Stripped Down for Parts: Cuius Regio: The Thirty Years War, 1618-1648

 

I was really in two minds about writing up an unboxing of Cuius Regio: the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648 (GMT Games. 2026), not because I didn’t think it warranted the attention, but just the opposite; I expected much more excitement than the game has thus far received. With the new shipping set up for P500 orders, where I used to sometimes receive GMT preorders a week or so before my North American friends, they now arrive a month or more later. (I’m not complaining – it does mean the shipping comes out about half or less of what it would coming from the States.) But in that time, there hasn’t seemed to be a lot of interest in the game - except from the usual suspects (Ardwulf's Lair, Kilroy Was Here, Pushing Cardboard and Justegard all produced good unboxing videos – I’d recommend taking a look at any or all of these for a better look at the components close up). When my copy arrived, I admit I got a little excited, and I think I have something to offer for the conversation, so here we are.

The cover features a rather dramatic representation of the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, one of the antagonists during the war, superimposed over a classic battle scene. The illustration was prepared by GMT stalwart Kurt Miller. Try as I might, I’ve been unable to identify the painting on which the cover is based; it looks familiar, but I’m not entirely sure the battle depicted is actually a situation from the Thirty Years War (given the uniforms, maybe the War of Spanish Succession, but I’m no expert). If I can get to the bottom of it, I’ll drop in some detail with an edit note.

While it doesn’t give much away, the cover is compelling. The orange, umber and rust tones hint at the ferocity of the conflict, which was responsible for – by some estimates – as many as eight million deaths, either from direct conflict or indirectly from famine, disease and exposure. While I don’t think this would have been my choice, I think the illustration works to attract the interest of the casual shopper.

The box-back.

The box back, to my grognard-gimlet eye, is even more compelling. It features a part of the game map in the top half, with a straight forward description dealing less with the historical situation and more with the basic functions from the game, highlighting some solid selling points; operational/strategic level (with one-year turns), a range of scenarios (five in all, including the full campaign), and some nice, simple counters, Represented at their actual 5/8” size, as well as the aforementioned map.

The scale of the map is sixteen miles to a hex, the units represent something like 500 to 1,000 troops and as mentioned, each turn runs to a calendar year (which makes sense, given a campaign year would typically run from around March until the antagonists took their winter quarters). The graphic data informs us that the game is designed for two players, that the difficulty is reckoned to be five out of nine (middling, though a veteran GCACW player would probably scoff at this), and the solitaire suitability is cast at six out of nine (no doubt due to the hidden information factor at play, but we’ll get to that shortly). It should come as a surprise to no one that the recommended age for the game is fourteen years and up. The box back also informs us that the play-time should be between one and six hours (scenario-dependent) while the full campaign might take thirty to forty hours to play out. This makes Cuius Regio a good candidate for a five- or six-day convention that you can learn before-hand playing shorter scenarios of an evening leading up to the event.

The Rulebook is printed on the familiar, medium weight matt-finish paper GMT has been using for every game I’ve seen of late. No complaints there. The rulebook runs to 24 pages but only 22 of them are printed – the last two are blank (or at least free of game-related information).

Sample Rules spread.

The cover page features a thorough Table of Contents. The core rules – including the introduction and component breakdown – take up the next nineteen pages, with the final two pages given to a page of Optional Rules and a Glossary. At first glance the rules look clear and helpfully illustrated. I don’t anticipate any problems here.

A lot of online discussion has brought up the similarity between the "feel" of Cuius Regio’s play being similar that of games from the Great Campaigns of the AmericanCivil War. It turns out there’s a reason for that. I had cause to correspond with designer Francisco Gradaille regarding another post I’m writing, and he mentioned when he was thinking about the framework for a Thirty Years War game, he happened across a podcast comparing various operational level ACW games, including the Great Campaigns series. Mr Gradaille wrote, “After listening to that, I thought that the manoeuvres during the Thirty Years War had some similarities, and I started searching for wargames that let me have that kind of experience in that period. As I didn’t find any, I decided to make one myself.”

