Battle of the Southern Bridge , June 5 1802.

 

First battle between Dahara's invasion force and the Empire's defenders will have 33 units versus 23, which will top out the 7 by 5 foot table capacity for troops, even resorting to a unit size of twelve. 

The game should reacquaint both Roger and me to L'Grognard, Piquet's Napoleonic tactical set. We have not tried table groaner for almost three years.  

The armies have slightly different decks, with a major difference in CIC command  quality tilting toward Dahara. The Daharan command gets a Brilliant Leader  card, which in game terms can be any card desired on a given turn.  The K&K Empire commander, on the other end of the quality spectrum has two Command Indecision cards, which forfeit the remaining impetus in a turn when revealed. 

General Charles Wolfe laid out his plan to his subordinates.  He was very pleased to be able to carry out the wishes of Grand Master Kardeef and the Ruling Council.  Which was good as he had little choice. Wolfe's last assignment had kept him safely in the training of the Daharan staff and away from ill conceived raids which had ended careers when the adventures ended poorly.  The rain on the previous day had dissipated  and the ground in most places appeared to be firm. 

 

 Operational area, battle is in top row, number 23. Attacker entering from South.

Across the river, a nervous defending Empire force prepared to contest the crossing of the bridge.  The aged commander  Field Marshall Schaftsgotscke, slowly  placed the units for defense.  The artillery sited to cover the bridge itself was deployed first.  Additional support in covering the fords and the bridge site was provided by rifle armed light infantry backed up by several regiments of line infantry.  The CiC refused the suggestion to make the bridge ready for demolition, saying grandly he need it to support his own advance into Daharan territory. 

The Empire subordinate commanders had concerns about meeting a force nearly half again the size of their own. The commander's plan seemed to rely too much on the bridge and the artillery.  

South of the river, scouts reported in to General Wolfe the deployment of skirmishers and artillery sited to cover the bridge.  Also that the previous day's rain had the effect of slowing the march of the invaders, slightly.  The border area of the Empire had hot, dry weather which had the effect of lowering the river level. Two minor fords was unavailable. 

 The table was modeled with emphasis on the river and the road leading North into the hinterlands of the Empire.  Therefore the cottage and farmland was ignored in the set up.

 

Sadly, the only pictorial record of the titanic struggle for the bridge.  The compass is inverted from normal conceits , with the top of the photo being South. The battle is in its initial stages as the first division of Daharra approaches the bridge from the top of photo. The two Empire brigades and the concentrated artillery is shown on the near side of the river. Looming over the table is Roger, long time wargame friend and ruler of (thankfully mythical) Daharra.

In the battle, the Daharran General Wolf played on his numerical strength to force a crossing on the upper ford (bend at right top of river in the photo) and the bridge. Despite gallant actions by the Empire First ( on right) and Second (on left) Brigades the attacker pushed through, aided by the precipitous retreat of a battery from the Second Brigade after an ammunition wagon blew up from counter battery fire. 

The deployment of the Empire Army, while making good use of the river bank in defence, was leaving the larger Daharran Army to surround it on three sides and possibly bag the force if a lower ford (off photo but on table) was breached. 

A clumsy withdrawal of first the cavalry, then the untouched Third and Fourth Brigades left the battered First & Second Brigades to slowly, and then more speedily give ground.  This resulted in the loss of half the guns in the only 12 pounder battery in the Army under FM Schaftgotscke. 

Thus did the first thrust by Daharra capture its objective, the South Stone Bridge. 

Being a large battle in the campaign's  scale, the loss on the field means a loss of National Will Points for the K&K Empire and a rise in those of Daharra. The second week of the campaign will proceed later this month, with possibly more clashes to play out on the table.