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Standoff in Scandinavia, part 6

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Danes win the roll off for initiative; they will go first with two impetus. 

They turn MELEE, and act upon it now!

Charged in the flank, the Swedes escape destruction. Evidently someone in the regiment had served with the Austrians and learned about Battalionsmasse!

More success for the Danish mounted arm. In 1813, the Danes may have had the best mounted cavalry in Europe, not having suffered through 1812 in Russia, and having access to the excellent horseflesh in Holstein. 

No question the Danes could use some Rallying!

Order restored!

Unit Integrity regained.

No love here, mann. 

8 vs 1 – that works!

Straighten up those ranks, lads!

Maneuver after rallying with no “1’s” rolled for the command. 

Livgard til Fods faces to  threaten the Swedish Battery. 

Funen Light Dragoons, deep in the Swedish backfield, change facing. 

At the start of their imitative, the Swedes expend 1 impetus to play their Special Event (Wild Card).  

This Command is using the Leadership Action.

Form Square!

More Success on a Leadership action!

and again.

and yet again!

Swedes can’t seem to go wrong in their rallying attempts!

Egads, their string of luck continues!

“Routers, about Face!”

Somebody confiscate the dice of the blue and yellow devils!

This command uses a Move action – and a triple magic one at that!

The Swedish column charges and eliminates a Danish battery!

A new turn starts; Swedes win the next initiative, and turn and use Infantry Fire!

Fizzle!

Fizzle, fizzle!  Many other units “reload” (remover smoke markers). 

Danish card is LULL… and the Swedes seize the initiative!

Swedes turn Artillery Fire!

VBoom!

Boom – Boom!

Swedes win the next initiative for 2 impetus, and of course go first.  MELEE is turned!

The newly rallied and reformed Swedish Cuirassiers ride forth, trampling their target!

Charged by 2 units, these Danes are dispersed!  Uhf da!

Swedes turn ARMY MORALE – they are up 13 Morale points to zero for the Danes; all of their commanders pass their survival tests,
Danes turn TACTICAL ADVANTAGE, which they save, followed by Melee. At this point, they have no units that can make good use of the card. They have lost far more units than the Swedes, and have several routers about to leave the table. Almost all of their artillery is gone or severely battered. Rather than wait for the Army Morale card to come up, the Danes concede the field to the Swedes. The battle is over!

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 5

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Danes win the dice off for initiative, and for 1 impetus; they choose to go first. 

ARMY MORALE – since they have at least one routed/destroyed unit, it costs them an impetus to play the card. the Danes have 5 Morale Points left (red chip) , so they do not need to take an Army Morale Test (which often ends the game!). 

Every commander whose command has been shot at or in melee (even if no losses were sustained) must test for survival- “Don’t roll a one”… like the unfortunate Danish officer above!

The Swedish card is ARMY MORALE. All of the Swedish commanders roll a D12 – no ones amongst them! 
The Swedes win 1 impetus, and turn and act upon MOVE. A double Magic Move – Charge!
The Danish Dragoons rout their Swedish opposition! 

The Danish Hussars also prevail in their melee, rolling even, they follow up and “seize the position” occupied by the Swedes originally. 

Single Magic Move.

The “won even” roll allows the Swedish Infantry brigade to face the threat of the Danish cavalry. 

Another “won even” roll allows the next Swedish brigade to adjust its facing as well. 

The reserves are picking Lingonberries…

Double Magic Move!

The heavy battery redirects its fire… to deadly effect!

Another Double Magic Move!

A mutually insipid exchange of fire!

Single Magic Move. 

Situation on the Swedish Left. 

Danish card is LULL!  The Swedes seize the initiative…. 

and turn TACTICAL ADVANTAGE, and save it. 

Danes with the roll off for 2 cards again!

First Danish Card is TACTICAL ADVANTAGE, which is saved. The second is MOVE. 

Routers MUST move on this card; This Danish regiment does the “Shuffle off to Schleswig”!

A timely Double Magic Move for the Danish Cavalry. 

Attacked from the flank and the front, the Swedes are eliminated!

A Double Magic Move for the Danish Infantry. 

Opportunity Fire by the Swedes; with a low roll, they play their Tactical Advantage card to re roll the D12. 

Talk about underwhelming!

