However, as before, the main action revolved around the two main villages, neither of which were to fall to the Austrians. Aspern was especially memorable for all the luck going the French way and when the Austrians needed something not to go wrong, it went wrong. Typical gaming really!
The following piccies are snippets of the action, much akin to the action in day 1.
Above shows three Austrian columns trying to attack Aspern directly and the reserve Grenadiers trying to flank the village. The crux of this fight was the heroic defence of the church with luck from somewhere and the failure of the column near the nearest village to take it when 2 of the 3 battalions ordered to charge decided to stay still!
This shows the height of the attack on Essling. The Granary would hold firm throughout the 2 days of gaming and the French even launched a counter-attack to regain the portions of the village lost on the first day of battle.
More of a panoramic view of the battlefield. The centre was a bit of a stand off, but the French reserve cavalry did eventually move out and blunt the initial Austrian advance in this sector.
The game worked as envisaged and all the rules and mechanisms used so far are indeed working well.
Last, but not least, the guys playing the game. Two new guys to the Situation room and Nick and John, standing and sitting respectively on the left.
Aspern Essling has now been put away and a whole new game has been set up. This will the biggest challenge to date. There are 12 players, some who have played the new rules and some who have not. All of the rules will be used, essentially this means bringing in the command and control and order rules. I'm sure this is going to cause some pulling out of hair as master plans get thrown into confusion because the player cannot do what his eyes tell him to do because he failed to instigate the order. Lots of fun, I hope!
The battle itself was a secret as I produced a map, OBs and got one of the players to come up with the allied plan based on a strategic overview, tactical information currently available and an OB. Now that I have the plan and the game starts tomorrow, if the guys read this they will find out it is Austerlitz.
Lets see what happens!!!!!
