We pick up the action with Turn 11:
French retain the initiative; With Victor down, his command gets only 2 orders; blue assigns one to the Infantry unit that entered last turn but could not advance due to lack of orders. Soult gets but three orders himself. Joining the underperformance, Kleist gets 3 orders,. as does Bluchjer.
Soult maneuvers to counter the threat of the Prussian cavalry to his Left, and Blue brings up the last opf his reinforcements.
Prussian moves; note the Cavalry to Soult's derriere!
French infantry fire is relatively effective, with skirmish fire eliminating the 1 hit Prussian Dragoons!!
The Prussian artillery bombarded the French to its front, scoring a hit. Prussian musketry is only fair. Frederick the Great would be appalled!
Situation at the end of Turn 11
Turn 12
French maintain the initiative; The revived Victor gets 3 orders, and Soult gets 4. Blucher gets 3 orders and Kleist does as well
Soult and Victor both flub their Rally orders this time, with matching rolls of "1"!
Prussian Orders; a shot by the artillery knocks down some more frogs, but an Assault upon the ridge by the Prussian infantry is repulsed!
Soult's troops fire to mediocre effect at best.
The Prussians get back their musket mojo, as nearly every shot tells, with an especially crushing volley eliminating one of Victor's regiments!
End of turn 12, sees Victor kissing the earth yet again. His men nickname him "le Chat", as he clearly has 9 lives!
Turn13:
Even without their General, blue gets 4 orders, and Soult (red) only 3; Kleist and Blucher each get enough orders for all of their troops, with the last of the Prussian reinforcements arriving, a tardy battery to support Kleist's men!
With the clock ticking down, the French consolidate their position on the ridgeline. One of Victor's regiments rallies without his help.
Prussians move up to contest the ridge position, as the Prussian artillery picks off some more Frenchmen. Blucher's men are unmoved by his Rally efforts, though. The Prussian Landwehr Cavalry has shot the gap onto the ridge. The French must have sole control of the ridge to claim victory!
The French do reasonably well with their shooting; importantly, 2 out of 3 skirmish shots hit home on the Prussian horsemen.
Prussian return fire is slightly subpar this turn!
Situation at the end of Turn 13; note that the the arriving 2nd Prussian battery has moved up.
Turn 14:
The Prussians seize the initiative! Both Prussian batteries bombard the ridgeline, and Kleist's remaining infantry regiment moves onto the ridge; The Prussian Cavalry charges the flank of Soult's infantry that holds the rear of the ridge; having an unused order, they take a single skirmish shot at the charging bosches, and... miss! Sound the trumpets!!!
Von Seydlitz turns over in his grave, as the Cavalry fail to score a single hit on their 4 dice (they have 2 SP left, but get an extra die for charging and another for attacking a flank; as they were already on the hill they don't lose a die for charging up hill; they only needed a 3+; "Schreklichkeit!" The French manage a hit on their single die; the charge is repulsed! Meanwhile, the Prussian infantry all close on the ridgeline.
A French flank assault also underperforms, and is repulsed.
More French rallying; note the repulsed Landwehr cavalry. Note the position of the repulsed Landwehr Cavalry.
Prussian musketry fails to impress!
The French shoot a little better this turn; the unit caught in a "croque monsieur", has, well, croaked!!
Situation at the end of Turn 14.
Turn 15:
The French reclaim the initiative, and roll enough orders for all of their units. At this juncture, Victor's infantry have 5, 2, and 1 SP's remaining, with 2 SP's for his Light Infantry. Soult's troops have 6 (his far left regiment),1, 4, and 3 SP remaining, with 5 SP for his guns (which have been playing cat and mouse with the Prussian Cavalry). Kleist has 5 SP's left on each of his 2 batteries, and 3 hits on his sole remaining infantry regiment. Blucher's boys have 3 SP (middle infantry), 1 SP (his far right infantry), and 1 SP (the cavalry). Time has run out for the Prussians. After the coming French moves, a Prussian victory will be impossible. As dusk descends, they concede the hill to the hated French, and withdraw!
"Auf Morgen!", they mutter.
Great report on battle. Do you think the rules will have legs for you ?
ReplyDeleteDifferent rules for different purposes; I'll be using these rules to do my "Wellington's Waterloo" scenario at HAVOC in 5 weeks. I think they would work well for my grandsons, and any time I want a game that should last about 3 hours.
DeleteA hard fought victory for the French! I really enjoyed this series, Peter! Thank you for all the work you put into these reports. Going to play Eagles soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the rules to begin with, Steve. One observation; it would seem to me that units that reach zero SP as a result of bombardment or Assault should be removed at the time of occurrence.
DeleteAgreed, Peter. I have been removing units as soon as soon as they are "done for" now.
DeleteI think there's a good case to be made for removing units only after all infantry fire is resolved, otherwise the side going first has a big advantage, but removing them immediately as a result of bombardment or Assault. .
DeleteA great series of reports Peter. I was thoroughly engaged with your narrative. Brilliant work.
ReplyDeleteso glad you enjoyed the series; writing them up takes much longer than playing the game!
DeleteAn excellent final instalment:). Shame the Prussians ran out of time, but c'est la guerre and all that!
ReplyDeleteThe approach of darkness ended the action. Had the Prussian Artillery arrived several turns earlier, the outcome may have been different!
DeleteI wonder what would have happened had the Prussian shooting been a little better? They did seem to underperform in that department.
ReplyDeleteBetter dice woukld have helped; the French made better use of Rallying and their troops appeared in a more timely fashion, especially Soult (blue).
DeleteThat has really been a very engaging encounter Peter and seemed to swing one way then the other more than once, before the French finally came up with the wherewithal to hold the position in the final turn!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it, Keith!
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