The Scenario book shares all of the physical attributes The scenarios are laid out simply and are immediately comprehensible. The scenarios themselves are broken into discrete campaigns lasting two to thirteen turns, while the full campaign covers the full thirty-one turns.

Scenario 3: The Danish Intervention. Everything you need for each scenario
is presented in a single spread.

The Scenario Book also includes a nine-page Extended Example of Play, three pages of Designer’s Notes, a page of Tips and Tricks for new players, and a page-and-a-half Bibliography that I for one will be scrutinising in depth.

The map as it comes out of the box.

The game map is in two parts (northern and southern). The components list says the game comes with two 34” by 16”, which isn’t quite true. The maps together come to a size of 32” by 33 ½” (with about an inch and a bit of overlap). The play area is very attractive, rendered simply with a buff background with easily recognisable geographical features, and a graduating system of Minor, Major, Great and Electorate Cities, represented by cameo illustrations taking up the entire hex. The rivers and provincial borders conform to hex edges, and the roads run precisely from one side of a hex to another; the whole map is rather schematic, but it really doesn’t feel so. Cartographer Nicolas Roblin has managed to create a map that is at once visually pleasing and eminently playable.

The map complete. Apologies for the glare lines, but this was taken without the benefit
of any flattening technology.

The field of play runs from the Baltic coast in the north to the border of the Swiss Confederacy in the south, and from Poland and Hungary to the east all the way across to the Eastern most provinces of France and the Spanish Netherlands in the west (Rhenish, Lorraine and Franche-Comte are caught up within the playable area). The map also features a Turn Track, and numbered tracks at the top and bottom of the combined sheets, presumably to aid in tracking movement point expenditure for each player’s forces.

Counter sheets 1&2.

There are three sheets of counters. These are printed on the familiar brown-core cardstock GMT has been using for pretty much everything of late. The first two sheets are mainly the available forces of the two sides represented (yellow for the Holy Roman Empire, blue for the Protestants. The troop counters are particularly nice, simply rendered with a single figure and numerical value representing the unit’s strength. The Infantry are represented by arquebusiers, the Cavalry by mounted riders, and the Artillery Trains by a manned cannon. Artillery Trains don’t possess a fighting strength of their own but offer a modifier to the overall combat value of the force.

Counter sheet 3.

Leader counters – Marshals and Lieutenants, are named characters from the Thirty Years War. Each counter features the leader’s name, a rating (1-3), a tiny cameo portrait and the years in which they were historically active. The admin counters are also simple, easy to read at a glance, and pleasing to look at. Army markers are used on the board when playing with the Fog of War optional rule. Markers showing relevant national flags (or in the Imperial case, the Imperial crest and Spanish flag) identify the deployment locations of various armies on the map, and counters with the two-headed eagle on one wide and the Tudor rose on the other are used to indicate control of cities by one or the other side.

There are no less than four Player’s Aid cards included in Cuius Regio, each presented in duplicate (no sharing necessary), doble-sided, and of a single panel, collectively covering all the charts and tables one could possibly need during the course of play. The PACs are not numbered, so I’ll just go through them in the order that seems most sensible.

The first offers a detailed – but not exhaustive – Sequence of Play, and a brief explanation of how Movement Points are calculated for each army. On the reverse of this card is the Terrain Effects Chart (TEC), which explains the diverse terrain and locations featured on the map, and explaining their impact on movement costs and possible influence on Combat

The second PAC is one of two that deals with combat The front offers a sequence of play for Battles with a list of Battle Modifiers and a Odds Modifier table, The Reverse of the card presents the Battle Results Table, which incorporated the table for Modified Battle Results and for the active army’s Fatigue Roll, as well as instructions for the Leader Loss Check, and a Route Check table.

