French vs Prussians - battle report (part 1) - Turns 1 to 5

I'm going to break this battle report into several parts to make it more manageable. This will be my first attempt at doing one on this blog, so apologies if it's not the best. I'm realising already that a bit of time is involved in the process!

I'll summarise in a way that I think is interesting, rather than giving a card-by-card account, which would probably be quite dull. I'll also add in some thoughts at the end with regards to how well the Commands & Colors system is coping with my square grid approach.

Here's a quick summary on what I decided for the scenario set-up:

French: 5 command cards, move first.
Prussians: 4 command cards, 2 Iron Will counters
Victory banners: 6

The scenario set-up isn't particularly important. I just want something that will allow me to play a decent number of turns to see how the rules cope, and what needs modified. I may play beyond the 6 victory banner total if I feel there's more to find out.

EDIT: Here's another look at the initial deployments, shown in the previous post. I've added some labels to help show where the various troops are positioned at the start of the battle. As mentioned already, this isn't a tried and tested scenario. I've simply thrown down some miniatures with a view to seeing how it plays out.

The initial set-up

So, on to the action!

French light infantry getting stuck in early on

In the first move of the game, the French pushed forward with their two light infantry units and occupied the wood on the left flank. The Prussian jägers opposing them were driven back with some heavy losses.

Two French light infantry units successfully occupy the woods on their left flank

French foot artillery in the centre steadily inflicts damage on the Prussian reserves opposite

The French foot artillery in the centre ground away at the Prussian reserve infantry unit directly opposite them, while on the French right flank units were shuffled around in preparation for a future advance.

For their part, the Prussians were fairly static in the early rounds. Some initial artillery fire proved quite ineffectual, but the leading units were reorganised a little in order to present a stronger defensive line against the French advance that was surely coming.

The Prussian left flank, preparing to defend itself against the oncoming French

Things continued to heat up on the French left flank when the Prussians finally responded by sending forward a unit of reserve infantry to reinforce the jägers. The French light infantry sustained moderate losses but held their ground inside the woods.

Prussian reserve infantry try to retake the woods

Eager to protect the advances they'd made on the left, the French light cavalry charged forward to help out the beleagered light infantry...

French light infantry force the Prussian reserves into square, but are themselves repulsed

...who promptly formed square and repulsed the attack!

The French light cavalry reform, ready to have another go!

Prussian line infantry join the action on the flank, driving back the French cavalry further

The Prussians followed this up by manoeuvring a unit of line infantry over to support the reserve infantry, and drove the light cavalry further back.

But the attack was not repulsed for long. A 'Forward' card from the French allowed them to respond on all fronts, particularly in the left and centre where a combined attack by a foot artillery, a line infantry unit and the returning light cavalry spelled doom for the now exposed Prussian line infantry unit.

The Prussian success is short-lived. A strong French counter-attack annihilates the Prussian line

Sure enough, when the gunsmoke cleared there was nothing left of the unfortunate Prussian line infantry. First blood to the French!

In answer, the Prussian guns roared out along their front line as they played a 'Fire and hold' card, hoping to decimate the leading French units in the centre. But, despite inflicting some significant casualties on the enemy infantry, the French held their nerve and looked set to press on with their attack.

So, a total of 5 turns played for each side and the current victory flag score is 1-0 to the French. Despite their early losses, however, the Prussians still have plenty of strength in reserve, and are holding the stronger positions. The French are surging forward, but are not without their own casualties. They will hope to come to grips with the Prussian front line as quickly as possible, and the next few turns could well be pivotal.

So, how are the rules playing out? Well, pretty good so far I'd say. It definitely feels like a Commands & Colors game, but the biggest difference comes from not having any diagonal movement for infantry units. It feels like infantry are a lot less manoeuvrable in the game, and a bit more planning has to go into co-ordinating both attack and defence.

I'm still allowing diagonal attacks from infantry units, which will mean they can advance diagonally into a vacated area after combat. Retreats can also be made diagonally, since to do otherwise would probably mean too many units would end up unable to retreat because of units deployed directly behind.

It's early days, but I'm liking how the action is unfolding so far. I'll continue with the report in the next post, once I have some spare time to play a few more turns. Hope you enjoyed this first part!