Call to Arms (CtA) is the annual wargames convention hosted by the Wellington Warlords here in Wellington, New Zealand. Over the years our loose grouping of gamers known as the Kapiti Fusiliers have supported CtA, usually via the means of demonstration games. In the main competition games are not our style as we prefer a more leisurely and social approach to our gaming. The result be damned ... especially should it go against us! it’s the playing, the spectacle, the snatched moments of glory that count!! OK, that’s a little over the top. We like to win, but it’s not an obsession. J
Call to Arms 2007 timing was auspicious in that it coincided with the culminating battle of a trial campaign six of us had been involved in. It was loosely based on the 1809 campaign around Ratisbon and was imaginatively entitled The Ratisbon Campaign, or just Ratisbon for short. Rhys Jones organised the campaign primarily as a game generator and worked wonders creating a node based campaign map and maps for each of the nodes. These node maps were based on battles through history with terrrain features renamed. Some preliminary battles were fought as entrees but now all armies were either present on Node 4, the town of Biburg and surrounds, or due to arrive shortly to partake of the main course!
Ensconced on the field were two allied armies. A Russian army lead by the wily Generallieutenant (GL) Gregorovitch (Greg Simmonds) who had already survived an encounter against two French armies at Segensburg and a Russo-Prussian army under the command of Generalmajor (GM) von Peter himself. Fate had (not?!) been kind to GM von Peter who found himself far removed from the initial battles of the campaign and unable to intervene in them. Action was here at long last ... <gulp!>.
The two allied armies arrayed themselves from in front of French held Kutt-Schutten in the east through to Biburg, where their lines joined, and then angled back in a north westerly direction in front of Althof.
Biburg is the major local population centre and as such was assigned two town zones. The two allied commanders held a council of war and decided that each army would occupy one of the zones of Biburg as their extreme flank - thus making Biburg the hinge of their joint deployment. Well that was the outcome of the council of war that GM von Peter attended! GL Gregorovitch’s council of war had GM von Peter occupying all of Biburg. You can probably see where this is going. The difficulties inherent with allied forces working cooperatively was fully, if unintentionally, modelled in the game. Quite clever really!! With great insight GM von Peter blames the language difficulties, particularly on the Russian side ... but he would wouldn’t he! J
Right: Generallieutenant Gregorovitch’s Russians form up with their right resting on Biburg (in the distance) ... but not actually in the near half of Biburg.
Left: Generalmajor von Peter’s Prussians clustered around Althof and holding the extreme right flank for the allied cause.
Right: GM von Peter’s Russians extend the line from his Prussians through to Biburg and the Russian army of GL Gregorovitch. The Inn just over the Abens River has been garrisoned by a battalion of von Peter’s Russians ... but what about the other portion of Biburg (just out of the shot)?
Two French armies had followed GL Gregorovitch to the environs of Biburg. Their commanders were Generals de Division (GD) Hermanelle (Roly Hermans) and Jonesallette (Rhys Jones who was ably assisted by General de Brigade Daniel his son and military protege). Unfortunately for them the roads they were travelling along did not have the capacity to have both armies completely present as the battle commenced. Most of GD Jonesallette’s army was to arrive during the game.
Left: Part of General de Division Hermanelle’s French force of intended occupation. I don’t think they’ve come with peaceful intent!
GD Hermanelle held the left flank of the French line opposing von Peter.
Right: General de Division Jonesallette’s meagre forces as the battle commenced. Fortunately / unfortunately (it all depends on where your sympathies lie) his force was to grow as the French sorted out their traffic woes on the road from Segensburg.
A third French army, that of General de Division St. Swaintonne (Terry Swain) was also present. He had slipped his army past a blocking allied army at the Battle of Rohr and was now in possession of the village of Kutt-Schutten on the left flank of the allied line. A slight distraction for him was the allied Austrian army of Feldmarschal-leutnant (FL) Hollowarthier (Alan Hollows) which was likely to arrive on the road from Rohr placing the French between the emplaced Russians and arriving Austrians. With only a slight quiver in his voice the brave GD St. Swaintonne announced his intention to hold his position and keep the allied armies apart! If the remainder of GD Jonesallette’s forces arrived before the Austrians all might yet turn out well!!!
Above: Part of General de Division St. Swaintonne’s forces. The rest of his army is out of shot and facing the other way! He was positioned on the flank of GL Gregorovitch ... which was good for him. J But he had been followed along the road from Rohr by the Austrians of FL Hollowarthier which could appear at any time behind him potentially creating a French sandwich ... which would be bad for him. L
Interesting aside time. Node 4, the town of Biburg and surrounds, was based on the Battle of Eylau (1807) and it is interesting how our purely fictitious battle mirrored that real life battle. In our campaign GD St. Swaintonne marched onto Node 4 (as did the Prussian General Lecoq in 1807) followed by the pursuing FL Hollowarthier (as did Ney in 1807).
