Last night Dave hosted a very well thought out and interesting game,that went right down to the wire!!
A Prusso/Russian army,was marching to Paris,and the French,under Napoleon himself, had to cut the road they were marching on,to win the game-simple but intriguing-marvellous stuff!
Two views of the table,Brian and Paul commanded the Prussians and Russians respectively,whilst Dave and I took command of the French-all was set for a cracking game.
In this shot,Paul has instigated a cavalry melee,against my elite Mamalukes and Guard Chasseurs-the man's a fool!!!-however it must be said,he did quite well against my elites(in other words he gave them a right old "hiding!")-but dice throwing can change a lot in a game,and later on I managed to give him a right old "hiding"-wonderful wargaming!!
On the other flank,Paul and Brian were too busy holding hands to get themselves sorted out!!
Meanwhile Dave launched a tremendous attack against Brian's Prussians-things are looking good(but we all know what can happen in a game!!)
This is the on-going cavalry melee,on my flank.I am moving my infantry forward to take control of the field to ,my front-Paul is doing the same though-this will be tight!
Brian and Dave have moved to within musket range,and a tremendous exchange of fire took place-however Dave was getting the worst of it,and to save an"adverse morale situation" he put his Brigadier into the front line-and guess what??-yes,he got him killed,resulting in the whole brigade taking a morale test,resulting in the whole lot quitting the board,and heading back to Paris!!!!!-send in the Guard,Dave!!
Hurrah,a lovely sight,with drums beating and colours flying the Guard step forward-only to be met with more tremendous dice throwing from Brian!!-who also sent them "packing"-oh dear,how sad,never mind!!-I suppose I will have to win the game by myself!!!!!
Taking heart from Brian's success,Paul renewed the attack on the field with vigour,only to be repulsed(but not until after he had given me an anxious time of it!!)-now, if I can only get rid of his cavalry............................
A volley from my Swiss square saw to that!!-however Paul still had some spare cavalry available,so he decided to send them down the middle and attack Dave's gun position-does the man not know when he is beat!!!!????
Undaunted,Dave also put in an attack against Brian's gun position,was met with cavalry,and slaughtered-the same as Paul's cavalry attack-I'm getting worn out just remembering all the action!!!
Dave had to admit defeat on his flank(well,you've got to when you've no troops left!!) but my infantry were holding the field and were within a whisker of cutting the road,so the French were declared the winners-hurrah!!
This was a great game,well done Dave(and the rest of us)-roll on next week,a Sudanese type game,featuring Brian's newly painted Egyptians and Naval Brigade.
Last night we had a most excellent game,which was devised by Dave,who provided the Historical scenario,as well as all the figures-well done,an absolutely thrilling game,played by Brian and Paul as Prussians,and Dave and I as French.
This shot shows the table before any movement,Wavre is in the top right corner and Limal is in the bottom left-the river took a whole move to cross, and dis-ordered any troops requiring them to spend a whole move reforming!!!!-this was not going to be easy for the French!
Dave opened the proceedings by firing on Brian's troops placed on the hill-we still use the "old-fashioned" bounce stick to determine where the ball from the cannon,actually lands,then bounces onwards,using a coloured dice which matches the colours on the stick!!
My Infantry,Cavalry and Guns have "burst" out of Limal village,and are masking the woods,as well as moving to attack the hill in support of Dave's advance.Both Paul and Brian aimed their batteries at me,and inflicted alot of damage-the swines!!!
Dave's advance and attack on Wavre,was nothing short of "magnificent"-we brought our reserve troops onto the board on move number 3,to groans and rude comments from the Prussians!!-they are making their way to the left of the bridge,ready to cross when the Prussian cavalry threat has been removed(well,that was the plan!!!)
Brian and Dave "slug" it out in Wavre-this tussle lasted almost the whole of the game,each side being pushed back,then sending in reinforcements,winning,then losing-great stuff,and marvellous wargaming!!
With the Wavre battle raging in the background,Brian is musing at how we are going to get over the river with "millions" of cavalry blocking our way!!(so were we!!)
With a good(and beautifully painted) leader anything is possible!!-and so it was.We managed to get my cavalry to carry out a "blocking" attack,whilst Dave's cavalry crossed the river and reformed-Paul was sending in wave after wave of Dragoons and Lancers,trying to prevent us from attacking his central position on the hill!
Paul's face says it all-desperation is setting in(not really,he always looks like that!!!)
This is a good shot of most of the table,showing the French closing in on the central hill.
As Wavre is still being contested,a furious fire-fight erupts!!-Dave was hard pushed here,but just managed to force the Prussians to retire,and the hill was almost ours-hurrah!!
Brian's body-language is now telling the story!!-all is lost for the Prussians,despite Paul putting a massive counter-attack on my troops guarding the left flank,facing the woods.
Paul's counter-attack-almost successful,I think that had he put the attack in a couple of moves earlier,the battle may have had a different out-come!!
Well played everyone,and another big thank-you to Dave for his efforts.
Roll on Thursday,we will be using the same terrain(because I think it is great!) and probably a Saxon and Norman game.
