With the recent release of Valour & Fortitude Version 4, the next Horse and Musket theme night at the Wollongong Wargamers was eagerly anticipated. Above, the Austrian team: Darren, Peter and David II.
Peter adapted the excellent Little Wars TV Lasalle II Ulm scenario to V&F. With six experienced players, he hoped we could complete this Corps level battle in an evening. V&F is simple, fast and elegant, but could we really get a result that quickly?
The game did not get off to a good start for the French (Caesar, David I and yours truly) when someone (no need for details, it could have happened to anybody) blundered on their Brigade Activation and blocked the bridge, leaving Caesar's lone brigade out forward on a limb, and David's brigades fuming impatiently on the wrong side of the bridgehead:
Somewhat ahistorically, David II took full advantage of the French embarrassment to advance boldly to nip the bridgehead in the bud:
Whilst an Austrian crossfire targeted Caesar's lone brigade:
The next turn the bottlenecked brigade was given the automatic activation and surged forward:
But by this time David II had begun to deploy and Caesar was no longer alone in taking all the Austrian enfilade fire:
Yet Caesar's brigade advanced steadily out towards Ober-Elchingen:
Forming up to stage a text book assault on the village:
Ober-Elchingen falls to the French:
And with Marshal Ney personally leading, a follow up assault clears out the Austrians linking the village to the Abbey, scoring victory points both for the village and the defeated Kaiserlik brigades:
However, on the opposite flank, David IIs musketry and artillery was impeding French deployment:
And for the time being the battlefield appeared to be swarming with Kaiserliks, many of them elite Grenadiers!
Fortunately for the French, David I leads on the French Heavy Cavalry:
Who soon put a stop to the Austrian push on the bridgehead!
With French reinforcements now flowing freely across the Danube:
The Austrians are pushed back well away from the river, losing several defeat points:
Despite Marshal Ney's valour, the Austrian commitment of their reserve Kuirassiers restores the situation in the centre somewhat:
But it is too little, too late for the unfortunate General Mack, as the only line of retreat back to Austrian is firmly closed!
Using Peter's wonderful collection of 15/18mm AB miniatures, we used a ground scale of 2/3rds inches. So yes, Version 4 of Valour & Fortitude delivered a fast paced game with an authentic outcome - a corps level battle fought out in a couple of hours!
