Lutzen 1813 - a Lasselle battle

Over the last 2 weeks we've begun our series of 1813 battle using Lasselle. The first is Lutzen which was part of the Leipzig campaign. An Allied army is attempting to punch through Ney's Corps to split the French and threaten their supply lines. In our refight Austrian and Russian troops are trying to capture Kaja and two other villages. 

The Allies deployed with the bulk of the Austrians (2 brigades) attacking through the centre and the Russians to their right against Klein. The French deployed most of their troops around Kaja and Rahna, with a brigade holding Klein.   

Austrians assault Gross

Russian advance

The Allies attacked boldly and quickly managed to take Gross with the Russians pushing back the French around Klein.   

French at Rahna

French lights beat their opposite numbers 

By the end of the first night's play the Austrians held Gross in strength and the Russians were poised to attack either Kaja or Klein. The only black spot being the Allied light cavalry had been beaten back by the French Hussars and lost a regiment.   

On the second night's play the Austrians tried to break out of Gross to threaten Kaja but came up against strong French resistance and several waves of attacks were pushed back with losses mounting. On the right the Russians also struggles to gain much ground, even with the support of their Cuirassiers.   

French hold off the Austrian attack 

With the Austrian attack faltering in the centre the French light cavalry finally routed the Allies and so turned-in forcing the Austrians onto the defensive. By now the Russians were also spent and so the Allies were forced to fall back, leaving the French the winners.    

French horse force the Austrians into square

       

5 Parsecs - time to fight back

I played a couple of turns of my 5 Parsecs From Home solo campaign this weekend. 

Game 5 - Rivals

In the first game local law enforcement bounced the Hermes crew on their way back to the ship as they were becoming too troublesome. Two of the crew got delayed so it was 5 vs 4 at the start putting me on the defensive. 

My shuttle awaits in the space port 

Unluckily for the Enforcers they brought handguns to a long gun fight and so were forced to close with the Hermes crew. They snuck along the spaceport wall and managed a flanking manoeuvre. 

Enforcers acting tactical

Outnumbered I decide to turtle

I had the firepower advantage and so was able to take the Enforcers down on this occasion. Post battle though I attracted 2 more rivals - some Skulkers and some Raiders, making 5 rivals in all.  

The crew hold the field

Game 6 - Rivals

With so many Rivals in play its unlikely I'd be able to get many jobs done to it was decision time. Rather than move worlds I decided to try and attack one of my Rivals and hopefully remove them from the campaign. So it was I attacked the Raider gang holed-up in an abandoned warehouse near some old chemical storage facilities. They looked one of the weaker Rivals I have.      

Part of the crew head forward to find the Raiders

The Raiders were all equipped with rifles and could outrange me with 2 snipers in their team . Luckily they are Aggressive and so all bar the snipers would look to attack me.     

Raider gang

True to form the Raiders did advance and luckily I was able to take-out the snipers before they could do any damage. As the Raiders attacked we traded fire with hits pinging-off my trusty bot. By the end the Raiders were down, or fled, and I had eliminated them as a threat.    

Crew advance through a ruined building

Raider flank attack

PDP-11 ready for the Raiders

I've got a background Quest to find some rare minerals but the Rivals have prevented much progress. A clue turned up indicating the minerals may be off-world so I prepared to leave for a while. Sadly there was an accident which damaged some gear on the Hermes and so I need to wait one more turn before I can head to another world. So time for one more job unless my Rivals find me first...  

5 Parsecs - things get real

Over the weekend I completed some painting some figures and so played a couple of games to use them immediately. I'm currently based in the Seranthis system on the frontier mining planet of Ivoris, so all the action takes place there.  

In game #1 my team has been hired by the owner of a local ore processing facility to intercept some Cyborgs infiltrators trying to steal a consignment of rare ore (Trillium-C). They appear very human but are pretty tough under that flesh. I'm a little short-handed as the Captain is still in the med-bay and my new recruit got lost on a scouting mission.       

