Sunday 28 October 2012

Charge !, my favourite war game.

I had a game of "Charge" yesterday, just a simple line them up encounter leaving out the battalion guns and light infantry. The forces of Altstein in blue are led by Von Bruckenheim and the Eisenburg-Essling army, mostly in white, are led by Fritz von Essling.
  
 The positions after move one.
 The light cavalry clash, the Altstein blue hussars are well beaten and flee the field.
 The Altstein infantry advance.
 The Eisenburg-Essling infantry, Eisenburg grenadiers in their splendid yellow coats.
 Eisenburg Dragoons, Revell Austrians.
 An overview of move two.
 Kazinsky Uhlans rally on the spot after defeating the hussars, the Altstein musketeers crochet their line to counter the threat to their flank.
 The heavies clash on the other flank. Neither side win this fight and both sides fall back to rally.
 The Altstein Grenadiers charge into the Eisenburg Musketeers to the right of the picture.
 Kazinsky hurls his lancers at the enemy line.
 The lines are getting into musket range.
 The dragoons clash again and this time the blue Meissen Dragoons win this fight and fall back to rally. Whilst the Eisenburg Dragoons are routed.
 Close fighting in the centre of the field.
 The lancers came off very badly against the Altsteiners and have fled to lick their wounds.
 The huge Ostburg regiment (64 other ranks plus officers) forms line to cover the gap left by the lancers.
 The Meissen Dragoons rally, victorious but badly depleted.
 The hard fighting in the centre continues.
 Bayonets are crossed and the Eisenburg Grenadiers are defeated.
 A lull in the fighting allows the lines to reform and face each other.
 The Altstein commander Von Bruckenheim gives an order to his Meissen Dragoons to charge yet again,their target is the enemy guns. However the gunners are ready for them and a hail of canister greets the dragoons who are unable to withstand the storm of lead and flee the field.

 The desperate charge against the guns was Von Bruckenheim's last throw of the dice, outnumbered he reluctantly concedes the battle and retreats from the field.










17 comments:

  1. Tremendous spectacle as ever.

    Do you use written orders?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great action and a marvelous wealth of eye-candy: cheers and thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agreed! The game and layout look stunning. Nothing like a table full of figures.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, another great-looking game. The large battalions do look good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A nice game and beautiful figures. Well done my friend ... Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks very much for your kind comments gentlemen.

    I dabble in far too many wargame periods and genres but I always hark back to the "old school" because I enjoy it the most.

    I also have found you guys and the rest of the "old school" internet community to be most inspirational and supportive to my endeavours.

    In reply to Prince Lupus, I don't write orders as I play solo but I dice for initiative and choose the best actions I can think of for each side. It isn't ideal but beggars can't be choosers.

    Thanks again,
    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great looking game and report

    -- Allan

    ReplyDelete
  8. Paul: I see you have played both with Charge! and Black Powder rules. Could you please tell me what is the one you like most and why?
    Regards, Cesar Paz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tough question sir, I enjoy both rules very much and recommend both of them, but I would say that I prefer Black Powder due to the command and control rules and that it suits solo play better.

      Thanks for your interest,

      Paul

      Delete
    2. Thank you very much for your answer Paul.

      Delete
  9. I do appreciate your lovely colorful troops, sir. All too often it is difficult to tell which side is which . . . a fault that you do not fall into.

    Lovely photos . . . great-looking troops and a good battle report. Thank you, sir.


    -- Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  10. Inspirational stuff - it must take you ages to move all those figures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It used to take all blinking day until I based the infantry in eights and the cavalry in threes, thanks Conrad, actually your blog made up my mind to get into Commands and Colors, a decision that I'm very glad I made. So thanks again,
      Paul

      Delete
  11. Yep: great spectacle, as I have come to anticipate each time I visit this blog. Can't think Why I missed this posting up until now, though! I'm tending towards solo play for my own campaigns, generally 'programming' one side (usually the stronger) and 'playing' the other.
    'Programming' might take the form of coming up with 2 or 3 plausible ideas, and dicing for them.
    Cheers,
    Ion

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great spectacle Paul. Glad I happened on your blog.

    ReplyDelete