.
To try and stem the rising Fascist tide
Franco's allies were the powerful and wealthy,
Frank Ryan's men came from the other side.
Even the olives were bleeding
As the battle for Madrid it thundered on.
Truth and love against the force af evil,
Brotherhood against the Fascist clan.

Chorus:
Viva La Quince Brigada!
"No Pasaran" the pledge that made them fight.
"Adelante" was the cry around the hillside.
Let us all remember them tonight.

Bob Hillard was a Church of Ireland pastor;
From Killarney across the Pyrenees he came.
From Derry came a brave young Christian Brother.
Side by side they fought and died in Spain.
Tommy Woods, aged seventeen, died in Cordoba.
With Na Fianna he learned to hold his gun.
From Dublin to the Villa del Rio
Where he fought and died beneath the Spanish sun.

Chorus

Many Irishmen heard the call of Franco.
Joined Hitler and Mussolini too.
Propaganda from the pulpit and newspapers
Helped O'Duffy to enlist his crew.
The word came from Maynooth: 'Support the Fascists.'
The men of cloth failed yet again
When the bishops blessed the blueshirts in Dun Laoghaire
As they sailed beneath the swastika to Spain.

Chorus

This song is a tribute to Frank Ryan.
Kit Conway and Dinny Coady too.
Peter Daly, Charlie Regan and Hugh Bonar.
Though many died I can but name a few.
Danny Doyle, Blaser-Brown and Charlie Donnelly.
Liam Tumilson and Jim Straney from the Falls.
Jack Nally, Tommy Patton and Frank Conroy,
Jim Foley, Tony Fox and Dick O'Neill.

Chorus

Wartenburg at "one-half" Napoleon's Battles

After a short interlude caused by labour and family duties I return again to the gaming (the painting will have to wait!) by re-fighting the combat of Wartenburg, i.e. the crossing of the Elbe River carried out by the Bluecher's Silesian Army (october 8, 1813). The forces involved there were Bertrand's French IV corps (a multinational force comprising French, Italian and Wurtembergers) and Yorck's Prussian I Corps.

Because of the relatively small size of both armies, this battle results too small for normal NB and too big for divisional NB. My solution is simple, I'll play it with my divisional NB modifications, but using 1"/50 yds for terrain, 1/60 for men and 15 minutes per turn.
For the OOB's I'll use the Nafziger's (G. Nafziger, 'Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of Nations 1813’. The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996) and Smith's books (D. Smith, 'The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book', Greenhill Books, London, 1998).
Until the play, watch the map of the battle as seen in the Napoleon-Series web-site and study the Wartenburg Scenario as posted in the main web site.

The combat of Horselburg (1813)

Napoleon has been defeated at Leipzig and is retiring westwards. “On 25 October, at 3.00 a.m., Napoleon ordered his army westwards once again in order to reach the passes by Eisenach, before the Advance Guard of the Army of Silesia [...] On 26 October, in yet another rearguard action, Oudinot and Mortier engaged Yorck’s Corps around Hörselberg. Their four weak divisions of Young Guard totalled about 14,000 men and suffered about 2,000 casualties”. (G. Nafziger, 'Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of Nations 1813’. The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996).
This fictional combat of Horselburg ( Horselberg+Fryeburg) was fought between elements of the Prussian Army of Silesia (Advance Guard and 7th brigade of the Yorck’s I Corps) and the 1st and 3rd Divisions of the reformed (at Erfurt) Young Guard Corps under Mortier.
The wargame was a refighting of the "Pass Clearance" Scenario (C.S. Grant. "Wargames Programmed Scenarios") and finished with the overruning of hte Young Guard rearguard and a complete Prussian victory.
See at the main site the Scenario and the Narrative and pictures.

Happy "Noche de Reyes"

May the Reyes Magos (The Three Wise Men) bring you and your families Peace and Happiness... and some boxes of figures to be painted!

A 'correct' order of march

While searching for my next game, "Pass Clearance" (Scenario No.3 of the Grant's 'Programmed Wargames Scenarios') in which a pursuing force must to clear a blocking force before night-time, I realized that an 'order of march' , i.e. the order in which the units belonging to the different arms (infantry, cavalry and artillery) are placed in the column, would be devised out for the pursuers (a mixed column).
The answer lies in the Google books project. I made an advanced search using the keywords 'order of march', 'rearguard', 'advance guard', and found numerous references. Amongst the more interesting were:
Elements of the Art of War: Prepared for the Use of the Cadets of the United... By James Mercur
A summary of tactics By Hill Faulconer Morgan
Staff Duties: A Series of Lectures Addressed to the Officers at the Staff ... By Francis Coningsby Hannam Clarke
An Elementary Treatise on Advanced-guard, Out-post, and Detachment Service ... By Dennis Hart Mahan
From all these books I choose the accompanying diagrams to design an "order of march" based upon the military knowledge of those days.

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO 2008