The Corlears Hook Fencibles test-drove the new 19th Century rules Bloody Big Battles (BBB) on Thursday evening, using the December 1870 Loigny scenario from the rules. This features a largely raw French Republican force that will eventually total 14 infantry brigades against a Bavarian-Prussian force of 8 brigades, half trained and half veteran. It is the Republican attempt to raise the siege of Paris.
My original plan was to umpire the game with two Fencibles on each side. Bill was hors de combat with a fever and coughing. So I played rather than umpire. A series of rules errors were made. As errors were caught during the game, play changed. One error made it through until the game was over. Play was also slow because we were feeling our way.
Tom and Ken commanded the French, Rick and I the Germans. The French made a rudimentary plan. In a rush to get the game started (a number of things conspired to delay the start of the game) we made no plan at all. This would make the difference.
At the start of the game the Bavarian I Korps (under Rick) was deployed around the right third of the table with one brigade and cavalry deployed forward. Two French brigades of the 16th Corps (Ken's command) arrived and immediately charged the Bavarians. The raw French infantry managed to knock the Bavarians back a short distance but took losses. The French cavalry was disrupted by Krupp gun fire and then routed by a charge of the Bavarian cavalry. As the French got into trouble a Bavarian brigade tried to envelop their right flank. Two French divisions arrived from the south table edge and suddenly the Bavarian brigade was surrounded by French.
Night fell on the first day of the fight. Units on both sides fell back out of small arms range. The surrounded Bavarian brigade found cover in the town of Gommiers. Victory conditions were based on three towns across the center of the table. Bavarian attention was fixed on the fight to their front, which left the center and left towns unoccupied. The newly arrived division on the right flank of the French 16th Corps got astride roads leading to the central objective town of Lumeau. We broke for dinner.
After dinner we started the second day. Tom commanded the French 15th Corps which showed up on the south table edge and I had the two Prussian divisions which arrived on the north table edge. My lead unit marched on in road column but only moved at half speed (a poor movement roll) and blocked the road for other units. Those set out cross-country. When the French arrived they rolled well and beat us into Poupry, the eastern most objective town. Perhaps local guides helped them. Meanwhile the right flank division of the French 16th Corps marched up the road into the central town, Lumeau. The Bavarians were in the western town, Loigny. The French had a victory if they could hold both towns.
About now one mistake was realized. We had been resolving each unit's fire combat separately when I realized all such attacks should be combined into one combat. Casualties went up immediately. The Bavarians who took cover in Gommiers (near the south table edge) were besieged by three French infantry brigades. It took some turns but finally the survivors of the brigade were captured.
In the meantime a Prussian attack towards Lumeau was organized as the French tried to get the Foreign Legion (their only veteran unit) into the town. The Prussian attack was slowed as one brigade decided to rest after their march (a lousy movement roll). Likewise the Foreign Legion decided to halt along the road and have lunch. Lumeau ended up garrisoned a mix of French artillery and raw infantry. The attack, with fits and starts, did manage to clear the French out of Baigneaux, the town northwest of Lumeau. 4 battalions of Krupp guns on the heights behind destroyed a French artillery battalion that was moving towards the town. On the Bavarian front, a damaged Bavarian artillery battalion stopped a French charge. The French infantry instead fired at close range and wiped out the artillery. This drew the last unengaged Bavarian infantry brigade which dealt out losses to the French. It was nearing 10 PM in real time. Ken had already headed home. We had two more turns left to finish the game. One more French Corps (4 infantry brigades) was arriving and had a clear road leading into Lumeau. While two veteran German brigades with artillery support were likely to be able to throw the current garrison out of the town, if the town were constantly reinforced by the 17th Corps it would take a small miracle to recapture the place. So the game went to the French.
These are pictures from the end of the game. I took the liberty of sprinkling casualty figures around, one for each stand lost.
The French lost 10 bases of infantry, 2 cavalry (a third stand quit the field) and one of artillery. The Germans lost 6 bases of infantry (1 of those prisoners) and one of artillery. All the German losses were Bavarians.
With the game over I realized one more rule that had been overlooked. Units become spent after taking losses. Raw troops become spent after losing one base, trained after two, etc. Spent troops suffer in assaults and on movement rolls. They may even quit the field. This would have made the French weaker in the game. Tom later figured this would have kept the French from winning. I think the German failure to screen the objective towns gave the French the victory, though I think the Bavarian brigade under siege might just have made it to nightfall. Though one still had to wonder what they would have done then, surrounded by the whole French army.
We played 8 daylight turns and one night turn in a little under 4 hours. There were delays due to our getting used to the turn sequence. Each player turn both sides get to shoot, first the defensive (non-phasing) side and the offensive (phasing) side. A number of times the defensive side thought they could move too, pivoting guns, unlimbering, etc. It took some time to beat this out of them. I think with practice we can get this played faster. Also, Bill has to be given a shot with these rules when he gets better.
I like the rules. It will be instructive to see how they play when we are all more used to them. No more games until next year since our game evening is Thursday and the next two are holidays.