Danish infantry fire in to the flank of some Swedes, inflicting modest losses. 

The Danish Jagers… miss!

Danish Infantry charge the unloaded Swedish battery… and are defeated!

Danish Livgard til Fods finishes off a Swedish regiment in convincing fashion!

The Danish Battery and the King’s Livjagers combine fire upon the Swedish Grenadiers, inflicting modest losses. The Swedes are out of Moral points, and must pay 1 to the Danes!

Ineffective volley at the threatening Swedish Cuirassiers. 

Danish Volley; Danes sue their Tactical Advantage to make the Swedes re-roll the “5” on their D6. 

But the outcome is the same!

Danish Light Dragoons set off in pursuit of their battered Swedish counterparts, enduring some fire from the Swedish infantry in the village in the process.  

Danish artillery fires with good effect – Swedes are passing more Morale points to the Danes!

The initiative passes to the Swedes; they turn MELEE and save it. 

The next Swedish card is INFANTRY FIRE, which they will use now. 

A touch of Danish Disorder. 

More Danish ,losses. 

Miss!

Swedes play SPECIAL EVENT from their hand!

Found the range!

Likewise!

Bang!

The charge of The Swedish Cuirassiers routs the Norwegian Liv regiment. 

Swedish dice are hot this impetus… now it is the Danes who are paying Morale points to the Swedes!

and another!

Rally attempt fails!

So does this one. 

Better luck here. 

Routers gotta rout!  Swedes have built up a few Morale points now. 

The road to Rugen!
Well, that saw quite a bit of back and forth; the game is still up for grabs. 

In working on these posts, I cam upon a series of silly You tube/FB posts by a pair of Norwegians, Helgi and Erlend. Here’s one:

25e Regiment of Dragoons

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We interrupt the game narrative for a Dragoon moment! 

The The regiment traces its origins back to 1665, when a new cavalry regiment was raised and named Bourgone in 1685, renamed in 1711 as Bretagne. It reverted back to Bourgone in 1751, becoming Royal-Bourgone in 1788. The Regiment became the 17e Regiment de Cavalerie in 1791 and the 16e Regiment de Cavalerie in 1792. It finally became the 25e Regiment de Dragons in 1803

The 25e regiment saw plenty of action during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars:  1792: Valmy, 1793: Hondschoote, 1794: Etreux, Mons, and Maestricht, 1800: Offenbourg and Holzheim, 1805: Elchingen and Austerlitz, 1806: Halberstadt, 1807: Ostrolenka, 1808: Baylen, 1809: Lugo and Alba-de-Tormes, 1810: Lines of Torres-Vedras and Ciudad-Rodrigo, 1811: Fuentes-de-Onoro, 1812: Arapiles, 1813: Vitoria, 1813: Dresden and Leipzig, 1814: Saint-Dizier, Brienne, La Rothiere, Mormont, Fere-Champenoise, and Paris

6 Colonels of the Regiment attained the rank of Brigadier or higher: 
Louis-Rene Le Mouton de Boisdeffre,  General de Brigade 1792; 
Nicolas Cugnot d’Aubigny, General-de-Brigade: 1794, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 1804, Chevalier of the Empire: 1810, Baron of the Empire: 12th April 1813;
Jean-Oliver Gaudin, General-de-Brigade: 1794;
Archange-Louis Rioult d’Avenay, General-de-Brigade: 1807, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur: 1808, Died: 1 June 1809 (Died of wounds received on 8 May 1809);
Antoine Rigaud, General-de-Brigade: 1807, Commander of the Legion d’Honneur: 1805, Baron of the Empire: 1809;
Philippe-Antoine Ornano, General-de-Brigade: 1811, General de Division: 1812, Count of the Empire: 1808.

The regimental facing color for the 25e- 30e regiments was aurore; I have used Delta CC “Calypso Orange” here. I think it looks quite striking! The figures once again are Piano Wargames by Lucas Luber. The next Piano Wargames Kickstarter commences October 14th!

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 4

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The 2nd turn starts with the Swedes winning the roll off for 1 impetus; they act to go first and turn LEADERSHIP. 

With many units with UI losses (“hits”) and/or disorder, they choose to act upon it right away. Each command group rolls its modified Leadership die type against the opponents D8; the LD can range from D8 to D12+1; for this game I made everyone LD 10 to keep things simple. The Swedish roll fails to beet the opposing D8, so no effect. 

