Stripped Down for Parts: Guerre Eclair

 

 

Oh, happy day! Designer Yasushi Nakaguro’s Guerre Eclair (NUTS! Publishing, 2026) arrived a couple of days ago, but I had some things to finish off before I could pull it apart and have a proper look at it. The game was originally released by BonSai Games in Japan under the name The Rise of Blitzkrieg (BonSai Games, 2019). I own several NUTS! games, but this was the first game I’d ordered directly from the publisher. This was an impulse buy – not something I’m prone to – and shipping coset nearly as much as the (discounted) game itself. Looking back on it, I should probably held off and ordered it from Hexasim, along with La Der des Ders (Hexasim, 2025) and saved a few Euros on shipping, but Guerre Éclair did arrive inside of two weeks, which is quite impressive.

Guerre Eclair is the third in NUTS!’ Combat Rations series, following up from 300: Earth & Water (NUTS! Publishing, 2018) and Port Arthur (NUTS! publishing, 2020). The games in the series (thus far all reprints of BonSai games, as will be the fourth instalment – check out my interview with Mr Nakaguro for more) come in a uniform clamshell box, with a small, mounted board, nice components and cards

Each game in the Combat Rations series has had a different artist attached to the job. For Guerre Eclair, NUTS! went with Zuzanna Wollny. Ms Wollny is better known for her book and poster illustration work and for her truly stunning murals. The box cover is a sepia monochrome illustration reminiscent of a French soldier’s nightmares of the Front; tanks and dive-bombers baring down on the ill-lead defenders of the homeland. The result is effective and helps reinforce the theme and set the pace of the game. But it doesn’t set a rigid path for the rest of the art, as we will see shortly.

The clamshell box design. This appeals to my inner product engineer.

The defining feature of the Combat Rations series – for me at least – is the clamshell enclosure. The roughly C5 envelope-sized box is hinged and sealed with a magnetic clasp. Theis series isn’t the first to use the clamshell design (I have a couple of Osprey games that sport this style of case), and I don’t think it would be appropriate for a lot of games, but it’s a good fit for the Combat Rations ethos of short, numerically low-component, highly replayable games that will travel well – in a case or a backpack. If I was travelling with one, I would probably put an elastic band around the whole thing, just to be sure, but I’ve always had a belt-and-braces approach in regard to keeping things together.

Inside the box. This also doubles as a handy dice tray.

NUTS! Publishing always puts a premium on presentation, and the Combat Rations games are no exception. The inside of the box, looks like an ammunition box that’s been repurposed to hold a French infantryman’s personal effects. This was the same conceit that lined the Port Arthur box, only with a Japanese soldier’s ephemera. It’s an oddly affecting touch, bringing the historical event down to the level of the personal.

The box-back. 

The box-back description leads with a short description of the historical situation, the German invasion of Belgium, Holland, and France in May 1940, as well as a brief account of the game play. The usual caveats of two-players – I don’t see how you could play an effective solo game with the amount of hidden information crucial to play – and a recommended age of fourteen and up are advised. Forty-five minutes is the advised game duration, which I think would be true for anyone familiar with the game, but I’d anticipate an hour or so for an introductory game.

The rulebook.

The rulebook A5 in size, is printed in full colour on a good weight of low-gloss paper-stock. It runs to twenty pages, while the rules proper amount to eighteen pages (including nearly five pages of illustrated examples of play). The rules are pretty straightforward - number of the game’s concepts are familiar from 300: Earth & Water, but executed a little differently. 

Sample spread of the rules. The examples of play appear on a yellow background.

I’ll save the recounting of play for an AAR, but I would say that, in my experience with Mr Nakaguro’s games, simple rules bely rich, decision-point filled gameplay.My only complaint would be an unjust one; the font is a little small for me to read without glasses, but this is a grievance directed more at the injustices of age and decrepitude than the quality of the product, which is undeniably excellent.

The game board. Once again my crappy phone camera does not do justice
to the rather lovely artwork.

