Shadow of the Wolf part 3 - conclusion & reflections.

The third full gaming session saw a conclusion to the battle. Both sides still had uncommitted troops  but both also had formations which were teetering on collapse - bled dry from nearly a whole days combat. At this stage it was obvious that my Austrians had failed to make their numerical superiority count. Chris's French meanwhile had a played a shrewd waiting game; careful use of reserves, patient battle management & the clever withdrawal of spent units or batteries prevented severe disruption & a command & control headache; Bravo monsieur!

The Austrian left has thrown back Friant's French but it's taken two to one odds to achieve and not without significant cost.
The threat of the French heavy cavalry on the flank here never materialised - thankfully! They stayed hesitant or failed to close with squares & their horse battery were kept occupied with taking pot shots at the Austrian light horse to the French extreme right off screen.  

The centre gets fruity - finally!

The Austrian attack on the right was frankly bungled by me - the mess was entirely of my own making! 
Way back in the initial turns I ran away with two light cavalry brigades which without horse artillery had no chance of breaking formed French infantry with artillery support. Infact the reverse happened as the French brought up heavy cavalry with additional horse artillery. The Austrian horse lost this encounter badly and spent much of the day trying to reform and extricate themselves from hopeless entanglement with friendly infantry & artillery attempting to mount an attack.
This proved to be the saving grace of the French left.          

Towards the evening French heavies charge down Austrians in line...

French Old Guard Polish lancers threaten the Austrian centre. 

French Old Guard Grenadiers a Cheval looking resplendent! 

The Austrian centre left approaches Wurtemberg lines having driven off their battery.  

Late in the day the French mount an attack on this junction which Horn has been sat on all day. French infantry with Guard cavalry & Grand Battery support line up an assault.  

Grenadiers with 12lb foot battery finally insert into Austrian battle line. The front lines have failed to take the junction by the village.

The view from the French lines of the above picture.

French attack columns going in against Horn on the river line.

Fresh French troops move up from reserve to stabilise Friant's flank against spent Austrian troops. this intervention saved the French right from possible destruction. 

Austrian infantry brigade crossing open ground to assault the Wurtemberger's position.

Horn's foot battery on a low ridge provides counter battery fire against the French massed guns.  

Horn's junction in peril.

Nearing the Wurtmeberg lines - ever so slowly...

Austrian Grenadiers with 12lb battery from the reserve move up to support the attack on the French centre.  

Horn's position in the Austrian centre under pressure.
French OG cavalry support the line battalions.  

This signalled the end of hope on the Austrian right - French Carabiniers breakthrough & move to encircle the Austrian position - Oh deary me!

Also on the Austrian left the opposing French brigade with fairly fresh battalions chooses this point to attack. 

Panning out from above - don't forget the French heavy cavalry behind the Austrian position off screen right! 

French troops clear the area of the junction and claim the objective for themselves having forced an Austrian withdrawal under the protection of a Grenadier brigade with 12lb guns.
A good days work - Tidy!

French Victory in the Shadow of Wolf Tower. 

Reflections on the Battle as a battle. 

We called it here. The French had wrestled control of more objectives with less troops, inflicted more casualties & maintained a more powerful reserve in the face of a larger Austrian army. Well played Chris.

So where did Tony & I go wrong? The truth is that Tony did nothing wrong at all. He obeyed my orders perfectly; he attacked where I asked, held where I wished & exercised great restraint when tempted to do otherwise - Bravo Monsieur Tony!

The burden of command lies with my decisions solely. How about the plan? Well, holding the central two objectives was sound enough and attacking the right hand two was essential to secure a win. Here is where the "small minded player in me gets in the way of the BIG picture want to be Marshall". Tony & I were playing Austrians so I split the army roughly evenly along the board & split it between us - fair enough? No! I then ordered Tony to attack on the left against meagre French forces holding no objectives at all - completely pointless, almost criminally negligent! But it gave him something go for, maybe he could wrap it up and sweep around to the - also devoid of objectives mind! Holding the centre was sensible enough. My attack on the right was under whelming for two reasons; firstly I didn't allocate enough resources to it, secondly I ran away with the light cavalry & got them mangled, these in turn severely disrupted the infantry attack. The unnecessary death of Meyer robbed the Army of ADC's too. The GDA rules are correctly tough on Austrian commanders in this period & generous to the French so any ADC loss was painful! This had an impact on my attempts to release reserves to support my attacks & saw my heavy cavalry reserve sit stoically all day - Hopeless! 

Other details eluded me. Chris deployed his French mostly two brigades deep - I didn't & I should have done, Doh! Chris deployed a Grand Battery by pulling batteries away from various formations; once again I had this option, specifically the two 12lb batteries attached to Grenadiers in reserve - these would have out ranged the French guns & should have softened up a few choice targets before my attacks went in.

Reflections on the Battle as a game.

From a game-play perspective this game had everything so can be classed a great success. Like all of our games the sides are never equal, the terrain not equal and conditions of victory variable. 

It looked the part for me. The scenery is coming together as a coherent entity. The armies since basing and moving over a more convincing landscape look the part. These are beginning to look like the pictures & maps you see in dusty reference books - that pleases me immensely :) 

We have more formations on the way and a pile of new hills and more villages etc too. This can only get more Epic than ever. 

Parting shot...   

Chris & I had a long discussion about this game on the day of Attack, sadly neither Tony could be there.

One of us suggested that we play these games to a full conclusion. 

Rather like the most satisfactory sexual intercourse, we all know how it ends but the "vinegar strokes" still have to be played out for the finale! 

In game terms this means letting the reserves run wild, let's see the Guard attack, lets see a command disintegrate, let's feel the consequences - "The agony & the ecstasy".

This is a worthy goal and easily achieved so we'll try it.         

There we have it. I really hope you enjoyed this game. Feel free to comment & follow if you haven't.

Writing this had revealed that I am maybe a tad rusty at these so will attempt to do better next time.

Best wishes,

Jeremy