Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Name your favorite historical Napoleonic charge and one from your days of playing miniatures (Napoleonics of course):

I like that charge during Eylau by Murat. Didnt break the lines but it was all for glory! Lots of squadrons charging in the snow.

Now for my favorite miniatures charge:

I was over at a friend's house during the Christmas break. I had Russians and he had a mix of units. My Chernigov Dragoons and Akhurst. Hussars (4th Cavalry Corps troops) rode down a division of his units as well as a couple of batteries. Was an awesome display of flying horseflesh and flashing sabers.

Favorite miniatures battle: Fought with the Saxon VII Corps (of 1812) and held my own against Prussians no less! My infantry did wonders (yes, Saxon infantry!). By the end of the battle the corps was decimated but he had made little to no ground against them.

Also: I had a Russian corps against a British Division. We traded casting for casting and thus my corps became a division and my opponent claimed a victory as he had done his duty. Since we were very good friends I fell in with his line of thinking (though we know that any British officer would have accepted nothing less than the total destruction of my corps in exchange for a division of HM troops). Fun days when life was a tad simpler and painting was not something that hurt my eyes.

Oberst Wilhelm Peters
Reserves, Austrian Army

The charge of the Horse Guard regiment in the Austerlitz battle. Do you remember as it was described by Tolstoy? Maybe not that precise, but the impression... Colossal men.... Colossal horses.... A charging wall of bodies and steel.... They charged until they were stopped. And only 17 men were.....

Unfortunately have no experience with the miniatures. But recall my best charge in the club. In the battle of Gorodechna my Tartars Uhlans regiment with several sotnyas of cossacks with the assistance of Pavlovgrad and Alexandria hussars charged on the austrian light cavalry division. Although being outnumbered they managed to completely eliminate the opposing cav in a several hour long bloody skirmrish.....[^] Ah, these were times!....[:I]

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
Polkovnik Anton Kosyanenko</b></center>

<font color="pink">The greatest charge of them all. Large numbers not required. Just clear, dazzling style, phenomenal courage, and efficiency. The Polish Lancers at Somosierra. Anyone not knows that story, look it up; it's staggering.</font id="pink">

General Barrett,
Duc de Ligny, Comte de Brienne,
Commander, VI (Bavarian) Corps, Army of the Rhine,
and
la 1er Compagnie d'Artillerie de la Vieille Garde

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Barrett, of the Vth</i>
<br /><font color="pink">The greatest charge of them all. Large numbers not required. Just clear, dazzling style, phenomenal courage, and efficiency. The Polish Lancers at Somosierra. Anyone not knows that story, look it up; it's staggering.</font id="pink">

General Barrett,
Duc de Ligny, Comte de Brienne,
Commander, VI (Bavarian) Corps, Army of the Rhine,
and
la 1er Compagnie d'Artillerie de la Vieille Garde

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
For those interested in the General's story, here is the link:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military ... ierra.html

Personally, Kellerman at Marengo deserves a mention [^]

[url="mailto:pyguinard@hotmail.com"]Capt Pierre-Yves Guinard[/url],
6e Division, II Corp
AdN

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">For those interested in the General's story, here is the link:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military ... ierra.html <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

The above mentioned link is unfortunately not the best one. [;)]
Try this instead:
http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/Polish ... ncers.html



<center>Maréchal T. Nowacki
<b>V KORPUS ARMII RENU</b>

Comte de Liege
Duc de la Moskova

Chasseurs a Cheval de la Vieille Garde</center>

Ney's charge at Waterloo... The movie Waterloo does a good job of showing thsi...

If only he had paused to think about it before hand.....

General John Corbin
Chief of Staff
La Grande Armee

Oh! Cavalry charge is the most impressive moment of the Napoleonic battle! So many great examples. It’s so hard to make a choice between:
Austrian cavalry at Wurzburg,
Austrian dragoons at Trebbia,
Kellerman at Marengo,
charge of the Russian guard and counter-charge of the French guard at Austerlitz,
Eilau,
Somosierra,
moonlight charges at Alt-Elgofsheim,
French cuirassiers at Essling,
LaTour chevaulegers at Wagram,
Dumerke at Beresina,
Vistula lancers at Albufera,
Le Marchant at Salamanca,
Hanoverian dragoons at Garcia-Hernandes,
French and Saxon cavalry at Dresden,
numerical clashs at Wachau and Leipzig,
French dragoons at Nangi,
Union brigade and French lancers at Waterloo…
[:0]

