Phew, what a hard day on the feet! I think the game went well and surprisingly I played it right to a rough conclusion (both days!).
Below is a shot of a unit, showing the one of the labels I printed off yesterday. Each brigade is identified by the corps and division to which it belongs. On the right is a reminder of the dice rolled for skirmishing, combat and morale. My dice are colour-coded (yellow d6, purple d8, blue d10 and black d12). The Austrian grenadiers below are not the best skirmishers but fight well and have excellent morale. These labels really did help today's game shift along.
Next we have a shot taken a couple of turns in. Austrain VI and I Korps are heading for Aspern, II Korps is covering the centre while IV Korps is on a long looping march towards Essling. The reserve is taking up a support position. The french have infantry in Aspern and Essling, with cavalry covering the gap between the villages.
Time moves on and the troops engage around Aspern. IV Korps is tardy on its march and takes until nightfall to reach Essling:
A close up of the action around Aspern on day 1. The chirch changed hands a couple of times:
In the centre, the defence was very sparse but St Cyr's division of Massena'a IV Corps arrived to help out:
At the end of day 1 the Austrians had positioned themselves for a major assault but had yet to cause many casualties:
Overnight the French were reinforced by II Corps and the Imperial Guard. Part of their revised disposition in shown below:
The Guard threw themselves into the gap between Essling and the river, but took heavy losses when they engaged the Austrians. The white-coats forced their way into the village and could not be repelled.
The French admitted defeat as lunchtime drew close on day 2. The Austrian I Corps was forcing itself forward from Aspern and IV Korps had forced the Guard to recule. Ultimately there were just too many Austrians and too few French. Without sophisticated tactics the Austrians achieved victory, more or less by falling on top of the French!
Great game and the rules played really well. A few tweaks to make but nothign too drastic. I'll do these tomorrow.
Below is a shot of a unit, showing the one of the labels I printed off yesterday. Each brigade is identified by the corps and division to which it belongs. On the right is a reminder of the dice rolled for skirmishing, combat and morale. My dice are colour-coded (yellow d6, purple d8, blue d10 and black d12). The Austrian grenadiers below are not the best skirmishers but fight well and have excellent morale. These labels really did help today's game shift along.
Next we have a shot taken a couple of turns in. Austrain VI and I Korps are heading for Aspern, II Korps is covering the centre while IV Korps is on a long looping march towards Essling. The reserve is taking up a support position. The french have infantry in Aspern and Essling, with cavalry covering the gap between the villages.
Time moves on and the troops engage around Aspern. IV Korps is tardy on its march and takes until nightfall to reach Essling:
A close up of the action around Aspern on day 1. The chirch changed hands a couple of times:
In the centre, the defence was very sparse but St Cyr's division of Massena'a IV Corps arrived to help out:
At the end of day 1 the Austrians had positioned themselves for a major assault but had yet to cause many casualties:
Overnight the French were reinforced by II Corps and the Imperial Guard. Part of their revised disposition in shown below:
The Guard threw themselves into the gap between Essling and the river, but took heavy losses when they engaged the Austrians. The white-coats forced their way into the village and could not be repelled.
The French admitted defeat as lunchtime drew close on day 2. The Austrian I Corps was forcing itself forward from Aspern and IV Korps had forced the Guard to recule. Ultimately there were just too many Austrians and too few French. Without sophisticated tactics the Austrians achieved victory, more or less by falling on top of the French!
Great game and the rules played really well. A few tweaks to make but nothign too drastic. I'll do these tomorrow.I'll also put up some pics of other games at the show.
cheers
Thanks for putting on another great game Steve, I'm looking forward to having a go with the rules myself. The base markers seemed like a good idea as well to speed up the game.
ReplyDeleteRegards
John
Nice looking game.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteIt looks almost real!
Thanks for sharing!
Rafa
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThis pictures looks wonderful - I wish I could have seen/played it.
A question about the Austrian bases
[well I am Austrian!], How did you decide which units to put in the 3 deep lines and which ones to put in the colums?
Does this an effect have on the game? Or is it for lookings?
With thanks
Hi, Manfred.
ReplyDeleteThe formations used on the bases are decorative only, they have no specific effect on game play. Some of the Austrians even appear in 2-rank lines.
Units with better skirmishing ability tend to have more skirmisher figures, but this is not vital.
Regards
Steve