The map board is – as one would expect – small (roughly 11” by 17”); it is however mounted, and both attractive and functional. The art is a departure from the original Japanese release, which took a more utilitarian approach with a political-style map – it reminded me a little of the European campaign map in Hitler’s Reich (GMT Games,2018). Ms Wollny’s map is representative of the terrain encompassed in the theatre as it would appear during summer campaign; the lighter greens of the grassy fields give way to the dark, foreboding tones of the Ardennes. The movement in the game is point to point, with clear paths marked out between locations. Each location is defined by its shape; representing a town or city (ellipsis), a port (diamond, with an anchor) or a fortress (heptagon, with a turret silhouette). Belgian locations are marked in yellow, and the single Dutch city, Dordrecht, in orange. Control of locations is crucial to Grman victory, something we’ll touch on later. Finally, there are four Bases, three German – Saarbrücken, Prüm, and Düsseldorf – and one for the Allies – Paris, at the opposite end of the board.

Also incorporated into the edges of the board are a turn track (five turns, each representing roughly a week across May and June), and a Momentum pendulum track. Momentum is treated as a currency in the game, allowing the players to spend points gained on small advantages.

The German Shield fronts, illustrated in the sepia tones of a dust-infused breaking dawn.

Associated with the German bases are three card shields. These will conceal the German player’s division of forces across the three bases. The German player divvies up his available forces across the three bases in response to their victory objectives (more on this when we gat to the cards), and in response to the Allied troop placement, which is completed first.

The German-facing side of the shields. These conceal the players distribution of troops
across the three bases.

The shields as printed double-sided on light card, each with a unique illustration on the opponent-facing side and the name of the base printed on the German player side. They are perfectly adequate to their task in structure and size and come pre-folded rather than simply scored on the fold, which is another nice touch. I don’t know about others, but I always seem to mess up and mis-crease at least one of the folds, left to my own devices.

Clockwise from Top left: French (blue), German (grey), and BEF (ochre) units,
and the two Tracking discs for the Tern and Momentum tracks.

The game has no counter-sheet, but instead uses little wooden meeples – soldiers and tanks representing French (blue), British (ochre) and German (grey) forces – where the BonSai release had similarly coloured cubes and discs. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded if the publishers had decided to go with blocks, but the end result is more evocative, with infantry and armour being instantly discernible, and more familiar to Euro-gamers trying out a war-game.

One thing I can appreciate is the attention to detail. The Allied and German tank pieces are different silhouettes. It’s a little thing, but it indicates the care that’s gone into the preparation of the game as clearly as a bowl of M&Ms with all the red ones removed.

Sample cards from the Operations decks for the Allied (left) and German players.

Guerre Eclair comes with three short decks of cards; an eighteen-card German deck, A fourteen-card Allied deck, and a four-card Objectives deck, as well as a single Surrender card. These are standard poker-sized cards, and are printed on a good weight of card stock. Guerre Eclair is a Card Driven Game (CDG), but instead of dealing off the top of the deck, the players can choose which cards they wish to utilise in that round. Cards can be spent to make a move action or utilised for their event. Some cards are only usable in combat for some kind of benefit

The cards are beautifully presented, with thematic art and clear instructions. The art is what I’d call realistic through an impressionist filter. Given the physical scale of the game, the development group may have been tempted to go with a cartoonish style for the artwork generally. Instead, the pictures maintain the serious tone of the game and its subject. Even the choice of fonts for the titles, each reminiscent of period propaganda posters from France and Germany respectively, maintain the thematic integrity of the art.

The four German Objective cards (only two ever in play, with just one revealed to the
Allied player and one hidden), and the Allied Surrender card. I've gone through the
rules once but am still at a loss as to the purpose of the Surrender card. I'm sure
I've just missed something obvious.

The game has four Objective cards, which provide the victory conditions for the Germans. This makes things interesting and adds to the replayability of the game. We’ve seen the same device in another France’40 game, Dunkirk: France 1940 (Worthington Publishing, 2018) but there’s an added twist here; at the beginning of the game, the German player draws and Objective card, then places it where both players can see it. This is the open objective. He then draws a second Objective card, but this one is concealed from the Allied player. To win the game, the German player must meet the demands of one of these Objective cards. This will be easier said than done; while the Germans have advantages in hand-size and a numerical superiority in available troops, the Allies only have to delay the Axis progress over five rounds to spoil a German victory.

