Impromptu Games

it worked for the 3 hours. Pat was killed in action

I don't think we need to replay it. Let's go with that result

By the way, who was declared winner yesterday ?

Grog

It would be fun to do your scenario again Vince. I liked it’s design.

Except the getting killed part. I think what is scary about the AI now is I am getting killed without being physically present.

There were actually multiple Award winners yesterday.

Kevin won the “tell me again where my army is” award for ordering the infantry to take the objectives the cavalry had already occupied an hour previously

I won the “press the downhill attack facing a regrouped battery and run away” award

Digby had an award-winning lunch at a marvelous streetside cafe in the town

The eatery I discovered is called "The Major General's Cubby-Hole" and is a most stylish establishment in a converted crypt under a church, very exclusive.

Was the only thing that needed to be corrected?

So long as there are no errors in the SOWWL.log file, it should be fine.

The French superior marching ability and experimental cloaking device handily won the battle over the slow Austrians who learned 16,000 men is actually a lot of men for a division. Two brigades of 9 battalions are definitely hard to control as a single commander. The French only needed half their cavalry to do it as well. If only the Austrians had finished their thermal goggles they might have seen the cavalry approaching in time.

...and my bloody gunners were not given horses to ride. They were knackered, jogging all that way through piles of horse dung...

So long as there are no errors in the SOWWL.log file, it should be fine.

Well, the only thing remaining is that:

15:00:09 Error UnitGlobal:PRU_INF_CDR06_LINE_BRIG Sprite Index:4
15:00:09 ERROR Form Sprite Request. Form:DRIL_LVL6_INF_SKIRMISH_PR_FULL-BATT Class:PRU_INF_CDR06_LINE_BRIG Index:5

The PRU_INF_CDR06_LINE_BRIG was used for General Hulin commanding the old guard. I change it to FR_INF_CDR_Brig as I supposed it is a typo in the OOB ? 

Meanwhile, all the prussians brigade have that PRU_INF_CDR06_LINE_BRIG  and it is like this in the source OOB. I don't understand why it doesn't work in the scenario, since I didn't touch anything for Prussian side except modifying start locations.

Don't worry about those. It's a game engine bug. The engine is trying to use a formation from the stock game.

I can play today at the usual time, 14:00 EST, 19:00 BST.

I shall also be there

Well, I suppose I have to apologize to Max for having lost one of his artillery batteries by leaving it several miles behind me in roadless country, and far too near to a bridge leading in enemy territory... In my defense I can only say that major Kleist proved to be exceptionally stubborn in not executing my repeated orders to follow the other units of the Division. Also, when I arrived on the hill near Pinerolo I saw an entire Spanish army corps (inf+cav+art) ravaging the other two infantry brigades of my unfortunate division, and another one looming behind the river, ready to ouflank any unit I could send inside the village.
This said, if you ever want to have me back on the field again, make sure I'll get to command no more than a brigade, maybe a reeeeally small division, but no more than this. I fear by now this is the amount of units I can lead when facing human enemies without immediately turning in Dupont at Baylen..

You did well given the situation you were in. The Spanish army is very fragile and a charging horde can easily convert to a routing horde with a few negative events. I was the Spanish force coming at your right front and I held a very healthy respect for your artillery. Your Baden(?) battery was the unit that canistered my guns and caused one to rout. I then pulled that battery back to the ridge behind my front line and I knew then that the Spanish army wasn't going to be pushing any further forwards.

The problem I noticed in that area of the map we were fighting on was the range of small hills and ridges separated by steep narrow valleys and foot artillery has a critical range at which it doesn't like to unlimber in front of enemy troops. Those hill tops were less than that range apart and I saw your Baden gunners being twitchy when you brought your guns up. That was why I pushed my cavalry even closer but two of them got unlimbered and after just 2 canister shots my cavalry scattered back. Developing a "feel" for that range is important to success in this game. My Spanish guns were struggling to unlimber near the end when yours canistered them and I knew then that I was being too bold and dropped them back to the next ridge.

