Shadow of the Eagles game - the final turns, 6 to 8

TURN 6

The Prussians again won the initiative. I should mention here that I wasn't using any of the rules for initiative bonuses in this game, just a straight d6 roll off, which the Prussians had now won six times in a row!

In SotE, any required command checks are done at the start of each side's movement phase, and once more the Prussian landwehr cavalry on the far left failed its roll and would do nothing this turn.

The Prussian uhlans were within charge reach of the French chasseurs, so they decided to gallop forwards and keep the pressure up against the French on this side of the field. The chasseurs failed to counter-charge and would receive the uhlans at the halt (which actually turned out to be a blessing). There was no closing fire to conduct here (cavalry don't fire, and the uhlans were not with the arc of fire of the adjacent French horse artillery).

Prussian uhlans charge the French chasseurs a cheval

In the town, the Prussian army general, Wolff, brought his unit of line infantry further forwards, while outside the town the other infantry unit from Kraus's brigade reformed out of square and moved up to the edge of the built-up area.

The two infantry battalions from Kraus's brigade move up

In the French movement phase, the two remaining battalions of Boche's brigade resumed the fight for the town. CinC Dubois lead one column into the town, whilst the other charged across the stream to engage the Prussians. They received 1 hit from close fire as they rushed forward, but not enough to halt their charge.

The French re-enter the town

French army general Dubois bravely leads from the front

On the right-hand side of the battlefield, the French foot artillery limbered up and moved away from the approaching Prussians and Leroy's leading battalions shook themselves out into line. As the Prussians finally reached the the scene of the action, Major General Goode, having enjoyed taking the scenic route to the battle, saw the French up ahead and looked forward to soon getting down to the hard business of fighting.

Prussian infantry finally emerge from the woods to threaten the French left

Boche's foot artillery limber up and try to move to safety

During the firing phase, the left side of the battlefield was a busy place as both sides blazed away at one another. The French had brought forward it's flanking battalion in line, seeing as the Prussian landwehr weren't going to be a threat this turn.

Lots of firing on this side of the battlefield this turn

As the Prussian commander, I realised at this point I should have moved the injured hussars out of harm's way, but completely forgot, so they were directly in the line of fire of the French horse artillery. Luckily for them, they didn't take any hits. The Prussian landwehr unit in the middle, however, received one more hit, taking it up to 6 (perilously close to the rout number of 7).

In the combat phase, the fight between the uhlans and the chasseurs a cheval went the way of the French. The Prussians failed to cause any hits and received 3 in return. In hindsight, it was probably a poor decision to charge them in. For a start, they were in column (rather than in the more effective fighting formation of line), and the rough ground in front of the chasseurs meant that the Prussian's charge bonus was negated (so it was just as well for the French that they hadn't countered-charged). The uhlans fell back, weakened and on 5 hits. I chose not to pursue with the chasseurs.

Prussian uhlans fall back after their fight with the chasseurs a cheval

Meanwhile, during the crucial fight for the town, the Prussians showed their mettle and managed to cause 3 hits on the charging French whilst only receiving 1 hit in return. The French fell back, and the additional hit for falling back was enough to cause the unit to rout. The Prussians themselves were exhausted and didn't pursue.

Two turns of the battle remained, and another French line infantry unit had been destroyed.

TURN 7

With two turns to go, the battle was now at a critical point. The French finally won the initiative and moved first. Leroy's battalions moved further forward, but with the stream still to be crossed it was now apparent that the most they could do would be to hold off the Prussians infantry from Goode's brigade and provide some supporting fire against the Prussians in the town. It would be down to the single French battalion commanded by Dubois to try and maintain a French foothold in the town.

Leroy's battalions prepare to do what they can

The chasseurs a cheval wanted to charge the uhlans, and even though they were allowed to charge through their horse artillery in front of them, the difficult ground meant the distance was too great, so they changed into column instead.

A view from behind the French left and centre

During the Prussian movement phase, the landwehr cavalry finally managed to pass its command roll and declared a charge against the French line battalion to their front. The French hastily formed square and inflicted 1 hit on the Prussian horse as it bore down on them.

