Monday, December 30, 2013

The Battle of Liebertwolkwitz, 16 October, 1813 - An Age of Eagles Scenario

We return once again to Matt's Basement Bunker to play his 2nd battle of the year.  Matt hosts at least two major battles at his home in Denver and this was the last for 2013.

This battle was a major engagement that was part of the Battle of Leipzig.  The battle lasted about 4 hours and was scheduled for 8 full turns.  To save time I went to Matt's and as the CinC of the Allies made our initial move onto the table to save time.  This was done a few days before the big event.

We were joined by the French Command of: Andrew (CinC/Center Command), Bob (Polish Commander), Doug (French Right Flank Command) and our Host Matt (French Left Flank).  The Russian/Prussian Command was: Dan (Myself as the CinC and Russian Right Flank Command), Pat (Russian Center Command) and Eric (Prussian and our right flank command).

All of us have played a version of Fire and Fury so the game went very smoothly as far as game play was concerned.  The actual battle fought was probably pretty close to the historical outcome.  There were no major breakthroughs just back and forth actions but I have to hand it to the French today, they really pushed hard and starting bending the allied lines by the end of the battle.  We went 7 turns when  the Allies finally called it off and it ended with a French victory.  You will see in some of the pictures how much of the battlefield the French controlled when Turn 7 rolled around.

As the Allies the major problem we had at each initiative phase was that we were rolling with a -2 and won the initiative maybe once?  That had us on our back foot for most of the battle.  Hat's off to everyone that commanded because everyone seemed to carry out their missions but me.  I was on the Allied right flank with an easy target town objective in front of me.  I just couldn't get there quick enough because the French moved their reserves over to the center and their left pretty quickly.  So there I was trying to pry Matt's forces out of the Town but too late with too little to dig him out.  Well played Frenchies.

Other parts of the field had Pat and Andre duking it out with their large cavalry clashes in the center which was joined by Bob's Polish coming on fast to help press the Russian center.  Doug and Eric had a good fight on their side of the battle too.  Eric's Prussians took up defensive positions when Doug broke out into an immediate attack the second the battle started.  It was getting pretty interesting for the Prussians during this fight.

So it was another great time and another great battle.  Thanks Matt.

Here are some pictures with more captions of the battle in progress.

Happy New Year!

Dan