1812 Retreat from Moscow - Scenario 2 - Through Frozen Streets

 The second of the four scenarios in Pazoot's 1812 Retreat from Moscow Battle Chronicles game.

There is no doubt that the French were extremely lucky in the first play through of this scenario. Not only were the Russian reinforcements few but they also appeared away from the French soldiers. The loot that was investigated was a mixed bag but did supply the necessities as well as some useful equipment. On to the detail of the game.

The starting positions. The French need to get from the top right to the bottom left.

The Russian hordes/heroes available to stop them.

End of turn 1 - One loot point has been investigated and it is food! Only one Russian line infantry appears and the Lancer is ready for him.

End of turn 2 - The French continue their investigations / pillaging. No civilians have been asked to join despite their wailing. Two lots of horse fodder have been discovered, at least the horse will be well fed before it gets eaten.
The Russian that appeared has been run down by the Lancer (red dot) but one more has appeared on the left hand side of the board.

End of turn 3 - The French head towards the exit. Two more loot points are investigated and they find a Pretty Green Hat, some gold coins, and some food. Now all they need is firewood!
The Russian soldier charges in bravely to close combat to no effect and battle will continue next turn. From the top two more infantry appear.

End of turn 4 - Another bag of coins is discovered. The Russian soldier is killed in close combat when Marc charges in (red dot). Both the new recruits have shown their bravery. The two Russians move from the top but their musketry is lacking and they hit nothing. Four more Russians appear on the right hand side but they are well away from the rapidly evacuating French. 

End of turn 5. The first French soldier reaches safety and the others are close behind. Marc throws his gold coins to the closest Russians and this will delay them two turns as they dig them out of the snow.  More gold coins and firewood is found and Luc takes pity on one civilian and brings him along. But his kindness is not rewarded and four Russians appear just to his rear.

End of turn 6 - Five French soldiers have made it off the board and only Alain remains, slowed down by searching a house and finding some blankets to stop the cold, will it be worth it. The four Russians shoot at him and cause one wound. He will make it off just in time.

The post game examination of the loot. Two food, three horse fodder, bag of gold coins, firewood, a green hat, and some blankets. Oh, and one civilian.
But importantly only one more wound and no one lost.

Campaign Phase.

Food

Their luck continues and the civilian they rescued is Margurite the cook, who can make an additional three food points, giving them an automatic six food points before they see what the food they looted is worth. The food they looted becomes another 3 food points so now they have 9. What to do with the additional points? They decide to recruit another infantry man (Louis) and another Lancer (Francois on the condition that they can always eat his horse - both being hungry they agree, although his horse is not very happy about it!)

Frostbite.

The two wounded are let closest to the fire as is Marc who found the firewood. Benoit, Luc, Christophe, and new recruits Louis and Francois brave the cold. Luc and Francois both end the night with frostbite, one wound each.

Morale

Plus one for the two new recruits. (But Morale stays at 5 as I added two for the two new recruits at the end of scenario 1 instead of just one)

Will the next encounter be so easy? Let's hope so for our starving desperados, but the reality is that it can go from bad to worse. 

1812 Retreat from Moscow - Scenario 1 - The Barn at Dawn

 So I have made it through the first scenario on my second attempt.

Got off the end of the board with my food and only lost two men,(the minimum requirements) plus got some firewood, bandages, fodder, clothing, and a sword.

On my first attempt, I only found some food at the last loot spot, at which point the table was crawling with Russians and five of my men were dead.

So some photographic evidence of the successful game.

End of turn 1. I decided to split the group in two, to reach the loot points as simultaneously as possible to reduce the number of Russian reinforcements - the more loot discovered the more Russians turn up. Firewood was discovered at the first loot point. Two Russians have come on at the right side.

End of turn 2. One more loot point is discovered, fodder. This was worrying as I need food! The Russians reach the edge of the wood and open fire but miss. Two more Russians arrive on the left.

End of turn 3. Benoit discovers food at the bottom of the field near the exit. Unfortunately five Russians turn up next to it. Elsewhere, a Russian is killed in melee but Edouard receives one wound, luckily he has found some bandages. In the top building Luc has discovered some clothing.

End of turn 4. Benoit makes a bee line for the exit. Christophe finds some vodka in the bottom building but is caught by the Russians and suffers 3 wounds. Alain and Luc head to the exit, Alain shoots one Russian on his way as well as discovering another food package. Edouard kills another Russian but Gaspard needs to fight off two of them. More Russians appear on the right.

End of turn 5. In this turn the choices got nasty. Alain, Benoit, and Luc exit the table to safety, Edouard nearly makes it.  Christophe and Gaspard remain to hold off the Russians to allow Edouard to escape  next turn. Gaspard is cut down but Christophe managers to survive. More Russians appear at the top.

End of turn 6. Edouard escapes, Christophe can't make it to the exit and is cut down just short of safety.

A difficult game with some difficult decisions to be made. The scenario teaches that you need to be utterly ruthless to live through the retreat.

The campaign phase.

The food points fed everyone and allowed me to recruit one more infantry (Marc) and one Lancer (Christophe) I chose the Lancer as we can eat the horse if we need to 😢 Hopefully the two remaining fodder points will help.

The bandages healed Edouard's wound but then he got frostbite! Having lost two men morale went down 2 but then rose 2 from our new recruits.

So stay tuned for scenario 2, Through Frozen Streets. 

A few final thoughts. I expanded the QRS so I didn't need to flick through the rule book so much. It all fits on one page. As food is vital I think I may choose loot points items in advance to ensure that there is at least 2 food points hidden on the board. Otherwise it can be impossible to win if food does not come up when rolling for the loot point contents on the Loot Table. Although food becomes more plentiful in the next game so I may just see how I go. 

1812 Russians

 The Russians are coming, the Russians are here!

All the Russian troops that came with the 1812 Retreat from Moscow purchase are now painted.

In the foreground French infantry trudge down the road while chased by the Russians. On the right French lancers try to slow down the Cossack horde.

Cossack horde

Russian line, just as cold and miserable as the French.

Russian Jagers taking pot shots at the French column.

Well, that is all the painting and terrain completed for the 1812 Retreat from Moscow campaign. Now to play the game!  I just have to clear the table of another project, print out the campaign documents, and then off we go to see if I can make it out of Russia alive!