Whilst the default for this is French defending against Russian/Austrian force there is an alternative to replace the Austrians with Prussians so that is what we went with as neither of us own Austrians.
Another tough day at office for Allies as they are faced with adjacent villages (the capture of which is sole way to victory) and these we are finding are akin to fortresses.
I assaulted one village with a brigade of 3 Veteran Prussian foot and the unit that attacked the village started fresh with no hits but a combined defensive fire from three units inflicted 7 hits prior to combat and although I passed 2 out of 3 morale tests inflicted I ended up unformed.
The target garrison fired 5 skirmish dice, the adjacent garrison fired 7 (using skirmisher tasking) and an artillery unit adjacent on other flank fired 5 CDs with a standard volley (canister vs column and artillery assault), my supporting units are not priority targets for skirmish or artillery firing so all able to deluge the lead unit with all available fire.
In first round of combat (5 dice each as I was Veteran with Glory but Unformed) it was a draw with us both taking 3 casualties and both decided to stand and fight a second round with both sides throwing in a fresh reinforcing unit.
I actually had 11 dice vs 9 (due to being Veterans vs Line) and won the combat 6 to 5 .......... but ............ instead of this resulting in my forcing the 2 defending units back in retreat and faltering the enemy brigade, whilst occupying the village, it was instead deemed a pyrrhic victory as my lead unit was dispersed due to reaching 12+ casualties which meant defender ignored the adverse result and instead my brigade faltered.
To add to woes I rolled three sixes in combat so village caught fire and of course the edge determined was that facing my units so now no direct route into village !
Close but no cigar and this used numerous ADCs (Forwards, Glory, Re-Rolls etc) and the best foot units in the game and still they got mullered, villages are proving so formidable.
We have not managed to successfully assault a village in any game thus far and are struggling with how best to deal with them as shooting cannot do it, and pretty hard (and time consuming) to isolate them from their supports or to weaken them more than attackers, and even good quality attackers need to be very lucky to overcome the garrisons as at contact its one on one.
The 'twin fortresses' with veteran Prussian brigade approaching
That's a very fine looking game. It sounds like there is a real disincentive to capture towns and villages in these rules. One often reads of battles where villages are being lost then recaptured then lost again.
ReplyDeleteVillages are proving very tough assuming we are understanding rules correctly. They are usually the core locations to achieve victory so you got to try :-)
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