Lassale 2 wargame

This week we played a 300 point game with a central objective. It was Austrians vs the French. The French deployed centrally to try and confuse their opponent as to the direction of their attack. 

One brigade fanned out ... 

While another flanked to the right. 

The Austrians had not won initiative and so waited for the French to pass. 

After a bombard order it was time for the Austrians. 

The white menace surged forward with their best troops - a grenadier brigade - in the second line. These were not able to get into the fray all game. 

They moved up to take the high ground with their avante garde. 

While on the other, their cuirassiers looked to flank the French. 

The French waited, launching cannonballs with each round. 

The Austrians came on past the central objective ... looks like they were coming in for the kill. 

One smaller brigade held the French right. These formed a tightly packed mass with batteries on each side. 

The French pushed up one brigade to pressure the Austrian left. 

Now the French right arrived. Five battalions snapped into attack column and began making their way through the trees. The Austrian left was being trapped between hammer and anvil. 

The Austrians came on on the other side trying to press home an advantage. 

But the French left was far from weak. Protected by a marsh, the tightly packed columns held their ground. From the rear the French released their Chasseurs. In retrospect this was probably in the wrong spot and created a real crush for space. 

The Austrian line had become disjointed as is pass by the central village. 

The Austrian batteries on the hill poured fire into the French. Looking back, the French chasseurs should have made their way to attack that location. Disrupting on a 5+ makes most cavalry that bit more resistant to fire than infantry. 

The Austrian cuirassiers came on, but the French commander had used his additional formation change order to prepare for this strike. Despite this one French battalion fell to their assault. However, the Austrian infantry had lost two battalions as the French pushed forward in the centre. Some wonderful Austrian rally rolls - and terrible French rolls - kept this fight going slightly longer than expected. 

By this time, the French right hook had emerged from the woods. It stormed through in attack columns neglecting to volley as they preferred the bayonet. Another battalion was lost to Austrian hussars but the damage had been done. 

The Austrians now teetered on defeat and the final unit fell on the hill. Their avante garde had been mauled with three battalions and a battery lost in this area. 

Bloody minded pursuit of victory - at the point of the sabre and bayonet - had left three battalions on the field but the Austrians had suffered defeat. The game had lasted just over two hours. Another excellent game produced by the Lassale rule set. 

 

ADLG Medieval

A rare Saturday game saw Ian and myself return to a much admired rule set - ADLG (we're still using V3.) It was medievals with Venetian Condotta against a German army - probably representing something in the 14th century. 

The above image shows the battlefield littered with steep hills, brush and woods. The Venetians had won initiative (they had a strategist and 4 light horse.) Their plan was to flank march while filling the central area of the table with terrain to make deployment hard for the Germans. The Venetians had one command of just light troops to hold up the heavier Germans. 

A little late in the game but this image shows a sneaky single base of German light horse who whipped around the Venetian right flank. Their English longbow turned to pour volleys into these foolhardy troops quickly dispersing them. 

The Germans - squeezed for good deployment space - were forced to come on in lines. Here XB armed horse form the front line with knight following up. A war wagon with a medium gun is just behind them. 

The Venetians awaited this as their flank marsh took around 4 turns to show up. As you can see, German heavy spear plodded along behind the XB and war wagon. 

These two images show the centre and far side of the table. Here Venetian light troops just held up the Germans. They showered them with crossbow bolts forcing them to come forward. But this meant entering difficult terrain. 

Dismounted German knights tried unsuccessfully to chase down stradiots and light foot. 

Meanwhile, 4 bases of Venetian knight had slammed into the German flank - the flank march had arrived. Caught by this - and the sudden advance of the Venetian heavy halberdiers and pike - the German knights were cut up. A single base of Venetian medium XB flanked the spear trying to save the day. 

The Venetians had suffered many hits but had demolished the German left. All but one knight and cavalry unit was cut down. Generals were lost and the halberd foot had smashed into the LMI XB. 

Meanwhile, the German right still trudged up and down those steep Italians hills ... and all they had to show was taking one base of LI XB. In the background some Hungarians had ridden around the German and were speeding for their camp. Not a good day to be in the German army. 

The plan had worked very well of the Venetians.