Your eyes do not deceive you. We played two simultaneous Quatre Bras battles side by side with myself and Ian being the French and Russ / Mark playing the Allies.
To be fair, confusion did reign as both myself and Russ had assumed that we were going to be fighting one big battle (I did wonder why the roads stopped abruptly in the middle of the battlefield!). The penny only dropped when I noticed that Ian had exactly the same troops as me and had only advised me to 'get the cavalry stuck in!' rather than provide a detailed and devious plan to outwit the bumbling Brits..
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| Two separate battles, not one with a cocky road! |
Once the confusion had settled we got on with the battles. It was interesting to see how differently the two tables looked after a couple of turns - Ian and Mark had generally neat lines while myself and Russ had troops all over the place. I also made the cardinal sin for GA - leaving units immediately behind other units and so taking 'casualties' as the front unit was knocked back into the one behind. This is a harsh lesson but worth rememebering for Ligny next week.
As we were playing two 'double-headers' I only had a vague idea of how Ian and Mark were getting on, but the general gist was that Mark threw bad dice at the wrong time (so his Guards ran way and off the table, for example) and Ian was whipping his butt with some Fancy Dan moves (mainly onto Mark's flanks). I'm sure I heard Mark say "Thank you sir, may I have another" several times...
Both the British and French had units which arrived at the start of each turn. The French start with more but the re-inforcements get weaker as time goes on. The opposite is true for the Brits - they start weak but their reinforcements (including Wellington and his bazillion command dice) grow stronger as time goes on.
The French strategy is therefore clear - get stuck in as soon as you can with as much as you can.
I started off with Bachelu, Foy, Pire and Desnouettes on the field. This included a chunky 12 strength Guard Chasseur a cheval unit which I immediately attached Ney to and rode off in search of a target (as the Guard cavalry would have to withdraw to the Guard Corps on Turn 3).
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The British (x2). They KNOW they are destined to lose. I mean, just look at the vacant look on Mark's face.
And the look of resignation on Russ. |
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| My cavalry go looking for trouble |
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| On the other table - Ian has the same idea. |
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| My cavalry bounce - but have inflicted 3 casualties |
The cavalry bounced - 3 casualties inflicted by both sides. But my cavalry were 12 strength and could take it. Wellington arrived to take charge and foolishly put himself behind the foot that I was going to charge again!
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Wellington (white square) arrivs and puts himself in grave danger as the cavalry charge in again.
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| Ian on the other table - nice neat rows and 3" between front and rear units. |
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| My troops? A complete mess. |
My Guards cavalry finally killed off the infantry - then turned to look for something else to kill as the rest of my troops staggered up in ragged lines. But the cavalry got trapped at the end of Turn 2 and killed. Damn!
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| Neat lines on the other table. |
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| Cavalry trapped and killed. |
At least they had distracted most of Russ' troops - allowing me to get Ney out of the way and move my foot up and into neater lines and attack the leading allied line with some success) - inflicting casualties that would prove crucial later.
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| My line gets stuck in. |
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| On the other table - much better progress by Ian and Mark is feeling the pressure. |
Russ then counter-attacked but was generally repulsed. One unit did get through but - as unaided - was in a world of hurt.
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| Messy battlefield. Russ' single unit in trouble! |
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| The British questioning the rules - the last refuge of a scoundrel! |
I managed to get my main line sorted out as Russ unscrambled the units that had finished off my cavalry. Meanwhile, from the moans from the other side of the table (including squabbles as Russ accidentally 'borrowed' Mark's army sheet, they marked casualties on the wrong sheets AND Russ' dice kept rolling over onto the wrong battlefield) it was clear that things weren't going well for the British.
I killed off Russ' isolated unit and the main lines converged.
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Nice straight lines again.
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Russ then decided to force the result and charged in. Luckily for me the first unit in didn't do very well and it meant that some of his units were flanked. This means that virtually all down the line he got 'bounced' and I inflicted more hits than came in.
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| Russ charges in. |
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| On the other table - the British are getting battered. |
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| Russ' units bounce all down the line. |
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| Undaunted - he tries again! |
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| And his army disappears. |
Russ bravely had another go at the line - and got absolutely hammered. With most of his troops killed, he decided to raise the white flag. Unlike Mark, who fought on with just two units on the table!
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| Mark fights on with just 2 units! |
ReviewWell, better than last week's experience. Its amazing how knowing what you're doing can improve your chances. I had a much better idea of how to play (vindicating the idea of spending a month on each rule set) but I was also lucky (Russ started well with the dice but soon it went the other way). A great evening pour les Francais!
