Lasalle: It’s not enough to kill a Russian, you have to push him over too!

I'm not sure which Grande Armee grognard came up with that eponymous saying, but certainly yesterday evening in our Lasalle game, I took his point!

Caesar and Stuart, left, had 400 points of the Tsar's finest, whereas David, right, and I had a similar value of French. Somewhere out East - maybe 1805, '07, or possibly the retreat from Moscow...There were 3 objectives spread out across the centre of the table.

David had kindly drawn up the French Army list, and to my surprise had included a Cuirassier Division, and had allocated regimental guns to all the infantry battalions...(So 1812 then!) The Cuirassiers looked fine in the distance but were under his direct command. More on the 'Big Boots' later...

But I was in a quandary with the regimental artillery - my SOP with French is to form attack column and charge the first thing that hoves into view...But does that extra bit of firepower make Line formation more useful?

Well, initially I went in in the same old style and it appeared to work, Elan markers helping to knock out 2 Russian battalions on the trot, although it did leave me somewhat exposed!

Swarms of Cossacks duly picked off my rash battalions and so I formed line with most of the survivors. The regimental guns certainly beefed up the firepower, with the Russian columns taking 3 and 4 hits respectively. Which, with their resilient trait, they promptly rallied off! Merde!

Over on the left flank, David was making hay with the heavy cavalry reserve, forcing the Russian heavies to concentrate, then bouncing his horse gunner's cannonballs all along their lines!

This called for a cunning plan from the Russians...

So far as I can tell, that plan was to continue hammering me into the ground...by this point my left flank objective had receded far into the distance as I was forced to steadily give ground...

The French cavalry took a few reverses...

With an upset victory  suggesting the Russians might sweep the board of all 3 objectives...

Things were certainly going from bad to bloody awful on my flank - by this point I had lost 4 of my 6 battalions!

But over on the left the Heavies kept up the pressure, so that we possessed that Flank's objective, for a bloody but drawn game.

So is 400 points too much for an evening club game? We played for 3 hours and completed 4 turns and a few key bits of a 5th. We may not have finished properly, but it was a grand spectacle, and it was good to give the heavies a bit of an airing!