Battle of Albuera, 1811- General d'Armee AAR

My second game at Fall In was the Battle of Albuera, 1811, using General d'Armee 2 and run by Chip (with assistance from Ted).

The game focused in on a section of the overall battle. Four French infantry brigades started on the attack against just two Spanish infantry brigades. Over time, two British infantry brigades and a Spanish cavalry brigade would reinforce the Allied line, while the French would see a cavalry brigade added to the battle. 

The French advance was generally cohesive, with only one brigade falling behind from multiple Hesitant results.

The Allies had a tougher time dressing their lines. With the British coming on after the initial deployment, the plan was for the two Spanish brigades to fall back and drift apart, forming a space for the British battalions to fill. 

You can see the problem the Allies found themselves in. Hemmed in on both sides, the British had to squeeze into whatever gaps they could find. I unfortunately also made the mistake of masking my guns with my skirmishers and prevented them from firing. 

The Allied right was also being threatened by the French cavalry brigade. 

One of the Spanish brigades began to falter as the French columns charged forwards. 

On the other side of the battle, French battalions shifted to line as the flagging infantry brigade caught up. 

Unfortunately, one of the Spanish battalions in square was charged by French infantry and routed, leaving another battalion isolated. 

After seeing the Spanish battalion routed, the British formed square while a single Spanish battalion awaited a mass of French columns. 

On the Allied left flank, the pair of Irish battalions held firm as the French filtered around the small village (which acted as rough terrain instead of a proper Built Up Area. 

The Spanish cavalry sat in it's position, unwilling to advance but keeping a French brigade out of the action by doing so. 

After weathering multiple French charges, the British decided to launch their own assault, throwing back a few enemy battalions. 

Unfortunately, my poor artillery battery was doing poorly in the Spanish heat, and my dice rolling was causing more damage to the crews then enemy fire was. 

And to add on another calamity, I managed to fail two rolls to keep my other faltering British brigade from fleeing the battlefield. This opened a massive hole in the Allied lines. 

We decided to call it there as we were close to the time limit for the game and the Allies were in a bad position. Thus, a French victory!
 

I feel like I need to play more GdA2, as there are plenty of nuances that I just don't have done, especially with the changes from the previous version.

However, I'm always happy to get a chance to game with Chip and Ted!

Boot Camp - Clash of Rhyfles AAR

This past weekend was HMGS' Fall In, the last major convention of the year. 

While I had intended to attend both Friday and Saturday, I had to change my plans and wasn't able to stay for Saturday. Conveniently, I hadn't locked in a hotel room yet so I was able to increase my spending budget.

Because I had changed my schedule I was only able to attend two games on Friday.

The first game was a demo of Clash of Rhyfles, the skirmish set of rules for the Quar setting from Zombiesmith that's received a boost in popularity from a pretty consistent release schedule from Wargames Atlantic. The "full" version of the rules have been released in anticipation of a new starter set coming in the next few months. 

Two tables were set up, each with a standard Crusader and Coftyran squad. 

Since I had played the rules a couple before, I ended up controlling a single Coftyran squad against two new players who controlled two halves of the opposing Crusader squad. 

The Coftyran squad's LMG and loader set up with a decent fire lane through the center of the table while the squad's yawdryl took half of the squad's rhyflers on a flanking maneuver. 

The Crusaders split into a number of small teams and filtered through the terrain. The squad's milwer was knocked down by the Coftyran LMG, but managed to recover. 

Unfortunately, my luck wasn't great for this game. It started with a rhyfler tripping over his rifle and knocking himself out. A Crusader marksquar knocked out another rhyfler, and the squad's milwer was shot trying to tend to his fallen comrades. 

On the other side of the battle, the Coftyran yawdryl and his accompanying rhyflers were pinned by pair of Crusader rhyflers. Armed with large caliber rifles, the Crusaders kept punching through the Coftyran's lighter cover. 

As a demo, the game only lasted three turns, but we were given a decent overview of the rules and setting. Had we continued, I wouldn't expect the Coftyrans to last much longer. 

I did end up picking up the Coftyran and Crusader specialists boxes, as well as the newly released Chyweethl and Ailthean tractors (Quar-equivalents to tanks, about the same technological level as interwar vehicles).