HITS Game Weekend of Jan 24-25

General Bagration's 2nd Army of the West is located on good defensive ground several miles beyond the SW corner of the map.  The Grande Armée is approaching and will soon give battle.

Meanwhile, a French column has been spotted by Russian light cavalry at Cahlenberge.  In true Napoleonic fashion, the French are bringing their forces to bear from unexpected directions.  The cavalry has slowly given ground as the French methodically advance south.  The Bagration's rear area and line of communication is in considerable danger.  What's a Russian to do?  Fortunately, Bagration's go to guy, General Borozdin, is on the case.  Has he prepared a warm welcome party, or is he completely out of position?

This 3 hour battle will take place in the SW quadrant of the 10 Mile map.  Don't forget that each quadrant is 5 miles on a side, so distances are much greater than they may seem.  No expansion map packs are required.  Only the usual 3 mods, Road to Wagram, KS SOW Supplemental Maps and KS Napoleon Mod are needed.

The usual rule of not scouting more than 200-250 yd in advance of your troops is in effect.  Given the size of the battlefield, this will place a premium on each side's cavalry.  Don't squander them.  For this battle, artillery cannot travel through the woods cross country.  They must use the roads for that purpose.

Ideally, we will need 9-10 players for the battle.  As always, many more can be accommodated with brigade commands.  We will need 2 brave souls to volunteer in advance for CinC so pre-battle briefings can be distributed.

A doodle for the game sign-up is here: Doodle Sign-Up

Shockingly, no one has stepped forward to claim the honors of CinC. So again, we will need nominations from the floor.

If no one really wants to do it, I'll do it again. I actually enjoy the planning part of it, I just want to control troops in the battle as well. So if that can be accommodated, I'll take one side.

And as one good turn deserves another and as I need to pay him back for my repulse on the Confederate right at Gettysburg from last year in our marathon playing of Last Chance for Victory, I nominate Mark/Little Mac for the other C-in-C.....

Ugh

A perfect combination. This is a battle where the CinCs can take a troop command. The only real question is who gets the plum assignment of General Borozdin. Mark seems like Borozdin material. I'm sure he'll do the general proud. Briefings are going out.

Is there a confirmed time for this?

Tom

At this point, it looks like the usual 20:00GMT will work. There may still be a few who will sign up today so the start time may change.

Borozdin wrote:Ugh

¡Remember the defense of Hohenwart general!

¡Remember the defense of Hohenwart general!

This is why Borozdin is the Russian go to guy.  He's the man for all the hopeless challenging assignments. I expect to see even more laurel leaves on his head after this battle.

Against incredible odds, I turned Matt away on day 2 at Gettysburg playing Last Chance for Victory on Vassal.  Longstreet limped away in agony after seeing my small Union force destroy the Secesh masses.

Now I shall go back in time and repeat my greatest feat.

The Rodina calls and I shall answer.

With Pepe of Villaflor at my side, nothing is impossible!

I might be able to play after work, depending on what time I get home and what time you get the game going.

I will pop my head into TS which might be 8.15 -8.30ish. If you havn't started by then then I will join. Too late a start, also, and I'll have to pass, due to me working the next day.

Don't delay, though, on my part.

Mike

Mike wrote:I will pop my head into TS which might be 8.15 -8.30ish.

Everyone said 20:30 would not be a problem, so we can plan to start then. Maybe you'll get the chance to again show your cavalry acumen. I'm sure there will be plenty of squares to attack.

My schedule is a bit iffy, but I will show up if I can possibly make it.
If my horse dies on the road.... good luck, and may fortune smile upon your commands !!!!!

If someone can save the Russian rear Mark/Borozdin is the man (who else will have guts and élan to charge the Russian guns).

It will be a peasure for me to lead a charge so you can report to Bagration and get some reinforcements.

Kevin wrote:Everyone said 20:30 would not be a problem, so we can plan to start then. Maybe you'll get the chance to again show your cavalry acumen. I'm sure there will be plenty of squares to attack.

Thanks Gents.

The Equine Assault handbook is nearing completion. A brief exert:

"...successive frontal attacks on a resolute enemy square (or redoubt) may be necessary in order to amount sufficient elevation of platform (in dead horse and rider) to allow successive waves to simply jump over the hedge of bayonets and gain access to the centre of the square. Once inside the square, one can ride around waving your pointy thing and scare the hell out of the drummer boys..

The Equine Assault handbook is nearing completion. A brief exert:

"...successive frontal attacks on a resolute enemy square (or redoubt) may be necessary in order to amount sufficient elevation of platform (in dead horse and rider) to allow successive waves to simply jump over the hedge of bayonets and gain access to the centre of the square. Once inside the square, one can ride around waving your pointy thing and scare the hell out of the drummer boys.. Very Happy

I've actually witnessed this first hand at Vimeiro and it works! A square of about 50 British Green jackets thought they were safe until charged by 1,000 horseman. Once the horse bodies piled up high enough, you should have seen those Green Jackets run!

MJP wrote:I've actually witnessed this first hand at Vimeiro and it works! A square of about 50 British Green jackets thought they were safe until charged by 1,000 horseman. Once the horse bodies piled up high enough, you should have seen those Green Jackets run!

Ha! There we have it. Documentary evidence. Handbook production will proceed, forthwith.

Destruction of good horseflesh in my part of the country is considered a hanging offense.

I'm a bit under the weather this weekend so if I'm late showing, don't wait for me. If I do come along I should probably only take a brigade. My brain can't cope with more ATM.

I may actually be a bit late for this one as well, I just don't know yet. I could be right on time or could be an hour late. Apologies in advance. I will update as the time draws closer. Heading out to my sons' Taekwondo tournament.....

Shall we make the start time 21:00GMT? Currently it is set for 20:30.

I don't think I'll be back until 5:30 est. Probably too late

Are we going to try this game tomorrow?

Yes we can certainly give it another try tomorrow. It looks like 19:30GMT would be the best time. Pass the word over at GCM.

I'll be there, in sickness or in health. Did you guys test more to see what the problem was?

One thing I have noticed in recent months when writing free text courier messages. It used to be that when you typed, the text stopped accepting at the right hand edge of the 'page' in the text window, and you had to hit enter to select a new line. Anything you'd typed that didn't show on the line was lost. A while ago I noticed that this feature has disappeared and you can now type 'off the edge of the page' on a single line as long as you like, the enter key places all the text on the screen when you hit it, regardless of how many lines you've written.

I am pretty sure this change wasn't as long ago as the v1.61 patch yet there hasn't been a patch since, so I don't know what occurred to make this change. I'm also pretty sure I'm not imagining this!

I'm thinking that with the old crashes we encountered years ago where long courier messages were identified by Norb as a possible culprit, this may be one cause of last nights problems?

We could try to discipline ourselves to hit enter very frequently while free-texting messages. That might help.