As agreed last week, JBM and I reconvened 2 nights after our Zoom-based test game, and replayed it. We swapped armies, and intended to try to look at some situations we hadn't seen on the first game. Otherwise the scenario was exactly the same, as set out in my previous blog post.
In our previous game, the defending side had stayed well clear of the bombarding Austrian batteries in the centre. One immediate change in Take Two was the Bavarians came steaming up the middle, to attempt to capture those batteries, which got the chance of just one shot at the town walls (as instructed), but missed. How can you miss a wall...?
The Bavarians also made an excellent job of bringing on their reserves quickly, as you can see in the right foreground. The Austrians struggled for cards suitable for doing the same with their reserves, so they spent the evening chasing the game from this point. [This sounds like a whinge, but it's true, honest. All right, it's a whinge]
By the time the Austrian extras started to arrive, their central batteries were not looking very clever at all
A cavalry engagement developed on the Bavarian left; the Austrians started quite well here, but that didn't last long
Here the formidable Bavarian Leibgrenadieren have overrun one of the two fortified batteries, and are about to overwhelm the other. Note Feldmarschal Arco and his staff gallivanting on the top of the earthwork - my Imperial generals would never have behaved like this...
More ex-Eric Knowles veterans - these are the Bavarian Leib zu Pferd, over on their left. The trees are also veterans, of course, but they come from Hutchie's model railway circa 1960
Having destroyed the artillery, the Leibgrenadieren fell back behind the (French) Boismorel Grenadiers (that's the crimson unit in the woods) to get their breath back
The Bavarians had their left pretty secure now...
...and the Austrians, their reserves finally in a position to do something useful, counter-attacked against the Grenadiers in the centre; here you see one battalion of the IR Baden-Baden (dark blue) and one of the IR Gschwind (white) moving up into action...
...but that went badly as well - both battalions were broken and promptly disappeared. At this point the Bavarians had 1 Victory Point for still having their walls intact, 1 for having taken the artillery positions on the hill, and 6 more for having eliminated enemy units, so had won convincingly by 8-2. Well done, JBM!
Here's a general view at the end
After a very quiet period, I've suddenly been involved in 4 games in short order: one mighty ACW battle - a 5-hander ACW Zoom game hosted by (the mighty) Jon Freitag, these two WSS games in quick succession with JBM, also via Zoom, and on Tuesday this week I drove up north to Schloß Goya for a C&CN miniatures game - specifically Day 1 of Aspern-Essling. All the most excellent fun, so that has done a great deal for my general enthusiasm!
Thanks to everyone involved - a fine couple of weeks.
Tony, good to see you getting in a bevy of games to lift your spirits. JBM is becoming a regular Go To companion at the remote gaming table. Hope he leaves some game slots for me!
ReplyDeleteYour WSS games continue to look fab. Keep up the great work!
By the way, it was a great pleasure having you take commands in my ACW battle. I am pondering which ACW battle to tackle next.
That JBM fellow is quite something. You know, you may not believe this, but I used to know him before he became an international megastar. Now I just try to get a faint suntan by association.
DeleteI was going to contact you about the ACW game, but you seemed to have plenty of feedback on the go anyway. I may email you, if that's OK. I wondered how much of the characteristic of our game fell out of the unique nature of Manassas - I'll email...
More feedback is always welcome as is an email from you! The first part of battle followed the historical action to a tee. The second part of battle the Rebels suffered mightily. Some of this may have been due to fickle die rolling but some was brought about by the imbalance between rifles and smoothbores. In battles where both sides were more or less equally armed, the outcomes were not as pronounced. I have made a slight change for the next time we meet.
DeleteCracking game, thanks for letting me come round to play!
ReplyDeleteYou are always welcome - thanks for coming to play!
DeleteAusgezeichnet! Congratulations to General von Broomentritt.
ReplyDeleteWas the successful storming of the battery a longshot, or was it at reasonable odds?
