The French right, having taken the strategically vital village Neils' Russians push forward against a weak French division.
The strategy seems to be working on the left for the French, and the Prussians holding the Allied right flank appear to be cracking under the strain of overwhelming artillery firepower supported by infantry and what appears to be all of the French cavalry. However time will tell if they have left their right and centre too weak to withstand the Allied attacks which are bearing down on them.
The French centre held by a division of Young Guard has already seen off one attack by Nicks' Russians but now has to weather the storm from an assaulting Prussian Division.
In the centre Andy's Young Guard were initially assaulted by a division of Nick's Russians. The fight went to the full three rounds of combat but Nick was unable to dislodge the youngsters and his troops withdrew to reform. Meanwhile however the wily Nick had pushed a smaller division of Prussians into the orchard outside of the village and this force is now in position to put in a second assault against the battered defenders. In this scenario the Young Guard are rated as militia for firing and manoeuvre but as veteran for morale and melee and they'll need every advantage they can get if they're to hold off the concerted Allied assaults.
The attack on the Allied left is going well for the French, despite losing both cavalry melees so far they have ample infantry and artillery to make life extremely difficult for the Prussian troops holding the Allied right.
A division of Prussian Landwehr take shelter behind a shallow rise. As yet uncommitted, they should come in useful in the fight for the centre.
As things stand it's too close to call on how this game will pan out, and the fight in the centre will probably prove to be the crucial result for both sides. The arrival of a Swiss division behind the French left appears to mark the last of the reinforcements for either side and these are currently heading to their right to shore up the central position. Whether or not their comrades can hold out long enough for their arrival remains to be seen.
Another view of the centre, Prussian infantry in the orchard prepare to assault while in the background Russian infantry prepare to throw their weight into the melee.
Hopefully next week with the return of the wandering Geordie we'll have some news regarding the campaign and of course I'll be reporting on how the current game developed.
5 comments:
Hi Noel, more stunning photos of another great looking game. One question though, I thought I read a while back that you were introducing a rule to keep a space between individual units on the table, or did I misunderstand?
Actually we didn't introduce a new rule, what we did was start to use an exisiting rule properly. Basically for purposes of artillery targetting units which are closer than two inches to each other can be classed as one large target making them easier to hit. It's something we'd paid lip service to in the past by accepting any gap as enough to seperate targets. It isn't compulsory to have a gap it just makes it a little more difficult to hit them.
Game looks awesome. Great photos.
Your game looks as spectacular as ever..excellent stuff
I like ITGM rules, but I've always felt that the one weakness of the rules is the melee system wherein you just throw in an endless block of your troops into one large rugby scrum.
I can see that the players have stacked their divisions into large phalanxes of soldiers in preparation for a melee. I'd do the same thing, but I'm not sure that this is Napoleonic warfare.
That said, I love your set up and the fantastic pictures that you post on your blog. Thumbs up!
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