But my favorite one is a storm of la Grand redoute at Borodino by Saxon Garde-du-Corps.[^]


Unter-Lt V. Komissarenko
Vincent (La Tour) Chevauxlegers
KUK Osterreichische armee

Kellerman at Marengo. The timing of this charge was impeccable. It turned defeat into victory and routed an army. No other charge was so decisive. [:D]

FM Sir 'Muddy' Jones, KG
2nd Life Guards, Household Cavalry
CO, Cavalry Corps
Allied CiC

Who says cavalry is only good in the open? My favorite would be The Polish Lancers at Somosierra, as well. A series of charges, as I recall. As for necessity it falls somewhere around the Light Brigade's charge years later, but it does spark the imagination!

<center><b><font size="6">CHARGE!</font id="size6"></b></center>

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Favorite cavalry charge in miniature. That's easy. It happened at my Bachelor's Party the day before I got married. (yes we played a 6 hours miniature Napoleonic game for my Bachelor's Party.[:D])

Using Empire V we had two Austrian Corps from 1809 (6. & 1.Res.) attack the Imperial Guard of 1809. My dearly departed friend, Richard brought two brigades of Austrian Cuirassiers, screened by a Hussar Rgt to slam into the flank of the French Infantry.

As he approached Marshal Murat charged headlong with the Chasseurs-a-Cheval of the Guard, and brought the lead elements to a halt. As Richard was attempting to get straightened out from that attack, Napoleon attached to the Grenadiers-a-Cheval hit his entire force in the flank, swept the field clean, overran two horse batteries marching to support the Austrian horse, and destroyed a regiment of Grenzers who happened to be looking the other way. (the charge went a looooonnng way.)

The Austrian Horse routed off the field, never to return, and my friend Michael then destroyed the 1. Division of the 6. Austrian Corps with a well executed charge by the Old and Middle Guards.

Losses were heavy in the ranks of the Imperial Guard, but the cream of the Austrian army was eliminated. [8D]

Colonel (ret) Al Amos
1er Dragoons
AdN

Infantry against cavalry. From memoirs of the commander of the second battalion of Life-guards Lithuanian regiment. Borodino, Semenvski's heights.
"... The column cuirassiers went directly on us and, probably, intended to break through the center of disposition of ours regiments because they attacked my 2-nd battalion, taking place in the first line. Having ordered to a battalion form square.... Cuirassiers .... have started on a signal, at a trot, to form column before forward face of our square with obvious intention to strike by all strength. I have taken advantage of confusion of the begun formation, when each horseman searched the place, have ordered "Hurrah" and battalion has rushed to bayonets. Forward lines cuirassiers.... have lose ground... and after their desperate cry all cavalry column has taken to flight."

By the way, sticklers of "cavalry-infantry home rules" should to take note of this[:)].

General-lieutenant Konstantin Koryakov,
8 Infantry Corps,
Life Guards Litovskii regiment,
Russian Imperial Army
[url="http://www.komikor.narod.ru"][/url]

Bravo Konstantin! One more example:

"According to French author l'Houssaye, in 1814 at Craonne, two regimnents of Russian infantry attacked French dragoons led by GdD Grouchy. Rows of bayonets and boldness of the infantrymen were enough to drive back the dragoons on to the battery which they had just captured. General Grouchy was wounded. When later on, another Russian brigade of infantry advanced against these dragoons they fled and carried back with them some French infantrymen."

Taken from http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/infantry_tactics_4.htm

BTW maybe We could have an option allowing russian infantry in colomns to atack enemy cav&


<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
Polkovnik Anton Kosyanenko</b></center>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kosyanenko</i>

BTW maybe We could have an option allowing russian infantry in colomns to atack enemy cav&
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Great idea! Why not arm them with swords and lances and allow them break into squadrons and ... charge! [:o)][:D]

But seriously. In fact that's nothing unusual and definitely not exclusively affiliated with Russian inf. There're many examples of such desperate attacks, just to name the good old Picton at QB leading the 1.st bn/28.rgt and 3.rd bn/1.st rgt forcing the French cavalry back to Gemincourt.

<center>Maréchal T. Nowacki
<b>V KORPUS ARMII RENU</b>

Comte de Liege
Duc de la Moskova

Chasseurs a Cheval de la Vieille Garde</center>