Borodino 201.5

Wargaming with the Vics

I have been fortunate to be able to join the fellas from the Nunawading Wargames Association at Drouin for their great big gaming weekend, which this year is The Battle of Borodino.

The game is the culmination of two year's of planning and painting by 18 members of the club. You may have read about the preparation for the game on Ben 'Rosbif's' blog. He has described his painting marathon to produce IV Corps, beginning in late 2012 all the way to New Year's Eve, including:
• French infantry
• Bavarian cavalry and,
• the entire corps in all its glory.

Now 16 of the 18 have gathered for three days when "too much wargaming is enough"; and I have been fortunate enough to be able to join in the fun.

It's now the end of the first day of play, well actually half-day, which included setting up the table and the first seven turns (15 minutes each). Once finished, Ben will do a complete write-up of the game on his blog, so I'll just be posting a few photos to whet your appetites.

 Here's the set-up, looking from the north, Ben's IV Corps in the right foreground 

 and from the south, Utitsa in the centre-left.

The battle began with Ney's III Corps and Davout's I Corps launching a combined attack on the flêches.

 This was more successful than expected.

But there are still many more troops from the Second Army of the West uncommitted,...

 the grand redoubt is untouched,...

 and the first Army of the West untroubled;

save for the loss of Borodino to Eugène's IV Corps: here showing Broussier's ("the bruiser's") division in the village with the rest of IV Corps to his left and Morand's and Gerard's divisions of I Corps in support.