Lasalle 2 - Prussian vs French 1813

Game with Stephen today using new version of Lasalle.

Played the first scenario with small forces (250pts each) and I fielded 1813 Prussians against French.

We decided to use all the advanced rule options which were pretty easy to implement and still leaves the game system as slick and fast playing.

The use of 'Voltigeur' stands for the skirmishing aspect we found better overall than the basic game Momentum boost.

Most turns the French, who also deployed a unit as 'Sharpshooters' had a couple of stands for use but one turn generated a whopping 7 !!

The Voltigeurs are really annoying for enemy as they stop Rallying, effect Shooting and can get a shot at moving units, they can be ignored but only if unit remains inactive.

I used an ADC which is nice bonus of 1 MO especially useful when MO is at premium.

We both took 1 additional Commander trait with mine being Valiant and French choosing Charismatic but only actually used once between us as we mostly used our Commanders to boost MO.

Couple of Huzzah markers were generated in game and nice to have option to recover a disorder or get a second move.

As before we found the Momentum system to be excellent as it leads to lots of key decisions each turn especially once units get close in.

The shooting is easy and melee combat is pretty decisive especially fresh against weakened units.

Failed to finish the game due to lots of discussion and wanting to see the England - German Euro match but Prussians were getting the worst of things being 1 unit from auto defeat,

Overall a good set of rules which whilst it has fairly generic units is fun due to the MO and slick play and suits an afternoons play.

Initial Prussian Infantry advance

French get to stream first as Prussians march onto ridge line and take a village

Prussian Dragoon Brigade arrive and move behind hills on left wing

Village invested but not Garrisoned

French Dragoons occupy central posistion

Prussian Uhlans have crossed the stream as infantry face off in centre

Prussian take disorders from French volleys

 

L'Art De La Guerre - two games (T'Ang Chinese vs Central Asian)

LADG again at Stephens where we managed to get two games completed.

Stephen wanted to try T'Ang Chinese so I brought compatible Central Asian Turkish with option to convert to Sogdian (with Ummayad Arab Ally).

First game was T'Ang vs the Turks and so both 'shooty' armies but with Chinese being better shooters by virtue of their (very nasty and potent) Spearmen with back rank Bowmen.

Their longer range (double mounted range) is a real asset and they are also tough in combat as they cancel mounted Impact (ie Lance) and benefit from bow support at initial contact (2 vs 0 without counting Disruptions etc)

This combo means mounted are usually Disrupted before they get to shoot and are therefore greatly disadvantaged in any contact and additionally with the Foot being Heavy Infantry the mounted really struggle to inflict sufficient damage before suffering themselves.

Stephen had a lot of successful Rally attempts whilst I did not which greatly aided his cause.

Breaking off not really an option as the foot have range to get additional shots before mounted can get back into range or contact.

The Turks had lots of Elite light cavalry but these are pretty useless if faced by the mixed foot (of course this is the historical raison d'etre of this T'Ang troop type).

My mounted were almost exclusively Elite but this just slowed rate of decline rather then increase that of enemy.

Despite gaining initiative and getting to attack into face of T'Ang they had both flanks covered by terrain (despite it being Plains) and the Turks broke themselves on this solid Infantry whilst not being able to inflict any real loss on the T'Ang mounted or other supporting troops.

Second game I tried Sogdians with Impetuous mounted supported by less Light Horse (all Elite) and the Arab Command.

I chose to defend this time and terrain was pretty meaningless for us both (again on Plains) even with one flank closed off by a coast line.

I did have some success on my left against tiny T'Ang command and the Arabs held their own on my right although the Spearmen suffered horribly from some dramatically good shooting from Chinese mounted bow.

But the Lancers still could not deal with the Chinese mixed foot despite inflicting several hits, just never enough to destroy any elements before dying themselves.

T'Ang a tough proposition for Turkish Steppe types armies (no real answer to the foot) as you need to try to attack flanks but seldom enough Pips or opportunities and I find LADG moves too quickly to allow much prevarication.

But once again two excellent games with plenty of action and a lot of tactical decisions to make.

L’Art De La Guerre - Avar vs Carolingian

Another game of LADG with Stephen (recovering well) at mine with table seeing first proper action in months. 

This time up I used Avar against Stephens Carolingians for another nice historical match up

We both had a +3 Initiative but Stephen won and selected to attack on Plains, this is a bit of a disaster for my lot as this allows attacker to get right across the table into face of enemy thereby minimising room to manoeuvre/evade with my horse archer types.

Unfortunately my Slav foot on my right ended up faced by a Frankish impetuous cavalry command which proceeded to decimate them.

I did manage a good few shooting hits with some good turns of dice rolls but never enough to kill anything and as expected after only a couple of effective evades moves I had to fight with my mounted troops who failed to fight as well as they shot.

Another defeat but another quick and fun game with LADG and great to be back to regular gaming.

L’Art De La Guerre - back at it

Game with LADG with Stephen who has just recovered from a nasty bout of pneumonia (Covid not the only nasty thing around!) in our first gaming session since beginning of October last year.

We decided to give new edition of LADG an outing as small quick style game and therefore good to get us back into swing.

We had a nice historical match up with Carthage (Stephen) versus Romans (moi).

After usual waffling about new amendments, list changes and suchlike we quickly got into game as of course not drastically different to last edition (a few changes bit mainly a lot of clarification).

A nice bloody encounter with Carthage coming out on top after crushing my left wing and a diabolically poor set of dice rolls (moi) at same time as a run of sixes (Stephen) against my Legionaries meaning I was unable to turn tide (despite decent match ups and a couple of overlaps.

But as ever with LADG a fun game easily completed in an afternoon and with us keen to try again with different armies (Avar vs Carolingian next up) and great to get back to our gaming. 

Still a close run thing as to wether we prefer LADG or MEG.

Armies arrayed at start

Legionaries hug the coast on their right wing

Hannibal (on Elephant) leads his foot

Carthaginian right wing

Roman Auxiliary types hold the left wing

Roman left being overwhelmed as Legions fight on right

Legions fail to sufficiently damage Carthaginian lines as flank turned