Clash at Einghiem - AH Napoleon Game Turn cont.

 I arrange the Allied units on the battle board with little to no choice in arrangement. Since all three spaces (left, right and center) need to be filled all three of the allied units are committed to battle. It is a mix of all three types; cavalry, artillery and infantry. The French are four units strong, two infantry and two cavalry. The forces are arrayed as such:

As mentioned in the previous post, to achieve victory in battle a player needs to advance and control any one space in their opponent's line.  I move 3 of the French units onto the "middle ground" of the battle board and engage the enemy cavalry unit and the artillery battery. There are attack modifiers for cavalry units and artillery has a ranged attack and other combat rules, nothing complicated, and the most of the rules you need to know are printed right on the battle board.

The French assault is doomed from the start. The Allies score an artillery hit before engagement and after melee the French losses total 3 hits to the Allied forces 1 hit. This all but destroys any hope of knocking the Allies off the field of battle before reinforcements arrive from the next town over. At the first opportunity I pull back what units I can as the Allies move two more infantry units from nearby towns on good roads. 

The balance has well past shifted now the force array is 5 units versus 4 units, and these 4 units are one step away from obliteration as it is. If you look carefully you can see all the steps the French force lost while doing negligible damage to the Allies!

With the battle concluded and my retreat successful (you need cavalry units to "safely" withdraw) the game turn advances. No need to waste time dithering, the play of the game is fairly obvious at this point, set up battles with your opponent when you can funnel more troops into the contest and smash them on the field with an equally punishing retreat from battle.  The final moves I make before I stuff the game back into its box and place it back on the bookshelf are to throw as many units at each other as I can. This ends up low and behold, in Ligny!

The French split forces and move enough units to displace the two Allied cavalry units and the large French cavalry force slides west to be within 2 spaces of Ligny. So the French will be pouring reinforcements into the second and third battle turn from 2 roads and the same for the Allies.

I'm not going to set up the battle board and grind out the engagement. I think the point, and playability, of the game are apparent. I see Napoleon giving a great game session. Players will get a chance to outmaneuver one another and the decision can come about through a massive battle where you wipe out your foe! I think this game will keep players engaged from start to finish!