Battle of Berezina 1812

Last night at the club, Greg and Tom ran a very fun Napoleonic game.  We re-fought the Battle of Berezina, which is a fighting withdrawal for the French.  We used Greg and Tom's wonderfully painted 6mm armies.  Volley and Bayonet where the rules for the evening.  The initial situation at the start of the game.  Greg allowed us some "strategic choices" which altered the historical setup.  The most important one that Dave and I made as the French was to commit the Guard to defending the stragglers on the wrong side of the river.  The first picture shows the initial setup with my two French corps on the right side of the river and Dave's Guard in the upper left corner and a column of straggles on the road.  Dave has another corps that will enter the board behind the straggles and there may be some Russians chasing them.  The French need to cross the river and exit on the road in the bottom center of the picture.  The Pesky Russians enter along the left side and top of the map - you can see Ed's Russian corps in the top center.

Daves two corps begin to form up as the stragglers get across the river.  My corp advance to meet Ed while protecting the crossing.

4 Russian corps enter the board

 Ed and I did a lot of maneuvering but no real fighting.  I did detach my Poles to support Dave on the hot side of the river and they got themselves chopped up pretty bad.

Dave really did all of the fighting.  While we managed to get all the stragglers off the board.  Dave's 2 corps (including the Guard) took very heavy causalities in making their stand and eventually escaping.  I would say it was a very minor French victory - a very close run of things.

This was my first time playing Volley and Bayonet and I really liked the rules.  They play very similar to Blucher but I found them a bit more fun.