The Wilderness at Colours 2026

The Wilderness at Colours 2026

(Two items in this blog post: The Wilderness at the Colours show, then the Balkan Wars battle of Driskos at OWS.)

The Colours wargames show run by Newbury & Reading Wargames Society and held at Newbury racecourse every September is one of my favourite shows. Our Oxford Wargames Society participation games have become a regular feature of the event (see previous reports).

For this year's game we chose an American Civil War battle, The Wilderness (1864). There were several factors in this decision. One was the fact that, although I wrote this scenario over 10 years ago, we wanted to playtest it again to check and polish it for the planned BBB American Civil War scenario book(s) that we hope to finish next year. Another was that we could use Dave W's 10mm Pendraken figures, which are better than 6mm for display at shows. A third was that the table is reasonably easy to set up - no hills! And, finally, it's just a rollicking good game because of the battle's geometry: two armies collide at right angles, each marching on two roads, so everyone is in motion and questing for the open flank.

We fought the battle through one and a half times during the show. The first game ended at the halfway mark as it was clear that, through a combination of veteran player skill and good fortune, the South had achieved such a good position and done so much damage that there was no way the Union was coming back. The second game was a much more even contest of ebb and flow, both sides smashing holes in each other in different places, action all over the pitch, and - of course - coming down to the last dice on the last turn to end in a knife-edge draw. Here are seven photos of the action from the first game, just to give you a flavour:

Seeing the wood for the trees ... the battlefield is woods everywhere except the small patches of fields. It's 12 miles x 8 across. One base represents 2,000 men - the Union army is 100,000 strong. Union forces are in the top left quarter, marching from left to right. Confederates are in the foreground, about to intercept them. A few cavalry are skirmishing off-table to the right and will appear mid-game. The difficult country means it is all about the road network, so the game Objectives are the main road junctions and the Union supply trains (the two wagons at the fords, top left).

The Union left-hand column is Hancock's II Corps. It's imperative that this should step off smartly to reach the objectives in the southern half of the table and cover the open flank of the other US column.

The head of the right-hand column is at the Wilderness Tavern. Steve J opted to start the whole column deployed for battle, rather than keep them in column and attempt to extend his line, as that would have risked being hit before he could deploy.

Unfortunately Gregg's cavalry failed their activation and stopped outside the Chancellorsville mansion for a sausage roll. (For our non-UK readers, that's a culinary reference.) That meant Hancock's corps had to trudge cross-country to pass them, costing valuable time.

By contrast, the arriving Confederates succeed with all their movement rolls. Their ragged columns race forward to envelop the exposed Union force at the Wilderness Tavern. Can the US bring up more troops in support in time?

The answer of course is no. Crawford & Wadsworth's divisions are caught isolated, hit front and flank by double their numbers, and smashed back.

Union reinforcements finally move up but will arrive piecemeal and be beaten back in their turn, leaving the rebels free to pounce on the Union supply train at the Culpeper Mine Ford (the wagon model in the foreground). At that point the battle was irretrievable for the Union.

But enough of the toys - it's about the people! And what a lot there were. Apart from the three of us on the team, I think we had at least eight different players join in at various times, while dozens more stopped to chat and have their ears bent by me enthusing. (Apologies to anyone I bored unduly.) Particularly pleased to meet Morten from Denmark, Chris Gosney aka "The Crusty Colonel", and Simon Miller of "To the Strongest" fame. But it was just great to meet everyone, ranging from veteran players and old friends, via those who have the rules already and are introducing their clubmates to BBB, to those who had never seen BBB before.

As always, it was an exciting and rewarding day. I had a great time, I'm sure we entertained our participant players, I had a lot of good conversations, and I hope many show attendees enjoyed the sight of our densely wooded table. (My only regret is I was too busy to make it to the Helion stand and see my new book that was apparently finally published last week.) I'm pretty sure we enhanced Colours and I hope NWRS will invite us back again next year!

===

Driskos (1912)

As if the Wilderness on Saturday wasn't enough, I was in action again the following Monday, this time running a small Balkan Wars battle at the club: Driskos (1912). This was a playtest of a new scenario to be added to a new edition of Dr Konstantinos Travlos's Bloody Big Balkan Battles! book.

