Impromptu Games

Ehey, Sorry to hear that your internet has failed. Hope the problem has been resolved, now.
Shame you missed the game and , also, a shame that this one was not preserved as a Stream.
This is mainly because of the joy we had post game, mainly at the expense of Phil. Sorry Phil. As usual, he took the ribbing in good humour.
Perhaps, Miko can give an account of the day's proceedings? I sure enjoyed hearing the Commander's debrief afterwards
I can post the replay later, when I can access my PC.
Perhaps, someone with a talent for words could write a Bulletin? On that note, maybe this might be a fun feature which we could archive for posterity??

I think Phil earned a new sobriquet - the Pied Piper of Hameln.

I'm trying to think of insulting enough demotion for Phil... because horse feeding peasant doesn't feel like low enough!
Ehey - we should have stopped the game and give you the Phil's division (although it might have been too late at that point).
Anyway, if we've got less than 8 players on Friday we might try this scenario again with Pat as CinC and you probably as second in command for planning... the rest of us can shut up and follow the orders. So I'll spare you the details of our failure - my only advise - give Phil no more than battalion of Landwehr!

But I refuse to have that battalion of landwehr in my division!

I believe these conclusions are unavoidable.
They say timing is everything. Phil has that in spades. I guess it just comes with being a professional musician.
For Miko, it's death before dishonor. When surrounded, he could have handed over his sword but chose to die with his men instead. Very commendable. A small pile of stones has been erected where he breathed his last.
Mike was ever the consummate cavalryman, sitting on a hill, contemptuously watching the infantrymen slaughter one another. To his credit, he did deign to order a battery to unlimber and throw a few cannonballs into the fray.
Martin, unmatched in situational awareness, never had any idea that Miko's command no longer existed. He simply tended to his lunch by the stream while stoically bearing up to all the hubbub of the battle swirling on his flank.
If ever there was a man of misfortune, it was Vince. Given a choice of 360 degrees, he chose the one that led him straight into the arms of the enemy and an isolated battle well away from the main action. A new compass is on order.

Misfortune probably , but what if I have chosen to pull back and went North disobbeying Miko first orders. Maybe Phil division would not have enough space to contort istelf like an eel between two French divisions trying to seize it, and finally don't make it to Abbensburg. It was really bad luck that Kevin and I remained stuck two hours and endured 30% casualties to get this division out of the way. They had too many lancers, then I couldn't turn back and march. But I probably could have gained 15 minutes by better managing my attack to be able to arrive earlier in the North. I reached Abbensburg 1 min before the end.

By the way, I experienced really hard time ordering cavarly regiments to move forward and counter charge enemy cavalry. How you guys make it work ? Every time I TC them and order to charge they turn back before, and the first enemy square was behind enemy cavalry. Then, I don't understand why they refused to charge.

Hi Vince

Don't take people's comments in this thread too seriously, we all have known each other years and wind each other up terribly.

You must not TC cavalry. We deliberately disabled the option because players were exploiting it as it turns them into almost unstoppable robots. Players would TC a couple of cavalry regts and then ride around behind enemy lines causing massive destruction. Curiously enough when we changed the game code to no longer make this exploit possible these players stopped playing with our group

If you TC a cavalry regt it will move AWAY from any enemy and halt and hold its ground at a reasonable distance. TC'ing cavalry is a good way to stop then going forwards into melee when you don't want them to.

So only un-TC'd cavalry regts will attack/advance/charge. You also should try to give them plenty of space to pass between your infantry units which is why I often place infantry and cavalry in columns so these units can pass gaps, then get the cavalry to change into line before charging as lines are more effective. Cavalry in columns are fine for weak targets like skirmishers and artillery but if there is enemy cavalry about I do my best to ensure my cavalry enter the melee in line.

Yes for sure, my answer wasn't serious either .

Thanks for the advices. After 2 hours, I started to understand that It works better without TC, but to my surprise because for infantry it is the opposite. Anyway, I will try like you adviced as you seems to be the cavalry expert in that group.

Yes yes, Digby is the best cavalryman and should command it every time

I am struck by Mikos comment:

“Anyway, if we've got less than 8 players on Friday we might try this scenario again with Pat as CinC and you probably as second in command for planning... the rest of us can shut up and follow the orders.”

It is a rare moment as CinC for me to witness “shut up and follow orders”

My experience has been more like:

-Ignore
-Follow and complain
-Complain and follow after being asked twice
-Follow a different order and stay quiet about it
-Second guess

And that’s just what Kevin does! Add in the rest of you and it is absolutely unmanageable!

:-). :-) :-)

Well Pat, in case of Phil your options are reduced to "ignore" maybe sometimes combined with "follow different order"...
Anyway, if we play this again, you'd really have to come up with something ultra-brilliant... I found the replay of this from our previous attempt in January (Phil had the same division btw) and even though we've managed to get one objective the other one was impossible to take even in an extra hour...

We had troops basically at both objectives but too many enemy were still around them too close.

I feel sure there is a method to unlock a success result in this scenario, we just have to keep doing it until we find it!

Pat - basically Phil disobeyed an order to do something, chose to do something else instead and by doing #2 instead of #1 led an enemy division into Miko's rear and his command was almost wiped out. It was a manoeuvre of some style. Then the #2 option he chose didn't take the objective and added nothing to the result, so... yes, a little bit of a shambles. One of our other divisions also spent the whole battle fighting its own private war miles away but that one was mostly Miko's fault since that player followed orders!

(You see the trend here? Obey Mikos orders = you're screwed. Disobey Miko's orders = you're screwed too but you can, if lucky and possessing Phil's level of skill, screw him as well, so maybe Phil wasn't so wrong after all...)

I like cavalry because they can run fast. That's the only reason.

Kevin’s periodic mods to “fix” something ... Phil exhibiting unnatural bonding behavior with the AI ... All those couriers that gather in large groups along the river on the Smolensk map. Cavalry and infantry acting in opposite fashion when you TC them.

There is more going on here than we realize. It’s like some Napoleonic version of the movie “Tron”

Rather unnerving

Tsk, tsk, such paranoia.

You see the trend here? Obey Mikos orders = you're screwed. Disobey Miko's orders = you're screwed too but you can, if lucky and possessing Phil's level of skill, screw him as well, so maybe Phil wasn't so wrong after all...

I think it will be a long time till we see such a deft maneuver again. One has to admire such flashes of genius.

It was a rare delight to watch on the replay. I've seen clumsier sleight of hand in a magician's act.

It sounds like I missed a good game.  I'm not sure what Comcast was doing that had to shut down the connection specifically at 2:00 PM.  It's stabilized since then so hopefully they've solved their problems. I expect to be there Friday.

I will definitely be following closely the case in the Marshall's court against Phil.  Though it's worth saying sometimes the wild card who doesn't obey orders is just what you need.

Phil for president is what I say.

oh Digby, you made my day... I instantly imagined Kevin's voice "Phil, you're no Jack Kennedy"

You mean like the time Kennedy-Phil went to Berlin to inspire his Division (which at this point after turning the friendly flank and leading a AI division into the rear of a friendly formation was in a big prison camp having faced court martial charges en masse) and uttered these immortal words?

“Ich bin ein Carabiner”

Followed by a Reagan-like:

“Mr Bonaparte: Knock down this tree!”

It still gives me chills

Phil should be sent to these intellectuals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBlLs6tR_D8 - they know Latin and history, could maybe teach him about following orders

Its a good thing Phil never visits this forum isn't it?

True, he'd realise it's 24/7 open season on Phil here or maybe he knows it and thus not reading the forum?

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

I will be there today also

Hello, id be interested in joining. Where do you play at?