Wednesday 24 August 2022

Sharp Practice: En Avant III... Major Terre de Nuit...

My second game at En Avant III was against Lloyd's Spanish and unfortunately suffered from whatever issue had happened in the morning with the photos taken on the first day (fortunately day two's photos are fine). However between myself and Lloyd we have managed to scrape together a handful so I can to tell the tale of the Italian attempt to rescue Major Terre de Unit, who was lying wounded in a Spanish dwelling...

With an ambulance following up behind, this time I went infantry heavy, sacrificing some leader capacity hoping to form two musket blocks of four groups each to thwart the advancing Spanish (a quantity over quality approach).

Whereas my troops advanced, shall we say, rather conservatively, Lloyd's had clearly been on the sangria as he rolled 12 on 2D6 and they stormed up the table receiving an ineffectual blast of musket fire from the Volteggiatori tasked with screening the evacuation of the wounded Major.

On the other flank Lloyd pushed forward an impressively large formation of heavy cavalry, whilst my second large formation of Fucilieri moved into position behind the church to protect the flank and give them a volley if they came too close.


Having rather swiftly despatched the Volteggiatori, the Spanish Fusilieros charged into their Italian counter-parts inflicting casualties and Shock on them. Despite a series of bad rolls on the Bad Things Happen table I put trust in the gods of war(gaming) that such bad luck on the dice front would not continue and I challenged the Spanish commander to a duel - who promptly ran his sabre through my commander killing him outright. Oh, how the gods of war(gaming) laughed...


Fortunately the stretcher-bearers carrying Major Terre de Nuit had reached the ambulance. Could they get him to safety before the Italian Force Morale collapsed?


The gods of war(gaming) continued have their fun at my expense... The Spanish cavalry cantered down the left. I deployed the Fucilieri in line and they Presented their muskets waiting to unleash hell. Lloyd pushed his cavalry forward and in a rare example of bad fortune saw them end up flank on stopping right in front of the Italian infantry. Of course next turn I then went and pulled the Spanish cavalry officer's token first and they cantered on past the Fucilieri laughing as they went... :-(


In the centre the Spanish Fusilieros musket fire blasted into the now leaderless Italians who were forced back. As with every Bad Thing Happen roll this game I rolled high (a 5 or 6 every time!) reducing the Italian Force Morale to zero and handing victory to Lloyd.


Sometimes the dice are your worse enemy and the gods of war(gaming) did me no favours in this game. When I needed to roll high I rolled low and when I needed to roll low I rolled high. My force composition had been a bit of a gamble and that also back fired, especially when I lost my force commander in an ill chosen duel. 

Oh well, as they say tomorrow is another day, so hopefully the forces of the Kingdom of Italy would put up a better showing on the Sunday...

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