Sunday Napoleonics
Using a combination of BattleFinder (http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/bfinder.html), Volley and Bayonet: Road to Glory (http://testofbattle.com/drupal-4.7.4/node/27) , V&B Scenario book "Austria Stands Alone" and Age of Eagles (2nd Edition) ageofeagles.com My son and I did a small action from 1809.
My son played the Austrian III Korps and I played the Bavarians (VII Corps). We chose these as using the points system in Austria stands alone these were the same value (250 points).
As I had these already set up with Age of Eagle labels we were able to quickly follow the Road to Glory rules and divide our fores into Center, Left, Right and Reserve. Per the rules the Center has to be the largest and cannot be more that twice the size of any other wing. We used the number of stands as the limiting factor and assigned whole brigades.
We then used BattleFinder to select our terrain (BattleFinderis a set of cards, each a 4x6 table) We dealt each of us 2 cards and one to the 'pot'. From this stack we randomly chose one and set it up. We then chose our Road to Glory deployment cards. This 'change' your mission as you may not have all your trrops availible on turn one. My deployment was #7, Advanced Guard Echelon Right. My son got # 13 Returning Detachment Right. These deployments have use place the 'wings' on the table in order and then start Turn one. The kicker here is that that the end of turn one some (or all) of the wings are removed frommthe board to come back later. Mine had all but the Center removed, coming back one per turn starting turn 2. My son's removed the Right Wing with it returning on turn 3.
Gaining the the initiative the Austrians moved up to cover the front, only to have the Bavarian Left and Right 'disappear' at the end of the turn. The Bavarians attempted to push forward in the Center to gain some advantage (there was a fortified Manor on a hill just to the Bavarian right of center. This proved to be not worth the effort as the Bavarioan dice showed a trend of not rolling higher than 5.
Succeeding turns saw the Austrians apply more pressure and press almost to the Bavarian Line of Communication. I was able to maintain a bridgehead and slowly expand and finally started to make some rolls (Age of Eagles rewards high rolls). However in regaining the ground the Bavarians had taken such losses that they were now subject to Army Morale (lose enough stands and it is harder to remain on the feild).
At this point we called the game and totaled VP using Age of Eagles standards. The Bavarians received 6 VP and the Austrians 16 VP. Road to Glory has a 'handicap' based on your deployment, and using that the margin was much closer (13-19).
Good use of a Sunday afternoon, no pictures this time.
Lessons learned: We probably went to 'light' on the forces and will probably use 2 Corps each next time.
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