This was part of the Greek effort to capture the city of Ioannina in Epirus, after the Greeks and Serbs had both inflicted some major defeats on the Ottomans. The battle picture is that the Greeks have taken some high ground at Driskos that dominates the northeastern approaches to Ioannina. The Ottomans counterattack and, in a two-day battle, drive the Greeks back. The scenario depicts the counterattack.

It's a pretty simple battlefield: the Ottomans have to advance across an open plain to storm a few villages on the steep hills and take the dominant hilltops. Figures are my 6mm Heroics & Ros (ACW zouaves painted as Ottomans) and Irregular Miniatures (WWI British painted as Greeks). Buildings are tourist souvenirs from a visit to Dubrovnik.

Phil and Crispin commanded the Ottomans. I was joined on the Greek side by a new comrade, Edward. Our opponents opted to weight their attack on their right, hoping to roll us up from our left. We launched a counterattack, advancing our reserve unit off the heights to hit the Ottoman left flank. It was a bloody fight as modern weapons took a heavy toll of both sides. It looked like a Greek win until right near the end, when the Ottoman artillery blew some of our troops away and Ottoman infantry surged forward, defying our defensive fire, to seize the objectives they needed for victory.

Situation at dusk on Day 1 of the first game. The Ottomans have been repulsed by the few elite Evzones in Morkios (left of pic) but established a foothold in Janista (centre of pic). The remaining two turns on Day 2 will be just enough for them to seize Hill 1078 (right foreground) and Moni Kiras (top right) for the win.

We were able to swap sides, reset and go again. This time we tried a different plan, concentrating against the central Greek salient initially. We got the surge in earlier, sending in three simultaneous charges just before dusk on Day. The odds said we should have succeeded with one or two, but the dice were against us. We reeled back and conceded defeat.

Reflections

Small games: pros and cons. A small game like this has several advantages. We were able to set up quickly and play it twice in an evening. The small manageable forces were ideal for introducing a new player to the game system. The simplicity provides a very distilled tactical challenge that still allows for different plans to be tried. On the 'con' side, with so few units on the table, one or two extreme dice early on that inflict particularly heavy casualties can have disproprortionate ramifications for the rest of the game. But even that 'con' can be a 'pro' in that such variability adds to the replay value.

Simple but subtle: troop quality. Though the forces are small, there is enough variety in their orders of battle to create choices and add interest. The Turks have two regular regiments with modern Mauser rifles, but their third is raw redif reservists with older weapons (and old blue uniforms). On the Greek side, there is only one large regular unit, the rest being a mix of Garibaldini, Cretan volunteers, and other irregulars, but they do have the best troops on the table: the 1-base Evzone unit.

Surprisingly successful! I wasn't sure how well this scenario would work as a game, but actually it was great fun and will need almost no revision. Thanks, Konstantinos!

My 2026 tour of defence academies

By improbable coincidence, in August I visited four different military educational institutions in three different countries;

- the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham (as invited participant in a Waterloo wargame);

- the US Army War College, Carlisle PA (to present BBB at a Symposium on Wargaming in Professional Military Education);

- the US Military Academy at West Point (strictly as a tourist);

- and Sweden's Defence University, Stockholm (to participate in an academic workshop).

I also took in a couple of good military museums on the way.

I already reported on the Waterloo game in a previous post here.

The symposium at AWC was a much more substantial and significant event. It was the first conference of its kind, gathering nearly 100 international participants to discuss the use of wargaming in military education, share best practice, etc. It was initiated by Professor Nicholas Murray, who has regular used the Bloody Big Battles! rules to run games for educational purposes at the US Army's Command & General Staff College, Naval War College, and elsewhere. Consequently I attended to present a BBB demonstration game.

I chose to use the Montebello scenario that is my favourite "training game". A couple of bold participants took up the challenge and played it through, while a fair number of others stopped by to view and discuss it. (Since you ask: crushing French win, their all-out aggression from the start paid off, everything went right for them and none of the Austrian potential reinforcements made it onto the table.)

An example of the other games on display at AWC, this one by LTC Tyler Brooks of AWC.

As well as presenting the game, I attended a lot of interesting talks and met some really impressive people. It was an exciting meeting and I understand is likely to become an annual event. Other related activities may follow as well.

