A tale of two games

Over Easter we fought the same battle twice but with different sets of Napoleonic rules - partly experiment and partly reuse of an idea! In this battle a scattered French force has three aims; consolidate its troops, hold the bridge separating them and retreat their siege train over the bridge and off to safety. Two Austrian forces are aiming to stop them. 

We played this at Divisional level with Lasalle 2 and Corps level with Blucher. Both scenarios are below and posted on the Sam Mustafa Facebook group.

Game 1 - Lasalle 

View from the west end

The French deployed in strong defensive positions, although crucially held back most of their cavalry meaning they did nt influence the initial Austrian advances.    

 

The Ratisbon bridge

French guarding the train

The Austrians pushed forward, cutting the road at the exit point and putting some pressure on the defensive lines.  

Austrians attack the train defenders

Repeated attacks were made on the bridge but the garrison defending the village of Ratisbon were able to hold then off. Unfortunately the rest of the division holding the road were pushed back with heavy losses.  

Bridge garrison holds firm

The game ended with the Austrians on top - the siege train had been intercepted east of the Ratisbon bridge and much of the road to the west of the bridge was in Austrian hands.  

The train under attack

Game 2 - Blucher

Austrians attacking from the east

In this version the French decided to push out from their defences and look to disrupt the Austrian attacks, especially around the bridge area. This resulted in a fierce cavalry battle near the bridge as the Austrians looked to once again cut the road near the exit point.       

Train scuttling down the road

Austrians try to cut the road in the west

The Austrian steamroller in the east moved remorselessly forward but was slowed by needing to deal with a series of French cavalry and infantry attacks.  

The Austrians were able to cut the road west of Ratisbon but made limited progress with their infantry in that area. The eastern Austrian force kept the French back-peddling but were unable to stop the siege train crossing the Ratisbon bridge. The game ended when the French hit their army breakpoint.    

Conclusions

Both games played similarly but with a few key differences:

• In game 2 the French tried harder to disrupt the Austrian attacks - this kept them further back but did mean taking losses.
• Blucher naturally has more movement in it as you tend to play more turns and usually get to activate more often if you are careful with Corps organisation / leader abilities. This helped the  French get their wagons further in game 2.
• In both games assaulting garrisons is very tough - in neither game was the Ratisbon bridge in much danger.