3 days, 3 Games - Day 3, Post of Honour SYW

Day Three of my mini-gaming marathon saw me off to visit my good friend and gaming chum Keith Flint in the Cotswolds village of North Leach. Happy to play anything, Keith opted for some SYW action using his in development rules, Post of Honour, which I've played before. Keith had done some tweaks since we last played, but essentially the rules were the same. As always I chose to play the Austrians. Keith had hoped to have a curtain across the table to give us some hidden delpoyment, but simply ran out of time, so we went with alternative units instead. Again no notes were made but the 'photos should suffice in giving a flavour of the action.

Both sides drawn up for action, with the Austrians on the left. Having rolled for commanders, all of mine were Dithering, whilst Keith had Dashing bar one Ditherer. Not the best start I must say. I chose to anchor my right flank on the woods, with my cavalry supported but tow units of Croats. My left was more vulnerable, but put some Hussars there to act as a speed bump to the expected Prussian cavalry onslaught. Keith put his Dithering commanders Brigade in the town, with the rest of the infantry in the centre and his cavalry on ither flank.

 

The Prussians and their Dithering commander in the town.

Early on the Prussian cavalry on my right flank attacked in force, including catching the Croats in the open, who managed to evade back into the woods. Somehow all of my units survived, despite being outclassed, which surprised both of us.

The Prussians advance out of the town to threaten my left flank.

Both side cavalry retired to lick their wounds.

The Croats giving the Prussian cavalry a whiff of shot.

With my right flank safe for the moment and left flank refused, my centre advanced with the grenadiers leading the way.

The grenadiers advancing.

A Mexican stand off on my left flank.

A view from the Prussian side.

The battle hots up in the centre, whilst my right flank advances.

With the Prussian cavalry in a bad way and withdrawing, my Croats and Dragoons advance to try and turn the Prussian flank.

The Dithering commander leads his brave Grenadiers into action.

Somehow the Hussars survived a charge by the Prussian Dragoons, ably supported by the infantry.

The Prussian centre and left flank is under a lot of pressure.

The Austrians in a position to turn the Prussian flank.

The Prussian centre has collapsed.

The Austrian left flank has redressed its ranks to meet the troops coming up from the town, albeit too late to influence the outcome of the battle.

Post Game Thoughts
As always it was great to play with Keith's 28mm figures which have a real charm to them. The SYW continues to give nice games and is certainly one of my favourite periods to play. As for the game itself, some thoughts below:

• The Post of Honour rules continue to work well and Keith made notes as we played. During the game some queries came up in certain situations, but we went with what would be the most obvious outcome etc. Afterall any set of rules cannot cover every eventuality, so at bit of common sense is required. 
• To our surprise the Austrians played well despite having Dithering commanders across the board. In contrast the Prussian Dithering commander struggled to get out of the town for a couple of Turns, which allowed the Austrians to ignore any threat to their left flank until towards the end of the game.
• The Austrian cavalry and croats certainly were the stars of the show as they managed to hold off the Prussian cavalry attacks against the odds. With my flanks thus secure, I was able to concentrate on attacking the Prussian centre, which won me the game.
• Post game Keith agreed that he shoud have put a token force in the town, concentrated his infantry in the centre and had all of his cavalry on one flank. This would have proved a tough force to face and I would have struggled to secure my flanks.

 

So my mini-gaming marathon came to an end and what a great way to finish it off. I really enjoyed all of the games and thanks to Dave, Mark and Keith for being such great opponents.

 

Now I need to re-focus my attention to painting some forces for the Cotswold Wargaming Day in a couple of months time. More details to follow by I need to get quite a bit done, which given my speed of output, will be a challenge. However a deadline always focuses the mind! So until next time...