Finally, after the months of build up, with planning, rule play testing,
and of course the painting etc., the game was presented at
Enfilade 2013.
We took considerable time explaining the concept of the rules, the
history of battle and the extremely poor but historically accurate
deployment of the Austro-Bavarian army, and the objectives of each side
and of course the rules themselves.
Seth and I are very pleased that the players gushed with praise for the
game and seemed to be very pleased with the results. That is pretty
good for Napoleonics!
The game pretty well went to historical form - or would have had we not
had to shut down. The Allied center was very fragile (in spite of forgetting to downgrade half the troops as they were Bavarian Landwehr
Kreis units!) and so kept retreating as not to be eliminated.
Unfortunately the player with Drouot, having the cream and very much the
majority of the French force, was extremely cautious and would not be
told to take advantage of the enemy weakness even after having given him
a d6 roll of six more (!) movement as a
bonus from Napoleon.
Had he been more aggressive, the game would have gone the path of
historical battle and the French push through the Allies we speculated.
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| The initial
deployment of the Allies per history. The River Kinzig was uncrossable
except by the one bridge (upper right) which is almost in the French
area! Thus 1/3 of the army was cut off. The photo also shows the fortified town of Hanau which Seth built specially for this game. He did a wonderful job. Built from paper houses and foam to be light weight. |
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| The Allied center as seen from the French perspective. The near woods have the French forces yet to be disclosed. |
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| The Austrians
attacking over the bridge against poor French marshal McDonald. Lance,
playing the Frenchman knew he was the anvil for the Austrian hammer. | I
had made some blank element stands from those from which I had removed
figures, so placed them on the table (lower left) to indicate possible
French coming from that direction. The historical Bavarian commander
thought that likely in any event. The Allied commander thought that too
as he kept some of his force facing that direction as you can see. |
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| The Allied left
flank as seen from their side. This photo is from later in the game as
removed elements produce gaps in formations |
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| The French emerge from the forest |
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| A good photo of
McDonald's command. Historically this was both McDonald's and Victor's
Corps which were in name only. They were extremely under strength and
were composed of very weak and fatigued regiments most of which could
only count 100 or less soldiers in the ranks! |
