Edelweiss 2

ELITE FIGURES. GUARD FUSILEERS AND NASSAU.

The very first move had a cavalry melee, however looking through the photographs I find that whenever the game got exciting I forgot to take photos!

You will have to take my word for it that both flanks were heavily engaged throughout the game with whirling squadrons emerging from dust clouds and disappearing again to the flash of steel and the thunder as lines of the giant heavy cavalry collided. In fact in the first two engagements both Steve and I made the novices mistake of allowing lights to mix it with heavy cavalry. The difference was that he threw mediocre dice which allowed me to withdraw my chassuers dented but usable on the wooded side. But on the plain to the east his hussars were almost destroyed by the french cuirassiers.

FRONT RANK

On the west flank the dragoons advanced to fill the gap left by the Chasseurs rout. The infantry trudged forward and a battery deployed to fire at the village of Delft.
In the centre the infantry columns tried to swing away from the Spanish Artillery but the six foot range of the guns left little place to hide and the Marine regt marked its progress across the plain with a trail of crumpled blue overcoats.

On the second move the French artillery deployed within close range of the Spanish line.


The photo shows the guns with a battalion of Nassau deployed as support to replace casualties and help crew the guns. o the right the main french attach develops while the Dragoons move to the front and the Chassuers can be seen in the distance rallying. The counters on the guns denote gun crew casualties, already the Spanish Counter battery fire is weakening one unit.

The Spanish battery in front of the village proved a real nuisance to the French. Figures by Redoubt(early range)

The Spanish light Infantry occupy Delft. (figures by connoisseur)

In fact the luck of the dice throws affected things quite a bit, the French Grand battery consistently threw low and was less effective as a result. This was more than made up for by the cavalry melees where the french consistantly threw better dice. In fact the first melee on the plain was a decisive one for after that the French always had the advantage of a reserve unit which could be used to attack any spanish cavalry while they were rallying.


Here the Spanish dragoons have won a melee but they face fresh units which will attack when rallying.

Meanwhile in the centre the objective of the main french attack was clear.