The game also comes with four 10mm dice. I've yet to haven't to take the game out for
a spin, but I suspect there may be a case for a couple of additional bones to avoid
the occasional consecutive roll for numbers.

Finally, the game comes with four small but quite readable black six-sided dice. These are nice dice, with a good weight despite their diminutive size. The beauty of the clamshell case is the game comes with its own dice tray.

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I’ve been on a bit of a Napoleonics jag of late, so I think it’s time to mix it up a bit. A fast game is indeed a good game, especially on a school night, so I hope to get an AAR of our first Guerre Éclair game to you, faithful reader, within the next couple of weeks (in between further Napoleonic excursions, I'm sure).

Blog note: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – Eggmühl, 21-22 April, 1809 complete

 

Napoléon acclamé par les troupes bavaroises et wurtembergeoises
à Abensberg, le 20 avril 1809, by Jean-Baptiste Debret, a French
painter and student of David, who lived in Paris contemporaneously
to the event (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons).

The Eggmuhl Cycle* is the longest series of scenarios dedicated to a single battle in the Austrian Army expansion set (GMT Games, 2013)† for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010). It was only after we’d played the Eggmuhl, French Right scenario that I realised the battle was explored across five scenarios, and suggested we tackle all five (non-consecutively). This is why the scenarios appear out of sequence. 

Below is a table of links to the five scenario AARs in their proper order; that is, the order in which they appear in the C&C: Napoleonics - Austrian Army scenario book (pp. 18-22).

We’ve been enjoying playing through the Eggmühl scenarios so much, we’ve decided to look at other multi-scenario battles in other national army sets as well. Next off the rank will be a shorter Austrian scenario set, the Battle of Wagram. Wagram is a shorter sequence, so I’m going to take a different tack with that one, writing up the more manageable three scenarios in a single, extended post.

 

Eggmühl, Day 1, 21 April, 1809

Eggmühl, Day 2, Attack on Eggmühl, 22 April, 1809

Eggmühl, Day 2 (French Left), 22 April, 1809

Eggmühl, Day 2 (French Right), 22 April, 1809

Eggmühl, Day 2 (Alteglofsheim), 22 April, 1809

 

* The scenario sequence isn’t referred to this way, so far as I know, except here at A Fast Game. It’s just a shorthand tool for referencing the five-scenario sequence.

† I would be remiss of me not to mention that, while The Austrian Army is now out of print, An omnibus edition including this and two other national expansions, The Russian Army and The Prussian Army, is now available for preorder at the GMT P500 webpage.

State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – Eggmühl, Day 2 – French Left, 22 April, 1809

 

Over the last few weeks, T and I have been playing twice a week instead of just the usual Monday game. This means I’m struggling to catch up on my AARs for the Eggmuhl cycle of scenarios from the Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013) for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010). This post covers the third scenario in the cycle, but our last to play. I will post a short note with links to the five scenarios in the order they appear in the Australian Army scenario book for any who wish to consider them in order.

While it would have been nice to have worked through these in their proper order, it’s fitting that we finish on Day 2, French Left. This is the biggest, busiest battle of the Eggmühl cycle, with the highest Victory Banner count to achieve, well, victory – nine Banners.

Once again, the French player holds an edge in the scenario, with twenty-two fielded units to the Austrians’ twenty-one*, four leaders to three, and a six-card hand-size to their opponent’s four cards. An extra field formation or two is neither here nor there, perhaps, but holding half-again as many order options as your opponent should lend a palpable advantage. T also fielded more leaders – 4-3 – and all of his began the game attached to effectual units. At the end of a four-game winning streak, I felt the chill of failure breathing down the back of my collar.

Initial set-up (neither of us noticed the French being short one Line unit).

