Monday afternoon was the date for the second Zoom re-run of Neues Ritterheim. If you would like to see a map and the OOBs, you'll find them in the report of the original face-to-face game I played with Stryker, here).
My opponent for this second re-run was David, keeper of the very fine Not by Appointment blog. I am pleased to be able to confirm that the flags for most of the French units in our game were his designs, which is a nice touch - I am a big fan.
Once again I was the French commander, Marsin, while David took the role of Prince Eugène. Because I have now remembered that Zoom games run quite a bit more slowly than face-to-face events, we reduced the victory requirement from 9 points to 7. The game went well enough, though we had some technology glitches which were mostly my fault, as it happened, and we did run out of time, the Austrians being 5-4 ahead; we agreed it was a draw, though, since David was leading on points, held the village and had disabled one of my brigade commanders (Maulevrier), it could be argued that he probably had the best of it. We certainly agreed that neither army would have been in great shape to continue a campaign any time soon!
Yes, once again the action started with the cavalry on the flanks trying to assert themselves. From behind the Allied left you can see Kegel bringing forward his horsemen against the enemy, while beyond him General Backer, with infantry from the Duke of Lorraine's regiment and from Hessen-Kassel, moves to occupy the village
On the other wing, Niederhammer faces up to the French, and his Cusani Cuirassiers suffer an early thumping, which discouraged them somewhat. Over the day, the Austrians won this flank
I had some early doubts about how useful it was throw a lot of effort into possession of the village; after all, if the village is worth 1 victory point and you lose 3 units contesting it, what have you done? However, when Backer's Austrian brigade advanced toward it, my chaps in Bligny's brigade found themselves shuffling forward to stop them. So much for analysis?
The remainder of the Austrian forces - Furneburg's infantry brigade - were withheld while matters elsewhere developed. Accordingly, the French troops opposite them waited to see what happened. If this sounds uninspired, the reality is often that, since a turn normally ends before all brigades have been activated, anyone who is a second priority may miss out on occasions
Back on the French left/Allied right, the early French cavalry success stalled very quickly. Niederhammer employed some skillful evading manoeuvres in this area
The Austrian centre, still developing relatively slowly, about an hour into the action...
...here's a closer view
The infamous ploughed field - this time occupied by dismounted French dragoons. No, they achieved nothing in particular, but at least they did it in the approved manner. What's in the sacks? - no idea, but it might be turnips
At last the Austrian centre advances - note that the command base behind the leftmost battalion in the second line is Prince Eugène himself - some say he was becoming impatient...
By this stage, Kegel's Austrian cavalry on the left flank had a short pause, during which they got their breath back and glared at the French Gendarmérie...
...who were far too superior to glare back...
General view from the French right flank
View from behind Furneburg's Austrians. The artillery unit in the left foreground actually scored a hit on the dragoons in the ploughed field from 800 paces, which is not bad at all, considering they hit little else all day
The Victory Point markers on the table edge indicate this is around the end of the day, and the action on the Allied right peters out with protracted bickering (between the toy soldiers, I hasten to clarify...)
General view along the field from behind the French left
As it became obvious that a draw was imminent, both sides were careful to avoid throwing it away late in the day - battered troops were pulled out of harm's way, and no risky attacks were undertaken. Here in the French back line, 2/Navarre is conspicuous by the 3 loss markers - they had obviously been withdrawn from a hot spot at the front. This is Maulevrier's brigade, though by this stage the brigadier had been seriously wounded and removed from the field
The cavalry action on the French right had gone very quiet - the troops watching each other but avoiding unnecessary risks
More general views, to show where the troops were at the end
My thanks to David for an enjoyable game, and my apologies for the techie problems, which I shall explain here, not least so that they can remind me of things to be careful about...
Technology hiccups. For a start, the first one was my fault. I
got all the cameras set up and everything running about half an hour before kick-off, but I forgot to
switch on the mains supply for my laptop (which was serving the East camera), and it has a duff battery, so about 5 minutes before David was due
to check in it went flat, made a pathetic chiming sound and shut down. As I recall, in this situation the laptop is supposed to go into hibernation, so switching on the power should get everything back to where you were, but no - the camera was signed off - gone. In the ensuing fiddling
around, I did get the East camera admitted to the session again, but managed to knock
out the close-up camera in the process, so decided to run with just the
two main cameras [the close-up camera would have been useful, so that was a bit of a nuisance - I may have uttered an oath or two, for which I apologise as necessary..].
Late on there were 2 instantaneous power failures, about half an hour apart (thank you, Scottish Power) - the Zoom session kept running, but the
Bluetooth switched off both times, so I had to poke about in System Preferences to get the
audio working again! Ach well - war is hell.
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