Northern Conspiracy November 2016 Game Night

Last Friday evening our club got together for our November game night. Charlie, pictured to the left, hosted an Austrian vs French Napoleonic game using his rules, Napoleon's Rules of War. I was on the Austrian side with Ed, Bob and Kevin. The French were Ralph, Earl, and Dick. This was Charlie's first test of his attack and defend scenario rules with the Austrian's attacking.

Our plan was to load up our right flank with our more numerous Cavalry and assault in the center and on the right supported by our artillery and a small cavalry reserve. I was in the center. Early on Ralph's batteries were deadly, eliminating my battery before they could get off a shot. Ed pushed the cavalry hard and fast to the left and followed up aggressively with his infantry. Across the rest of the field we advanced with Kevin on the right flank having the furthest to travel and having to slog through some plowed fields and woods. Feeling the pressure of the enemy batteries I pressed in the center, probably more hastily than I should have. My first attacks were repulsed, but my second, went through with costly casualties paid for the ground gained. On the left Ed's infantry did great work with their muskets, but on the right our batteries were mostly ineffective. As Kevin's attacks started to go in our army reached it's exhaustion point, just before I could reach our second objective which would have allowed us to sustain additional hits before stopping. The French held long enough to successfully defend the field.

Balance of the scenario was good, and the exhaustion points of each army were very close. Had I been more conservative in the center, maybe I would have allowed Kevin the time he needed to bring home the attack on our right.

There were two other excellent games run on Friday. One was Peter's ACW river boat battle:

And the other was Tom's 15mm ACW Gettysburg cavalry battle: