Monthly Meeting Saturday 6 October 2001

after action report

 

Peter & Jeff hosted "The Attack on the Great Redoubt at Borodino" using the latest version of Peter's Napoleonic rules, A Near Run Thing.  The game was based on the afternoon of Borodino.  Following a morning of bloodletting (more men fell at Borodino than on the First Day of the Somme), Napoleon resolved to crack the Russian centre by throwing one French infantry corps and three cavalry corps in a frontal assault against one Russian infantry corps and the remnants of another.  The Russians then fed two small cavalry corps into the battle. Jeff was Eugene, the French commander, ably assisted by Dieter and Neil.  Chris and Paul were the Russian infantry commanders out to prove that you not only have to kill Russian soldiers, you have to knock them down too.  Peter commanded the Russian cavalry who were to arrive in the nick of time, just like, well . . . erm, the cavalry.  It is always a pleasure when a game goes just like, but not exactly the same as history.  And this game was a pleasure.  The French objective was to drive the Russian infantry off the two ridges before them.  Dieter led the Saxon cavalry like a true Reiter and took the redoubt on the first ridge with his Cuirassiers.  Meanwhile Jeff and Neil set about grinding the Russians on the second ridge and in the gully between up with some nicely coordinated combined arms attacks.   However Chris and Paul gave as good as they got and the French never quite managed to get a breakthrough, despite mowing down huge numbers of the Russian foot.  The arrival of the Russian cavalry allowed the Russians to stabilize their position and even counterattack on one flank.  This in turn allowed the release of the last remaining relatively intact Russian infantry brigades to contest the ridge and deny the French the victory they had fought so hard for.    All-in-all a great game with great people.  And yes, thank you, I know that the Russians look awfully like Austrians, but you can’t have everything.

Andrzej hosted Colonial Diplomacy.  Five players pitted their wits and their negotiation skills over a six hour period.  First to go was Russia, closely followed by France.  Despite initial gains, the Dutch found themselves friendless after France's demise and their forces went into civil disorder.  Meanwhile Japan and China fought it out in the East, allowing England, allied with Turkey,  to expand its colonial empire.  A last minute attempt by the Turks to attack England in the West aided by China, failed when Turkey's ally in the East, Japan, continued to ravage the Chinese seaboard, notwithstanding a promised truce.  The final score: England (Andrzej) 20, China (James) 13, Japan (Adrian) 12, Turkey (Adrian) 10, Holland (Philippe), France and Russia (Matt).

Meanwhile, Michael ran a 4-player game of Warhammer 40,000.  The crusading Sisters of Battle (John), ably supported by the Imperial Guard (newcomer Mark) and rather a lot of tanks, took on the ravening Blood Angels (Wayne) and the stalwart Dark Angels (Michael) in a contest over an artefact conveniently located midway between the 2 armies.  The Sisters and their allies formed a solid gun line, which the Marine forces battered against for several turns.  The Imperial tanks took a heavy toll, forcing the Marines to take cover in no man's land, and even a Marine Land Raider was unable to deal with the Imperial armour.  Eventually, some of the intrepid Blood Angels eventually got through to the Imperial lines, where they wreaked considerable havoc, and by the last turn the artefact was contested by a unit from both sides.  However, the Marines had suffered far heavier losses, so moral victory at least lay with the Sisters and the Guard. 

 

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