The first round was spent by both sides positioning their forces for better advantage. T lead off round two with an order to Attack Center. Three French Line units engaged with the Austrian Line positioned in the town of Unteraiching and the nearby woods. In this scenario, Unteraiching is worth a temporary Banner to the side that hold the town at the beginning of its turn (this is why the Austrians begin the game one Banner up on the French, a small concession against the overall imbalance). The other two towns, Oberlaiching and Obersanding, are each worth a banner to the French if they can take and hold the towns. The French Line struck in melee, losing their advantage to the terrain. At 50% odds of inflicting damage, and the further possibility of causing a rout (rolling a retreat symbol), this should have had a tone-setting impact on the defenders. 

End of round 2.

Instead, the rolls nearly all came up horses and cannons, with only a single block loss to the regiment holding Unterlaising. Return fire saw two of the three units pushed back to lick their wounds. The Austrians replied with a Coordinated Advance, which allowed further fire in the centre, breaking two of the hereto attacking French line (for two banners) and the annihilation of a third that had probed on the French Left into the grange of my Grenzers, hidden in the trees. This would portend the eventual, tragic outcome for the French.

I took the precaution of photographing some of my phenomenally good rolls as proof for
the guys in my Wednesday group, who otherwise wouldn't believe I was capable of such.
These were all melee rolls against French Infantry units.

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Note: dear reader, it is at this point that my memory of the proceedings begins to faulter for a couple of rounds. On this particular night I was subject to a nasty headache that while not debilitating, was quite distracting. I remember parts of rounds, but none in full. I remember that the hilltop battery on my Left weathered Cavalry attacks from two sides intent on dislodging the guns from their redoubt, and I think my retaliatory rolls sent both into retreat (I don’t think it was during the last round with the French-played Cavalry Attack order, but I couldn’t swear it wasn’t). Nor did I have the presence of mind to take board-state photos at the  the end of every round, which I’ve got into the habit of doing.

End of round 5. I'm pretty sure.

I took some paracetamol when I first arrived at T’s, but they took a little while to kick in. I must have been feeling more myself by round 6, as my memories of the last two rounds are somewhat clearer – I remember at one point being surprised when I notices I was ahead by a couple of banners. The coffee probably helped as well (I’m a great believer in the restorative benefits of caffeinated beverages, and T always has decent coffee on hand).

To wit, I don’t feel I can take any credit for the win. I think it mostly comes down to T’s poor card-draws – something he again bemoaned throughout the session – and his continuing abysmal dice-rolls. I do remember picking up two more banners but not the situations in which they occurred.

Entering into the sixth round – technically the very end of the fifth, with a lucky card draw, is where we can return to the action at hand with some clarity of memory (and photographic evidence).

-----

End of round 6 (more confident of this one).

A fortuitous draw of a Bayonet Charge order game be the necessary tools to close the battle. A Take Command - Center order allowed me to whittle down one more French Line unit that had bravely/foolishly ventured deep into the Austrian lines. T’s Cavalry Charge lead to some mayhem on the French Right, bagging him two more Banners – one depleted Line and one of my Cavalry – at the cost of few blocks from his own horse. The French had finally found their dice mojo (a technical term – look it up). But this proved to be too little too late.

Unterlaiching (left) and Oberlaiching both remained in Austrian control for
the duration of the game. Unterlaiching, only just.

The Bayonet Attack order put four French Line units – two single block, two half-strength units within striking distance of my forces. Playing the order, three of them fell (though the attached Leaders in two cases both escaped to their lines). The battle was over, the Austrians – against all expectations – victorious.

It took just seven rounds for the Austrians to blunt the French advance, with a final score of 9-3 in the Austrians’ favour. The Austrian losses were heavy; among the Infantry overall losses amounted to over four units’ strength, though only two Line and one Light Cavalry unit lost all cohesion. The French seemed incapable of landing a definitive blow, and it cost them the battle in sort order.

End state. Eighteen of twenty-one Austrian units still present
on the field (barely in some cases).

The battle was over much more quickly than either of us anticipated, especially after the previous Attack on Eggmühl taking ten rounds to reach a five-Banner threshold. It should have been a closer game. From the beginning, T conducted his troops admirably as the orders to hand would allow. And the end he became reckless, making Cavalry charges into the trees and ordering troops deep into the enemy lines. But overall, his tactics were solid. Once again, though the dice gods ignored his entreaties, and instead blessed me with rolls of which I have rarely seen the like.

