Mark McG vs Greg O
Game 1
Greg O (Russians): 7
Mark McG (French): 6
As the French, I wanted to attack on the Right flank, and bring up my artillery to soften the village. This worked to an extent, and my initial probes up the Centre were repulsed, and I pulled back to allow the Right to advance. Unfortunately the cards were not as cooperative as they could be. However, Greg determined to not cooperate at all, and Forced Marched what seemed like every Russian straight up the centre, landing a huge mass of Grenadiers on my centre position, and another set of Line on my Right flank. Some desperate times, though fortunate flag results and some artillery cannister put paid to the worst of it. I had fortunately picked up Assault Centre, which allowed me a riposte, and I must have killed off 2-3 units under Stroganov, but he got away each time.
You know an attack isn't doing well when you are battling from you base line.
At this point I ran out of Centre cards entirely, and despite trying to move the action to the flanks, Greg kept on hitting the centre and the banner score climbed to 5-5, and then 6-6, with chances for a win falling tantalisingly close but falling short. One particular chance was the last French cavalry 2 strength attacking a 1 strength Russian artillery. Greg whips out the Artillery cannister, and a CAV, FLG result disappoints us both.
In the end Greg's persistence in the centre won the day, but the barest of margins.
Game 2
Mark McG (Russians): 7
Greg O (French):2
My dice warmed up for this one, and the Russian LT in the village sold himself dearly. After that I seemed to simply play one reaction card after another, I had mostly cards I didn't want, Cavalry charge with 2 Cossacks isn't really much, and I had 2 Cav charge cards. Also held Cold Steel all game.
In effect, the French came on in good style, and the Russians reacted, and on the whole the dice were good to me. Probably the key moment was playing a La Grande Manoeuvre which allowed two 1 strength Russians to escape, and put 2 full strength Grenadiers into the village, but also that Greg ran out of Centre cards at that point as well. As the score mounted, the French attacks grew more desperate, and the ripostes more fierce. Final roll was 3 Infantry hits out of 4 dice, just after Greg rolled 4 misses on a melee attack.