It had been a while since I was able to run or play in a game. It has been a bot of a rough patch for my hobby life, as I broke my wrist in November and have been very limited in what I could do for a while. Fortunately, I have a backlog of web posts to keep the blog going, while I am on the mend! I jumped at the chance to roll some dice when one of my buddies volunteered to help me out!
It had been a long time since our last Rebels and Patriots game, so that was on the mat. He agreed to bring his terrain and troops, with a box of my trees to finish it up. He did not have any American based skirmish troops, but did have some French, Austrians and Hanoverians. So, we would play War of Austrian Succession!
We set up a table, the little village in the center. This is surrounded by some small hills, a few cops of trees and some from Farm houses. There was a road net work, connecting everything to the village in the center. The idea of the game was that we would have a defend attack – attack defend situation.
The initial defending force would be the Hanoverian force. They would set up their infantry holding the village in the center. The French first brigade would then set up their forces outside of 12 inches of the Hanoverians. The second French brigade would enter on turn one from a pre-designated road. Once the French set up all the troops the Hanoverian player would be allowed to move one of their units anywhere else on the table outside of 12 inches of any front unit. The Austrian force would then enter from one of the back board edges on turn eight. This will give the French the initial advantage to do their damage. However, the solid defensive position would help Hanoverians hold out until their Austrian friends arrived to turn the tide.
French players decided to set up their initial brigade on the far side of the town. With the hope that they would be able to pin down the Hanoverians, while the second brigade marched on an attack from the rear.
The game would be decided by victory points. The French would get one victory points for every building in the village they took. Both sides would get a victory point for every officer they killed. The Hanoverians would get two victory points for every French brigade they reduced below 33%. The French would get one victory point for every Hanoverian unit they did the same to. There was also an extra victory point on the rental events table available to both players. The French would end up getting this result they’ll be out there Total.
The Hanoverian player decided to pull one of their infantry units outside the town and deploy on the far flank of the French. He had hoped that this would distract the French in their attack.
The Hanoverian plan came together nicely. The French attacking force became concerned about the amount of fire power that the enemy could bring upon them from the town. They also worried about the flanking force, and the effect it could have on their units. With those concerns, the French decided that they would first clear the flanking Hanoverian unit. This will give more time for the second French brigade to engage the town in the meantime.
The flight then follow that general plan. The Hanoverian Grenadiers played the bit of footsie going back-and-forth in and out of the woods to keep their forts and play. The French started pushing towards the grenadiers, to try to knock them out of the fight. While this was happening, the second French brigade arrived and started moving towards the front side of the town. Hanoverian player adjusted their positions to occupy the building facing the second brigade. The fighting went back-and-forth with neither side really hitting a strong low blow.
The Austrian reserves finally arrived on the table. With their arrival, the Hanoverian player decided to commit one of their battalions to attack the French second brigade, while it was isolated. The reserve Austrian units supported this attack. This went forward quite well, as it further slow down the French and resulted in the last one of their units. The French brigade commander was also lost in the fight. The other unit was itself in big trouble, and had to fall back to escape being destroyed!
At this point, the French first brigade decided that attacking the Grenadier’s was a fools errand. They decided it was time to redirect their assault against the town, while the Hanoverians were busy fighting the other brigade. So they directed all their units back towards the town to attack into the strength of the Hanoverian defensive position where two units were holding a walled building.
Fortune favored the French, as some random friendly fire drove the Hanoverian unit defending the wall back in disarray. Adding insult to injury, the unit managed to totally fail its rally roll and flee off the table. That just left one Hanoverian unit holding the building.
Fortunately for the Hanoverians, the second brigade was out of the fight at this point. So. The Hanoverians were able to redirect their units back into the town. It would now come down to the final fight to see who would win.
Luck again was with a French, as the variable turn ending kept coming up in their favor. The original plan, was that game with last 10 basic turns. This would been modified by a roll each turn on the D10 If the total number of turns equaled 20 the game would end (turn number plus D10 roll). It turned out we would play eight additional turns!
The extra time is with the French needed to redirect her attack and take one of the buildings. Totaling the points, the French managed to pull out a 4-3 minor victory!
- Manteuffel