We had another go with Valour and Fortitude,we are really enjoying these rules and it helps that were playing it enough to get pretty fast at it . Des came up with an AI scenario based on what we had, without any historical context to be honest but it gave a good game. We had three brigades apiece, I had one with French line and some artillery, a confederation of the Rhine brigade and a brigade with an Italian infantry unit and two light cavalry units. Des had a British brigade, an Austrian brigade and a Portuguese brigade and we decided to fight down the length if the board. I finally got to use my recently completed German farm as an objective, the other two objectives were shared between us, a bridge near my deployment zone and a hill near Des's deployment zone, clearly the struggle for the farm was going to be crucial. Des ended up as the aggressor so he had the first go and his Austrian brigade headed for the farm and occupied it in the next go. There was a bit of feinting between the Austrian cavalry and the French hussars as neither side wanted to comit too soon as we have found out there isnt really a benefit in charging first, except if youre the aggressor you win a tie. On the other side desolutary fire from each sides artillery caused occasional damage. I moved my French infantry up ready to assault the farmhouse.
With the first assault on the farm the Austrian unit was shaken but didnt have to take a Fortitude test In the next turn Des swapped out the shaken unit for a new unit, this time the confederation brigade was able to fire on the Austrian unit in the farm and inflict a casualty, this was important as the unit I now attacked with was fresh and so was hitting on 3s and the Austrians on 4s, the Austrians were ejected, and the unit routed.Id earlier played the same card Des had used in the last game which meant if I held this objective at the end it would be worth double points. Meanwhile Id decided to charge the Austrian chevauleger, even though their stats are much better than my hussars, I had brigade support from my supporting second unit of hussars, the Austrians had a unit of grenz in support, even though the odds were on Des's side I was lucky and he was shaken, he managed to fail his activation in the next in the next go, you need to roll a 2 or more on a d6, I interpenetrated my second unit of hussars they destroyed the chevaulegers, forced another Fortitude test which this time Des failed which gave him a defeat and meant the unit which had occupied the farm routed as they were shaken. I was able to rally my unit in the farm while Des tried to get his British brigade moving. With my remaining French infantry I attacked the Portugese in my final go, I wasnt successful but had a card which meant I didnt have to take a Valour test, on the other side the hussars were able to remove the grenz, the last Austrian unit left, Des failed his Fortitude test and aquired another defeat, plus one for losing the entire Austrian brigade. When we worked out the victory points it was 11 to 2, because he was sitting on an objective. I hadn't lost a unit but at the end my French infantry brigade were pretty much all shaken. Fun game, it was more difficult because we were fighting on the 4' width, I think Des was overly protective of his British but because of the narrow table and his tendancy to form line and wait for the French to attack meant the British saw no action and the Portugese very little, I only mounted the attack at the end because the game was over and I knew I couldnt lose with the card I had, if Id been a bit smarter at dispositions I could have limited the casualties from the Portugese muskets, still we both had fun and will be returning to this rule set. Well done if youve waded through my wall of text and photos!
All the best
Iain
