Our next game at JJ Con was a play test of another scenario for our upcoming 1814 scenario book. This one was the battle of Brienne. The game was fun. JJ’s priest came to see what we were up to, and we got him to run a Russian division for an hour or so. He launched his cavalry against Eric’s French columns. He got lucky and smashed a column before it formed square, then broke through and took out a battery of artillery. You can see the smashed French column in the picture below.
In general the guys caught onto the rules quickly, but got a little confused with the night effects. It was a real scrum; however, there was no way the French were going to be able to accomplish their main objective. We adjusted the victory conditions.
That battles was a real scrum. I took over for JJ’s priest and used my dragoons to spar with and delay the French. In the meantime, Eric’s light cavalry just about destroyed my only infantry, which withdrew to the town to await the French onslaught. When the smoke cleared, the French had begun to push me out of the town despite the arrival of fresh reinforcements.
The game was a marginal French victory. They did not capture the town that was their objective by the time the game ended (midnight game time, and pretty close to that real time). They did, however, kill seven of our units, losing only one battery along the way. Both sides had many units that were badly shot up, but only those eight units were actually destroyed. By the scenario victory conditions, it was a marginal French victory.
I think this was another successful game, but I was getting very tired of game mastering by this point of the weekend, and I was not up to par as a GM. As the GM, you feel responsible for everyone having a good time. There were lots of questions about the rules and scenario, and I could feel the game going South a couple of times, but in the end, I think everyone had a good time.
