Bloody Big Battles Return to Coulmiers

Fought the Battle off Courmiers this past weekend Gary hosted the game at The Launchpad game shop in Lodi.   I commanded the Bavarians again because George had to take care of some business items and arrived late.   I again deployed one of the commands in the village to the front in order to prevent the French from being able to start twelve inches in instead of starting from their edge of the table 

Bavarians deployed 

Except for his artillery George had better luck than Mike had in the previous game with his movement dice.  His artillery failed to move during the first turn and did not arrive until the second turn.  Throughout the game George did very well with his movement rolls for the cavalry and infantry.   His infantry advanced quickly and moved towards the main objective town that had two objective markers.

Turn 2.   Bavarian cavalry has advanced to counter the French cavalry on the right as the French infantry advances to the left.  All my formations near the town are out of ammo.

This time I withdrew my infantry from the forward position immediately and was able to get them into position next to the main objective town by the second turn.  My artillery fire over the first few turns disrupted several of George's infantry units slowing their advance in the center.   As his infantry approached he objective town devastating fire from my troops destroyed several of his infantry formations.  George was also able to bring some devastating fire against my infantry unit to the left of the town.   In the previous game this unit drove back attacks from at least four French units over the course of a couple of turns.   It was not the case this time as they broke and ran never to recover.  

Between George and myself we had three or four out of ammo rolls.  Out of ammo rolls happen when you roll 11 or 12 on the firing table.   You will cause a lot of casualties, but every unit that fired will be out of ammo until it does what is needed to recover.   Artillery does not fire for one phase and infantry must be out of small arms fire.   I did have to pull the infantry unit in the town back far enough to recover, but all the other units were able to recover almost immediately without having to move.   George was not as fortunate and had to pull several infantry formations back to recover.

One French unit has been destroyed in the center of the field while both sides firing has resulted in them being out of ammo (black markers).   My unit at the bottom center of the picture would soon rout.

On the left my infantry in the village was able to destroy the only French infantry unit advancing towards it.  I did pull that unit back on the fourth turn to keep it from being overrun by possible French re-enforcements that might arrive near it on turn five.  Both George and I failed to gain any re-enforcements when we rolled for them.

End of turn four.  More French infantry has been destroyed along with my formation that routed.   Both sides are trying to recover from out of ammo, while my infantry on the left has pulled back from the objective village.

On my right my two cavalry brigades had advanced to engage the French cavalry.   This resulted in a couple of turns of inconclusive results with both sides being disrupted, then recovering and charging into the other side while they were still disrupted.   This time no French infantry moved to intervene in the cavalry combat and I was finally able to roll high enough to rout the French cavalry and exploit forward.   On the following turn I moved one of my two cavalry brigades to the rear of the French army while the other moved to their left flank.   George attempted to halt the move by the cavalry to his rear with fire from his machine guns and an artillery unit, but rolled no effect.

End of turn five,  One of my cavalry brigades is now in the rear of the French on the edge of the table while the other is just out of the picture to the left flank of the French infantry at the top center. 

It was now the start of turn six.   Three French infantry units had been reduced to one stand or less along with the cavalry.   My left flank infantry was about to move back to the objective village on that side to prevent the French from occupying it.   My artillery and infantry at the objective town was currently out of ammo, but the French could not muster enough units to successfully attack it on that turn.   The French were also vulnerable to flank or rear attacks from my cavalry and were not likely to gain control of any objectives other than the main town that was worth two if my defensive fire was not able to halt any attacks on turn six or seven.   My artillery would have recovered from low ammo during my part of turn six and could still fire defensively if attacked on the French part of that turn.

At this point we called the game with French losses at 12000 infantry and 3000 cavalry to 4000 Bavarian infantry.   The Bavarians had been the last to pass through or hold seven of the objectives.   Other than the one infantry formation routing  and my cavalry exceeding what I had hoped for everything had gone to plan.

The previous battle can be found at  Courmiers