State of Play: Napoléon 1806 (4/6)

 

 

For our latest stab at Napoléon 1806 (Shakos, 2017), I took the lead of the French forces, giving T the Prussians to deal with. T won the initiative for the first turn (after we’d both drawn Rain events), and we got off to a soggy, exhausting start. A quick rules clarification; In our earliest games I’d misremembered the rule around rain; movement doesn’t cost an extra point, but every unit that tries to move – successfully or no – must take a point of exhaustion because, well, mud. And it rains so very much in the German countryside.

Board state at the end of the second turn.

Like I said in the last report, both of us are becoming more aware of the opportunities to use action cards, as T proved when Louis demolished a bridge crucial to my right flank advance on his second activation for the first turn. I’m beginning to regret teaching him this game.

Destroying a bridge doesn’t prevent your antagonist form crossing, but it does cost three movement points to get to get across the river at that point. Serendipitously, In the third turn I actually took out Louis’ column; the first casualty of the game, earning France points for the column reduced. Louis had stayed on the wrong side of the river, for reasons known only to himself. Ney, joined by Augereau, who was escorting Napoleon joined the battle and Louis was quickly seen to.

At the bottom of the fourth.

By the fourth turn, Soult was within striking distance of Leipzig, which was thinly defended, but I was wary of sending him in to battle less a card for the moving battle, when whoever was guarding Leipzig (Blücher, I suspected) would be gaining a card for the citadel defence. The Prussian deck might be weaker, but Soult had already accrued some exhaustion; a lucky draw with another five or six exhaustion points could remove him from the game (and tip the Victory Points scales in Prussia’s direction). At the beginning of turn 5, Wurtemberg can reinforce either Leipzig or Halle, so T positioned him in Leipzig, guaranteeing further difficulty in taking the citadel. But that was okay. I had no intention of attacking either of the cities.

I’d been manoeuvring Davout and Lannes toward the prize, Erfurt, from different directions. Lannes came from the west; he was there mostly to counter any mad dashes from that flank by Weimer and Ruchel, although T had decided to try to use this slightly underweight force to drive on Bamberg. I’d left Murat and Bessières there to block their way at Coburg, and had ordered Augereau back to secure Bamberg in the unlikely event of a breakthrough.

Converging on Erfurt.

At the end of turn five, I decided to let Davout rest, a single connection’s distance from his target, clearing his accumulated exhaustion. He’s only gained three orange drums in his push to Erfurt, but I wanted his to have every advantage in the coming assault. I had also been bringing Ney accompanied by Napoleon; they were now withing two locations of Davout, so I chose to wait for them to join up in the next turn. It weas a risk, nut I felt confident in taking it. Leaving nothing to chance, I brought Bernadotte, who had been threatening a move on Halle, to within striking distance of Erfurt. It was too far for any of the Prussians to try to intervene in that siege anyway, and if they had vacated the city, Soult may have been able to take it unchallenged if he drew a five- or six-point action card.

At the beginning of Turn 7, we drew and I retained the initiative. Then a couple of things happened. I ordered Bernadotte to make an initial assault on Erfurt. When you order a column in Napoleon 1806, you point to the column you are going to activate, declare your intention (without naming the unit), and then draw a card to see if you have the points to execute the order in full or only partially. I drew a two-point card, which in this case offered enough points to commit the order in full. Now, in the Prussian Action Deck, there is a card entitled Bernadotte. The Prussian player can play this card whenever a solitary column is ordered. If that column is Bernadotte, BErnadotte's movement is reduced by three MPs. T played the Bernadotte card, and Bernadotte retired for the remainder of the turn (and the game).

Well played, sir; well played.

T sent his southern force into battle against my chaps at Coburg, but were seen off. The difference in the damage inflicted by the two sides (2 points to 1- one point difference) gave me another point toward victory; I was now only three points away from taking the field.

I ordered Davout (with Ney and Napoleon, who had joined the camp the previous turn) to attack Erfurt, and drew a 3-point card – success! The game would have ended had I drawn a 1. I also had an ace up my sleeve; I played a Reaction card, which would allow Lannes – only one connection away from the site of the battle – join in the fray. Unfortunately, T also had a card up his sleeve; Counter-Order immediately negates the effect of any action card just played. Lannes never received the orders, and had to sit this one out.

Even without Lannes’s support, the day belonged to the French. T had managed to reinforce Kalckreuth in Erfurt’s defence with Tauentzien in the sixth turn. Between them they could muster four combat cards, plus an extra one for the defence of a citadel. Soult brough three cards to the attack, Ney another two, and Napoleon offered one extra, but I also lost one for the moving attack. When revealed, my five cards yielded four hits and an epic nine fatigue points to the Prussians puny one hit and four exhaustion points. The Erfurt and the game went to the French.