Battle of the Bridge 1762

How do you begin to describe a game that was fascinating,exciting,tense,colourful,yet friendly and hilarious at the same time?-a Classic, I suppose would,sort of ,describe the game we had last night!

The "usual" scenario and table before any movement-Paul was Austrian commander,Brian was Russian commander,and I was Prussian commander.
We spent the first three moves getting our troops into the required positions,and to me this was a major part of the visual aspect of this game-it was good to see the formations changing from marching columns into line,guns being positioned,reserves posted etc.etc.-great stuff!!

Then,the inevitable first clash!!-I'm not a great fan of early cavalry battles,but Brian pushed onwards with his Dragoons,and I had to respond-this melee went on for the best part of the game,neither of us gaining any advantage,other than tying down our respective flanks.

Brian,not waiting for Paul to get into position,followed his cavalry attack with a massed infantry assault on my steady lines of infantry.Because he had a restricted frontage,due to the cavalry battle,I managed to "out-gun" him,and inflicted fearful casualties on his first line,which wavered and then broke-hurrah!!-this was going to be a "walk in the park"(NOT!!!)

This shot gives a good view of the state of play about move number 6-Paul has just entered the fray,and is attacking my Hanoverians,whilst in the background Brian(or Mr Tenacious,as we call him!) is piling the pressure on my Prussians.

With drums beating and flags flying,Paul is sending his best brigade,supported by cavalry,across the most easily defended crossing place on the stream!!-he got himself bogged down,and his best troops were stuck-hurrah!!(but not before he gave me a bloody nose!!)
In the background you can just see the Austrians beginning their advance on my redoubt-will I be able to stop him????

Whilst the "dynamic duo" have a conflab,my Prussians are tearing the Russian infantry apart!
The action is now spreading across the whole of the battle field,-being out-numbered,I am having to be careful where I put my troops,but everywhere I put them,Paul's guns seem to find them!!-he is causing too much damage!-the bounder!!Note the steady advance in the centre!

Paul and his Austrians are putting the Hanoverians under tremendous pressure,from Gun and volley fire-I needed support,so I put my redoubt defenders into column,and was hit by Paul's guns,marched them across the stream,and was hit by Paul's guns,put them into line,and was hit by Paul's guns-are you getting the picture??-yes,I lost the whole brigade,before they even could fire a shot in anger-woe is me!!

Paul has crossed the stream with his leading infantry,only to be forced into defensive formation,because of my cavalry threat,but he is piling more and more troops into this sector-it can only be a matter of time before I break!!

The action on my left flank is intensifying-I have driven Brian's cavalry back,but a couple of my infantry units are "suffering" and look close to breaking-can I hold on?

Paul's magnificently co-ordinated attack,involving guns cavalry and infantry,has succeeded in capturing the redoubt,and to my cries of "I have been penetrated!" things were looking bad for the Prussians!!(to say the least!!)

But things were about to get a whole lot worse!!-Brian was shot to hell,and his whole command looked as if it was about to run away,however I had to put a Brigadier into my far left regiment to stop it retiring,and the next volley from Brian shot him!!!!-bloody well woe is bloody me!!!
His whole brigade decided to abandon the field,which exposed the flank of the next brigade,and you can guess the rest-chaos and confusion!
At this point in the game,my Hanoverians,who had been doing very well indeed,decided that enough was enough,and it was then game over!!!

One final photo,with my left in all kinds of trouble,the redoubt captured and my right in preparation for flight(!) I capitulated!!
By any standards this was a great game,full of unexpected(in my case anyway!) twists and turns-well played to Paul and Brian.
Roll on Thursday night-we might just try something different!!