Nick in Launceston - Lasalle Again

Had another bash at Lasalle at Chris's place. This time we did two divisions a side -- Austrians had Infantry and Cuirassiers, French had Veteran Infantry and Light Cavalry.

This time we added in generals, reaction charges (which didnt come in to play), and army morale. However, we stuffed up the army morale, forgetting to test until way after both armies had 'broken'.

Nick had Austrians defending, with his Cuirassiers on his left flank. Chris had French attacking, with his light cavalry on his left flank.

We rolled for generals. The Austrians need a 6 to get a good general, and a 1-2 gives a bad general. True to form, the Austrian Cuirassiers had some limp wristed powder puff general. The French need a 1 to get a bad general, but get a good general on a 4-6. Fortunatly, both French generals were average.

The French left flank screamed up, deploying their horse artillery, and threatening the infantry in front of them into square. One unit even screamed across the front of the Austrian line, taking out the Austrian artillery, before running into Austrian cuirassiers and evaporating. The horse artillery slowly pounded the squares, damaging them, but not breaking them until the end of the game.

The Austrian left flank waited till the French had advanced close. Then the cuirassiers charged out. The French decided to try to shoot the Cuirassiers down rather than form square. 2x Veteran infantry destroyed as a result. Learning their lesson, the rest of the French infantry formed square, leaving the cuirassiers floundering hopelessly, slowly taking attrition from long range artillery or the odd musket shot. Eventually, a fresh French hussar unit tried their luck on the cuirassiers. They were beaten, but this further disorganised the cuirassiers. The hussars rallied, charged the cuirassiers again, and broke them! Huzzah!!!

At this point there was a swirling infantry melee in the center. The French really missed the loss of their two veteran infantry units -- they just didnt have the numbers. The Austrians slowly wore the French down. But with the loss of the cuirassiers, the French infantry in square on the left flank became free to move -- they joined the fight. Unfortunatly, the French center had been ground down sufficiently that the Austians managed to take on and beat the fresh French toops.

Suddenly, the Austrian squares facing the French light cavcalry and horse artillery broke under the pressure, and a French chasseur unit managed to get the last surviving Austrian artillery, and the Austrians went from what looked like a good position to complete collapse. The French had undisputed control of their objective, to win the game.

On reflection, we found a few more mistakes. Particularly, the Austrian Cuirassiers are a reserve division, so they come on as reinforcements. But to counter that, we forgot to give them the shock cavalry bonus for most of the game.

A good game, that has me painting Napoleonics again!