I got a game in against Ernie last night, just a friendly one rather than a campaign game, but using our campaign lists. Since Ernie’s army is a little worse for wear at the moment, we decided that all his conscripts (a good proportion of his army right now) should be trained, that one of my elites would be trained, and since Ernie only has one notable, I’d only use one of my three (!) notables too. Given that the result of this game was a massacre, I dread to think how it would have turned out if we hadn’t decided on those changes…
Initial positions
We drew for the battlefield and got Tropical, which meant neither of us had a scouting advantage. Ernie won the roll and decided to defend, and immediately chose a town to make his stand in. He also chose a couple of forests, while I chose some hills – they count as open ground rather than rough terrain, but block artillery, something I like to use when I’m attacking to stop being pounded as I come in as much as possible. As I mentioned in a recent game report, I’ve also stopped using towns when I defend (the last game against Markus, he placed two towns in my set up area to force me to defend one, but I didn’t bother placing any troops in it – it ties up a unit that Id rather be able to manouevre.
My initial set up as attacker
Ernie set up first, and since he had his cavalry bunched up in the corner of the table, I decided to send my tough infantry after them. On my left flank, I placed my artillery just in case the enemy infantry tried to come for me, I placed my (trained) cavalry in reserve (and out of the way) on my right, and made two lines of infantry, the first containing 3 units of elites flanked by trained units, and the second line being trained.
Ernie’s left flank (my right hand side)
My force was thus set up across from Ernie’s cavalry and artillery, and the first couple of his infantry units. My plan was to march forward and try to catch his cavalry – I had a couple of cards which I could use to blunt his charge if it came, and also give my infantry a helping hand in any combat, so was unlikely to get doubled, which meant that disrupted cavalry would be sitting in front of me during my volley phase the following turn, giving me a good chance of either severely wounding or killing a couple of units at least.
Ernie’s centre and right hand flank (my left)
Ernie had set his main body of troops guarding and to my right of the town, with irregulars in the woods. I’ve come a cropper to DaveB’s irregulars before (though his have skirmishers and other nasty surprises), so I decided to leave that flank and the town and concentrate on the cavalry and rightmost part of his infantry. If I could deal with the cavalry and artillery, I might be able to roll up his flank. I don’t mind getting a disruption point by marching through woods too much, since I can usually rally it away with my rally to the flag advantage.
Off we go!
And so we set off, marching the infantry forward in a steady line. Ernie, obviously seeing that I was intending to trap and destroy his cavalry, decided to get them the hell out of there and try to move them around my flanks, not a bad idea.
Catching the horses
On my next turn, I marched forward again – into volley range, but the next turn Ernie would be able to march them again to get out of the way of most of my units except maybe the last one. Since it would be Ernie’s turn next, he would be able to refuse a volley phase, so he’d be safe. After I moved my infantry I told Ernie he wasn’t going to like me much next turn. I think he realised that he’d be able to escape my cauldron of fire though, and didn’t seem too worried. Naturally, on his turn, he decided not to have a volley phase and was about to declare a march order when…
Uh-oh
Oops. I did tell him he’d hate me. And yes, those cavalry units are all in mass formation and being shot at enfilade. By infantry with Lethal Volleys.
But hey, some of them survived (barely).
And now for the artillery
After that, it was the artillery’s turn as Ernie got the rest of his cavalry out of Dodge. With the number of units of infantry I had, the artillery weren’t much of a threat. They did a couple of disruption to me, but nothing I couldn’t easily shake off. I also started to turn to march on his infantry as well as turn a few units to protect my flanks from what remained of Ernie’s cavalry lest they try to flank me.
Let’s roll up the flanks!
With the artillery soon dealt with, my infantry fell into about 4 lines , which ordinarily would be a bit iffy but because of the terrain and angle of Ernie’s troops, meant that we’d only be fighting with a few units at a time anyway.
Here comes the enemy cavalry…
As expected, Ernie attempted to get his cavalry around my flank and out of the way of my infantry, but by doing so he left his infantry in their initial position, which gave me the upper hand. Ernie charged at my artillery with his front cavalry unit, with the expected result:
…And there goes my artillery
But that left his cavalry in front of my infantry on the hill, who could pour lead at them at their leisure. Ernie was also starting to manouevre his infantry around to meet me, but concentrated fire from me had already taken it’s toll on the rightmost units.
First Fire makes an appearance
Another round or two of volley fire, helped by my having the First Fire card, and Ernie’s infantry were not looking good. I also forced him to charge one of my units when they were on 3 disruption which was rather nice – winning the combat meant he lost 2 and destroyed the unit.
Catching me in the flank
Eventually Ernie was down to just one infantry unit, but they did manage to catch me in the flank. Getting a few shots in enfilade while I couldn’t return fire meant that this unit wasn’t going to last long.
The last stand
On the same turn, Ernie charged, and destroyed my unit, but the next turn was mine, so I marched in order to get two units onto his one. Ernie’s men were determined to make their last stand on the hill…
And it’s all over.
And so it was to be. With the last infantry unit gone, Ernie’s morale was broken. I took out 3 artillery, 3 cavalry, and 5 infantry at a cost of 2 infantry and 2 artillery, a massive win. Luckily for Ernie this wasn’t a campaign game (though as he remarked, he’d have surrendered a lot earlier if it had been).
