Historical Background
The Allies were intent on capturing Paris, but after Blücher’s unsuccessful attack in February, choose to retire as Napoleon rushed to the aid of his two Marshals covering the city. Falling back to Laon, a natural defensive position and an important road junction, Blücher deployed his 90,000 man army and waited.
Napoleon ordered Ney and Mortier to attack the towns of Ardon and Semilly on March 9th. Blücher choose to hold back his reserves, when he saw the relatively small number of French troops marching to the attack, believing that Napoleon must be trying to turn his flank. Napoleon, however, had actually committed almost his entire force in the series of frontal assaults.
The fighting on this front this day would end in a stalemate. On the French right, Marmont had better success and had captured Athies, but had bivouacked for the night to wait for the morning to resume the attack.
During the early evening, Blücher’s reconnaissance revealed that the French right flank was exposed. He ordered Yorck and Kleist to attack Marmont’s exposed position. The French were caught off guard and were driven back, but a determined defense of the Festieux Gap allowed his battered corps to escape. The opportunity to destroy Napoleon’s troops the next day slipped away when Blücher took ill and command passed on to the conservative leader General Gneisenau who worried that Napoleon’s demonstrations on the 10th still meant that Napoleon had something up his sleeve. He called off what would have surely been the attack to end the French army. This gave Napoleon and what still remained of the French army the opportunity to slowly withdraw.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?
Set-Up Order
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| 6 | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
Battle Notes
Prussian Army
• Commander: Blücher
• 5 Command Cards and 6 Iron Will Counters
• 5 Tactician Cards
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| 11 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
French Army
• Commander: Napoleon
• 6 Command Cards
• 6 Tactician Cards
• Move First 
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| 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
Victory
14 Banners
Special Rules
• The towns of Clacy, Semilly, Ardon and Athies are each a two town Temporary Majority Victory Banner Objective worth 1 Victory Banner for the side that occupies the absolute majority of each town at the start of the turn.
• The Prussians start with 2 Victory Banners and the French 1 Victory Banner.
• The French gain 1 Temporary Victory Banner for each town hex of Laon occupied at the start of the turn.
• The Festieux Defile hills are rugged hills.
• The Prussians gain 1 Permanent Victory Banner Victory Banner for occupying the Festieux Defile hex (hex between the rugged hills) at the start of the turn.
The setup shows 7 prussian leaders, but we only have 6.
5 in Prussian expansion and 1 in the Epic Expansion. Is it a mistake in the scenario setup or is a Leader missing in any game box?
It´s indeed a mistake in the expansion 6 game box, there should be 2 prussian leaders into box instead only 1.
(Richard Borg; 2017 - 01 - 18)
