Battle of Sacile - Blucher AAR

This fortnight we played a Blucher Scenario, The Battle of Sacile. This is one of the scenarios on the 'oldmeldrumwargamesgroup' site...

'oldmeldrumwargamesgroup'

Archduke John (large base at the centre of the right edge) orders the densely packed units of his VIIIth Corps into action against the French left wing...

Streams featured prominently on the otherwise featureless battlefield (they were made specially for the game using the 'gap filler' technique, I'm sure I'll use them again though). The area is also spotted with several towns/villages some of which were vital to the morale of each side. The game was scheduled to run for 31 turns with both sides having 2 MO dice. The victory conditions were to break the opposing army which in this case was to destroy seven units for each side, as above each side had three objective towns/villages which if captured counted as a destroyed unit for the other side. So I foresaw a rushed terrain grab followed by a fight for the towns/villages! Here we go...

The AAR...

Dave took the French and during the first ten turns moved forward as fast as he could sharing his few MO pips between the two French wings but this and the and the plethora of streams slowed his advance. Meanwhile Al in charge of the Austrians deployed his (initially) fewer units rapidly into a ring to block the French advance.

On turn eleven the Austrian reinforcements deployed and this brought their army size up to roughly the same as the slowly advancing French. At this stage only one of the crucial towns/villages had been occupied and the French started to engage the Austrians but were still struggling to get all their forces into the fight.

During turns twelve to twenty-four the Austrian got the better of the individual combats that occurred. The French left were especially hard hit as the Austrian horse carried out several spectacular charges, the best of which they inflicted five hits on one French unit! The French right only managed to get half their force up to the Austrian line and they never really threatened the defenders! In fact on turn 24 the Austrian went over to the attack!

At the end end of turn twenty-four we 'pulled stumps' and called it a night we gave the Austrians a minor victory as they inflicted much heavier casualties on the French neither side actually lost a unit!

The game was good as we got back into the Blucher rules and how to use MO's but the scenario giving both sides only two MO dice a turn was far from any resolution. We will replay this but up the MO dice to three for each side to allow both sides to get into the fight quicker. This may favour the French with their initial force superiority but worth a try as in our game no real action commenced until turn after sixteen so half the game was over. All in all a good experience!

Some pictures...

The overall tabletop. A very barren affair dominated by streams and villages. The ground gently sloped from the bottom left of this picture to the top right not enough to be of any effect at this scale. Eugene's French right wing is in the lower left corner and the right wing and cavalry will enter from the top right. Archduke John's advanced guard is near the centre of the table and a full corps is starting on the right edge...

The French right slowly advanced while the Austrians rapidly established a defence centred on the towns/villages...

Just as slowly the French left wing advanced into a rapidly consolidating Austrian line...

The Austrian view of the French advance... 

Turn 11 and the French have still yet to engage the Austrians!

The Austrians drew first blood effectively using their cavalry on the French right inflicting casualties and slowing them even more!

The static French right watch on as more Austrians arrive!

By turn 22 the Austrian were on the attack against the French right...

...and the French left!

Off course the 'Dice Shako' had to be given an outing!

The Austrian VIIIth Corps launches a big attack on turn 24...

The overall view at the end of turn 24 the crescent of the Austrian defensive line can be seen and the widely separated french left and right wings is noticeable...

Next fortnight we are revisiting The Great Antipodean Adventure and The World Aflame rules...