The odds didn't look too handy when I was doing the attacking in the previous game, but the storm went very well - having an apparently bulletproof elite unit with a general attached does no harm, but they covered the ground far faster than I could bring up reserves, so I guess I did something wrong.
DeleteNah - when in doubt, blame the cards!
I had two cards in my initial hand that allowed an extra hex of movement in the centre and my left. I used them to get as close to the guns as possible as quickly as possible. That would not have been much of an advantage if the Austrian reserves had come on in a timely manner since they had less distance to travel - but luckily for me their arrival was delayed a little and when they did get the cards to come on, the problem became bring on the reserves with them, or use the cards to fight off the Bavarians in close proximity. I think « blame the cards » is correct. There was nothing wrong with the Austrian generalship.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis - thanks.
DeleteAlles ist, wie es immer war. But! The good news is your rules seem to be performing really well - I'm guessing they didn't actually miss the wall, just didn't hit the point they were aiming at to get a breach.
ReplyDeleteHi Rob - yes - all going well. Just a few "I wonder what that was supposed to mean?" bits on the rules, and now some pondering whether elite units need to be toned down just a little, lest they become Tiger tanks.
DeleteI suspect my gunners actually missed the wall - we will never know, but they certainly missed all the human targets which took up their attention thereafter. An old expression involving cows and banjos comes to mind.
A good looking game and sounds like you have had a busy couple of weeks, gaming wise. Card driven games (like CnC) can have that unfortunate effect of preventing one side or the other doing what they want to do at the right time....
ReplyDeleteYes, it's been a very pleasant culture shock! Agree that card games have this tendency, but they help to avoid the alternative situation where activation is a free for all, and the games can develop into a slugfest where there are no real surprises, and nothing develops until one side has been reduced by attrition (and bad dice!) to a worse state than the enemy.
DeleteOverall, I guess I like card games. They can also be criticised in that the concept of planning is largely replaced by reacting to the cards dealt. My attempts to tweak C&C to use a dice-driven activation system (i.e. restricted numbers of activated units, but a free choice of which they are) often result in a concentration on priority "hot-spots", such that other areas of the battle become inactive.
Not easy, is it? - all about the lesser of two weevils (or something). I do like the short turns in C&C, which keep the game ticking nicely and keep everyone involved and interested. A fair amount of my motivation for all this is the painful memory of ancient experiences of watching one or other of the players spending ages trying to make sure he has finished his turn ("Is there anything I haven't moved...?"), while his companions drift off into splinter groups, discussing holidays or the sports results. Nowadays, I guess they would be checking their phones!
It looked wonderful Tony and sounded like there was action a plenty. I'm sorry for you that the Austrians added another loss to their tally (and to that old wargaming mis-conception that they lost *all* the time!).
ReplyDeleteFour games in a couple of weeks; sheesh, that's almost as many as Jon!! :)
Regards, James
It was a good game, very happy with it. I have to say the Austrians, in my experience, do rather better when they can avoid having me in command, but no matter! Big deliverable this time was a potentially influential (though simple) change to the combat rules which should give a better game balance.
DeleteAnother lovely looking and sounding game Tony…
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in having gunners miss a target that is standing in front of them… it’s a very popular past time in my wargaming experience.
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - I think the Austrian gunners must have been very happy to be taken prisoner, rather than go home and face questions about their effectiveness!
DeleteThe JBM sent me. Says your blog is great. I see you have some of the best people on the internet commenting here already. 😀
ReplyDeleteNice battle report! Gonna have a look around to see what under all the labels. I see you've been doing this a long time.
Hi Stew - welcome! That JBM fellow is a kind soul.
DeleteMy blog has been a bit up-and-down recently, as Real Life keeps getting in the way. I used to write a lot of irrelevant stuff to entertain myself, largely - stuff and (probably) nonsense, but I've lost the thread a little of late. Must get back to that - I miss it.
I think that what I am trying to avoid saying is that often the labels Twaddle and Hooptedoodle have contained the best material here!