The next PAC deals with Cavalry in combat, featuring a Reaction Move / Cavalry Retreat Before Combat Table, and a Stragglers Check Table. The verso changes subject from Combat to real estate. The Cities table advises on the City Size Value of differing sizes of cities, and the minimum number of troops necessary to gain control of an unoccupied city of that size. The City Control Table is used for establishing control over a city when the army lacks the strength to overwhelm the city outright, and Provincial Conversion Check table declares with a roll (adjusted with any relevant modifiers listed below the table) when control of a province is gained by the player. The title of the game is drawn from a maxim of the time, Cuius regio, eius religio, translating literally to “whose realm, his religion.” Whoever rules the land gets to dictate the land’s religious affiliation.

The final PAC is a bit of a miscellany, collecting the reference tables that didn’t fit elsewhere. The front offers the Marshal Availability Chart, a long list of the number of marshals available to each side in a given year (through the thirty-one game turn/years), the Artillery Cost Table spells out the cost in Political Points (PP) of managing Artillery Trains for your armies, and the Hex Supply Table, which dictates how many troops may be kept in given location during Winter Quarters (i.e., carried over from one campaign year to the next). The verso presented the Province Control and Reinforcement Table and the Troop Purchase Table. The Province Control and Reinforcement Table offers an alphabetical list of all the provinces present in the play area, whether a province might be persuaded to flip religions and the difficulty in that venture (DRM), the number of cities that need to be controlled before control may be achieved, and how many reinforcements the province may provide when under a faction’s control

All the PACs are elegantly laid out and very easy to navigate and read. I like the idea of not having to constantly open a bi- or tri-fold PAC to find what I’m looking for at a given time, and I think the use of these will become second nature after a few full turns of a game.

The Army Boards. The game's colour palette is one of its many strengths.

Each faction’s armies may be all out on the map, or alternately, they may be managed on that side’s Army board, with an Army marker indicating each army’s location on the board (these are imperative for use with the Fog of War optional rule). This is a single-sided card-sheet printed on the same weight card as the PACs, with spaces for up to five separate armies, an Active Leaders Pool, three spaces for the activation markers used to indicate the number of Lieutenants activated in the current turn, and a ten-space tally chart, running 0-9, like the ones printed at each end of the play map.

The Shields depict battles from the Thirty Years War.   

The Army boards may each be concealed from the prying eyes the enemy with the use of a shield, two of which are provided in the game. These are constructed using the same weight of card as the PACs and Battle Maps, stand at a low enough height for them to be perfectly adequate for the task of screening a faction’s Army board.

Shields deployed.

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So, that’s what you can expect in Cuius Regio. It’s a really nice-looking game that promises an interesting play experience but is probably fated to receive nearly the audience it deserves by dint of it not being a more popular subject in the English-speaking world. Which is a shame in itself, but that’s a subject for another time. I look forward t playing this some time in the future. At this point, my meagre ambitions extend to hopefully tabling the game before the end of 2026, a goal I hold for several other games as well, but Cuius Regio might just be moving to the top of the list.

Stripped Down for Parts: Purgatorio: Battles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, 1176-1325

  

 

I’ve come late to Purgatorio: Battles of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, 1076-1325 (GMT Games, 2026), the sixth game in the Men of Iron series and designer Ralph Shelton’s second contribution. There is a long story involving missing order components that meant my delivery – along with a handful of other folks’ P500 orders – had been put on ice until the missing bits arrived. Lucky for me, I live in the same city that the distribution centre is based, and so I was able to negotiate getting the rest of the order released while the missing part will be sent along with whichever order they come in with (I’ve got two more orders on the way, so hopefully they’ll show up with one of those).

I also came late to the Men of Iron system. I stumbled across a copy of Arquebus: the Battles for Northern Italy 1495-1544 (GMT Games, 2017) when it had been out of print for a couple of years (a reprint is available for pre-order on GMT's P500 page), and caught up when the Men of Iron Tri-Pack (GMT Games, 2020) was first released.

This will be a brief look at Purgatorio; to be honest, there isn’t that much to the game. That’s not a criticism – the relative simplicity of the Men of Iron system is one of the game’s strengths. I was able to introduce my brother-in-law to the game in a single session of play, and he beat me in our second match.

