Our re-match means it's Evert's turn to play the Austrians. For the first time in ages, I started with "La Grande Manoeuvre". I used it on my left to throw infantry into Fontanafredda village (top left) with artillery alongside and both Light cavalry coming up behind. (I had several left flank cards in hand, so was confident of being able to follow this up.)
Evert marshalled his right flank troops in response and battle was joined. His Grenzers formed square against my cavalry. Austrian Line infantry destroyed their French equivalents holding the village and occupied it. That's a lucky die roll for Evert taking the score to 0:2 in his favour (as he holds at least three villages).
I fought back with the artillery and Light infantry, only for both to retreat from the Austrian battle-backs. But not General Grenier, who paid the price of leading from the front: 0:3.
Evert then revealed his own "La Grande Manoeuvre", using it to move units from the centre to his right, now outnumbering my troops around Fontanafredda and Talponedo villages. I'd run out of left flank cards, so advanced a few units in the centre. And took out the Grenzers next to Talponedo, so that's 1:3.
Evert pummelled me with right flank cards and took out first one and then the other of my Light cavalry: 1:5. I finally got a left flank card to respond, only to lose the Line infantry under Gen Sahuc that went after his Grenzers outside Fontanafredda: 1:6. At least the General escaped.
My artillery was able to finish off the Grenzers to get one back: 2:6. Then General Kleinmayer and his Grenadiers eliminated my Light infantry holding Talponedo and occupied the village. 2:7 and it's almost over.
Evert threw his Light cavalry into the centre in an effort to get that last banner, but my infantry formed square and survived. My combined arms attack on Talponedo eliminated the Grenadiers and Gen Kleinmayer, taking the score to 4:7. Austrian Grenadiers then killed off my square for another Austrian win 4:8.
That was four turns less than the first game but another 90 minutes of playing time. And the aggregate score is 12:10 to me.
It's an interesting scenario. The French have a powerful force, but deploying it is hampered by the streams. Though I do wonder if this is partly psychological because of how big the streams look in the C&C set-up. However, they do have to get into the top half of the board to engage the Austrians and the stats show it's an Austrian win 70% of the time. I'm also intrigued that most of the fighting was on the left side of the map in both games. That's clearly because of the cards we had but I think another factor is that the French outnumber the Austrians on that flank.
I’ve also posted this report on my BGG blog (with pictures!):
boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/164103
