Sunday, July 19, 2015

Battle of Halle - When Real Life is a Metaphor for the AAR

So we fought out the second battle of Halle yesterday and evening (1:30-10:30 pm), and it was a WWF wrestle mania of an affair featuring the entire French army, all of the surviving brigades of the Anglo-Allied army and almost all if the Prussian army.  There were about 300,000 troops represented on a huge battlefield.

And it went like my dinner.  We ordered pizza from a national chain, and I risked a pizza that met my dietary restrictions on paper (gluten free and milk free).  But something bit me back and it turned into a religious experience involving much prayer at the shrine of the porcelain goddess when I got back home.  And that is kinda how the game went... down the flusher...

For the second day in a row the Anglo Allied army took on the bulk of the French army on a flat Belgian plain devoid of shelter or terrain.  This time Boney set up a Grand Battery and used a cavalry threat to force me into squares.  They were vaporizing a brigade a turn, while leaving their infantry out of musket range.  They obviously learned from the first day when the redcoats' fire was deadly.

The Prussians arrived in force, sooner than expected and much closer to me than I expected, but Boney was able to screen them and focus on me.  Meanwhile, aided by my atrocious activation rolls early on and a triple epic fail on a cavalry charge later on, the column led by Ney moved off board to threaten our supply line.

Bottom line

  • Anglo-Allies broken in the field for the second day running and forced to retire.
  • French achieved victory by exiting twelve units off the road to our supply lines.
  • Anglo Allies and Prussians damage the French Army, but not enough yo break them n the field of battle of knock them out of the campaign.
  • French victory in the campaign.

4 comments:

  1. Hmmmm - sounds a bit suspect you getting ill at just the "wrong" moment - perhaps your French opponents were employing some asymmetrical strategies against you and you supply line. I make no accusations but only serve to point out the mysterious coincidence.

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    1. Attacks on the supply line or not, it didn't hit me until after the game which I lost on my own merits. If it was a devious plot, Napoleon was especially clever as he tried a piece of he GF pizza.
      Cheers, PD

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  2. It was a glorious grind to the finish and you did an admirable job with the Anglo-Allied forces Peter (even though you were forced to withdraw as the day waned). If you hadn't smoked Boney's left hook plan earlier in the campaign you and the Prussians would have been scooped without the French really being contested. As it was, you provided a real threat to their gambit, coming very, very close to overturning it. Certainly no shame in that.

    A hearty 'Well Done!'

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    1. It was great from start to finish and a damn near run thing. Operationally, 1 or two impulses meant the difference between the French getting to Halle before we did or facing a decent sized deployed Anglo-Allied army (as was the case). Another 1-2 impulses meant that the Prussians got there in time that the French would have been well and truly caught in a trap.

      And even out numbered it took two full days to knock us out. We had our chances for glory and we gave a good fight. Can't ask for more than that.
      Cheers, PD

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