Markleeberg with Battle Command

Big lad Steven home for a few days and we managed to squeeze in a wargame using Battle Command.

I set up game based on Markleeberg October 1813 with son as French and I as the Prusso-Russo forces.

Once again this proved to be a very close and hard fought action going right down to the wire for both sides.

Both sides started with Artillery Actions and both sides artillery were complete pants !

Boy then aggressively pushed across the stream in the center whilst holding on both flanks

This was nearly his early undoing as both his flanks began to fold and it seemed I was going to turn his flanks very quickly.

But I just could not get my flanking units to maneuver to take advantage (it could have been a Cannae) and the French began to grind down my central Brigade,

Thankfully my reserves arrived just in time to shore up the center and losses mounted for both sides.

French Morale Pool was expended but so was Allied pool soon after.

In fact I was at one point 1 card down (given to French) but no Army Morale appeared and I then gained 3 from French giving a slim 2 card advantage

Just as well as my Army Morale card was turned and thankfully I did not need to test.

Both sides had to be very careful with aggressive actions as any reverse could be fatal.

Luckily for me Steven turned his Army Morale card and had to test with his D12 Commander rolling 8 but the D12 I rolled was a 12 (something I seldom see) so French yielded the field but very close as I had lost more units than French but just maintained a minimal Morale Pool.

Great game with fairly even spread of dice luck which usually is when 'dice demon' not present :-)

Russian Hussars have crossed stream to flank French 

Prussian Reserves arrive to aid crumbling Russian Brigade

Elite Cuirassier which mugged a couple of my Infantry units

French pushing deep into Allied territory

Prussians have taken town and again are ready to flank French 

View from Allied right 

Bloody action in central zone

Those Hussars just will not answer calls to make most of advance

French pushing across stream en-mass

Early action at town

Steven surveys his forces

Allied wings push as central yields (I would love to say deliberately......but........) 

French reserve Brigade arrives on their left 

Guns have been firing on both sides but to little effect

Battle Command - Bautzen 1813 scenario

Napoleonic game today with Stephen and I choose to use Battle Command with 'Franquemonts Attack at Bautzen' May 1813 scenario (adapted from GDB).

I took my Prussians in defence with Stephen using French and Wurttembergers (seldom seen toys) in attack.

Well as ever Stephen was in Dice Demon mode from early on with his Artillery doing lots of damage whilst mine were pants.

In fact it seemed his guns were going to win game all on their own combined with his ability to roll even on Action Matrix giving him optimal choices on each card.

My rolls spread even and odd with several ones meaning no choice at all beyond card default and the benefit of French having a D12 CinC vs a D10 was prominent throughout game.

Probably worst of his frankly demonic dicing was when my Cuirassier arrived from reserve and tried to charge an average French unit in Line but he rolled a 12 whilst I inevitably rolled a 1 so heavies routed toot suite !!

Crushing but these 'big swings' are what make the combat system decisive and aid quick play, but I swear he must sacrifice various small animals before each game :-)

Prussian morale was dropping fast with little discomfort for French but thankfully I managed to pass first Army Morale roll, and as always seems to happen my lot started inflicting some pain on French sods but yet again too little too late.

Prussians conceded not long after............. 

Great game as ever and we got to really see the difference to game play with the Action Matrix/Small Card Deck as opposed to FOB with larger deck.

Always good to play a game to completion in reasonable time

As before we both feel Bat Cmd seems to suit 2 player better with the increased choices/decisions of Matrix whilst FOB slicker for multi-player but essentially the same Piquet 'feel' to game overall.