 

The cover art is striking. Daringly dark, it captures the intimacy of near-fraternal violence of the age. The illustration was commissioned from Kurt Miller, a digital artist who GMT has been leaning on for some of their most striking covers of late, including Pendragon: the Fall of Roman Britain (GMT Games, 2017), A Time for Trumpets (GMT Games, 2020), Norman Conquests: MoIVol. V (GMT Games, 2023), and even rail games like 1846: Race for the Midwest (GMT Games, 2016) and 1848: Australia (GMT Games, 2021). Mr Millers work is dynamic and thematically rich, and – to my mind – really sets the tone of the game.

My only criticism of the box-front would be that the red title gets a little lost in the twilight aspect of the cover illustration, but it something like that would put a punter off buying it, they probably wouldn’t be in the market for this kind of game in the first place. The edge faces all feature a bold white “Purgatorio” against a vermillion background, which is how most people would likely come to the game initially, slipped into a gap in a bookshelf. The title alone might be enough to elicit some initial interest.

Box back.

The box back offers a brief introduction to the Men of Iron system, how it plays and its two-handed solitaire suitability, and a paragraph outlining the historical background against which the battles featured in the game are set, including the origins of the terms Guelf and Ghibelline, referring to supporters of the Pope or the Holy Roman Empire respectively. No map images are featured, but a selection of unit counters and markers  are presented at their regular 5/8” size, along with a list of the game’s contents, the personnel responsible for its coming being brought to market, and some details about the scale of the game (unit sizes, map and time scales). We also learn Purgatorio is recommended for two players, aged 14 and up, that the difficulty rating is suggested to be Four out of Nine, and solitaire suitability Seven out Nine.

The MoI System Rules-set.

The Men of Iron Series Rules have benefitted from years of in-the-field playtesting over several versions of the game. As mentioned, Purgatorio is the sixth game using the system first featured in Men of Iron: Warfare in the Middle Ages (GMT Games, 2005). As mentioned earlier, the system is relatively simple and easy to assimilate, but it’s proven robust enough to handle (with only minor modifications on a case by case basis) to handle tactical warfare from the late 1000s to the late 1400s – four centuries of radical transformation in war-making.

The rules are clearly presented, but being a series rules-set, there are large swarths
of material that are irrelevant to the game to hand (still interesting reading, though).

The rulebook itself is printed on the familiar medium weight matt paper, and is well laid out and easy to read and navigate. Being a series rulebook, some of the material presented is of no consequence to Purgatorio. Of the twenty-five pages of standard rules, the content necessary to this game comes to about sixteen pages (and this count includes the space given to the components and unit descriptions). Another two pages present Optional Rules, and the twenty-eight page book is rounded out with a Cover page, Index and Credits (also a page), and an Extended Sequence of Play on the back cover.

The Battle Book, covering the scenarios and other details for this set.

The Battle Book is the heart of the game. This also comes to twenty-eight pages. These are comprised of a cover page and preface at the beginning, and at the back, a two-page Example of Play and another Extended Sequence of Play more specifically tuned to Purgatorio. The middle twenty-three pages cover the game’s seven scenarios.

Sample scenario (Battle of Cortenuova). Each scenario starts with a historical brief and
an estimated game length, then gets into the meat of the game, with set-up instructions
for each of the two armies, and a map placement map to hurry things along.

After the army set-up instructions come any special rules or scenario instructions (e.g., in
this scenario, the Guelfs may adopt a shield wall defence, the Ghibellines may not),
a note on game balance, and the Flight Levels for the two sides,

Each scenario is presented over three to four pages. Each has a historical introduction, a rough playing time and who sets up first. The two armies are listed by deployment. These are colour-coded by their Leader (another thing I really appreciate about the Men of Iron system), Then Who Goes First and any quirky scenario specific rules or chrome in play for the scenario, and lastly The Flight Levels for each army (in case you’re new to the Men of Iron system, I’ll swing back to the significance of the Flight Levels a bit later – bear with me).