These slides are from COL Tim Barrick's presentation, reproduced with his kind permission.

Maybe I will adapt it to create my own Cognitive Wargaming Competency Framework and assess my gaming buddies. The risk is that it might be turned against me.

Professor Murray has published a report on the symposium in Small Wars Journal here. Participant Aaron Danis has also done a write-up in Armchair Dragoons here. (You'll find a pic of my Montebello game captioned as "a Kriegsspiel-type game with effective terrain representation". I used a printed battlemat with Kriegsspiel blocks rather than miniatures.)

AWC has a rather fine museum on-site. Exhibits include this mighty FT-17.

Also of particular interest to us wargamers is this Apparatus, as explained by COL Parrish below. Further information on it can be found here.

As if that wasn't enough, half an hour down the road from AWC is the National Civil War Museum at Harrisburg PA.

Vignette from Pickett's Charge, a display at the NCWM.

We spent a good couple of hours there and could easily have spent a couple more. Its collection of firearms is particularly impressive, including all sorts of firearms by makers I'd never heard of. Well worth a visit.

Sherman on gate guard at West Point.

The West Point visit was just an opportunistic side-trip on the drive between AWC and the airport. Obviously I knew it was an impressive institution but actually going there helped to reinforce that impression.

Illustrious alumni greeted us at the West Point visitor center.

The Defence University in Stockholm.

The workshop in Stockholm was perhaps the most important of the month's excursions (for me, at least). All I'll say for now is that it relates to the Clausewitz translations Professor Murray and I have published. Oh, and that he demonstrated his excellent map game of the 1799 campaign, illuminating the challenges of coalition warfare and of allocating resources between competing theatres of operations. More in due course.

I can't praise our generous hosts' hospitality highly enough. These eminent Swedish generals watched us eat some very fine lunches in the VIP room.

The 1799 campaign game. Map in foreground is the German theatre of operations; the further one, northern Italy and Switzerland. This has helped to educate a lot of officers and strategic thinkers over the years.

BBB Peninsular War scenario book published

 

I am delighted to announce the publication of our eagerly-awaited new BBB scenario book for the Peninsular War, Bloody Big Peninsular Battles! (BBPB).

Wargamers love the Peninsular War, for many good reasons:

- It is where Napoleon's nemesis, Wellington, builds his reputation through famous victories such as Salamanca and Vitoria.

- The four contending armies - British, Spanish, Portuguese and French - all feature many colourful troop types. These range from the classic British riflemen, highlanders, etc., via Spanish yellow-jacketed dragoons or guerrillas and Portuguese caçadores or militia, to Napoleon's Polish, German and Italian allies. Even the Imperial Guard puts in a brief appearance.

- These armies meet on diverse battlefields in assorted unique situations: we see wagon trains, siestas, mountain passes, crown jewels ...

The 18 scenarios in this collection capture all this rich flavour as they take you from the start of the war in 1808 through to the Allied invasion of France in 1813. Fully half of the scenarios have no British troops present, reflecting the part played by Spain and Portugal in their own liberation. Each scenario is distinctively different, portraying each battle's individual character and presenting players with different tactical challenges each time. Campaign options enable players to play the set as a campaign in which victory in one battle provides some plausible advantage in the next.

Table of Contents

Introduction                                                             
 
The Early Battles, 1808 – 3-scenario mini-campaign
Medina de Rio Seco                                          
Bailén                                                               
Tudela                                                              
 
Spanish Counter-Offensive: The Campaign of 1809 – 5-scenario mini-campaign
Uclés                                                                
Valls                                                                 
Medellín                                                           
Talavera de la Reina                                        
Ocaña                                                              
 
Meanwhile in Portugal: Soult’s Invasion of the North, 1809 –  stand-alone scenario
Braga                                                               
 
The Defence of Portugal 1810-11 – 3-scenario mini-campaign
Busaco                                                            
Albuera                                                            
Fuentes de Oñoro                                           
 
Suchet in Valencia – 2-scenario mini-campaign
Sagunto                                                            
Valencia                                                            
 
Wellington’s Advance into Spain, 1812 – stand-alone scenario
Salamanca                                                       
 
From Spain to France: The Battles of 1813 – 3 -scenario mini campaign
Vitoria                                                               
The Pyrenees                                                   
The Nivelle                                                       

The book is available in PDF format from SkirmishCampaigns here.

