A Grand Old Battle

So a few days I got the siblings together, designed a battlefield and set up the points values for a series clash of forces. Trying to keep within history as much as possible, I kept the alliances to a feasible level. On one side were the Swedish and the British. Across from them were the armies of the Italians, Denmark and the US. True it is not very accurate to have the American forces on European soil at the time but my brother is young and that’s the army he wanted. Because I have scaled down the system to some degree we were able to run all the forces on a standard six foot by four foot surface though things did get a little crowded whenever terrain was encountered as there just wasn't enough room to manipulate forces without some overlay. Intermingling probably would have caused disruption in the ranks but I try to keep the game on a simple level so did not bring it up.

As it was an assault mission, there were two objectives in the enemy deployment zone, which belonged to Italy, US and Denmark, and two on the field for both sides to fight for, a large manor and the town square.

Unfortunately we were under a time constraint and had to deal with a couple siblings needing to slip away for various other activities. We agreed to try and get in the full six rounds as is normal for the game system and managed to pull it off though just barely.

Turn one saw a lot of moving and plotting with little combat due to short range of muskets and even the cannons were a tad out of range. Turn two was along the same lines with units marching, rushing or changing formation all over the field in preparation for the coming storm of lead.

Turn three saw combat on the left flank and in the center between the Swedish, British, Italians and US. The Denmark forces were taking their sweet time advancing through the wheat fields on the right flank and refused to rush into combat.

Turn four saw more shooting and a daring assault by the US forces against a steady, double line of British infantry. Losses were severe for the British with five stands being cut down. But they held ground, regrouped and cut the Americans down to a man in the retaliation. The Swedish Jaegers also saw some action after securing the cathedral in the center of town and shot up an entire troop of Italian medium cavalry, killing every stand.

Turn five found the forces of the Italians and US, wheeling and shifting to try and recover from the heavy losses in the center as reinforcements rushed forth to support the British lines already in place. Swedish Jaegers decimated another band of cavalry, this time Denmark Heavy Cavalry, and sent the remainders fleeing the board.

Turn six was pretty one sides. The left flank, which the Italians had been attempting to hold, was crumbling under artillery and a combined line of British and Swedish Line Infantry. Swedish Light Cavalry went on a rampage, singlehandedly wiping out two Grenadier battalions, a battalion of Militia and a battalion of Line all belonging to Denmark.

Final points came down one sided as well. The British forces held the manor and the Swedish were in the center of town and routing enemy forces at the end of the game. Amount of forces still standing as well as the number of forces routed or destroyed were tallied up. Final victory points came down to 32 points for the alliance of Sweden and Britain and 13 for the combined forces of US, Italy and Denmark.

Overall it was a good game and a good chance to work with the mechanics of the game on such a large scale. Some tuning may be needed in the future as we work out more historically accurate encounters. We are also planning on holding another match with the same sides but trying it from the other side of the table to see what the result will be. Stay tuned for that report and the photos from this one.