In among all of this is a map, presented on a full age, indicating where each (colour-coded Battle (the term used throughout the age to describe all the troops under a particular leader) begin the action on the field. A lot of the time, this will be a rigid placement (hex numbers are offered in the Army deployment notes), but sometimes there will be the chance for free placement within certain confines, as illustrated on the set-up map.

Everything in the scenarios is really clearly presented and easy to comprehend and apply to the play map. The historical background pieces are very helpful for setting the context of the situation your about to play out. One could argue that successive designers have had two decades to get it right, except the presentation hasn’t changed much at all since the original set was released. All in all, it’s a lovely bit of information transfer design in a hobby not always known for effective user interfacing.

The three map sheets. All 22" by 34" in size, two are back printed to offer the three
full-sized battle maps and four 22" by 17" maps (two to a sheet).

Purgatorio comes with three standard sized map-sheets, two of them double-sided. These present the seven scenario battlefields that we’ve been introduced to in miniature in the Battle Book. Three of the battles – Montaperti, Benevento, and Zappolino – are played out on full sized 22” by 34” maps (unsurprisingly, these tend to play out over three hours and up), while the remaining four scenarios are played on half-sized maps. In these cases, two maps are presented on each side of one of the back-printed maps.

I took over a dozen photos of a couple of the maps and this was the best shot out of
the lot. I'm not going to embarrass myself by posting any of the others, but this, the
map for the Battle of Tagliacozzo, is a good representation of what you can
expect to find with all of the scenarios.

The maps are printed on heavy, low-gloss paper, and lean more into functionality than prettiness, but this is as much a product of the doctrines of warfare as any thoughts of production practicality. Battles throughout the middle-ages tended to be fought on clear, open spaces to facilitate manoeuvre and wide rank formations. My only criticism is that the opportunity was there to put the smaller maps on the obvers of the centre fold on two separate maps instead of printing them all on a single sheet. This would have allowed the map to be presented folded in half for all four smaller scenarios without having to back-fold the sheets centre fold (I complained about this in the Norman Conquests unboxing as well). That said, I’m looking forward to setting up and pushing some counters around on these maps.

Counter sheet 1: the Ghibelline battles and leaders.

Counter sheet 2: the Guelf battles and leaders.

Counter sheet 3:markers various and divers.

 The counters are presented on three card sheets, two full-sized sheets and one quarter sized. These are printed on a good weight of brown-core cardstock that seems to be the standard these days for GMT games, and are die-cut, but can be removed quite cleanly. The counters themselves are 5/8” (which is a nice upgrade from the half-inch counters offered in the Tri-Pack). The units look very nice and should prove to be quite readable on the table.

Player Aid Card (PAC), Back panel (left) and Front panel. The Front panel features the
Weapons Matrix, one of my favourite features of the MoI system.

The inside spread of the PAC offers a set of terrain modifier tables for each of the
included scenarios. You shouldn't need to refer to this too often during play, so you
can treat your 11" by 17" PAC like an 11" by 8,5" card for most of the game.   .

The game includes two bi-fold Player Aid Cards (PACs) which present pretty much everything you will need to refer to during a game, arranged sensibly into combat-related charts and tables on the front and back of the PAC, and a list of short Terrain Effects Charts for each scenario map inside the fold. A key feature of the system is the ability of some units to perform Shock or Charge attacks. The front of the PAC features a Shock/Charge Matrix, an illustrated table that defines which units are capable of the tactic in this particular game, cross-referencing the modifier applicable to each kind of potential target unit. Combat is relatively simple but takes a few steps. A lot can happen in in melee including the loss of a leader. The tables for Defenders attempting a retreat before a Shock attack ae also located here. Combat results tables covering close combat and missile attacks (in the case of Purgatorio, exclusively archers and crossbowmen) are located on the reverse side of the folded card, along with tables covering Charge Reluctance, Counter-Charge vs. Charge, and Counter-Charge vs. Shock/Fire, as well as a handy list of modifiers that may influence a roll for Charge or Shock attacks.

The Flight Track (top) with the starting points for both sides, each battle, prefilled for
your convenience, and the General Track.