If the modified LD roll exceeds that of the opponent’s D8, Disorder will be recovered, and routed units will rally back to good order. 

The modified LD here is D6 because there is a modifier for rallying Routed units. If the modified LD roll is a “1”, then no more rally attempts may be made by that commander, and the free change of facing or formation on the L:EADERSHIP card cannot be used by that command. 

If the modified LD roll exceeds the opponent’s D8 by 3 or more, one UI (“hit”0 is regained for every 3 pips difference. Nothing here, though.  

No UI regained, but the Light Dragoons do rally from routed. 

Not having much luck with rallying!

Well,  that was a bust!

The initiative passes to the Danes, who turn ARTILLERY FIRE. 

Nuthin’. 

And Nothin again!

and yet again!

Complete bust for the Danish card action as well!

Swedes win even, and opt to take their 2 impetus. 

The “Wild Card!”

Swedes take it into their hand, and turn ARTILLERY FIRE. 

They act upon it right away. All smoke, no action here!

The fire causes some Disorder, but no significant losses. 

No effect!

The roll would cause Disorder, but the target is already Disordered; a second Disorder has no effect. 

Next card is LULL, but the Danes fail to seize the initiative. 

The first Danish card is INFANTRY FIRE; they act upon it now. 

1 Ui and one Swedish Army Morale Point (AMP) lost. 

Swedish return fire is ineffective; hardy surprising with 3 UI loss and in Disorder… as bad as it can without being elimnated (4 UI loss of infantry and cavalry, 3 for Artillery). 

Danish fire is ineffective, but the Swedish fire is not. The Danes are forced back 4″ (difference in die roll) in Disorder, take 1 UI, and lose one AMP. 

Danes are more effective here. 

Return fire causes them to become Disordered. 

No effect.

Target is already Disordered, so no effect here either. 

Same here. 
The second Danish card is MOVE, and they again chose to act now. Triple move, but no Magic!
The Norwegian Liv regiment moves to cover the battery. 

Double move, no magic. 

The Danes move up and volley fire at the Swedish battery to effect. 

Cavalry get a Double Magic Move… CHARGE!!!

Round 1 of melee between the Danish and Swedish Dragoons sees both fall in to disorder, with the Swedes having 1 pip on the Danes. 

Round 2 to the Danes; the Swedes retreat 4″ with the loss of 1 UI and AMP. JHaving roled EVEN in the last round, the Danes can advance to “take the position”. 

The Danish Hussars are defeated, and forced back 4″ with the loss of 1 UI and 1 AMP. 

The last Danish command rolls a single move, and decides to stay put. 

Standoff in Scandinavia, part 3

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The Swedes have 2 impetus; they turn INFANTRY FIRE. 

Eagle’s eye view of the battlefield, note all the “smoke”, indicating “unloaded” units. 

The Swedes, however, decide to hold the card, and draw MELEE. 

In the battle of the small cavalry units, the Swedes are victorious! 

The Swedish Cuirassiers change the Livgard til Hast… routing them!

Next, the Swedes draw Artillery Fire, and act upon it immediately. 

Accurate shooting by the Swedes cripples the opposing Danish battery. 

Just managed that overhead shot!

More well aimed fire!

The Swedes win the LD roll off even for 1 impetus. Now they decide to play their INFANTRY FIRE card. 

An ineffective volley – the Swedish commander call for a do-over!

BAM!  The opposing Danes are routed with heavy losses!

With a “chicken” (Disorder) and two rocks (hits/Unit Integrity losses), it’s not surprising this Swedish column’s fire has little effect upon the opposing Danish footguards. 

“Ja , der powder gevetted ist!”

The damaged battery’s fire disorders the Swedish battery, but causes no losses.  

Danish cannister empties many saddles in the Swedish Cuirassiers, but they hold firm. 
That’s a hit, Sven!
Whilst the Danes have 1 card remaining (a critical INFANTRY FIRE card), the Swedes have no cards left, so the deck is shuffled, and the Infantry Firepower card is unused. Note that if the opposing Leadership die rolls for initiative are tied, that will also end the card, with the decks shuffled, and any unplayed or unused cards are lost! That concludes the first turn of the battle; both sides are running low on Army Morale points!