It was a very surprising battle; at first I thought the Spanish were taking much too long to get deployed and into action but then everything went downhill for the French defenders of the town. I think the critical factor was that Max had no cavalry which made it hard for the French to push supporting infantry to the town to help the defenders and then almost impossible to get them out again. Had the French had just 1 light cav brigade of say 2 small chasseur a cheval regts the game would have been completely different.

Most of my Spanish division was 15 minutes late as it took the wrong road network and I didn't catch it until I literally looked behind me and wondered where it went. I had mistaken some of Kevin's units for mine because he deployed initially on my right rather than my left per the map. So it dawned on me what was happening as he shifted across m marching path to get on my left. The cavalry ended up arriving first on the road leading into town from the north and a few minutes later I had one of my brigade arrive so I pitched in with it into the woods facing Grog and part of Vince. They were rather jumpy and generally less-than-willing to press any attack. Once my other brigade arrived then it got better because it allowed me to focus on Grog's right flank.

I was as surprised as Grog to see Ehey crossed the bridge. I was focused on the opposite flank so I did not know Ehey came up behind Grog. Once I got on the other flank I was all excited to catch a French battalion on the rear flank and could not figure why my troops were not shooting.

I had one cav squadron that racked up 800 points early on in the battle against Grog. The other did little. And my artillery was rather useless.

A fine Spanish force it was.

I can't comment on my strategy as I mostly inherited a favorable situation and several strokes of luck. Ordering Miko to delay the french reserves and their lack of supporting cavalry really sealed the deal.

I felt a bit wary of pushing any unnecessary attacks so at the end when I received two simultaneous requests from two division commanders to deliver the final attack I refused their requests. We held the city and had delivered a swift kick. The fragile army had seen a victory there was no need to risk turning it into defeat.

It was fun knowing there was some outside context that we would be vaguely impacting and that there would be consequences to wasting my men.

Thanks for observing that Ehey. In a stand-alone game the last 15 minutes would have seen relentless Spanish attacks in the hope of crushing the French completely but it felt much more realistic and reasonable to rein the Spanish in at that ridgeline and secure the town because they had secured their objective. I was pretty shocked when Kevin read out the losses to both sides, I didn't think we'd hurt the French that much and had mostly just been tumbling them back with light losses.

I should have negotiated better terms. Demand the personal surrender of Commander Max so I can keep him like a trophy. And someone has to bear witness the atrocities. Maybe next time the French can fight to break Max out of Spanish jail.

Rosa, absolutely no need to apologise. I know far too well the stubbornness of artillery commanders, so I feel your pain.

Overall I really did enjoy myself, even if I was a bit salty at the end (a personal failing but I do try my best to turn that salt into something we can all laugh at. If it's too much please do say and I will reign it in). I felt as though the scenario was doomed from the start for the French, and there's no one to blame but myself for that. On the campaign level there was a few erroneous orders I had given out which meant that two brigades had fallen back from enemy positions and were exposed. I'll never let that happen again if I can help it.

Like I said at the end, I was incredibly impressed with the tactics used by the Spanish forces, it's always a pleasure to fight against you all, and every time I lose I learn something new. Rosa and Grog both performed admirably indeed, Grog lasting heavily outnumbered for as long as he did, And Rosa for acting quickly to stabilise a rapidly collapsing front line. If not for the delaying action preventing my division from joining the battle in full force, I think the casualties would have been a lot more even. Still, had an absolute blast.

Thank you as well for accepting a French surrender, big respect from me for granting me that

I think now that we are streaming and anyone could be watching, moderating the language would be welcomed.

I can play today at the usual time, 14:00 EST, 19:00 BST.

I can play as well

Happy to retry Vince’s scenario

I've inexplicably got an appetite for Pvp!

I think now that we are streaming and anyone could be watching, moderating the language would be welcomed.

I believe Ehey has set it to adult content, so in legal terms there's no danger... It would be funny to hear version of Max's rant with f-word beeped out, though

There would be so many beeps it would be like the Close Encounters theme tune.

Unfortunately, I can't make it tonight. Have a good game chaps