Well, after yesterday's scene setting, time to move on to the actual game. We rolled to choose sides. Owen won the roll and elected to defend. The table was laid out like this. First, the view from the Bordurian end of the table.
And now, two views of the Syldavian trading post of Schlopp, a small town with a large market square.
In this second picture, you can see the Syldavian Primary Deployment Point (represented by a colour party) wandering aimless around. It would actually be placed in the market square.
The Bordurians, in the shape of the Freikorps Schtroumpf Fusiliers, were first on the table, led by Kapetan
Dimitar Cantacuzene, a very distant relative of the Bordurian Autokrat Constantine II.
Before long, the Syldavian light troops began to appear, no doubt alerted by woodsmen and shepherds fleeing the advancing enemy. First, Pandurs from the Douma regiment.
More Syldavian troops began to deploy; Pandur skirmishers and light infantry Schützen (rated as Good Shots) from the Strelec Jäger regiment taking up firing positions in the cornfields. These were soon in action, firing at long range on the Freikorps. The Bordurians were slower to arrive, but some Hajduk skirmishers took up a position in the woods and caused some shock on the main body of the Pandurs.
The Freikorps Schtroumpf Hussars arrived, resplendent in their blue and white uniforms and led by the dashing and impetuous Kapetan Alexios Doukas.
Holding a strong line across the cornfields and animal pens of the town, the Syldavian light troops were doing a good job of holding up the Bordurian advance. Even more worrying was the non-appearance of the Kashkaval Lancers. As things were turning out, their deployment wasn't going to be in an advantageous place. I had hoped to deploy all my cavalry early on from the Hajduk skirmishers Moveable Deployment Point in the small copse in the middle of the picture above, but the speedy arrival of the Douma Pandurs had made this impossible.
Throwing caution to the winds, Kapetan Doukas charged his Hussars into the Pandurs at the gallop. These light cavalry have the Blood-curdling characteristic ("Tomahawks" in the rulebook), which means that they cause shock when attacking for each 6 rolled on a D6, using 1D6 for each figure in the group. As always seems to happen, the resulting Fisticuffs was bloody, but the gallant Hussars came off worst and were forced to withdraw. However, the amount of shock accumulated by the Pandurs meant that the group in combat were also forced to pull back, breaking the formation.
Using four Command Flags, I reactivated the Hussars and they galloped in again, this time wiping out the now unloaded Pandurs for no further losses. Unfortunately, the main body of Syldavian infantry, from the Istow Fusiliers had now arrived. Before long, an uncontrolled volley from the front group of the column drove the Hussars back, making a swift charge into the town unlikely. Winning was beginning to look impossible for the Bordurians. Oberst
Maximilian von Taschentuch, the commander of the Syldavian Fusiliers was content to stay in the town, protecting it from assault.
Elsewhere, the Bordurian advance had stalled. The lancers had still not arrived, and Kapetan Cantacuzene had taken a wound from skirmishing fire which had left him knocked out.
Finally, the Kashkaval Lancers turned up, and were soon looking around for something to charge into. Their leader, Porucnik (i.e. Lieutenant) Mihail Xinomavro decided that the battered Strelec Jägers would be easy meat and set about charging in.
This didn't seem a bad idea, seeing as the Syldavians had broken their formation into two groups and the Bordurian Hajduks, although the worst troops on the table, were managing to cause shock and casualties.
Recklessly, the Kashkaval Lancers advanced into a storm of musketry, losing half their number dead. Tiffin intervened, but their chip was amazingly the first one drawn in the next turn and they ploughed onwards. The picture shows the outcome of the combat before I removed the Bordurian casualties (The Syldavian dead were already gone). Yes, the Lancers had lost, and even worse were wiped out, with only the hapless leader, Mihail Xinomavro left on the table. So much for my cavalry threat.
That was pretty much it for the Bordurians. I had too few troops left to have any hope of getting into the town of Schlopp, despite the now-revitalised Kapetan Cantacuzene controlling the centre and wiping out the annoying Pandurs who had held things up for so long.
Over on the Bordurian right flank, the Smederevka Hajduks, after a few volleys of musketry which led to a huge pall of smoke obscuring the valley between the two small hills, charged into combat against the much weakened Strelec Jägers, predictably pushing the Syldavian light infantry back, but it was a Pyrrhic victory and the Bordurians were compelled to withdraw.
Well, it was a frustrating game from the Bordurian perspective. Although I managed to get Syldavian morale dropping steadily by weakening the forward defensive screen of Pandurs, Jägers and associated skirmishers, the cost to me was too high. In effect, my force was defeated by these dogged defenders, with the Istow Fusiliers staying well back and acting as a reserve only.
My plan had depended on getting my cavalry on the table early, ideally before the Syldavians were properly deployed, and making a dash for the town, but the chips didn't come out as I wanted. Owen played his hand perfectly, using his skirmishers to weaken my troops and his Pandur and Jäger line groups to stop any real breakthrough from happening. Yes, they were massively weakened in the end, with loads of dead, but they did their job perfectly.
The Fisticuffs really exposed the weakness of Scouting Cavalry against infantry, but without any Impact Cavalry they were the only chance I had to get through the defensive line, especially once my main group of infantry were stalled by the incapacity of their leader.
Anyway, it was a good game and it was nice to see my imagi-nations on the table again.
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