Category: Bataille d’ L’Ordre Mixte

The Hundred Days Continues…

The 1/32nd (Cornwall) Foot in action.
The 1/32nd (Cornwall) Foot in action.

It had been a tough 2 days – having taken a heavy knock from the advanced elements of Napoleon’s invasion force (Lasalle in the Hundred Days), the elements of Picton’s Division involved had withdrawn, thankful for their temporary superiority in light cavalry, and gradually collected the stragglers and remnants of their regiments to be reconstituted as fair fighting forces again, albeit in reduced numbers… The 42nd Royal Highlanders had been detached to rejoin 9th Brigade on flank guard duty, but the latter had sent the 3/1st Royal Scots in their place – Picton was glad for the fresh, as yet uncommitted battalion. The Duke had sent word of his intent to now try and rally the Anglo-Dutch forces at a position to Picton’s rear, but that Picton must hold his position for a day to allow them time to assemble – so Picton found himself staring at what must be the most desolate part of the Southern Netherlands (i.e. Belgium), scanning the horizon for sign of the French…

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Lasalle in the Hundred Days

The Thin Red Line
The Thin Red Line: 42nd Royal Highland (the Black Watch) & 1/28th North Gloucestershire.

Somewhere near the Franco-Belgian border, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton surveyed the ground before him, by a strange quirk elements of his ‘reserve’ division, the 5th, had ended up near the border just as the first reports of Napoleon’s crossing reached the Allied forces. Wellesley would need time to concentrate his forces, so his Division would need to delay the initial advance elements as long as possible – and it wasn’t long before news of their arrival was received. Choosing a place with some hope of defence and a good line of withdrawal Picton deployed his troops, Major-General Sir James Kempt’s 8th Brigade on the left and centre, and elements of Pack’s 9th Brigade on the right, supported by Rogers’ Foot Company of 9pdrs on the high ground. Major-General Sir Dennis Pack meanwhile had hastened to the rear to collect and organise reinforcements and lead them forward to the battle…

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A Little 1809 Lasalle Affair

Austrian Horse Battery
Austrian Horse Battery (1:72 Plastics)
Lasalle by Sam Mustafa
Lasalle by Sam Mustafa

It was clear fresh morning as L’General-de-Division surveyed the ground – he looked remarkably like L’Empereur himself, even down to his stature and dress – there was a stationary mass of white across the rolling fields, Austrians by the gods, and he meant to teach them the superiority of French esprit de corps and steel! His men were ready, his sub-commanders Michel Ney, Joachim Murat, and Eugéne de Beauharnais were ready, the horses and cannons were ready – but first he needed a plan… Before he could muse over the days prospects a courier came breathlessly galloping up, his ADC soon came to tell him the news, it was not good – “the Austrians have collected the entire region’s supply of garlic!” “What!” exclaimed the General, “no garlic for our foraging troops – this will not do, not at all…”

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In Search of Points: Lasalle!

Below is a first attempt at an unofficial points system for the Napoleonic game – Lasalle.

Lasalle contains a number of set army lists for the main armies. They provide a great introduction. But they only reflect a fraction of possible lists. Playing the same few army lists repeatedly against each other could get dull fairly quickly.

This points system below tries to address this.

Using this points system and the excellent (and now free) Nafziger army lists, players can construct any number of armies that are consistent in size with the army lists in the Lasalle book.

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