Print copies should be available shortly from On Military Matters (US) and Caliver Books (UK).

To help you build armies to fight these battles, there is a spreadsheet of the bases required in the files of the BBB io group here. (You need to be a member of the group to get access to the files.)

BBPB is now listed on BoardGameGeek if you want to let people know what you think of it.

In very much related news, Jared Fishman of the 20 Sided Gamified Podcast has recorded an interview with me and BBPB author Dr Mark Smith. Update: now released as Episode #134. Check it out if you want to hear Mark and me enthusing about the Peninsular War, wargames, 19th-century military history, etc.

Waterloo at UK Defence Academy Shrivenham

I had the privilege of being invited to play in a Waterloo BBB game at Shrivenham. I was going to write a full report but one of my fellow players, Steve J, has beaten me to it. Rather than replicate what he's done, let me point you to his lovely full photo-AAR here. Likewise Stu on his Cirencester Wargames blog here.

Apart from echoing his thanks to our hosts, comrades and opponents for their good company and an excellent day, I'd just add one photo and one Reflection of my own:

Replayability. I suppose I've fought Waterloo five or six times now. Each one has played out differently to some degree. This time was radically different again, the French following a plan I'd not seen before and producing a shape to the battle that I'd not seen before. That plus the fact of it coming down to the last objective changing hands with the last dice on the last turn made it a seriously good game.

Penultimate turn. Lambert's 6th Division holds Mont St Jean (the village with the red star Objective marker), supported by Uxbridge's cavalry (foreground). In front of them, the Union brigade valiantly keeps two French divisions at bay long enough to prevent them joining the fight at Mont St Jean. Upper right, though, problems: the Old Guard surging down the ridge is about to smash through the remnants of Alten's division, force Wellington himself to decamp briefly, then storm onward to eject Lambert. Lambert will need the aid of Bylandt's Dutch/Belgians, arriving from the left (out of shot), to charge back in and expel the grognards to earn a draw.

6mm figures from Dave F's fine collection.

Chess game at Bentonville (ACW)

We are steadily whittling away at the list of scenarios for the BBB ACW project. One of the few left to do was Bentonville. This week we had our third playtest of Crispin's scenario for this battle.

The historical situation is this. By spring of 1865, Grant's Union army had been besieging Lee's Confederates in Petersburg for seven months. Meanwhile, Sherman had completed his March to the Sea through the Confederate south. Sherman then turned north to march through North Carolina towards Petersburg. Lee called on Johnston (commanding the Confederate Army of the South) to concentrate all the forces he could and drive Sherman back.

Sherman's army was advancing in two columns. Johnston saw an opportunity to defeat the left wing under Slocum while the enemy was divided. On 19 March he attacked, sending a couple of Union divisions reeling back in disarray. The Union line eventually stabilised and the Confederates fell back to their initial entrenchments.

Little fighting happened on 20 March. It was mostly spent in manoeuvre as Sherman brought up reinforcements to extend his line, while Johnston adjusted his own line in response.

On 21 March, Sherman launched a limited attack but did not commit to it enough to cut off the rebels' retreat. Johnston withdrew what was left of his army overnight, then surrendered a month later.

Crispin captured these three days' action in a 9-turn game with strategic redeployment in the two night intervals. Here's the battlefield map. Note the long wooded ravines that are major obstacles to movement.

The Confederate attack on Day 1 happens in the lower left quarter, where the white stars are Day 1 Objectives. On Day 2, US reinforcements arrive from the right, so the Confederates need to fall back. The shape of Day 3 depends on a die roll to determine variable objectives. Day 3 Objectives may be either the red stars (representing the Confederate blocking position) or the blue stars (the Confederate line of retreat).

We'd had a couple of playtests already to refine the scenario. This was the definitive one. Seven photos show how it went, followed by some Reflections.

This is the only pic of Day 1. In fairly historical fashion, the Confederates have poured forth from their entrenchments and are driving back the US XIV Cps line. US reinforcements will arrive to try to stabilise it. Unfortunately, things went poorly for the US here: not only were a couple of divisions battered and rendered unfit to fight for a day, but also the US cavalry was wiped out entirely. That meant the US would lack a valuable weapon to strike at the Confederate rear on Day 3.

