You need to know a couple of things before reading this. I'd had no sleep the night before (as Mrs B has a nastikoff), I'd commuted to Manchester and back (4 hours) and was quite crotchety. When I say 'quite' I mean 'very'. And when I say 'crotchety', I mean 'tired, irritable and narked'.
Also, because of missing last week's Grand Armee introduction, I was very, very rusty with the rules. Literally I had forgotten just about everything relating to GA. And it came back very slowly.
So before we started I wasn't in the best frames of mind.
So it began. Myself and Jon were the Prussian (joined on several occasions by Mark who was nominally the umpire but would have much preferred to be in von Bulow's saddle, issuing orders to the Prussian masses). Russ and Ian were the invading French.
Mark informed us (the Prussians) that we had two turns to set up a winning position or we were doomed. Great!
This was not helped by the French having a superior force over the river and in the town (giving them a good defensive position). Our main force (the 4th Corps) was coming over from the back right corner while our holding force (7th Corps) were on the hill so in a good position as long as we didn't move from it or left our flank open. Have a guess what happens...
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Prussian 7C on the hill. French already across the river, in the town and a much bigger force.
What am I supposed to do exactly? |
The only advantage we had was that the French would have no command dice for the first turn (so could easily attack or withdraw). But as the 7C was relatively weak and the French were already in the town (and so provided flank support, protected the bridge and were virtually impregnable) then all we could realistically do was just sit on the hill. But the cavalry on our left flank were looking dangerous and I could see that our flank was dangerously exposed.
The remaining two French Corps were due to come on shortly so whatever we were going to do, we had to do it quick. I was in charge of the 7C on the hill, Jon took the larger 4C coming on from the side.
We started by losing initiative so the French moved their cannons off the hill on the other side of the river and over the second bridge. I couldn't contest this as the force facing me was bigger and our only advantage was to stay on the hill.
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| The French cooking up a cunning plan. |
Jon moved the Prussian 4C forward to contest the town.
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| John moving 4C forward |
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| Mark laying down the law |
Unluckily for us, the Turn 1 ended here - so the French are already closer to getting their reinforcements on. I knew already that we were buggered. The French 2C come over the hill and its already 'Game Over'.
To make matters worse, I then roll a 4 with three dice and have to Withdraw off the hill. FFS! This has not helped my fragile mood.
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| Here come the French 2C. Great. |
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| I have to withdraw off the hill. Fantastic! |
To rub salt in the wound, Russ then also rolls a 4 and the French 1C also has to withdraw. If the 7C had stayed on the hill, the French would have had to withdraw over the river and we could have taken the town. Instead there is just a big 'no-man's land' between us, which suits the French more than us as they are not too far away from where they wanted to be.
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| The French also withdraw (but we can't take advantage) |
Russ wins initiative again and throws another 4! If we hadn't withdrawn, then we'd be in the town and may have had half a chance. As it was I had to simply move back onto the hill.
Meanwhile the French 2C keep coming over the hill. I have to angle the 7C to protect the flank as Jon brings the 4C round the back (as well as angling some of the 7C to cover the 2C on the hill).
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| French 2C on the hill. |
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| I try to recover the 7C on the hill. The town is open but I can't get there. |
We're already into Turn 3 and we're in a mess. Mark tried to help us with a few "What you want to do here is..." - essentially bad monkey advice. We have the chance to get troops into the town finally but the command range of my commander is so poor (7") I can't risk it as the flank would be open and the troops would be vulnerable.
Russ was complaining about the command dice they'd been issued - "You've given us a sh** army!". He should look at the Prussians! Ian moved elements of the 2C over the town bridge in the meantime.
To make things worse, I followed (against my own better judgement) Mark's bad monkey advice and moved elements of the 7C to the edge of the hill. While this would give my troops an advantage in melee, it also brought them into charge distance of both French cavalry. This meant that the end unit was flanked and outnumbered - and so meant the whole 7C was threatened.
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| Mark dons his turban and starts dishing out advice. Bad advice. |
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| Charged in the flank - oh crap! |
There are times when you know the game is up. This was it for me. No matter what we did from now on wasn't going to affect the outcome. The French had managed to get their cannons over the bridge as well and now could ping cannonballs into the 7C. The charge on the flank means 3 casualties and we fall back.
We decided the best form of defence was attack so we charged the French cavalry in turn. We managed to kill one unit but this now put us into cannister range of the French cannons - and more grief. Russ does the 1" drop with his dice for a couple of 6's and kill one of the 7C in turn.
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| Jon lines the 4C up while trying to get more units in to support 7C |
I then make things wore by rolling three 6's which means I have to attack. This puts the seal on our defeat. My units have to attack the nearest main body - and get hammered.
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| Oh Good Grief! |
The melee saw me lose 1 unit - I knock the cavalry back but then take 4 hits from 6 dice. Whoop whoop! My entire 7C is pretty much battered to death - not helped by Russ rolling the cockiest of dice (it actually landed on its corner!) leading to suggestions that he'd had his dice in the oven. It eventually rolled onto 1 1 - but Russ claimed 'cocky dice' and re-rolled for a 6. Much disbelief and cries of 'referee' from the Prussians but to no avail.
I also lose another unit to skirmishing. It gets better and better.
John had got his troops into position - including 3 cannons pointing at the town. Ian charged these and we luckily extracted them (inflicting hits on the French in the process). But it was a case of poking an elephant with a stick. Whatever we could dish out, they came back with much more.
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| 7C practically disappear. |
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| John has to take on the French alone. |
The French had got their cannons onto the hill and could blat into the side of the 4C (as my 7C had pretty much ceased to exist). As it was approaching a late hour we decided to make this the last turn. John basically attacked everything in sight but the French had most advantages. The 2C on the hill pushed John's 4C back pretty much all down the line. In the town, John managed to winkle the French out but at a big cost. The only bright point was a charge at a column of French which led to a lot of pushbacks which severely harmed the French.
But it was all too little too late. We shook hands with the French definitely in charge of the field. With the third set of reinforcements coming on for the French it was all over.
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| Looks like carnage - but it means a French victory |
ReviewA tough battle really. All the advantage is with the French (being over the river and in the town and with the reinforcements coming in. The 7C is not strong enough to do much except hold on until the 4C get there - but this means that the French can get (as they did) the cannons across the bridge uncontested. But the 4C were spread over too much area. The only thing that we could really do is get the 4C onto the hill where the 7C were. A big ask.
