AAR #1 Part 2 CLS

CLS has a rather simple turn order. You map mark your orders. This is followed by artillery fire, simultaneous movement, melee, and finally morale phases. Of course, when you add in the "sub phases" things can start to look rather complicated, but it really isn't that bad.

Turn 1

My map marking for turn 1 was very easy. The three stands of Hussars on the extreme right moved forward off the ridge in skirmish order to "make a demonstration" and see what havoc they could possibly cause. Cavalry on the flank can very easily turn an entire army if handled correctly, just like in real life. Not that I am that great of a cavalry commander, but sometimes the threat is all one really needs to get into the opponents head. I don't really expect much to come of it, considering my Dad has played CLS longer than I have been around, but one never knows. The rest of the force sits in place. "Nothing to see here boys. Nope. No one is getting ready to charge into a open flank. We're just gonna sit behind this here building all game long." I do also order sappers in all the buildings to cut fire holes as we were playing the buildings as cast.

Artillery phase. I either won high die or "volunteered" to go first. Artillery is my specialty. Been very good at it from my first game in Sword and Flame since about the age of 6 (which is a story for another post). This game seems to start out no different. My favorite way to use artillery in CLS is to find a nice, big, fat formation of line or militia infantry and pick one unit in it to concentrate on. It will usually be the one in the middle due to the Combat Effectiveness rules, but sometimes it can be one that the commander forgot to get out of column. CE rules in CLS are rather brutal. Automatic check at 50% of unit strength with fire casualties. Roll 1d6. For most units (Russians have a special rule with Mother Russia IIRC): 1-2 stand, 3-4 fall back, 5-6 rout off the table causing morale checks in the surrounding units. So a 1/3 chance of causing lots of morale checks in line units leads to havoc in the opposing army pretty quickly. This will be my artillery strategy this game.

For the shot, you pick your aim point and roll a 1d6. A 3 or 4 means the wind gods were with you. 2 or 5 means 1.5 inches to the left or right (at the end of the artillery stick) respectively. 1 or 6 is 3 inches either way. Good artillerists will pick there shot such that high value targets are on both the left or right as much as they can. The range is a little long for my small 3 pounders, but there is not going to be any advantage this game to not taking it. I pick a column of infantry with some guns to my left and more columns to the right with my first battery. The roll comes up a 2. It turns out the dice gods were smiling down upon the Austrians. The infantry are just beyond the artillery stick, but after drifting to the left, it squares *just* hits a French 6 lb smooth bore. Ha! Now for another 1d6. 1-3 is a miss. 4-5 is damage (out for 2x turns with one gunner killed). A 6 means the gun is outright destroyed with all men killed. (My best CLS shot of all time was at the Jacksonville, FL Rapier 2009 convention. I had a 6 lb gun supporting my attack on a French held hill with a 12 lb Guard gun in support. That first turn did not present any good targets other than the Guard gun which had just caused about 3 casualties in 3 units each! Well, too bad for them my guys had been practicing. A 3 was quickly followed by a 6. Boom! No more Guard gun. Nothing was left on the hill that had a chance of stopping me. The scenario was a what you see is what you play with. But about 2 turns later I noticed the GM seemed to have forgotten to give my opponent 3 battalions of line.... =)). I come up with a 5. These artillerists won't be bothering me again until turn 4! The second shot is also directed at the guns, as I now know the infantry is out of range, but it drifts into open fields. At this point, my Dad decides to point out that he forgot to prolonge his gun to his right. Which would have negated my shots. We decide to move the gun before his return fire, but keep the damage in place. His shot drifts and misses as well. So far so good for the Austrians!

As an aside, we are coming around to the conclusion that counter battery fire is a little too powerful in CLS rules as written. Assuming you have the range and don't miss your opposing battery with a white part of the stick (signifying a bounce), you have a 1/3*1/6=1/18 or 5.6% (3 or 4 followed by a 6) chance of total destruction. Including damage as a result, it is 1/3*1/2=1/6 or 16.7% ( 3 or 4 followed by a 4, 5, or 6) of a good result. Odds get even better when your opponent forgets or doesn't know how to properly space his batteries.