Medieval battles were usually attritional. The Men of Iron system reflects this through each side accruing Flight Points for units and leaders lost in battle. As mentioned, each scenario lists a number of Flight Points for each side. These threshold numbers are marked on the Flight Track (see above) for each side and each scenario. During the course of each round the position of each player’s Flight Marker is adjusted to reflect the accrual of Flight Points. At the end of each Free Activation (the first activation for the opposing player when the current player has lost the initiative), both players roll a die and add the result to their current Flight level. If one (or both) player’s resulting total exceeds their Flight threshold, the game is over with a loss to that player. If both players exceed their threshold in the same check, the battle is considered a draw (in this instance, for us at least, a rematch of the same scenario will be scheduled for the next available date).

The card also includes a General Track. this is used for the special Timed Battle rule, that sets a limit on how long the attacking side can galivant around looking for openings or advantages. Each battle has a declared Time Limit, The Defending player has the option to pass on their free activation, and that will shift the Time marker down one space. Then the Time marker reaches Zero, the attacking side immediately loses the game. This is a special rule, not an optional rule, but the way the introduction to the rule is phrased, it seems like it was initially intended as an optional rule. But don’t quote me on this – I’m probably wrong.

Box, dice and baggies (in situ).

It should come as no surprise that Purgatorio comes with ten-sided dice – one purple and one yellow for the two factions) and baggies. Actually, a big roll of baggies (I didn’t count them, but probably enough to separate out all the individual Battles). A cardstock insert is also included to create a trough for the dice and baggies, and to keep everything nice and flat during shipping.

I saw on one of the Facebook groups a fellow mentioning how he inverted the inserts of many of his games to better accommodate counters and other components. This was a lightbulb moment for me, and since then I’ve done this to quite a few games.

"Oh, strange new world; oh, inverted insert."

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The animosity between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire that stretched from the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the fourteenth is a slice of history of which I am particularly ignorant, so I‘m quite looking forward to getting some of these battles to the table. Realistically though, I don’t think this is likely in the short term, at least across the table from another opponent.

I’m on a bit of a project/mission at the moment with the various Army expansions for Commands and Colors: Napoleonics, so I may not get to Purgatorio very soon. I may be able to do an AAR or two now T has a copy of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack that came in the same delivery as this one (although we’ll have to wait for the Patch Kit* before we can play all of the scenarios from that set. This will arrive with Coast Watchers (GMT Games, 2026) which, by all reports should be charging soon and shipping by the end of June.

When I do get to Purgatorio, be assured I will report back on the experience. There will be AARs with the same insightful critique and poor-quality, under-lit phone-camera photos you have come to expect from A Fast Game.

 

* When the files for the Second Printing of the MoI Tri-Pack were sent to the printer, some older files for maps and scenario booklets were forwarded in error. To their credit, GMT notified customers through their following newsletter, but had already put the production of a replacement component package (Patch Kit) in motion.

 

State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics - Wagram, 5-6 July, 1809 (Part 2)

 

 

A rare instance of the Austrians forming Battalion Square.

 

Over the last few weeks, my brother-in-law, T, and I have been revisiting The Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013) for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), exploring the multi-scenario battles of Eggmühl (which I wrote about over five posts, collected in their proper sequence here), and Wagram. Aspects if Battle of Wagram is presented over three scenarios. I wrote about our experience playing the first two scenarios – each very different to anything else that had come before among the scenarios presented – in Part 1 of this exploration. In Part 2, we’ll look at the final part of the Wagram triptych, and the last scenario of the set.

 

Wagram – 6 July 1809 (Davout in Markgrafneusiedl)

The third battle of Wagram scenario, dealing with the action around Markgrafneusiedl, is one of the longest scenarios in the whole collection; with a twelve-banner victory threshold, a target it shares with the first Aspern-Essling scenario Day 1 Aspern), but fields 47 martial units across the two sides, as opposed to 38 in Aspern. It’s almost uncomfortably busy, limiting the capacity for manoeuvre, especially for the French.

T saw that neither side experienced supply shortages during the campaign.