Figures are Baccus 6mm. Troops and terrain all from Crispin's collection.

Day 2 dawns. The Confederates have pulled back and entrenched in a strong central position with their flanks covered by steep wooded ravines. US XV Cps has arrived on their left, to be followed by XVII Cps, but will not be able to close effectively with them on Day 2. Meanwhile, XIV Cps, still bruised from Day 1, is pushing up past the rebels' right flank (out of shot top of pic).

End of Day 2. No significant combat happened, only manoeuvring for position. Note the couple of small isolated Confederate cavalry units centre and upper right of pic, falling back to cover Bentonville and the Confederate line of retreat in case that turns out to be the objective, rather than the hill position and road junction in front of it (white counters).

Overnight, the dice decreed the blue stars in the Confederate rear were the Objectives. Consequently, here we see the Confederates starting Day 3 by pulling back from their entrenched position, leaving only a sacrificial rear guard. (Yep, failed movement roll.)

Fortunately for the Confederates, all my US right wing can do this turn is struggle across the ravine. Note one US division at right edge of pic that is supposed to march straight on Bentonville (the buildings top right). The terrain is likely to be more of an obstacle than those few Confederate cavalry. Top centre and centre of left edge, Dave's battered XIV Cps has been reinforced by XX Cps and is pressing the rebels' front and right rear.

The effort against the right rear comes to nothing (just out of shot top right), fended off by those rebel units upper right.. However, the retreating rebels are hard pressed, at risk of being caught in the open by superior US numbers.

Endgame. Dave's US left wing is stalled at top of pic. Out of shot to the right, my one-division march on Bentonville has been held up in another ravine. (Should have had them in column of march?) Centre of pic, a Confederate division is about to be smashed and the guns beyond it driven off, so that we capture the objective counter there. However, the US runs out of time before the Confederacy runs out of troops. End result: a narrow Confederate win. Well played, Crispin.

Reflections

The Chess Game. Crispin's scenario nicely captured the three different days. In particular, the chess game of manoeuvring for position - in the strategic redeployments, the jockeying on Day 2, and then the tactical moves to threaten or cover Bentonville - was really absorbing. So much better than a simple line-out punch-up dice-fest.

Variable Objectives. Our usual scenario formula is that all objectives are known from the start. I've only used variable objectives in a few scenarios, but they include some of my favourites: the Alma, Gettysburg, Königgrätz. In this Bentonville game, having some objectives unknown until halfway through the game introduced some realistic fog of war that made the chess game of manoeuvre extra interesting. I should use this kind of mechanism more often.

How Things Ramify. Only a fraction of the Union force is engaged on Turns 1-3. A few particularly good or bad dice or decisions here can really hurt either side and have knock-on effects that ripple through to the end of the game. That's good in that it means the game can be replayed multiple times and turn out dramatically differently. It does make it hard to evaluate the playtests though! (But we're happy with the shape of the scenario now.)

The draft scenario is available in the BBB io group files here.

Khartoum characters

This was a final check playtest of a scenario we first played back in 2022: Khartoum. (Report here.) Time doesn't allow me to do a very long and detailed report this time, so I just offer 16 photos with some light remarks.

General Gordon is in Khartoum. He has refused to recognise how desperate his situation is. That's right - he is in de-Nile. (Save your groans, there's worse to come.)

Dave T and I commanded the mad Mahdists. I had the right wing, shown here. The orange counter notes a unit of captured Egyptians forced to fight for the Mahdists. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection.

Mahdists attack left to right. Khartoum is protected by a line of earthworks, with a belt of obstacles in front of those (the dark felt): barbed wire, broken glass, artillery shells serving as mines. Brown felt at top is where the Nile has flooded, washed away the end of the earthworks, then receded leaving a marshy gap. White counters are objectives: the artillery bastions along the fortified line; various locations in the city (forts, the cathedral, the palace, etc).

Gordon and a big Krupp gun on the roof of the palace. The paddlesteamer gunboat wrought some havoc late in the game.

Mahdist camelry.

Egyptians wait behind their earthen ramparts.

Our cunning plan was for Dave T to surge through the marshy gap. However, see that little barge moored in mid-river to flank the line? The rifle fire from there was exceedingly irksome.

