Friday 23 September 2022

After the Third Apocalypse - Albion Advances

February 2500 - After their victory at the landing site perfidious Albion quickly follows the retreating French forces.

The French leave a few units to hopefully delay the British advance.  OHW scenario 20- Fighting Retreat.

The French have 4 units and the British have 6.

I am using the One Hour Wargame Rules with the addition of Gatling Gun units that move like infantry and roll a D4 when firing. Some of the units carry over some casualties from the previous game.

Starting positions - the French retreating across the river. The objective for both sides is to hold the cross roads on the hill at the rear of the table. To go with the background of the campaign I have substituted a ruined city for the swamp in the OHW scenario.

End of turn 1. The British have two infantry units and two gatling guns on the right and one infantry unit and gatling gun on the left.

End of turn 2. The french have deployed on the far side of the river. The English have deployed to fire at the French, leaving one infantry unit in column to press the attack.

End of turn 3. Despite casualties the English push across the river on the right. There the French have taken a lot of hits from the English gatling guns and supporting infantry

End of turn 4. The French artillery is deployed but the French infantry on the right have broken and are retreating. On the left the French make a slow retreat.

End of turn 5. The English have crossed the bridges on both sides of the ruined city.

End of turn 6. One of the French infantry units has left the field of battle. But this has been offset by the destruction of the leading English Infantry unit on the right that is broken and retreating. however the French artillery needs to fight off two gatling guns and another company of infantry. On the left the French infantry are racing to support the artillery, leaving the gatling gun to hold the line.

End of turn 7.  The french have not rolled well and the English continue to advance.

End of turn 8. things are looking grim for the French. Can they hold on to turn 15?

End of turn 9. The French have broken the English infantry on the left and they are retreating. On the right the French infantry have come to the aid of the artillery but maybe too late.

End of turn 10. Both the French artillery and infantry have broken. Overwhelming fire from the English infantry and gatling guns.

End of turn 11. The French gatling gun tries the impossible. To hold on. But elan can only do so much and they must retreat to avoid capture.

Round up.  A good fun game and it lived up the the name as it was all over in one hour. I think the French should have deployed further from the river so they could have fired more at the British one by one.

Onto the next game in the campaign. Can the British make it all the way to New Paris?  I think I will do scenario 11 Surprise Attack as the British continue their lightning assault.

I have added a twist for the campaign. Each unit that suffered casualties during the current battle may still carry some of them over to the next battle. Each campaign turn a unit of English will remove one dice of casualties and a unit of the French will remove two dice - as they are closer to their supplies.

In one of the blogs I follow, Norm over at Battlefields and Warriors Link uses the OHW scenarios but adds additional terrain that does not have any game effect to make the battlefield look better.  I think I will follow his lead as otherwise the table can look a bit bare.