Movement goes quickly on my side. The hussars sally forth off the ridge line looking for a chance of glory and riches (to be spent on women)! Things take a little longer on the French side of the table. Two of the French line battalions march forward and deploy into lines; the colonels misjudge the distances. Instead of side by side, one has to deploy behind the other (we find that there is no need for rules to introduce friction into the game, you misjudge distances or simply forget to order units as it is). The third marches forward in column and deploys into square on my right. (In general each unit gets 2 out of 3 actions a turn: move, change formation, or fire. Musket range is 12 inches, so these battalions are well beyond the Austrian small arms range and are safe to move and change formation). The second square you see is a battalion of elite French legere. These gentlemen spell trouble for the Austrian right flank. They can move up to 12" as skirmishers and end the move in a close order formation (as long as each stand doesn't move more than 12"). That's only one operation, which means they can still shoot. In addition, the French elite legere voltigeurs do not pay penalties for terrain (not really that big of a deal in this game, but can be quite nasty if you were expecting a woods to slow someone down). My hussars notice this, they decide the glory, riches, and women can wait a little while... Assuming I had ordered them to charge this turn, they would not have made a dent against the line square (one melee cast before dicing to see which direction the squad bounces off in). Nine hussars would have not even made in to the legere square since it has yet to fire. Meanwhile, the second French brigade marches onto the board with it's artillery support.

The three pictures are all at the end of turn one. I need to remember to get some action shots of the artillery and some shots during the movement phase next game. The first picture shows the French lines looking out from their right flank. You can see the three stands of brave hussars in the middle of the table at the far end. The two French squares are on the left. Again, the super secret Austrian weapon of Plan Omega is in the background. The second shot gives a long view of the Austrian line from the left flank. The third is a closer picture of the Austrian right flank as it currently stands.

Turn 2

Orders only take slightly longer this time. The hussars pick discretion over valor and are ordered to retire to their original positions. A half battalion of Austrian line moves up flush with the left of the abbey. More interesting is the nasty surprise the Austrian gunners have in store. French voltigeur companies can detach as skirmishers and move up to 12" as one operation in a turn. They also get to fire 12", which means there is a 24" "danger" zone in front of French (or any other) skirmishers for artillery as a commander can often forget about this and not cover up his guns. One usually does this my moving one's own skirmishers over in front of the guns during the move portion of the turn. However, I have no infantry skirmish ability this game (a distinct disadvantage for many Austrian orders of battle if you are not careful or the scenario designers are mean). But I do have superior weapons fire. Fire is usually simultaneous, but longer range fire (like rifles or held canister) trumps shorter range. My 15" of canister will take effect before the piddling 12" of voltiguer muskets. Thus, one battery is to fire long ball. The other is ordered to hold canister. Rushing up 12 lights to silence my guns is just the sort of aggressive move my Dad (and especially my brother) love to do. At this point, I am mentally jumping up and down cackling with glee congratulating myself on extra special cleverness.

The guns boom out. I do some infantry damage to the infantry line in the opposing center, which happens to be directly across from my building. The average CLS artillery shot kills 3-4 men. That's about what I get this turn. Nothing special, but we will see how important this is later on. My second gun remains silent. This almost certainly gives away the hold canister order, but those lights have already been ordered to advance to their doom! The French cannon belch smoke and shot back in reply. Even from across the fields, the men can't help but notice they seem to be a lot louder than ours! On the bright side, only one gets to ply the trade till turn 4. It becomes obvious my father's strategy is to blow down the second house in town (building in the middle to the right of the abbey) and kill everyone inside. This will take 5x damage on the wood building. Since they are medium field guns that's 5x hits. A 12 lb gun does 2x damage a hit. A seige gun does 10x! Thank goodness this is the vanguard and not the seige train. No casualties in the building till hit number 2, so I escape the artillery round unscathed. (Though maybe the hit was turn 3, one of these turns either 2 or 3 was a drift into the open field between my two batteries. I'll need to take better notes).

The French second brigade begins to move through the woods to the left (their right) of the bridge head in force. The center advances in a series of lines. The French left flank is firmly held by the legere moving up in skirmish order to end in square with a good number of cavalry that came on this turn in support in the second and third rank. My hussars are telling each other what military geniuses they all are right about now. The gunners are rather disappointed; no one advanced into the trap this turn. Overall, the Austrian general (me) is starting to get a little nervous about that right flank. But that building is a very strong position, so it should hold. Meanwhile the Austrian left continues the charade of being fat, dumb, and happy. My memory states that no small arms fire occurred this turn.

Note to self: Take more pictures! Here we have two overview pictures followed by two focusing on the French left flank.