Back to the Bayonet

With the drafting and re-drafting of "From Pike to Bayonet" in full swing (more or less) it was time to give the rules a table top airing again.

I was expecting the usual four visitors, but Steve dropped out with a touch of the lurgy. I therefore stepped in to even up the sides. This meant slightly slower play and fewer photos. I got the Imperialists and the French/Bavarians out again, and set up some terrain mainly as window dressing. Except for the river behind the Imperialists and the village flank guard for the French. The river would be a major problem if they were forced back into it. As it was, the French won the initiative, and conceded the first turn, so the Imperialists were able to move away from the death trap in their rear.

Phil took his usual seat, and got the right wing of the French. Chris threw me a bit by deciding to partner him on the French left. I faced off against Chris, and Tim lined up against Phil. I had put the Imperial right out wide in the deployment, and protected the French flank with a village (Chris thought I'd crammed him in, but I'd set it up expecting that I'd be sitting there, fighting a more passive defence). I had also thinned the centre of the French infantry line to give Phil an overlap on the right hand end.

I'd also deployed the armies closer together than normal, so we could get stuck in quickly. This duly happened, with the cavalry on my wing getting engaged in as soon as they could.

The outcomes were a mixed bag, to be honest. I was just glad to have got them out of the corner.

I still can't get the hang of artillery deployments. I fired twice then masked my guns. Oh well.

Tim was likewise winning one and losing one of the cavalry fights on his flank. He's got his general over there to shore things up a bit.

The infantry in the centre closed. I wanted to try closing, firing at point blank, then charging home, with the new factors for morale checks to move after firing. These are intended to create a firefight, rather than it being an automatic fire and charge.

We closed and opened up. Even with the movement penalty, the fire was effective, inflicting hits all along the line. Pretty much.

On my flank I'd broken Chris' cavalry on the right, but had been badly pushed back in the other conflict. Fortune had flipped from the first round of fighting.

The French decided to return fire, rather than close with the bayonet. As you can see, Phil had used the overlap to turn in and hit us with an extra volley at that end. 

Tim's cavalry was gaining the upper hand, having triumphed on the left.

We launched charges all along the infantry line, and the troops pretty much all refused to move, except the second one in from the left. Even then, with a couple of advantages in the factors we were unable to breakthrough.

Until the following turn, when the Bavarians holding that end of the French line turned and fled, taking the artillery crews with them. We had a big hole to exploit.

On the left Tim had seen off two regiments of French cavalry, but was struggling to hold on at the end of the line. He really needed to get his other cavalry back into the game.

We broke here for a drink, and didn't return to the game. Phil can tire very quickly these days, so we wound up after a couple of hours.

I made a few notes, mostly on the subject of interpenetration/passage of lines, but otherwise it all ran smoothly. I'd revisited the wording of the "Combat Outcomes" section from "Tricorn and Bonnet beforehand. I keep on mis-reading it in the heat of the action, even though the wording is completely clear. Bolding a few key word, like "ROUT" and "RETIRE" made the whole thing much clearer to read quickly, so that's going into the rule book.

Just need to finish this blog off, and get back to the rules manuscript.