I shifted my weight left from here towards the marshy end so as to marry up with Dave's push on the left. Our rifle fire was effective in the first 3 turns, wiping out a couple of the tiny Egyptian units.

We chose to take a scenario option and launch a landing force across the Nile behind the Egyptian line. Unfortunately some of our troops were slow to embark and cross. That's right - they were not well-en-dhowed. As a result, half of them never got into the fight and were just mown down by the gunboat.

However, the other half of this outflanking contingent did better - it was the only Mahdist unit to get into Khartoum. Here we see it enter the outskirts of the city, having routed some enemy irregulars.

Situation late in the game. Apart from that sole incursion into the city, the rest of Dave's force is bogged down top of pic, while my repeated attempts to storm across the ramparts have all failed and every one of my units is stuck in the obstacle belt.

Gamely our lads go in again. All these charges will likewise bounce off except for my cavalry, upper right, who will push their foes back but then be gunned down as they mill about post-melee.

Similar story for Dave's repeated charges on our left.

Gordon can't afford to get cocky, though, as Dave's city raiders work their way closer to the palace. Next turn they will overrun the palace.

That's right - Gordon and his men will be an-Nile-ated.

With a couple of turns to go, some of mine get over the ramparts at last. This prompts most of the remaining Egyptian defenders to fall back to the city, having successfully bought time.

Game end. The three units in the foreground with green cubes are mine. The one in the palace at the top is Dave's. The other four, though, are Crispin's, still hanging on in objective locations despite being low on ammo (black cubes).

And the bigger picture shows most of Dave's force still trying to finish off one last 2-base Egyptian unit (in the foreground, with the yellow cube).

Skilful defence by Crispin denied us even a draw. We could point to some unkind dice at important times - when we launched so many charges, we could reasonably have expected more to succeed - but sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition. Regardless, it was a good game that presented challenges and options to both sides. Different plans are possible so it has replay value.

This will be one of the battles in our planned Bloody Big Battles in Africa! scenario book that we hope to complete this year.

A beer and a fight on a Saturday night: Aspern/Essling

I asked Dave O if he wanted a beer and a fight last Saturday night, so that we could narrow the gap between games from decades down to less than a year. Our last encounter was Gettysburg last September. After ACW, his other great enthusiasm is Napoleonics, so we rolled out Aspern/Essling from the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles! scenario book.

Ammoed up for Aspern/Essling

Dave's ACW armies are in 6mm but his Napoleonics are 2mm from Irregular Miniatures. These give a really good mass effect for a big battle like this:

Austrian reinforcements that will march on in Turn 2. Coloured base edges are red for Veteran, blue for Trained, green for Raw. Flags on the corners identify which army they're from. Coloured dice identify which corps is which. You could use the dice to track strength points but we didn't do that - too fiddly and too prone to get spilled. Instead, we used the number labels as unit ID to track strength on a roster.

Most of the French army is queuing up to cross the pontoon bridges over the Danube.

Discreet little mdf rectangles indicate a unit has the Skirmisher attribute. 

The large circular bases are the C-inCs. Here is Napoleon;

and Archduke Charles.

Irregular's 2mm terrain paints up nicely. Lovely job by Dave on this village.

I gave a synopsis of the historical battle last time I played it, back in 2020, so shan't repeat myself. Here is the battlefield:

Red stars are Objectives. Austrians need to take 3 to draw or 4+ to win. Essling is treated as a Fort (3 cover); Aspern as a Town (2 cover). The berm between them provides 1 cover. The French have only 3 divisions on the table initially. Each turn, they have 50% chance of getting another division across. It is a 9-turn game. After Turn 3 there is a Night Interval, in which they will get another 4-6 divisions across. All the Austrians are either on table initially or arrive on Turn 2. There's a lot of them! But they are almost all rated Passive, which means it may take a while to get them all into action and can be hard to coordinate assaults.

Austrian Passivity means Hiller on the extreme right makes virtually no move towards the Gemeinde Au. However, Charles manages to put four divisions into an assault on Aspern on Turn 2. The yellow Disruption puffs are because the preceding turn's firefight killed off both sides' Skirmishers - losses the numerous Austrians can absorb better than the French. 