Austrian losses - it wasn't as bad as it looks.

French losses - yeah, it was as bad as it looks.

 

Order cards played, in order played (French to the left).

*The eagle-eyed may have noticed a discrepancy here. T had set up the game before I arrived, and I only gave the board a cursory look -over before we started play, so we both missed it, but the French side was down one Line unit on their back line, just inside the Center on their right. I only noticed this prepping the photos for the post. The way the game played out, with the orders each side drew and committed, I don’t think their presence would have been the pivotal factor tipping victory into French hands.

 

 

State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – Eggmühl, Day 2 – Attack on Eggmühl, 22 April, 1809

 

 

Eggmühl, Castle Schloss and the bridge, collective worth two
Victory Banners to the French.

The Attack on Eggmühl is the second scenario in the Eggmühl cycle from the Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013) for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), and marks our fourth game in this disjointed, out-of-sequence play-through. This scenario portrays the heart of the action, though it’s one of the (potentially) shorter scenarios at a win threshold of just five Victory Banners, but gaining all five will take some work for either side. There are only nineteen units on the whole board. The Austrians begin with a temporary banner for holding the majority of the combined Schloss Castle and Eggmühl-town. The French forces need to cross the Grosse Laaber to engage the sparse Austrian forces; the whole length of the Grosse Laaber is fordable, but that still means each unit needs a second movement order to extricate themselves from the river-hex. There is a bridge withing ranged fire distance of Eggmühl; capturing this bridge will earn the French player a permanent Victory Banner.

Napoleon was intent on capturing the town of Eggmühl in order to split Charles’s army in twain, breaking their lines of communication. It was a small but significant part of the battle. This was accomplished, but only after a protracted effort on the part of the French, facing dogged resistance from the outnumbered Austrians. Taking the Bridge on the third attack allowed the French to bring more pressure onto the town.

Opening state. The Austrians are few and far between.

The French seize the moment and move first. With so few units on the board, this situation is one where a bad starting hand can take a toll. Even with a one-card hand-advantage (five to four), T again struggled to get his fellows moving in a coherent manner. From the outset, T wanted to get his Line troops up into workable positions on his Right flank. For the Center, it’s going to come down to a frontal assault; not ideal with just Light troops, but he does have artillery for support. It’s doable because if the lack of Austrian troops generally, and the fact that a full third of my forces are in “Reserve” on the Austrian back-line. For a five-Banner game, I’d anticipate a duration of roughly eight to ten rounds, on average (play Commands and Colors six or seven hundred times and you start to get a feel for these things). If I’m going to use any of my turns to engage the troops proximate to the enemy, I’m probably not going to get the Reserve units into the fight at all.

I began the game with a handful of orders for the Left Flank. Having just three units in the entire flank, I thought this would be sub-optimal, but as it happened, this was where T chose to channel a lot of his effort. The river is fordable, but that means units must stop mid-stream, where they become targets for any enemy unit with a clear line of sight.

The game begins with the Austrians holding one temporary Victory Banner of majority control of the combined Eggmühl village and Schloss Castle (if the French forces took the village, the Austrians would lose the Banner, and if their troops were subsequently pushed out of Castle Schloss, the Banner would go to the French). T’s first move was to take the bridge, earning him a permanent Victory Banner, and evening the game.

T recognised the Austrian Left (French Right) as a potential weak spot. This was where his forces were most strongly concentrated, and my defences were thin (a fact I was only too aware of myself). His opening gambit was an Attack Right Flank order, bringing the bulk of his Line troops up into a position to attack the Austrian guns.

Early thinning on the French Right.

The guns held the advantage of high ground, which would prove crucial when elements of the French Line reached melee positions. Foot Artillery are no slouch in close combat, and I saw off a couple of attacks, gaining a couple of Victory banners in the process.

