418 Ligny (16 June 1815)

418 Ligny (16 June 1815)

The Ligny brook has no battle restrictions, but stops movement and will break charges. Meaning, a cavalry unit on or that crosses the stream when ordered by a Charge card, will not gain the additional dice listed on the card.

Before new FAQ questions coming up, this rule(s) counts only for the non bridge river
hexes; The bridges use their normal rules!

Picked this as the first scenario to play from Exp 4. What a tough fight!
Played as the Prussians against MasterChief's French and this has been the longest scenario of C&C I have ever played - 3 hrs! Got halfway thru the deck when the French played Élan and forced a reshuffle. Then we used up another half of the deck before a result was reached, 11-7 to the Prussian inc 2 banners for the majority control of town hexes.
French just couldn't get a roll on and in the end attrition won the day. Both sides had a number of reduced units (1 or 2 blocks) at the end sitting near their respective baselines and the Prussians only played 1 Iron will counter - to ensure they got to attack back after a French play of First Strike rolled 1 flag that could not be ignored. A rash Prussian counter in the mid game cost them 2 banners for the gain of only 1 but forced the remaining single block French Light to beat a hasty retreat to the base line.
Timely play of Cavalry charge by the Prussian at the end along with a strange French move before hand which gave the majority victory banners to the Prussian won what was a slow grinding battle which reflected history quite well except for the end result.

This is an ugly grinding battle. The Prussians took and early 4-0 lead which you ask the way up to 9-6 before the French gained the majority. Changing to 7-9 the town's changed hands several more times but in the end it was the French who, with a cavalry charge, finished off a Prussian unit to win 12-9

Played this again against a different opponent and side and a similar grind resulted. French prevailed 12-6 in what was a blood bath. They had only 3 full strength infantry units left at the end with a number of 1 block units skulking in the rear. Prussians lost 11 units and a leader but otherwise were intact but with a lot of their offensive power blunted. Including set up and pack up game went for 2.5 hours. Definitely a grind this one!

Played last night with Florian by Vassal.
11-7 for the French.
A fierce struggle with at a certain moment, an opportunity to win for the Prussians who led 9-3 !
The prussian victory was near but the tide didn't achieve its work and the counter-attack was a bloodshed (with the death of Jaguenov).
An interesting battle with a lot of surprising issues.

Vittoria francese 11-6. Il peso dell'attacco va sui francesi, mentre i prussiani in difesa cercano di tenere le zone abitate. Dopo la facile conquista di St.Amand (anche si francesi lamentano la perdita del gen. Berthezene) la battaglia si svolge sulle ali. Napoleone ordina a Gerard di conquistare Wagnelee e La Haye. I cavalleggeri francesi hanno il compito facile su Wagnelee mentre La Haye si rivela un osso duro, difeso strenuamente dalla milizia prussiana che si dà il cambio. Dopo aver perso la Giovane Guardia Gerard si ferma e retrocede al di qua del fiume. Sulla destra Pecheux si trova anche lui in difficoltà nella conquista della Chiesa e Napoleone spazientito attiva la sua Guardia. Con l'appoggio della sua artiglieria la Vecchia Guardia conquista di un sol colpo Ligny costringendo i prussiani ad abbandonare la Chiesa e ad ordinare la ritirata generale

French win 11-7.
A wonderful battle, with the French progressing on their right, failing on their left, and finally chasing the Prussians out of the center village - the Prussians attempted to exchange their depleted forces by reinforcements, but weren't able to resist against the French grinding onslaught.
No Iron Will was used.
Many Prussian casualties due to ranged fire.