We reset the board for the hypothetical campaign in England, and played it a second time. The group was smaller, which made for quicker play, and we were able to finish the entire scenario in about four hours. The game ran 9-10 turns, depending upon the number of times Napoleon tossed in his entire hand (discard eight, draw eight) rather than playing cards (play four, draw four).
Like the first play-through, this one too ended in a French victory. However, this session was actually much, much closer on points than the first.
CB and I played the Anglo-Russian force (CB played the two British commands and I took the Russian command.) While there were moments where it felt like we were close to a narrow victory, we never seemed to have quite enough command or cards or luck to quite pull it off. Had we just been able to destroy a few more high-point French brigades, or take a couple more of the objectives, it woulda coulda shoulda been .....
The final tally for the Anglo-Russians:
French Losses
6 Artillery batteries (66 pts)
5,220 Cavalry (48 pts)
14,800 Infantry (180 pts)
Total = 294 pts from destroying enemy formations
Objectives held = 1 (50 pts)
French losses just were not that heavy, and even where they did take losses, they did not tend to lose entire formations. The Anglo-Russians held only a single objective, and so the final tally was 344 points. That more than doubled the total from the first session where the Anglo-Russians only managed 165 points, and British losses amongst their Guard units were extremely light.
The French played a good game, and had a good plan. Hold in the center, pull back on the left (against the Russians) to minimize combat but protect objectives, and hit hard on their right. The French dice rolling was totally unreal. Here is an all-too-common example where four French batteries rolling 10 dice each vaporized an 8-stand British Infantry Unit in a single turn:
1st battery : 10d6 = 2 hits (1 Fatigue marker, 1 stand lost, 7 left)
2nd battery : 10d6 = 4 hits (1 Fatigue marker, 3 more stands lost, 4 left)
3rd battery : 10d6 = 2 hits (1 Fatigue marker, 1 more stand lost, 3 left)
4th battery : 10d6 = 4 hits (1 Fatigue marker, 3 more stands lost, cue funereal music)
The French also made good use of timely card play and combined arms to savage the Russian army. Of the four divisions, two were annihilated, one damaged, and one left largely intact. The intact division was the elite Guards division (yay!), but the Officer (Constantine) was killed in service to his brother, Alexander, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias. The only good news for our side was that as the French were clearing huge numbers of Russian infantry from the tabletop, their poor value accrued few points.
The final tally for the French:
British Losses
4 Artillery batteries (40 pts)
540 Cavalry (0 pts)
19,600 Infantry (84 pts)
Russian Losses
12 Artillery batteries (84)
180 Cavalry (0 pts)
28,000 Infantry (190 pts)
Total = 403 pts from destroying enemy formations
Objectives held = 5 (250 pts)
Grand total for the French = 653 points
This results was a tiny bit better than the French total from the first outing (623 points).
Even if the French luck was a little less hot, my sense is that the Anglo-Russians still are likely to lose this one without some change to the location of the objectives. If the French are forced to be the attacker across the entire line that spread their forces more thin, and make it easier for the other side to engage en masse.
