AAR 5
From: Allen Kaplan (ASKKAP@aol.com)
aka Marshall Davout
Dear Pete:
Thank you and Jodie again for a great weekend. This had to be one of the best yet. I am sorry that I will not be able to attend the Successors event in August. I was looking forward to playing ancients and testing out Classical Hack rules, which I have heard referred to quite often.
The computer assisted "Carnage & Glory" rules were terrific. Unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with them and my forces suffered in the earlier turns with high fatigue and low infliction of casualties. I fired too often and too far. Once I saw how the rules worked, I understood the game design theory and agreed with it.
My AAR, which I hope is in the proper format, is as follows:
Pre-Game plan
I was assigned Marshall Davout. I also had Gen. Legrand's division. My plan was to inflict maximum damage, conserve losses, fall back to the cover of the towns, castle and walls. My main objective, akin to the French at Verdun-They shall not pass! was to hold at all costs with a minimum force so that the main effort in the center could go forward.
My main concern was a strong fast strike at Telenitz in the south. This would have gotten them over the stream and into the clear terrain behind my main defenses. I therefore deployed my arty overlooking Telenitz and my Cav to counterattack any break through past Telenitz.
The game
The Allies, led by Jim Birdseye, were a whole lot smarter than their historic counterparts. They advanced with screens of skirmishers and expendable Cossacks in the South and made their main effort toward the bridge at the center straight at the castle. He also used a massive Grand Battery in the center. This fatigued my picket line and caused higher casualties. Friant's arrival at 8:00 stabilized the line. The Allies then brought up the cannon and pulverized the castle grounds (the castle having been set ablaze and forced to be evacuated earlier by the Grand Battery) and Telenitz.
The arrival of Grenadiers of Oudinot's division arrived in time to save Telenitz temporarily. However, the arrival of third column of Fresh troops and even more cannon was too much. The snowfall slowed the Allies allowing us to refresh and reform retiring units.
A look at the real world clock was the deciding factor to counter attack to retake the Castle grounds. It was successful and the game ended with the grounds contested.
Post game
Jim's use of skirmishers and massed close range cannon was an excellent tactic. I would have liked to have rotated my troops in the strong points, but there was not a man to spare. In retrospect, I would have not place my pickets out as far and held fire till the enemy was closer to get in the first volley bonus.
The French took a lot of casualties but were outnumbered 2 to 1 in men and 6 to 1 in cannon (the 2 Guard INF units and 3 arty units did not have time to get into play, except for a long range shot or two on the last turn). We took more losses than we inflicted and the computer ruled it a major victory for the Allies. But we achieved our goal of holding the right flank and tying up more Allies than we deployed.
I was shocked to have won the Most Feared French Player Award considering my losses and our table not being as important as the center, where the French kicked.
Thanks again. I hope to see you all again soon.
-Allen Kaplan
From: Pete Panzeri (peterpanzeri@yahoo.com)
THANKS ALLEN!
You deserved much the "MOST FEARED" vote from us Russians, as well as GM votes -- you did the most with the least!
And we all must agree, for you, casualties were not the ONLY deciding factor, but rather that you also blocked and held off Allied "main force" kept key terrain contested (*at least until "ENDEX") and "possibly" (had the game continued) could have held on, and kept fighting once you received those "OLD GUARD" reinforcements Napoleon was forced to throw your way.
One should ALWAYS count it as a Kudo, when forcing "Napoleon" to commit Imperial Guard to your table. (er... depending on the quality of the Napoleon, I suppose. :)
-Pete
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