For this game I rolled up scenario 1 - pitched battle. Two hills, two armies and the victor would be the one with the higher head count at the end.
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| The forces deployed, seen from the Swedish side. |
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| Opening moves - the Russians advance their wings, the Swedes just advance. |
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| Straight into the action, the Swedish right wing crashes into the their Russian opposites. |
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| The Swedish left advances to get into hand to hand combat. |
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| The Swedes continue to push the Russians back on the right wing, despite some devastating musketry by the Rostovski regiment. |
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| Stalemate on the Swedish left. |
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| The Schlusselberg Dragoons and the Ostgota regiment hold the centre in the face of devastating ratillery fire. |
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| The Jonskoping regiment savages the Tverski Dragoons while the Uppland regiment suffers heavily from close range artillery fire. |
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| The Russian left flank is just about broken. |
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| The Swedish centre continues to soak up the attention of the Russian artillery. |
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| The Karelska regiment charges into a Russian battery and destroys it. The Smaland cavalry deal with the last of the Vladimirski Dragoons. Not sure why this picture came out so bright? |
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| The Uppland regiment is destroyed by the Ingermanlandski regiment. The Jonskoping regiment advance to within short range of the Tverski Dragoons. |
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| In the centre the Ostgota regiment and Karelska cavalry combine to recoil the Semenovski guards. |
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| And two turns later a second double whammy, this time with the Smaland cavalry acting in tandem with the Ostgota, routs the Semenovski guards from the board. |
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| Turn 15 sees a last desperate charge by the Tverski Dragoons, which causes some damage but is ultimately futile. |
At the end of the game the Russians had three units on the board and the Swedes had 4. A narrow win to the Swedes which will see the Russians retreat from Wolmer in some disarray - after all they don't have access to a road as it was blocked by the army they just fought.
The rules worked better than I had hoped. I was worried that the extra unit for the Russians would unbalance things too much, but it worked perfectly in the end. The Swedes carve up in melee, no doubt about it, but they suffer in the run up from unanswered musketry. Automatically eliminating contacted artillery also streamlines the game quite well, but they give a decent wallop with their d6+3 hits at 15cm range. I have made a couple of minor changes to the rules, as I noticed that there were a couple of things that I had assumed but hadn't specified.
Cavalry now automatically retire from combat with infantry even if the infantry also retires from losing 4 hits.
The next battle will also be in the April turn, as Gyllentrad pursues the retreating Russians. I haven't rolled this one up yet, so we will have to wait and see what the next battle looks like.
Nate
Go the Swedes! Great report Nate!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable BatRep. I am surprised at the low casualty count over the 15 turn game.
ReplyDeleteRemembering a turn is where only one side moves, shoots and fires it is only eight turns for side A and seven turns for side B. The casualties are still pretty high, but 15 hits (16 in my rules) sees most units endure several rounds of combat.
ReplyDeleteNate, are you sure about that? I read that "Each complete turn comprises two player turns." A game would still be 15 turns, each of two player turns.
DeleteYou're right! I've been overlooking that all this time. So my games have been taking an hour and been fought to a conclusion in half the recommended turns? Very interesting. I'll have to play the next game with the correct number of turns and see what the outcome is. I also have to admit that I keep forgetting to roll for running out of ammunition. That might also have an effect.
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DeleteSheesh, sorry the deletions above. As I was trying to say,
DeleteIn my initial playing of OHW (Pike & Shot), both sides nearly butchered each other to a man within 12 of the 15 turns. For the P&S, the Out of Ammo adds an interesting twist to the game and is an excellent bit of chrome.