Thoughts and Pics on the Second Battle

     I really enjoyed playing out this battle.  I found the setup of the terrain to be quite interesting, (thanks Chris!), and rather daunting for how the Canadians would go about trying to take the objective.

     Also, I have to admit that I find the Lasalle rules to be well thought out and just fun to use, and I often remind myself that I am finally doing Napoleonic era battles, which I always figured would be more difficult to get into than what my current experiences have been.  If I can do it, anybody can!

OK, so back to the battle...

     I am not going to go over every turn, since I more or less did that with my notes that I posted previously, and just going to give my impressions of how the game went as well as any things that popped out for me.

     Unlike the last game, I got the units to advance in march for a longer period, which resulted in each side engaging much quicker in the turn count.  I am also getting the hang, I think, of how to move the units around using linear tactics, and how important it is to have reserve units behind the front lines.

     Another thing I noticed when deciding if the Canadians were going to have a marginal or decisive victory, is how important pursuit cavalry are to determining this.  Since each BASE of pursuit cavalry is worth 1 point, having them around at the end of the game can have a big effect.  Since the Americans have no pursuit cavalry in their army list that I made, and that the Canadians do, in the form of Les Compagnie des Guides, and that I was going to make them a large unit (6 bases), I am now finding myself reconsidering this, and probably will keep them as a small unit (4 bases).  It just makes those pursuit cavalry too important, if they are still around at the end of the game.  Odds are any American victory would be marginal and any Canadian victory would be decisive.

     Also, I am enjoying using the Random Events mechanic for the battles, especially with the way I altered them from they way they were implemented in the previous battle.  Allowing each side the option to keep a random event to be used at a later part of the game, makes much more sense.  For this battle, I am certain that the random events, specifically in turn #12, when the Americans had "Urgent Assistance" affect them, had a big part to play in the outcome.  Having the Commander move out of command range for many of his units, and then in turn #13 when the Canadian militia moved ahead and forced the Commander to draw a command path around the militia, making all his units out of command, made a significant impact on recovery attempts, ability to charge, etc..  Before these two turns, the Americans were doing quite well, and I think might have won the battle.

     Furthermore, one of the biggest American mistakes, in my opinion, was to allow the Six Nations Warriors to enter the woods, and then to have a unit of Regulars engage them.  In the end, the Regulars broke, allowing a clear path for a unit of Canadian militia to advance within 4BWs of the objective, and forcing the American right flank to try and make up ground, which they did not want to do, as they were making great progress against the Canadian left flank, and were in a position to overrun it and then flank the remaining Canadian units.  The Americans should have engaged the Warriors way before they ever got to the woods.

     I also am clueing in to how difficult it is to just charge infantry with cavalry and expect a good result.  Unless the infantry are 1 DISR from breaking and/or not otherwise engaged in combat, odds are they will form into square and repel the cavalry.

     And now for some pics to view, while I get back to painting!

View of the tabletop at the end of turn #2

 

 

 

Turn #4... Those Six Nations Warriors almost at the woods!

Turn #6... The Beauharnois Militia getting nailed by canister

Turn #6... American left flank

Turn #6... Overview

Turn #8... Overview

Turn #8... Showing the Beauharnois militia almost about to break and the Warriors stuck in the woods

Turn #8... View from the Canadian right flank

Turn #8... View from the Canadian centre

Turn #8... View from the Canadian left flank, showing the American militia behind enemy lines

Turn #9... Showing the Canadian cavalry units charging some US Regulars

Turn #10... The Beauharnois Militia have now been broken and the US Regulars charge the Warriors

Turn #10... View from the American centre

Turn #10... Overview

Turn #12... View from the American right flank

Turn #12... View showing how many American units are our of command, ouch!

Turn #15... 3 US Regulars have been broken, and Canadian militia are a stone throw's away from the objective!

Turn #15... The American left flank, or what is left of it

Turn #15... View from the Canadian left flank

Those Canadian Militia so close to the objective!