Yesterday I popped around to Roy's and we broke out the 20mm figures for a game. Despite being mentioned in the rules for his various inputs during development this was only his second game. We pitted the Austrians (me) vs the Bavarians in a very straight-forward head-to-head.
The Bavarians went straight on the offensive, attacking all across the line. This suited the Austrians who were happy to set back and let their guns do some of the early work.
As the German infantry toiled-up in the centre they came came under stiff fire and so shook out of column into line so they could lessen the casualties. This worked pretty well but most units were worn, or close to it, by the time they approached the Austrian lines.
On the flanks the Bavarians fared much better. On their right they charged and caught the waiting Austrians slightly on the hop, breaking them after about three turns. On their left a stalemate occurred as neither side wanted to crest the rise between them and risk giving the other a free charge. In the end Bavarians had to make the move as they needed to support their advancing infantry. They need not have worried though as they too made quick work of their Austrian opponent's, but too late to change the game.
So an Austrian win in about 2.5 hours play. Hopefully Roy will also post some thoughts.
By the end Stuart had smashed my centre, but I had taken out the wings, though my cavalrybhad picked up quite a few wear points , here crafty Stuart had arranged tgat his guns could turn to the flanks and would thus up the wear to the destruction level.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see Roy’s HH Austrians strutting their stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting up pictures and report.
ReplyDeleteThoughts.
ReplyDeleteWarfare can be divided into the period where soldiers hit each ither and tgat where they shoot each other. Obviously Napoleonics are a shooting game. It thus becomes crucial how you use the rules to impose shooting casualties on the opposing units . Stuart advanced in the centre with battalions in column preceded by skirmishers . In SoW that meant that he had more skirmishers out than my battalions in line, each shooting with two dice. That suited his army which had 25% more infantry than the Bavarians. When it came to the final act, with the columns charging, the shooting of the line was split into two volleys of two dice and I managed to throw four low dice. Hence my battalion in line broke and another wear point was inflicted on units either side of the routers. Subjected to the same treatment they did not survive. the skirmish screens take casualties on their home battalion which has a logic as they are drawn from and returned to it, but also means that units can get quite near to being worn through extensive skirmishing and tgen be pushed over thevedge by a successful charge. That makes it sensible to have more battalions andnprobably means that there is a point at which having a large army of lesser troops becomes useful. or a smaller army of elite troops, but perhaps those in the middle categories have more of a problem.