Monday, January 9, 2023

Dougfest 2022 - Zeitlessheim (pt3) Struggle for Centre

Yikes, how overdue is this? I'll tell you.....I started the draft in early September. 

How is my recollection? Not good enough. 

 Update: Links to previous battles! part 1, part 2

Centre field (and right flank) we have the French under the command of Seth facing off against the Saxons (upper right corner) and the Brits (centre upper). The Franco-Italian brain trust decided to try and crush the British and force a withdrawal before we were driven from our victory sites (the various towns). 

Seth chose to hold the town on his right flank heavily, which sufficiently deterred the Saxon command that they did very little for most of the game. It later came out that Peter (commander of the Saxons) felt the town fight was a pointless meatgrinder and merely screened it. This would cause challenges for the French to persecute an attack with a strong fresh flanking force hovering menacingly.

 







The crux of the battle really occurred where the Franco-French forces bordered and faced the British crossing a bridge. An artillery park was created and much pressure was exerted on this front.



Above can be seen the Franco-Italian advance on the British, but large forces of the French are held up by the strong Saxon force. The Saxons by this point had ceased their passive screen and were actively manoeuvring to contact the French......just outside of the town. 

 



The battle is getting pretty dicey here for both sides. The Prussians and Italians on the left flank continue to have halts and withdraws for corp morale checks slowing the battle. The British are continually checking morale and having similar issues. The French even suffer being thrown back delaying the pressure on the British. The only command not suffering from Morale checks at this point is the Saxons, though they are a small command and will run into the same issue soon.



 

Despite the battle looking good here, with the British and Saxons bending back their flanks the battle is still up in the air. Off camera to the left the Italians are a spent force and are hugging the towns while the still sizeable Prussian cavalry forces are wrapping around to threaten their lines of communication.

The real question is which side will blink first and have their weary men start to stream off the field in an unstoppable flood.


 

6 comments:

  1. I like the look of so many 28mm figures on a single stand. I am going to have to back and find parts 1& 2 as I have forgotten what happened.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I added links to the top of the post. Good thinking Cod!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. I'm always astonished how close the battles are with this system. I imagine there's at least a decent amount of good judgement on the part of Doug in terms of battle selection, tweaking final force numbers, and how it's converted from map to table. He is very pleased with how historically close a lot of the battles end up.

      Delete
  3. So much to keep track of! Very impresssive mate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dai. These games do look very pretty on the table. It's also a very easy to grasp (and remember!) set of rules.....the hardest part is we've been playing through so much development & revisions we have to check the rules for what the current rule is.....often we nod as say, gosh we were right about what we finally decided on.

      Delete