T’s first (and only) Victory Banner came from taking possession of the bridge in the second round. For this he paid a price. Lacking orders to move that unit into the town, I eventually moved the adjacent Grenzers into Eggmühl and successive rounds of ranged fire took out the bridge-capturing Light regiment (though their Leader escaped unscathed).

Marching into the mouth of fire.

T had a hard time of it herding his remaining Light (Center and Left units) into action, but eventually got them up to the riverbank to lay down fire on my defending Grenzers. An opening arrived when persistent fire reduced my right-most Grenzers, forcing them out of the forest with a retreat result, but again, with the cards available, T was unable to take advantage of this (I should note I was equally unable to rally the Grenzers back into their forest position for the remainder of the game.

The tensest part of the battle, through was the French right (my left). Twice I had some success with the Artillery’s ranged fire, reducing and eventually destroying the right-most Line unit (at the bend of the river), and twice I managed to fend off melee attacks, once eliminating the whole attacking unit with return fire. The Line infantry in the left was almost more of a hinderance than a help, getting pushed back tice with retreats, and taking a block damage each time for its trouble (Austrian Line retreats two spaces for each Flag result – professional, yes; disciplined, not so much).

End of round 8.

By the tenth round, it felt like to exhausted boxers taking wild swings at each other, the French clipping blocks off various Austrian units, and the Austrians wearing down Line and Light units that get to close with effective fire (my rolls were, by and large, conspicuously better than my regular form). The hammer fell at the bottom of the tenth round (though there was every likelihood of it not); T played Elán, which allows the player to roll dice equivalent to his hand size, with the resulting symbols allowing a unit of that type to be ordered, and Flag results giving the player this choice of units to order (sabres result in no orders). He had four Infantry results, which split between his remaining Right Flank units and the Light fighting across the river and the bridge, attacking Eggmühl, and the already depleted Grenzer unit on the riverbank. Some unit reduction followed, but the French couldn’t land a definitive punch.

Discussing tactics with Aide de Camp Claude.

I didn’t hold a lot of hope, or any useful cards. Another good round would give T the opportunity to make good on his attritional gains in the last couple of rounds. I used a Leadership card to order the remaining single block Grenzer unit on the riverbank to attack his reduced Light on the other side. That gave me two shots (number of blocks plus one die in ranged combat) to remove that unit and take the game. I rolled two Infantry symbols and victory (once again) went to the Austrians.

End state. I'm not sure what T was doing straddling two hexes in the Eggmühl  attack.
Some times you only notice these things after the fact.

I spite of the score – 5-1 – had I not scored that last banner, the French were in a good position to snatch victory; pushing me out of Eggmühl and taking the town would have removed a Banner from my lead, and neither of the Grenzers in or adjacent to the woods were likely to survive another attack. But I’m venturing into the territory of what-ifs that tend to bore me after the game is over, so I will demure and take the victory.

Cards played French to the left (inside column then outside).

After another successful action, Claude poses for a portrait commemorating the victory.

State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics – Eggmühl, Day 1, 21 April, 1809

 

 

Austrians spoiling for a fight.

Continuing our unintentionally confused run through the Battle of Eggmühl via the conduit of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), we went back to the beginning, with the meeting engagement on the first day between Marshal Davout’s probing force and elements of Archduke Charles’s Austrian forces. If you’re joining us for the first time, this is the beginning of the Eggmühl cycle, but it’s actually the third game played – we only decided to play all the scenarios after completing the fourth and fifth (the AARs for which can be found here, and here). These scenarios are featured in the Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013).

For these scenarios, your loyal correspondent will be playing the Austrian side, on balance, the historical losers of the battle. My brother-in-law and long-time opponent, particularly in regard to Commands & Colors – I refer to him as T to maintain his anonymity, due to his notoriety in his own field of expertise – will be ordering the French.

Going into the match, the French have alight advantages in regard to force – one more Infantry unit than the Austrians, three of those Light units, already in the trees, to the Austrians’ single Grenzer shirmishers, and two artillery batteries to the Austrian’s single hilltop battery), and hand size (five cards to the Austrians; four). The French also start first. The Austrian Line infantry has a little more staying power (five blocks instead of the usual four for Line units of other nationalities, but when forced to retreat, they fall back two spaces, reflection their poorer discipline and morale. The Austrian forces are all along the backline with little room to manoeuvre, so their first priority is to get at least some units up and into the fight.

