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.

Battle of Hal Pictures

Curt forwarded on the pictures from our game this weekend.  Sean has a ton of shots too, but I want to winnow this down to the absolute stunning and weed out the merely fabulous.  

Start of the Game with all units hidden.  Stacey methodically counts noses on the French side.

Yikes!  That's a lot of Frenchies!

The Anglo-Allied position at Hal to start the game.  Our early reinforcement arrive across the river to our left.  Later reinforcements come down the road into Hal (i.e. from the bottom left of the photo).

The Anglo Allied right initially, soon to become our centre as we shift right   Not much terrain to hide behind (the fields are only for show).  No hills and a few woods.

Mid game, Vandamme pushes in the centre, taking a heavy toll from British fire.  I think that Vandamme himself had a couple of brigades shot out from under him.

First corps presses the British right in the morning.  The terrain worked for us here funnelling the attack onto a narrow frontage plugged by Red coats.  The downside is that our backs were up against the table edge which hurt us later on.

Late in the game and the wheels are definitely falling off for the Anglo-Allied army.  Ney arrived and did a reserve move to rapidly deploy to our right.  By this time we had run out of fingers to plug the holes in the dyke.

AAR Battle at Hal aka That Won't Do Write Me Down A Victory

Well the battle was fought and lost, but perhaps not the campaign.  And I think that we gave a good account of ourselves before being forced from the the field.  A more complete AAR will follow when pics are available and when I am emotionally in a state to make sense of them.

The general situation is outlined below, with the green rectangle outlining the 8' by 4' playing surface.  This is the map Curt provided to all three armies, but as Wellington I had of course better info on the Anglo-Allied Army and my cavalry scouts gave me pretty darn good info on the French army.  I don't think Boney had much info on our positions beyond the map (if any).  There were also Prussian columns somewhere east of the river, but only they and their hairdressers knew for sure.

Oh yes, the Union Jacks show the French objectives.  If they could exit sufficient forces off either exit, they would win and we would lose.  So our backs were up against the wall.

General Situation Before the Battle of Hal

At day break I had the following information:

• The whole French army (60+ brigade sized units) was in three mostly equal sized columns, at E3, F3 and G2.   The Imperial Guard was in the lead column, and all three columns had infantry, cavalry and artillery.
• Initially the Anglo-Allied had 1 light cavalry brigade at D2, 16 units in D3 and 6 units at D4.  Our army was almost all infantry units, except as noted.
• We had another 3 infantry and 7 cavalry units crossing the river from D5 to D4, and 10 units at C5.
• Intelligence on the Prussian army was limited but messages from the Prussian command the day before had indicated that the would appear at F4 in time to interfere with the third French column.

So this was a big game (250K troops) with shifting odds as the day wore on.  I was facing the following odds

• about 1:1 based on what was on board initially
• about 7:4 once the second column arrived, which turned out to be turn 1.
• 5:4 once the forces crossed the river to Hal, which took most of the morning.
• about 1:1 if my column from C5 arrived before the third French column, which turned out to be a pipe dream
• About 2:1 if the third French column arrived without Prussian interference and before my column arrived from C5.  This happened around midday.
• About 3:2 if the third French column arrived and my last column arrived.  This happened right after the third French column arrived.  At this point the entire French and Anglo-Allied forces would be on table, and we were fighting a bigger fight than Waterloo!
• About 6:(4+x) once the x units of Prussians arrived and every one else was on board.  This happened late in the day, by which time we had broken  strategically retreated of the north table edge.

It was a long afternoon and the British command (myself, Sean and Jeremy seconded from the Prussians) were in a nail biter.  Basically, I spent the entire day have repeated litters of kittens especially since we essentially had no cover to hide behind, there being no hills and limited woods for cover.

However,  while it was a defeat it was also a banner day for the Thin Red Line who defeated repeated  French infantry attacks and shook off cavalry attacks even while not in square.  One highland brigade in particular fought all day and faced down all challengers.