For the first Horse & Musket themed meeting of the year at the Wollongong Wargamers, we found a scenario that, with a following wind, could be played in an evening: A Prussian Corps vs a French Division:
Objectives laid and deployment complete:
As to be expected, Caesar for the French defenders placed his objectives well to the rear, whilst Darren for the Prussian attackers placed his well to the fore.
I was surprised however that the French did not garrison more of the villages, only 1 Defended Terrrain Feature in Hagelburg was occupied, and none in Klein Glein. Caesar was obviously going for an active defense!
As the third, spare player I offered my sword to the Prussians and Darren allocated me the three Infantry brigades to the north of Hagelburg, on the right of this picture. He took charge of the cavalry horde on the left and the two Infantry brigades in the centre:
The spirit of Blucher was upon us and we lost no time in closing up on the French:
But yes, Caesar fought fire with fire, the French infantry columns meeting our assaults at the charge!
Over on the Prussian left Darren intended to use our hordes of half trained Landwehr National Cavalry as an ablative shield to soak up punishment prior to allowing our regular Dragoons to outflank and undermine the French defense from the rear:
But a fortuitous combination of fate cards enhanced their combat prowess and ability to rally so that they remained in the front line steadily wearing down the outnumbered French cavalry...
Back on the Prussian right opposite Hagelsburg the French were trading space for time and inflicting severe losses on the attackers. This meant that the Prussians quickly gained two objectives and some very lucky rolling on our Fortitude test spared us too many defeat points...
But whilst the French Cavalry had lost half their strength, suffering defeat points, they somehow managed to keep the deep flank secure against our hordes of cavalry...So as night fell the French retained 2 of the 4 objectives, but had suffered one more defeat point for a minor Prussian victory!
Ralph another lovely presentation and a good way for the club to kick off 2026 Horse & Musket. Lovely to see a wing of horse that looks …. well, like a wing of horse :-) Though I remember you managed the same sort of spectacle with your 28’s though in a bigger space. I see Valour & Fortitude again, benefiting from their allowance of setting a ‘real’ end of game clock, which means club games really do come to a game end - good.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm most kind! Yes this scale really provides that mass effect at a fraction of the space and cost of 28s.
DeleteWhat a splendid game there Ralph and as always, one that really gives the look and feel of a large battle:)!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve for your encouraging comment! Yes we are always trying to get the balance right between a big engagement and time to get a result...
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