Napoleon’s intent was for Davout’s III Corps to strike the Austrian Left and roll up the line. Charles recognised the danger in that quarter and ordered his IV Corps and Advance Guard (who we met in Gross-Enzersdorf) to strike before the attack could be readied. The French were surprised and pushed back, but soon their lines firmed up and the Austrians and lost their momentum. Davout ordered a fierce barrage, then at 10:00am he ordered his infantry forward to engage with the enemy. The French sustained considerable losses but managed to keep up the pressure on the line, and soon were fighting inside the town of Markgrafneusidl. By noon, the Austrian and French cavalry were engaging in massed formations, but this was a sideshow to the weight of French infantry slowly, then more speedily forcing the defenders to give up ground. Davout’s plan proved successful.

End round one.

The scenario starts roughly at the 10:00am mark, with the French lines formed and ready to advance. The French advantage of numbers is conspicuous; twenty-seven units on the board to the Austrians’ twenty-one, and six leaders to five. The French player also begins with a six-card hand, an advantage of two cards over the Austrian player. Generally, hand size isn’t a game-killer. It can cramp your style if you want to order something on the Left flank and you have three Right flank orders and a Leadership – Center. Two extra cards might give you more options, or it might just give you two more Right Sector orders. I’m also much more willing to order a unit to form Square if I’m not going to be reducing my options by 25%.

This is unfortunate, because one of the French player’s greatest strengths is the massed Cavalry far on his Right flank (six squadrons and a battery of Horse Artillery), to a thin horse defence on that flank. As it turned out, I could have been more careful on this flank, but all will be revealed indue course. In spite of the difference in numbers, the Austrians have a good defensive line; nearly all the front-facing units have some cover or the benefit of hilltops (all offering a to hit dice reduction). Overall, it’s a fairly even match.

Early advance on the French Right. T can be little cavalier with the tiles
and the opponent's blocks during set up.

The Austrians begin the match one temporary Banner up for holding the majority of the three Markgrafneusiedl hexes (the two town hexes in the Austrian Right, and the church in the Center) attack on the town. This made the town a target for the French.

T began with an attack Left Flank (my Right). I told him this was s bold move. In our table banter, “bold” falls somewhere between “brash” and ‘For the love of Mike, what were you thinking?!”. French Line are tenacious fighters in close combat (one was firing at range to try to soften the target before the main attack, but not the way T has been rolling lately, and they experienced a two-dice reduction on their attacks into town hexes. The French were pushed back at the cost of a block each from two of the three attacking brigades. I followed up my stout defence with a counterattack on the same flank using a Take Command Any Section. I chose to make good on my early gains, ordering four contiguous units on my right flank – three Infantry and an Artillery battery – for ranged fire. By the end of round one I’d thinned the ranks of three of the French Line units, but no decisive hits. This was going to be a slow churn.

End round four - still nothing to show for it.

In round two, the French ordered another unsuccessful attack on the town, but only succeeded in seizing the bridge running onto the town. I foolishly brought my Cavalry down off the high ground with an Assault Left Flank order. This handed T an opportunity; with a Counterattack order, he was able to use that order against me (and due to the card differential, with 50% higher effectiveness). Over the next two rounds, T’s Cavalry swept up and attacked the ranging Austrian horse with a ferocious charge that cost me three squadrons and reduced a forth, as well as leading to the (ahistorical) capture of the Cavalry division’s commander Nostitz-Rieneck, netting T four Victory Banners in total. Suddenly I was left feeling quite exposed on my Left flank.

End round five - the French eradicate the Austrian Cavalry.

Chipping at the flanks will only gain you so much, so the time had come for the French to make push in the Center. This they did with an Attack Center order, bringing up two Line and one Light unit. Firing for effect, the first Line halved the strength of the Austrian light at the base of the hills. The Light regiment attacked the church, reducing its defenders’ strength and amazingly taking no casualties of their own, but the Austrians would not be shifted.  In another show of martial bravado, the second Line came off their bridge to attack Markgrafneusiedl, causing some casualties, but losing all cohesion under the return fire and was wiped from the board (my first legitimate score). I replied with an Attack Right Flank order, and brought my reserve Cavalry to bear, and attacked the reduced French unit on the Markgrafneusiedl bridge, earning two more Banners and evening up the score.

