"Eagles of Empire: The Battle of Spicheren August 6, 1870" Topic

I played my first game using the "Eagles of Empire" rules and miniatures, that being the Battle of Spicheren.
My wife played the French and I played the Prussians.
The French won the initiative roll and immediately purchased 2 Squads and a Victory Point (VP), spending a total 8 Command Points (CP). The Prussians did the same.

Next, the French combined their 2 deployed Squads into a Section by adding an Officer and moved outside the town of Spicheren.
The Prussians on the other hand split their units, with one squad heading directly for the Rotherberg (Steep Hill), while the other marched to the bridge on the road to the town of Saarbruckern, which is worth 4CP.
Unfortunately, the Prussian Commander (me) was not paying attention and missed a turn of movement towards this vital bridge.
As a result, by the time this Prussian Squad took the bridge and obtained its 4 CPs, the French had obtained 8 CP's, by seizing both the town of Spicheren and the Rotherberg which were worth 4 CPs each.
This additional income allowed the French player to buy Victory Points (VPs) for each turn both those objectives were in their possession.
Thus, within the first several turns, the French had already taken 2 of the 3 objectives without a fight, spent CPs on several VPs as well as 2 more additional Squads.
After the first Prussian Squad arrived at the base of the Rotherberg on the 2nd turn of the game, the squad had to wait an additional turn as a movement penalty due to the sheer hillside of the Rotherberg.
This additional turn as well as the turn wasted in forgetting the other Prussian Squads movement gave the French a 1 turn "net" head start.
As a result, when the first Prussian Squad finally attempted to advance up the hillside and moved out of the cover of the sheer hillside at the base of the Rotherberg, they were met with a volley of French Chassepot from the French squad entrenched up there.
Even worse, a 3rd squad of Prussians that were sent to reinforce their attack was met with a flanking fire from a French squad taking cover in the Gifert Woods.
Thus, on the next turn the French upon seeing the Prussians take casualties from the woods on their flank, announced a charge down the Rotherberg, which not only caused more casualties on the lone Prussian squad, but caused it to retreat.
After the Prussian squad pulled back as a result of the previous turns French charge, they then received a fresh volley of fire from the same French squad as well as the other French squad which had emerged from the Gifert wood and had formed a firing line.
As a result, the Prussian Squad was completely destroyed.
The additional Prussian squad back at the bridge road leading to Saarbrucken could not leave its position for fear of losing it to a French Squad that had just merged with another French Squad into a complete section, a turn or two after leaving the shelter of the town of Spicheren and traveling along the gentle back edge of the Rotherberg towards the Bridge/Road.
This huge French section would give a devasting volley to the Prussian Squad guarding that bridge and had made the mistake of advancing towards the French.
By this time the 3rd Prussian Squad that had originally been brought up to support the attack on the Rotherberg, now encountered a field of dead prussian comrades, and a French section advancing down and from the Rotherberg in a strong counter attack.
The Victory Points added up quickly as the French player continued to spend her continued in flow of Command Points on Victory Points.
The Prussian player (me) could only stare at his measly stack of Victory Points, dead soldiers, and stalled Squads as they seemingly were moving in slow motion compared to the energetic French.
In the end, after managing to scrape up a full section for a counterattack against the advancing French, the Prussians and I quickly realized it was futile to continue and surrendered.

In conclusion, this first game was FUN FUN FUN!
In addition, it showed how history can be changed by the French with their superior range Chassepot rifles combined with competent leadership.
Whereas the Prussians, lead by a "sluggish" commander (Hey! I was trying to teach/learn the rules while playing!), could not even muster a coordinated attack or gain enough ground (CPs) to win.
Not even the vaunted Prussian Krupp Artillery could be brought to bear on the French occupied Rotherberg, as in order to do so would have required I spend CPs on my doctrine card.
Not seizing Objectives and/or doing so quick enough doomed me to thrift spending of CPs just to hold on.

You can read my product review over in the 19th Century Product Review message board section.
Below is the URL for the Eagles of Empire website:
eaglesofempire.com

where;s the pictures?

link

Sorry, here is the full site:
link

Nice firgues.Thanx for sharing.

Thanks for posting this.
Joep

Reading your account of the game made me think that there's a valuable lesson here. If a person with astute shopping skills is in a position to "purchase" victory points (or to obtain resources that would enable them to buy more) and is opposed to someone without those skills, the outcome could very well be preordained. My advice? Only use these rules when playing against another dum husband such as myself.

Bob! You are right!
In fact, at one point in the game when I was helping her with the rules, I noticed that as she handled the CP tokens, it was as if they were "precious and "handled with such care", and yet eyed every transaction and purchase like Ebenezer Scrooge!
I actually thought to myself, "No wonder she is so good at this game, she is always good with money, whereas I am an idiot".