Hammfest 2024 - GdC Battle of Friedland (pt 3/end)

 

 The Russians have been surprised by the timely arrival of the Corsican Ogre. What looked like defeat in detail for the French has turned into a bit of a pell mell dash for the safety of the far side of the river. While this initial picture makes things look well in hand for the Russians, it's a bit more nuanced. The crossing goes through the town of Friedland, which restricts the speed and capacity of movement. There's going to be bunch up and the French will have time to engage. Furthermore, despite there being fixed movement, units moving anything other than mostly forward, do move slower so that it's possible to have them be caught. 

The Russians are down to 2 cavalry units (1 fresh) versus at least 3 fresh french ones in a unified cavalry corp. Once the Russian infantry are forced into square it's a safe bet that formation is doomed. Morale is brittle so there are real risks to sacrificing units.

To the Russians benefit, their cannon emplacements across the river have been doing great work. To avoid cannon fire entirely would delay the pursuit, so the French have been forced to weather the storm. If I recall correctly the Russian artillery dice were a bit hot.

We know see the rush hour traffic building up at the bridge. French are in close contact with the Russian rearguard.

Not great, but probably manageable. Doctorow's reserve corp is doing exactly what they need to be doing.

Ah crap. The continued fallback of General Peter (RU) on the right and general attrition of cannons there has freed up the French under General Kevin again. 

The pressure is developing for a move across the river into the rear guard flank. Stress!

 

Command ranges and low rolls for pips to move troops I think stymied the french a bit. The hot russian cannons didn't do them any favours. It's possible they failed a morale check and fell back for a turn (about 30 minutes real time). 

That breather essentially cinched the rest of the game.

The forces consolidate back towards their lines. I believe we called this one a minor or marginal win for the Russians. Mostly as Napoleon failed to deliver a punishing blow to the Russians when given an opening.

 

 

Another fun game of GdC. While we keep thinking the rules are in their final shape there is some contemplation of having units that go to 0 strength not leave the table. This would mean

1/. they would continue to be traffic problems. 

2/.they would require commands to evacuate (so command of the corp doesn't improve as you lose troops, which is kinda a thing that happens right now....I'm not pip starved when I have no troops to command!)

3/. Exist on the table to continue to use as a punching bag for the enemy to incur further moral losses and tests (so it's more likely for the whole corp to go poof. Currently it can be hard to attrition the corps enough and force enough tests to make that happen).

2+3/. They are a liability to have around and thus make a more interesting set of decisions for the players.

UPDATE: Play testing has shown that keeping troops on the table is less fun. There's a proposal to requires some PiPs to make them disappear, so that they are still a (more limited) liability, but won't be a continual fun draining hassle.

Hammfest 2024 GdC - Battle of Friedland 1807 pt 2

In our first instalment we saw the Russians aggressively move on the 'isolated' French corp and attempt to destroy them in detail (on the Russian Left). The Russian Right demonstrated in front of the French Left while slowly moving back behind the river (because general Peter is wise). Our cliff hanger moment sees the arrival of some French on the Russian Left.....the cavalry (also infantry) riding to the rescue of the beleaguered french corp under General Seth. 

 

 Indeed there are so many french it's going to take some turns for them to march on . We dickered a bit about the teleporting french and just how close to the Russians they could arrive. The Russians felt it was unsporting to have them be within one move (i.e. move into contact on arrival). This was acceded to. 

The main challenge we see is the Russians are grossly outnumbered now, and have a long CIRCUITOUS route to return (the ford is the town in the bottom left, and the river to the left is otherwise unfordable. Thankfully the Russians have some covering artillery from the safe side. My scant command of grenadiers and some cavalry moved up the middle to support General James. We have a classic Napoleonics traffic management problem, under enemy pressure, and needing to choose who to sacrifice. Don't run men, there's plenty of bridge space for you all (cough cough).