Massena turns "ARMY MORALE" as his one card; almost every French Command Group (brigade) officer must check, along with TWO Divisional commanders!
General de Division Duhesme is OK.
So is general Gardanne; in the event, no one "rolled a 1", and all commanders survived intact; quite against the odds, actually!
Karl turns MELEE, but has no units able to use it.
The Archduke wins the impetus dice off, and definitely wants to go First!
His first card is.. ARMY MORALE. As Karl just checked his commanders a short while ago, and there has been no combat since then, no checks need be made. It still costs one impetus to turn the card, however.
Karl's second card is INFANTRY FIRE; this has definite possibilities. Massena is NOT happy!
Two Unloaded Austrian grenadiers reload and, having targets at close range, shoot. Unfortunately, neither fire has any discernible effect this time!
A fresh but substandard Austrian battalion takes a "free fire" at the French column, thowing it back slightly in Disorder
A similar shot at the French garrison of Caldiero inlicts a loss of 1 UI.
Some more ineffective fire!
A simultaneous exchange of fire between the Austrians in line and rthe elite Grenadiers ion column comes off... poorly for the whitecoats, as they lose 3 UI. They would rout, but having already lost 1 UI, that places them at 4 UI lost, and with no remianing UI, the unit disperses instead!
Another Austrian unit pops off at the French, inflicting a loss of 1 UI, but their morale holds.
Austrian fire from the ridge line fails to inflict losses on the French column, which holds its fire for another time.
"Schrecklich, ganz schrecklich!", is all Karl can mutter.
The final Auytrian unit that can shoot forces the French line back with the loss of 1 UI.
The resulting situation; other units that have smoke and are not going to fire now remove same.
Karl's final card of this initiative is a MOVE.
The routers must move first...
This unit has reached the table edge; if it does not rally before the next Austrian MOVE card id turned, it will leave the table and the game.
Kalnassy rolls a single move with fancy business foe his Brigade; with the Uhlans far to the South, it is becoming difficult to keep all of his Brigade within his command radius (twice the LD type, in inches, so 20" for him).
The Uhlans adjust their facing somewhat. His infantry perform some minor adjustm,ents as well, but nothing striking.
Colloredo's Brigade also gets a single move with flexibility. His troops also perform some very minor adjustments.
A single embellished move for Wetzel's Brigade.
Some shifting of troops follows, with a ragged and ineffectual long range volley at the Grenadiers.
Another ineffective volley!
More of the Mantua Minuet is performed
One move for Soudain's Brigade as well.
More exchanges of lines
For some reason my camera went blurry and way off color registry for this and the following fortunately, it corrected itself thereafter. Michalowich also gets a single move segment.
Still more limited shuffling of the successive lines of infantry follow.
Utterly ineffective Opportunity fire by the French unit, too!
To the far North, Kuttilinsky's troop refuse to move; fortunately, there was little he needed to do with them anyway, so there is no reason to take the risk of calling upon FML Simbschen to attempt to motivate the troops better.
But wait... there's more!
Lippa and his small Grenadier brigade arrive to reinforce the Southern ridge, but their advance is slow.
The remainder of Michalowich's gigantic Brigade arrives, but are limited by the single move he already rolled up.
Overview of the Battle from the South. Only a few cards left in the decks now..
Some shifting of troops follows, with a ragged and ineffectual long range volley at the Grenadiers.
2 segments, but no magic for Croll's Grenadier Brigade.
Lippa and his small Grenadier brigade arrive to reinforce the Southern ridge, but their advance is slow.
Blogger note: Tried the "New Blogger" interface, which worked fine, BUT when I went to publish this post, it posted it as the last date it was edited. Unpublishing, editing it and republishing didn't solve the problem, so I wound up copying and pasting it into a new post and then removing the original in order to get the sequence (and updates correct). Reported to Blogger.
And the battle rages...I am still rooting for the Austrians...
ReplyDeleteThey are far from out of it, and the Historical action was probably a draw.
DeleteSuper looking table, Peter! I love the look of all of your beautiful terrain and troops; all densely packed into the collision point. For those playing FoB, this is an excellent tutorial.
ReplyDeleteI have not experienced the issue you cite on New Blogger but have noticed a lag when posting immediately rather than as a scheduled release.
Overall I thought the new interface was an improvement EXCEPT for this issue, and the fact that it no longer separates the draft and published posts, which is pretty annoying to me. You can opt to go back to the old interface.
DeleteAnother entertaining installment Peter, and I find myself also hoping the Austrians can bring this one home. Very annoying about the new Blogger interface, and must admit I have resisted swapping at this stage. I do admire the way the have not attempted to monetise it by levying charges though.
ReplyDeleteOverall any complaints I have about Blogger are minor, and the cost is right! The Austrians are still very much in the running!
DeleteMore excellent work on your AAR.
ReplyDeleteNot tried new Blogger either as old works fine for my purposes.
Thanks, Gary. I figured I ought to try it before it automatically transitioned, and there are quite a few things I like better about it... and few, as stated, that I don't.
DeleteYes, more of the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to try new blogger, though I have noticed changes so maybe it's happening automatically.
Thanks!
DeleteSupposedly the migration is supposed to happen gradually starting in late June, which is pretty much now...
Great series of game play reports Peter! I appreciate all the work it takes to do these - thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brent!! It is a lot of work, but I am enjoying it amongst the Covid restrictions. Playing out the game is highlighting some of the more subtle changes from FoB2 to FoB3, that were less apparent from just proofreading it than they are when playing it as well.
DeleteGreat job overall!
We are all enjoying your 'labour of love', Peter!
ReplyDeleteA tactical question. Kalnassy's uhlans could not, would not or did not want to move so as to charge those pesky chasseurs a cheval?
In order for them to do that (which with 2 UI loss on the Chasseurs, they would dearly loved to have done, mind you!), they would have to win a Triple Magic move - 1 segment to move forwards, one segment to change facing, and one to charge the Chasseurs (in the flank, no less), with immediate melee permissible because of a won-even roll.
DeleteStill hope for the Austrians! Lovely looking clarification of the rules!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Then Austrians are disadvantaged, but certainly still plenty of fight left in them!
DeleteSpectacular gaming, Peter. Massena is one of my favorite marshals...for the combination of his (early) battlefield brilliance coupled with his all too human character flaws.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dean. He was an outstanding Marshal, and as you say, he had quite a few flaws as well! I'm sure he was happy to enjoy his retirement after Spain and Portugal in 1810!
Delete