Disaster for the French! Boxcars mean the Austrian offensive fire wipes out the defenders of Aspern. Bellegarde's corps will swarm through and hit the French reserves who have moved up behind the town.

Some revenge for Dave on the Austrian left, where Hohenlohe has recklessly advanced through Gross Entzersdorf in column (indicated by the blank square template behind the Austrian infantry unit) and gets charged by the French heavy cavalry division (rectangular template = In Depth).

Hohenlohe's infantry take casualties and are hurled back to seek refuge behind their cavalry (top left).

But it is the Austrian turn to attack again. Bellegarde debouches from Aspern for another go at the disrupted French. His cavalry charge over the berm, sacrificing themselves to distract the French artillery.

The Austrian cavalry has died but done its job. The infantry assault succeeds, driving back the French infantry and cavalry (top left), then rolling up and driving off the French gun line. 

Blessed relief for the desperate French as night falls. Both armies regroup. Napoleon crosses the Danube. He now has 8 divisions crammed into a pocket around his bridge, with a fresh gun line.

But his heavy cavalry, his only support for his division garrisoning Essling, is somewhat isolated next to Gross-Entzersdorf.

Archduke Charles waits for the French hammer to fall on Aspern. Hiller (right of pic) finally has a toe in the Gemeinde Au woods but there are French tirailleurs in there.

The hammer duly falls. It will take a couple of turns of hard pounding but the French will retake Aspern.

But the Austrians are preparing their own assault on Essling (top right). Apart from the Essling garrison, the artillery and the cavalry next to the Danube are the only French in the picture. They face eight Austrian divisions, including Lindenau's grenadiers (the two units with black dice and green puffs for Aggressive).

The Austrian assault on Essling (top of pic) is being prepared by this substantial gun line. Although it looks formidable, so are Essling's defences, so all it produced was clouds of dust.

Five Austrian divisions storm Essling. The supporting French cavalry and artillery are wiped out by other Austrian units.

Turn 6: Austrians hang on in Aspern; French hang on in the Gemeinde Au. In terms of victory conditions, the game is currently a draw.

The Austrians get their noses in front by taking Essling.

Austrians again repulsed from the Gemeinde Au on their right. Archduke Charles is displeased.

From displeased to dismayed: a 6:1 die roll means the French retake Aspern. The scores are level again!

Triumphant French now occupy Aspern. Blue puff shows their defeated opponents are Spent.

However, the French right is about to collapse. The Austrians pour onward from Essling in overwhelming force to rout the division they had expelled from there.

They then exploit the breach to overrun the French guns covering the Lobau bridgehead. Napoleon himself is next to the bridge and about to make expeditious use of it. There was a turn or two left, but Dave conceded at this point.

These five French divisions - including the Imperial Guard - never made it across the bridge. Never mind, they can provide the core of Napoleon's new army for his next campaign.

French casualties: three divisions and two artillery units wiped out.

(The Austrians lost one destroyed and one Spent.)

Reflections

Small figures, big battles. As a devotee of big battles, I am a fan of the small scales that make them feasible. My own collection is nearly all 6mm from various manufacturers (apart from a couple of 2mm armies); I also like the 10mm armies some of our group use. As this game shows, 2mm is also very good - perhaps the best of the three - for making battles look like battles rather than skirmishes.

Exponential effects of early luck. I was fortunate early on with a couple of lucky dice rolls that resulted in one precious French unit being destroyed and Aspern falling on Day 1. Although the luck evened out (eg Dave's 6:1 roll to retake Aspern), the French were always on the back foot after suffering that early blow, as its ramifications made themselves felt in terms of gaps in the line, etc. Napoleon said, "Give me generals who are lucky". We might amend that to "Give me generals who are lucky on Turn 1". 

Never surrender? When Dave conceded, it was still technically a draw: he held 3 Objectives (Aspern, the Gemeinde Au, and the bridge), so I needed to take one of those to get the 4 I needed for a win. True, I had several units close to the bridge, where Dave had nothing left. But if he had got one Imperial Guard division across next turn, they might well have held the earthworks against my disorganised troops. I might or might not have retaken Aspern and was making no progress in the Gemeinde Au. So although victory was undoubtedly beyond Napoleon's grasp, a draw was still very possible.

Still, Dave drubbed me at Gettysburg, so I'll take the win!