The battlefield, with both armies deployed in the morning.
On the Luftberg right, Tobias Ludwig holds the redoubt, plus light troops are on hand until the reinforcements arrive.
In the centre, Felix Von Hentsch inspects the ranks of regiments in an offset single, double, even triple line, fronted by batteries.
Over on the army's left, the largest mass of horsemen yet fielded, in two brigades under General Van Der Dijk (recently paroled from captivity) and General Frundsberg.
Facing them, General Krumper preens and fusses over uniforms before the attack.
Von Hartling at the head of the cavalry, on the Aschenbach right.
Over on the army's left, by the stream, the Grenadiers are standing ready.
The opening moves! Following a decent breakfast, Ludwig moves his Croats off to occupy the town, and then receives some good news - his two off-table regiments arrive immediately! (A slight rules-tweak here, owing to having only 50% sized units - to represent moving in column, I just turn the single base sideways.)
Marching as one, the Aschenbach army begins to move with it's customary precision.
Von Hartling trots forward, and one of the two Luftberg cavalry brigades comes on to meet him. It dawns on the Aschenbach general that the cavalry will probably be fighting over the hilltop where General Krumper had wanted his artillery to deploy in support of the main attack. Looks like the grenadiers will have to do this without support!
The long walk towards the enemy continues, with only jaunty marching band music to keep the nerves under control!
With the distance closing, the Luftberg cavalry charges...
... and recoils! The combat was mixed, but by the Might & Reason rules, the attacker always recoils and most combats are inconclusive at first, until strength-points (SP's) have been drained and then units begin to crack and rout.
With a crack and boom, the Luftberg cannon take their range and begin firing. The Aschenbach infantry deploy smoothly into fighting lines.
Von Hartling counter-charges, keeping only one dragoon regiment in reserve. His troopers rebound too, but the Luftbergers are definitely beginning to falter, and their SP levels begin sinking.
The clash between the infantry is drawing nearer, and the cavalry are already locking horns. The Aschenbach infantry begins refusing it's right wing, and most of the guns deploy here too, immediately behind the cavalry battle. Can the horsemen of either side secure the crucial flank for the main attack? Will the grenadiers be attacking the Luftberg centre with friendly artillery pounding away in support, or white-coated horsemen charging into their flank?(To be continued...)
3 comments:
A spirited encounter! Just the thing for breaking the campaign stalemate. The battle could go either way, and I'm looking forward to more.
Very enjoyable! You're using 15mm figures? (you probably said somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go searching...) Even the reduced units look fine to me. I've been experimenting with reducing the sizes of my units (28mm figures). I'm down to infantry units of only 8 figures in my latest games. It doesn't have the grandeur of big battalions, but has the advantage of fitting more units on a smallish table, not to mention the savings in terms of storage space and painting time! :)
As a solo player trying to keep decent notes for battle reports it still takes me a while to play out a larger battle (more than say 4 or 5 units on a side).
Hiya,
AJ - glad to hear you're enjoying it!
Fitz-Badger - I'm using 15mm Essex Miniatures, and am rather glad to finally see them on the tabletop. I am beginning to worry that a full battle in non-reduced size and all units will require the floor of a whole room to play out! I'll probably wait for the wife to go out before I try that... :-)
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