Slya Koor's ore processing facility

The infiltrators

The aggressive Cyborgs push down one flank in a big group but I manage to set up a decent fire position and take them down without any losses. 

My crew ready to intercept

My bot (PDP-11) takes down 3 of the Cyborgs

Infiltrators last stand

In game #2 the Ore Processor fixes me up with a job to help a local mining company being intimidated by a large corporate concern. They have hired some off-world Mercs to attack the mine shaft and I need to stop them. The game took place in a dust storm so visibility varied randomly each turn.   

Liberty Mining Co main shaft entrance 

Some Mercs flank me

This proved a tough fight as the Mercs are better equipped and trained than my guys and use decent flanking tactics.  After 6 turns I've lost 2 and the Mercs 4 when we do a deal - as pros they will "call it a day" so I win the game but dont hold the field so miss out on some loot. I take the deal and spend some cash on med-tech and bot repairs to get my team healed-up.      

My crew ready for their attack 

PDP-11 is down, luckily he can be patched-up

Its well that I did, as I've attracted the attention of the law and the local SWAT team plan to bounce me on the way back to star port. These guys are well equipped so it will be a tough encounter.   
 

Lasalle - Lutzen 1813, the allied attack

We've now begun playing through the 1813 scenarios with the first being Lutzen. In the historical battle, a Prussian force under Blucher attacked Ney near Leipzig, with the aim of cutting the French forces in two and threatening their supply lines. For our game the Russians and Austrians assumed the attackers role.

The Allies deployed infantry to attack all three villages, with most of the Horse supporting the Austrians in the centre and west. The French focused on the west and centre, with a small garrison in the east supported by their light cavalry.    

Austrians in the east

Russians in the west

The Austrians attack in the centre quickly stalled when they bounded-off the first village, lost 2 units and found themselves attacked by the French. As the Russians advanced alone, they came under fire from two sides and took heavy loses, which ended their attack as well.  

Light cavalry clash 

Russians advance into heavy fire

The defeat of the Austrian light cavalry by their theoretically weaker opponents somewhat broke the Allies morale and so they withdrew to regather their strength for a second assault. French Win.  

Austrians attacking in the east 

We realised after the game that we had done the infatry melees wrong, having only done cavalry previously. The outcomes were not as destructive for the attacking Austrians as we had thought and so they could have fought on more effectively. So we'll refight next week with tweaked forces. 

         

In a galaxy not very far away

After a few months painting I've assembled enough terrain and figures to try out some scifi solo gaming using 5 Parsecs From Home by Modiphius Publishing. The premise is you recruit a crew and play a through a series of procedurally generated scenarios in whatever scifi setting you like - the default being a fairly generic one. The combat system is fairly simple, with battles taking about an hour with 4 - 6 figs a side. The depth comes from the campaigns which are narrative and usually fairly long running, with 20-30 turns seeming typical. 

My crew consists of Captain Strake, First Mate Creed, Would-be sniper Veyt, a combat oriented alien called Ivarr, engineer Skor, and trusty bot PDP-11.   

I began my campaign with two intro scenarios to get things underway. In the first my crew was hired to clear out some troublesome security drones from a chemical storage yard. Fairly simple - destroy them all to win.

The chemical yard

The haywire security bots

PDP and Ivarr make a flanking move

The captain and first mate keep the bots pinned down

Ivarr gets ready to attack

The sniper takes up position 

Things went pretty well with the bots all being dispatched. Ivarr was a casualty following a melee but suffered no serious injury's and was back on duty for game 2  

In the second game the crew were hired to intercept some Isolationist set on blowing-up some transport infrastructure. The aim was to patrol through the table hitting 3 points, 2 of which turned out to be on my left flank. 

Transport systems in the distance

The isolationists

Isolationist leader

My flank attack is countered 

This mission was tougher as the Isolationists had longer range weapons than the security bots and I needed to move right into their position. Their leader took-out Ivarr and the captain but all the Isolationist were eliminated. Ivarr was once again fine but the captain will be out for 3 campaign turns.   

Skor takes up a shooting position. 

Creed nails the Isolationist leader