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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