Opening set-up.

But the first move went to the French, A Probe Right Flank order brought two of T’s Line up to engage with my forward-most line unit on my left. Fire (and blocks) were exchanged, but to no clear advantage. The Austrians saw them off with Flag rolls (it was only a probe, after all). I answered with a Force March order, getting all of my Centre Infantry units up off the baseline (Austrian Line and Grenzer units retreat two spaces with each unignorable flag, so you don’t want to be caught on the back-line in a fight).

With his second order, T also played a Force March, bringing up the Infantry on his Left and taking possession of the town of Obersanding. This should have earned him a temporary Victory Banner, but I hadn’t conferred with the scenario notes before starting, and it slipped T’s mind in the excitement of play. Had he been able to take the town of Oberlaichling on the Austrian back-row on my Left, that would have given him a second, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. I replied with a Recon in Force order (one unit ordered in each sector), plinking at enemy units on the flanks. Not much to show for it.

End of round two. The French take Oberlaichling, earning them a permanent
(but unclaimed ) Victory Banner.

Round three was where things began to get interesting. T tried to gain the advantage with a Take Command Right Flank order, allowing his Leader to order up to three adjacent units. Unfortunately, this meant a single intact line unit (Lorencz attached), another reduced to a single block, and an Artillery battery. Choosing to play it safe, T made a ranged attack with the reduced unit and the battery, for no gain. I countered with a Flank Attack order (two units each in the Left and Right sectors. This resulted in my first two Banners of the game, picking the low-hanging fruit of a single block Line unit in each sector, and reducing another on my Left.

End of round three. So far, no visitations from Aide de Camp Claude.

Over the subsequent couple of turns the French continued to chip away at the Austrian defenders but couldn’t make a definitive strike anywhere on the board. The Austrians on the other hand managed to gain two more banners in audacious exchanges that – statistically – should not have come off. After two consecutive wins in the previous games, I wasn’t trying to lose the this one, but felt I could afford to take some chances instead of playing it safe. T had some headaches with his card-draws; he played two Cavalry Charge orders nearly consecutively, in spite of fielding no cavalry – merely ordering a single unit each time but to no advantage (poor rolls will take a toll on even the best card performances).

At the opening of round seven, T played the best card in his hand, and the one he’d been pinning his hopes on. Assault Center allowed him to use one of his native strengths – superiority of hand-size – to activate up to five units in his Centre section to attack; except only four units survived in the centre by this point. Preferring not to take too may chances, T chose to use Ranged Attacks where he could, but only managed to reduce different units' cohesion by a block here and there. I responded with a Probe Center order and tried to chipped-away at a couple of his Line units. When I drew what would be my last card, I was sure the game was over.

End of round seven.

I think T had lost heart a little by this point. He played another Cavalry Charge (it’s always a bitter irony when the side that doesn’t have any cavalry or artillery seems to draw all the Cavalry Charge or Bombard orders). Another ineffectual ranged attack. Then it was time to drop the curtain.

Bayonet Charge. I needed two Banners to put T out of his misery. I ordered three Line (two reduced to three blocks each) and one Grenzer unit into melee, each against a single block Line or Light formation, and one lone Leader in my Right. The leader evaded capture, but each of the infantry units were eliminated quite convincingly.

End state.

The final result was a 7-1 victory to the Austrians, not historically accurate, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t satisfying. The French managed to hold Obersanding for nearly the entire game, resisting fire from two sides, but failed to get close to Oberlaichling.

I fully expected the French to take the game at the beginning of play. Advantages, though small, can play an outsized role in a game like Commands & Colors, but they are not all there is to it. The dice gods can deny your best efforts, as they did with T on the night, coupled with his self-reported poor starting hand and card-draws. Sometimes it’s just the wrong night to be the favourite.

Cards played in order; French (right two columns) moved first.