End round five, Some lucky rolls even the scores.

By the seventh round we were again even, at six banners each. T’s sixth round Force March in the Center had been blunted by a combination of unfortunate dice rolls and steadfast resistance that cost the French as many blocks as they took from the defenders T managed to clear the Tower (Centre section, at the foot of the hills), but couldn’t take it. The Austrians replied with an order to Attack Right Flank that further reduced his frontline infantry threatening that sector, destroying the Line that had tried to punch through the Markgrafneusiedl defences from the Centre earlier in the round.

Things can escalate quickly.

At the top of the seventh round, T followed up with a Probe Right Flank, activating two of his Cavalry squadrons, the Light horse to try to see off my remaining Cavalry in my Left, and Heavy sent to harass the Line under the leadership of Mayer (whose troops had suffered under a two-pronged attack of Line and Light Infantry in the previous round. The Light horse unit was bested by my surviving Light Cavalry, and the Infantry saw off the attack against their high-ground position easily.

A Forced March order of my own allowed me to pull a collapsing Militia unit back to deny the French an easy Victory Banner, and to get some fresh troops back onto the defensive line on the hill. Some fights were engaged along the front, but nothing conclusive. The grind continued.

End round eight. Six-all.

With the French taking possession of the Church in turn eight, and the Austrians only holding one of the two Markgrafneusiedl town hexes, the Austrians lost their possession Banner, returning it to the diminished French banner pool. Technically, the French didn’t earn that right until the beginning of round nine, when their Line began their turn in the church, but I wasn’t going to be able to dislodge them with the cards I held. An Assault Center order allowed the French to move into the church, but being a Line unit, it couldn’t go on to attack the reduced Austrian Light adjacent – which slowed his roll. His attack up the hill on Mayer’s reduced line cost both sides but came to nothing. I managed to vanquish his Light Cavalry through a Probe Left Flank, using the (slightly) superior numbers of my own surviving Light in combined arms with the Foot Artillery battery I hadn’t yet been able to wheel up onto the hill-range.

By round ten, we were again neck-and-neck at nine Banners each. Meyer’s longsuffering brigade had finally succumbed to the onslaught of repeated attacks by French infantry, but Meyer’s command escaped capture and retreated to an adjacent Line unit. Here things got interesting. Twice the French attacked with their Heavy Cavalry, an twice they were thrown back after Meyer ordered the brigade into Battalion Square (not an ideal move when there are infantry within striking range, but needs must).

In round eleven, managed to eliminate another infantry unit on my extreme right with my reserve Cavalry, but at the cost of setting up an easy point for the French. By this point the scores were eleven for the Austrians, ten for the French. If I had instead moved an infantry unit into the vacant, I could have regained the Temporary Majority Banner for holding Markgrafneusiedl and ended the game, but that felt a bit gamey, so I declined.

End round eleven.

Round twelve saw no change on either side, although I didn’t realise at the time T was taking a chance setting up his end-dame gambit. In the end run, T just had a particularly good selection of cards to execute his intentions in detail.

With his thirteenth order, T delivered the final blow. Playing another Leadership card – the last of an exceptional run – he ordered all his units with an attached leader, attacking my remaining Cavalry, and decisively ending the game but picking up the last two Banners. He saved me the indignity of taking the tower, which would have been his right. Overall, a hard-fought game on both sides, but the French were victorious, and T finally seemed to have made his peace with the dice gods and broken the drought.

End state. A hard-won victory for the French.

In all, the game took thirteen full rounds to reach a conclusion (with the usual table banter and a couple of interruptions, this took the best part of two hours). A loss can still mean a satisfying game. I’m happy to have accomplished what I did with what I had to work with. Looking back on it, I don’t think there was anything I would have done significantly differently, except perhaps to roll better results.

 

French orders played.

Austrian orders played.