Gentlemen, Start your Engines!!

I played another game last Friday at the club, but again, I neglected to bring my camera. Doh! John R took a few shots and is going to forward them to me, so when I get them I will embellish this post with them. (Pictures added; Thanks, John!)

The campaign has started in earnest with the first battle and the first takeover occuring. My partner, Tim, and I offered Pete an offer he couldn't refuse and in the best mafia tradition, we've taken over his territory and added his armies to ours. Rather than take him out of the competition, we've made him a partner, in the same terms that Napoleon made the smaller German states his partners ;-). Pete's other army was engaged on his Western border in a battle with his other neighbour that ended more or less in a stand-off. It was a case of quality vs. quantity with stalemate the result.

Pete in the midst of decisive action, while Geoff rues what could have been!

I played a non-campaign game with Garry and Jim, with Garry and I sharing the French side against Jim's Russians. Garry took a blocking role and came out the worst in an artillery duel against General Jimski's 16 gun 12 lber batteries. I advanced my troops around his left flank with 2 battalions of light infantry covering the advance in skirmish order. Although the the skirmish combat was fairly inconclusive, it distracted him from paying attention to his centre 6lber batteries, which I charged with 2 line battalions. I hadn't quite got in on his flank and the left hand column took some casualties as they came in, but it was a more or less foregone conclusion and the batteries were taken! Hurrah!

That split his 2 wings in half as he'd withdrawn his covering dragoons from the centre to counter my Hussars on his left. His right wing decided to go on a death or glory charge which negated the power of his big 12's and put him in the path of Garry's Cuirassiers who forced the Russians into square or closed column at the mercy of his Garry's infantry. On my flank I had the all arms attack bottling up his infantry which had all gone into square or closed column to counter my cavalry, but that let him at a disadvantage to my artillery. Once his dragoons appeared there was a brief inconclusive cavalry stoush, and my infantry went into l'ordre mixte to still threaten his infantry while giving myself some cover from his cavalry. We ended it a couple of turns later as it was obvious the Russians were on a hiding to nothing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it as it was a victory without too much bloodshed; it was the first game I've won more through maneuver rather than frontal bludgeoning.

Your humble correspondent (the devilishly handsome one on the right with more hair on his face than on his head) getting sage advice from Tim on the benefits of l'ordre mixte. If you expand the view, you'll see the 2 battalions ready to launch their charge at the artillery through the skirmish screen. You can also see the developing cavalry standoff to the left of Tim's elbow. Garry's cuirassiers can be seen at the bottom centre of the picture. In the crowds of people in this shot, I'm the only one involved in this game; both Garry and Jim didn't make it, somehow. The other 2 clowns in the background managed to get their mugs in anyhow!