WSS: Neues Ritterheim - 2nd house

 This is a repeat of a battle I fought with Stryker, face-to-face, on 9th October, and if you'd like to see map and OOBs you will find them on my blog report here. At that time, my intention was to leave the field set up, and stage a couple of re-runs via Zoom the following week.

Inevitably, a few inconveniences manifested themselves on the Real World front, and it became obvious that "the following week" was going to slip quite a bit. So I took notes, packed away the soldiers safely into A4 boxfiles, in the correct order and all correctly labelled, and promised myself that I'd arrange to get the follow-up games set up as soon as possible.

Well, I may not keep promises to others, but I'm always careful not to disappoint myself, so yesterday the days were accomplished, and I was delighted to host the Jolly Broom Man (all the way from France) in this first repeat performance. JBM took the part of Prince Eugène with the Imperial army, and once again I was Marshal Marsin, with some of King Louis' finest. Since I lost the first game, I was keen to do rather better this time.

 

General view of the table, from behind the French right flank, early in the day - troop movements have started, and there is a sprinking of early loss counters (which are white for Zoom games, since the official black ones don't show up well on screen!)

We started at 11:30 GMT, which is a tad brisk for me, but we expected the game to last about 4 hours, and JBM was keen to have some French daylight left at the end to allow him to put his hens to bed. As with the October session, the target for the win was 9 Victory Points, one of which was available to whoever held the village at any moment. [In October, by the way, I was the French, and was beaten decisively.]

 

From the French left - you can see the Austrians getting about their business, advancing in the centre. One scenic change from the original game was that the enclosure near this end of the table was a ploughed field, since I couldn't find the printed paper kale field I used last time... 

 

 

One thing I remembered from the original game was that the French right wing cavalry had an advantage in quality and numbers (they are coming towards the camera, from the opposite side of the table), but were deployed in a wooded area which restricted them. Accordingly, I made the effort to get them out in the open, where I could use them. I have to say it was better, but still not as good as I hoped

 

On the other flank, history repeated itself, since one army seized the ploughed field and was pretty much stranded there for most of the day. This time it was the Austrians' turn to do some unintentional farming

 

There was a long struggle for control of the village - the Imperialists captured it very quickly, but here the French have just taken it back - General De Bligny is in personal command - that's him next to the blue cube (which indicates that his brigade has been activated). The fight continued here, and the Austrians recaptured it later

 

French cavalry trying to remember to behave sensibly, for a change

 

Back at the ploughed field, Heimo Niederhammer finds he has a major scrap surrounding him, but is not able to contribute much...

 

The little soldiers don't get much of a view - and then there's all that abstracted smoke. Here we are behind the French second line - regiments of Toulouse (on the left) and Saintonge - things are sweatier in front

 

In this game we had no staff casualties at all, which is surprising, since most of the generals were actively involved in the fighting. Here is a moment of disappointment for the French; the Marquis de Vertilly (blue cube) comes in with fresh cavalry on the right flank, to mop up the very battered 3/Lothringen, who have suffered considerably in the fighting for village, and are being held together by Generalmajor Backer (pale horse) - 4 white counters and you're out! Not only are the Austrian unit on the edge, but they are also exposed on the end of the line - this is the equivalent of a flank attack in these rules. The dice, despite all appropriate advantages, achieve no hits, though the 2 is a retreat, which the infantry may ignore, since Backer is alive and with them...

 

The game went smoothly enough, but we were a bit slow getting the losses to levels where the morale checks start to bring on a decision. This is probably because (1) we felt we had plenty of time (2) we both did a lot of work pulling battered units out of the line, and sending fresh ones in (3) I maybe talked too much (it has been known). I got a nice fat chance event bonus (black cube here), which gave Maulévrier's brigade extra moves and extra fighting dice for this activation. You can see his units with blue "order" chits, whose job it is now to make the final push for the French

 

I had glorious visions of winning the day in some style, but my attack was only moderately successful.

 

 

The Austrians still held the village, but, though the VP score was only 6-3 to the French, JBM was concerned that he had quite a few units close to elimination, and now conceded with such dignity and so graciously that I was almost tearful; then I remembered that his hens would be getting anxious about the fading light...