French pressuring Prussians all along the battle line

Prussian artillery wiped out on hill 

More even exchanges in center

Prussian right barely holding

Prussian left looking exposed

Prussian Cuirassier routing out of shot (and in abject shame) on left 

Prussians holding on but Army Morale has been decimated

Waves of fresh French troops press on 

Prussian center weakening

So many French approaching

French gunnery has severely weakened Prussians

Loss of a Brigadier General not helping putting Brigade in Disorder (yellow puffs)

French skirmishers getting in way of following formations

A hard pounding (German equivalent) 

My Artillery concentrated on left and close to useless all day

French hitting power from their guns was relentless early on

Valour & Fortitude a try with Prussians and French

Game at mine today with Stephen and decided to give Valour & Fortitude rules an outing using my Prussians against his French circa 1813/14.

We tried 400 point forces and used GDB again to generate terrain which worked fine.

Been a while since we used V&F and not sure we have tried latest version (but no radical changes).

Enjoyable test of rules that certainly play very smoothly as written, and being very much a broad brush and fast play style set.

Very liberal movement system (even more so than BP) but works along with Actions Phase and shooting/melee all easy to adjudicate.

Units stats feel pretty much as per BP but nice addition of the Army Traits and card deck Special Abilities.

Of course couple of things we decided to house rule re Light Infantry,  Heavy Guns and some Skirmish Shooting, but really only minor tinkering.

Decent set of rules at really good price. 

Gilly with Shadows of the Eagles

Another try with Shadow of the Eagles rules today at Stephens and he choose to use the Gilly scenario from GDA (a favourite scenario of ours)

We also tried the newer Skirmishing rules (almost a complete re-write) which does away with skirmisher screens (now just a single dice roll at longer range ala Valour & Fortitude) and amends formation widths and numbers of dice used by Light Infantry in skirmish and in fact we simplified it further.

We tried to accommodate the Grenadier trait from GDA by making Light Infantry Superior/Regular (superior for Training which includes moving and firing but regular for Motivation) but this did not quite work as intended as Superior a rather more powerful effect in SOTE. 

With hindsight we would restrict the Superior status to truly Elite units with Grenadiers/Young Guard as Regular/Superior which would enhance their melee and morale but not training attributes.

Hits in system are very debilitating to units as you cannot rally off last 2 and whilst carry hits (up to being weakened) does not effect firing it has massive effect on melee as you count total losses suffered not just those in the current combat. 

So a unit entering melee with 2 or 3 hits if enemy has none or 1 is pretty crippling as generally they would lose combat and fall back (with a further hit).

Two attack columns managing to contact a line seemed to favour the columns as Line spreads melee hits across two targets but suffers all losses leading to line suffering greater loss overall and Falling Back

This seemed especially tough on cavalry who cannot shoot and rely on melee, but maybe in SOTE we need to better husband mounted arm for later in game ?

Foot in Line seemed in little danger from mounted with no real need for square (unless of course foot are inferior)

Certainly makes things decisive but maybe a bit harsher than we are used to and the rules do play quickly and systems are generally easy to understand.  

Plan is to re-try V&F next

 

Shadow of the Eagles - a proper play with 1813 Prussians vs French

Game today with Stephen and I chose to try Shadow of the Eagles to see how it fared in face to face play.

And lo and behold as expected a much better game when not solo as too much to juggle for older head when trying to manage 2 sides at once.

I set up table using GDB terrain generation system which worked fine and I chose 1813 Prussians and therefore Stephen had French.

Used the nominal army lists we found (18 pts for French and 19 for Prussians) so I had 21 units and French 18 or so, maybe a bit large for a test but worked fine.

No real scenario just a straight up bash to test rules.

No problems encountered bar a couple of minor queries re Evading skirmishers and Rout Tests and think we managed to test most aspect of rules with possible exception of how assaults on BUA are handled.

Stephen had a more up to date set of updates than I have with main difference being Skirmish Screens are reduced from 2 to 1 fighting dice which is better vis a vis Light Infantry with their 2 whilst in skirmish.

All in all an enjoyable game with a playable system that allows a quick style decisive game which is what it is designed for.

For me a bit bland overall compared to FOB or other sets but a nice alternative for a quick game type.