Landwehr cavalry finally organise themselves into a charge

Over at the town, Kraus led his reformed line battalion in a charge against Dubois' infantry, while Wolff's led the other battalion in line the edge of the town facing the stream, ready to fire on the French on the other side. Dubois' men were forced to fall back due to the Prussian closing fire, but the Prussians were unable to catch them during the pursuit.

View of the town from the French side as the Kraus leads in another Prussian battalion

Dubois' men are forced to fall back under Prussian charging fire

During the firing phase, the Prussians came off best on their right flank, but faired much worse on their left, and both landwehr infantry had by now sustained lots of hits.

During the combat phase, things went from bad to worse for the Prussians on this side of the battlefield. The landwehr cavalry tried desperately to tear into the French square but eventually broke itself completely. It routed backwards, and its path of retreat caught the landwehr infantry behind it, causing that unit to also rout. This in turn caused the second landwehr unit (already on 6 hits) to rout. The entire Prussian left flank had disintegrated in a horrible cascade of hits!

The Prussian left flank just before it disappears

Above – a view of the Prussian left just before I removed the figures of those three landwehr units from the table.

And below – a view of the battlefield at the end of turn 7. The Prussian hussars are out of shot, having retreated backwards to avoid the possibility of any further damage from firing. The fight for this side of the battlefield was over, but overall victory would come down to the fight for the town in the next and final turn.

The battlefield at the end of turn 7

TURN 8

It really had come down to the final turn to find out who was going to win this battle. The Prussian left had collapsed, but it had at least done enough to keep the French on this side, and keep them away from the town. The town itself was where the battle would be won, and here the Prussians were in a good position.

The Prussians won the final initiative of the game and were quick to declare a charge against Dubios' French infantry, which was just clinging on inside.

Kraus' Prussian charge forward to drive the French from the town

The already weakened French couldn't stand against the charge. They took another hit from the Prussian musketry and the subsequent fall back move was enough to rout them altogether. Dubois, at least, survived the fight, but the loss of this unit caused further morale hits on the French line unit just outside town. 

In the firing phase, the Prussians caused further damage to this French unit – enough to sweep it away completely and take the limbered French foot artillery with it.

The Prussians win the firefight across the stream

The firing elsewhere on the battlefield didn't really matter much now, except that the very last shot of the game – the final Prussian cannon ball, in fact – delivered a cruel coup de grâce against the French. Schrode's horse artillery managed to cause a hit on the distant French column which had its brigade commander attached. I rolled to check for leader casualty and down went Fournier.

The Prussian horse artillery opens up for the last time...

...and down goes Fournier.

And with that, the battle was over.

A quick check of the victory point totals showed the Prussians on 8 (3 for holding the town plus 5 French units destroyed). The French finished on 4 (which was the three landwehr units it destroyed plus the one battalion from Kraus' brigade).

(EDIT: I somehow managed to completely ignore the actual rules for the way victory is calculated, but I'm happy to say that the outcome would have been the same anyway. See my note in the next post!)

A view of the battlefield at the game's end

Another view.

And another.

Well, what a battle! I'll do another post soon to go over my concluding thoughts, but I will say now that I had great fun with these rules and this scenario. And as far as a solo gaming experience went, it was very satisfying, even though the rules themselves are not designed for solo play as such.

I'm really keen to play another game with SotE, and especially to give the skirmish rules a try, and possibly also to introduce some variety of troop quality. But I will stick to my original plan of playing the same scenario using Lasalle 2nd edition and comparing the two games.

I hope folks enjoyed this battle report. I know it can be quite difficult to get a grasp of what's going on with only snapshots and brief descriptions to go by, but hopefully there was enough there to give you some sense of how it all unfolded and a rough insight into how the rules worked. I hope, too, that I didn't make too many rule blunders. I don't think I did, but there are at least a couple of things I can think to mention in my next post.

Until then, happy gaming!