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Marcus Tregenza
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
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Another chance to play Lasalle in a friendly match at the Group North Wargame Club last night. We opted for a standard army + 1 support choice each and we played on a 6 x 4 table. I was French with an Infantry Div and a Light Cav brigade while Steve tried a Russian Guard Div supported by a Guard Cav brigade.
I was initially quite concerned about facing such high quality troops and a quick review of the lists showed that my only real advantage was I out-shot the Russians with musketry. So I needed to neutralise his cavalry, avoid his artillery and hit his infantry with combined infantry and cavalry attacks.
The first French bonus was the terrain lay-down. A series of low hills and ridges severely disrupted the Russian artillery fire lanes and a marsh in the middle of the Russian position split his defence. The second bonus was the additional battalions available to the French in the attack. Twice as many cavalry units and an 8 to 6 advantage in infantry battalions.
With the effect of Russian guns partly neutralised by the hills the French re-deployed the cavalry brigade to their right. The Russians responded by pushing their guard cavalry forward and moved to get behind the French forces - the French inf forming squares as the Russians rode past.
Ignoring the potential threat to the rear area the French battallions now supported by cav executed a series of combined attacks on the Russian hill-top bastion.
The battle raged around the hill top as the Russians sought to bring up reinforcements in support and tried to force their cavalry into the rear of the assaulting force.
Two units of French cavalry were diverted to stem the threat to the rear and a swirling cavalry battle was fought as the French infantry finally sweep clear the hill-top objective.
The last phase of the battle was the French cavalry holding desparately and although well supported by the artillery battery finally break under the pressure of the two elite Russian units.
The game concluded when Steve failed his end game die roll on turn 16.
Lessons learned:
1. Cavalry redeployments can work ... but are not easy to do properly.
2. Russian artillery is really powerfull - I lost three French battalions to artillery alone.
3. Combined arms attacks win the day everytime!
4. Use terrain to mask artillery.
Rules issues:
1. We forgot to subtract SK value from artillery fire in canister range.
2. Must be more careful with manoeuvres "close" to enemy - no moves after change!
Conclusion.
Another nice game of Lasalle. We are now pretty comfortable with the sequence of play and the mechanics and are starting to get a grip on the tactics - how to make the army perform like "the real thing". It takes some practice and good judgement ... which is nice. In my mind that means the "game" is not a bad abstract representation of "the real thing".
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Tom H
Australia
South Oz
TALLY HO!
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Sounds great M. Nice report. Can't wait to shoot a few cannister shots at you!
So who won the day?
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Posted Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:27 am
