In Remotest Bassignana

I worked late Thursday, so missed entirely the club 80th anniversary reenactment of D-Day, as presented by GM Pete Panzeri and recorded by Oriskany Jim:

But today I've got another game, my second with Jon Freitag and Fields of Honor, this time set in 1745 Piedmont. Let's see how it went!

The sides are me and Brian (Austria and Sardinia) vs. Doug and Alan (Bourbon France and Spain). All members of the Virtual Wargames Club. A difficult task for my side. I haven't followed Jon's previous run-thrus of this scenario, so I'm going in blind.

Now where did I put that dice tower...?

Lex has a new toy.

Note: This isn't entirely IgoUgo - initiative dice are drawn for each brigade. Also, I had trouble grokking Zoom and ended up looking from the Gallispan side for most of the game, and I didn't get many screenshots either. At one point, I tried to order enemy cavalry to charge. The others reckoned this was because I was using the browser version - will have to update. Another reason is that, unlike in the ACW game, most of the units on both sides wore white. I have seen that as a "fun" (depending on which side you're playing) mechanic - if you mistakenly fire into your own side under the impression they are the other side, it counts!

My side's deployment - I command the right (Austrians) while
Brian has the left (Piedmontese). Bourbons across the river.

Turn 1: Alan's (enemy right) opposing infantry moved up to the river. It was actually a creek - harder to cross in line than in column, but not really a detriment to shooting or fighting.

Next, Brian (our left) retreated a cavalry brigade.

Doug fired at my gun and scored a hit.

Then I went. My gun returned fire and hit the infantry regiment opposite.

Brian's turn again, firing across the river again and doing a hit on another Gallispan unit.

Doug's de Grammont brigade started into the river.

End of turn 1 as seen from the Bourbon side of the table.

Turn 2: I went. Couldn't do anything, really, being out of range still for musketry. I fired my light gun (on 2d10), but got a 1 and 5 when I needed 6s to hit.

Doug moved forward into the river and over the bridge. After some back-and-forth, Brian decided to pop out his light infantry and fire into them. There was a brisk exchange.

Then Alan charged two cavalry regiments from the bridge into the Sardinian unit with King Emmanuele next to it, and moved an infantry regiment into the river on his flank and the light infantry's. Before the cavalry melee, though, Brian marched a musketeer unit forward and fired. He managed to eliminate one of the Spanish cavalry regiments! Close combat was also lucky for us and the second cavalry unit was killed off. The brigadier was also hurt, so Doug's infantry was "out of command."

Brian and I fired our guns into the central infantry regiment in the stream, to no effect.

The light infantry on our left, faced with four splashing line regiments, retreated into the woods.

Infantry and Cav advanced on my side of the table. I got three musketry hits (with first fire) but only one converted to a wound.

Still doing alright, but cracks are showing...

It was at this point that I became increasingly confused, which is one reason why the following notes are so sparse. (Or maybe it's the other way round.)

Turn 3: Doug crossed the river and slammed into me. With poor dice rolls, a cavalry unit was eliminated and my brigade broken. This is not bad per se - a minus one to rolls - but break half your brigades and you've lost.

I advanced infantry to the river and tried to stem an attack by two regiments. I got four dice, two hits (on 3+!), doubled for there being two opposing units in the hex, but my opponent saved all but one hit.

Like I said, I can barely tell these guys apart...

(These mini-dice are not very good, are they?)

Brian and I egged each other on here, persisting in ill-advised attacks. So did Doug, but his were more successful. Someone quoted Claverhouse - "He fears his fate too much, or his desserts are small, who will not put it to the touch to win or lose it all."

So we started to fall back. At this point I think the Bourbons had earned the minor victory conditions of holding three of the settlements - the major conditions were to hold Bassignana, the bridge on our side of the table, and two settlements.

"Advance in the opposite direction!" Note that both our flanks
are no longer in touch with the enemy.

Turn 4: Some of our reserves turned up on our back line, for all the good it might do.

Alan's right flank (our left) went after Brian's light infantry in the woods. His line infantry advanced down the road, but Brian managed to counter-charge and destroy the regiment with his cavalry.

Then we lost a cavalry unit AND King Emmanuele (whoops). This meant that three of our four brigades were broken, and the survivors had to retire per Sudden Death conditions. End game, earlier than expected.

I rolled poorly today, but the real issue was my own confusion. Though, when you think about it, this mirrors the confusion of real generals. At least we pretty much mirrored the historical result of the battle!

I rather think it might have been a better idea to pull back my brigade - which turned out to have the best regiments, like grenadiers and guards - towards Brian's side of the table. By the time I decided on that, it was too late.

No blame to Jon here - as usual, his presentation and GMing were excellent. The time flew by, and I barely thought about the rules at all. It may not sound it from my description, but I enjoyed the game. Hopefully I can get another in, less than two-plus years from now!

'Til next time!