Round 2 418 Ligny (16 June 1815)
Game 2
Ben Turner (French) 11 banners
Mike Stanley (Prussians) 4 banners
I knew I was in a good position when I looked at my opening hand, which a included bombard, 2 fire and hold, and a force march command cards, as well as artillery reposition and short supply tactician cards. On my first move, reduced the Prussian militia in La Haye to 1 block and played a short supply on the Prussian artillery on his right flank, taking him out of the action for several turns. And for the first several turns I just pounded away at Prussia's forward positions using ranged fire and severely weakening several units.
Mike managed to slow the French advance at times, and wiped out the French cavalry on my left flank as well as two infantry units, using combined arms to good effect. But what seemed to break the deadlock was his moving units forward on his left flank. I responded by playing the force march card, which allowed me to move all the infantry forward on that front, including two old guard units, one of which destroyed his foot artillery in melee.
Although the Prussians managed to fight back in the center and eliminate a French line infantry, my old guards unit came up big again and destroyed the Prussian lancers on a battleback. On my next turn, I played another force march, bringing my infantry in the center into the action for the first time in the game. It was a slaughter, with the old guard eliminating the infantry in Ligny and capturing the town, while two line infantry with leaders and a light infantry assaulted St. Amand and the woods adjoining, eliminating all defenders and capturing the town. That brought me up to 11 banners and also eliminated his majority control of the objective hexes.
This is another unbalanced scenario, and the cards (if not always the dice) were definitely with me. Mike was a good opponent and did well with a tough assignment.
