Turn 6 (let's say 10:30-11:00 a.m.)
Sequence decks: Prussians remove one card for the routed Fusiliers and one for the poor command. Empire remove one card for the routing Kurmainz battalion.
Phase 1, roll 1: 11:12, Prussians turn dud.
Roll 2: 14:5, 6:3 pips
Empire turn dud, reload, use it on 4/Kurmainz and fire them at Wunsch once more, D10 d1 disordered, u1 pb, d2 target skirmishing for D6:D6, 2:3 no effect.
Then turn skirmish move and move the Grenzers towards the wooded area on the very left of the Prussian flank, and turn Officer check (with no need to test anything).
Prussians turn difficult move (not usable for marching anymore as all units are within 12" of an enemy), dud, cav move.
Roll 3: 16:10, all remaining pips are split 7:3.
Empire move their HQ to the right, turn cav move, retreat the Dragoons, turn dud, heroic moment for elite reload. Fire the converged grenadiers in the center (despite long range) at the Hessen-Kassel Fusiliers at D10 up1 1st fire, d2 long range, D8:D8 for 3:7 no effect.
Prussians don't charge their Hussars into an even D4:D4 cav melee, instead turn - another cav move :(, and an infantry move. Use that on their reserve first.
Phase 2, roll 1: 18:20, Prussians don't move the center and right wing infantry and turn cav melee and dress lines instead.
Roll 2: 18:19, Prussians turn cav move.
Roll 3: 13:10, 2:1 pips.
Empire reload and fire the Grenadiers again, this time D6:D8 without 1st fire: 2:7 no effect.
Prussians hold back on the cav move and turn Officer check instead, with no need to roll for survival.
Roll 4: 18:18, the heroic elite reload for the Empire goes unused.
Turn 7 sees the same sequence deck changes as before.
Phase 1, roll 1: 5:1, 3:1 pips
Empire turn useless deployment, dud, dud (2 art moves...). Prussians turn dud, too.
Roll 2: 10:2, 6:2 pips.
Empire turn officer check, don't need a survival roll, try to bring the Dragoons back in command: D20 d1 disordered, d1 enemy within 1 move for D10:D8, 7:6 success. Spend a pip and a morale chip to rally the Dragoons D6:D8, 4:4 fail.
Empire then turn difficult move and use it on the Grenzers on the very right. Then turn dud, dud.
Prussians turn dud, diff. move.
Roll 3: 3:7, 1:3 pips.
Prussians turn reload, fire and reload Wunsch at 4/Kurmainz, at D10 u1 pb range, d1 disordered, 4:3 for no effect. Then turn inf move.
Empire turn dud.
Roll 4 for 3 remaining pips, 1:7.
Prussians move their reserve, turn cav melee, refill their 4th opportunity pip.
Correction
Looking at the morale chip situation, I think I penalized the Empire troops to highly for their lost melees. Multiple chip losses for one melee seem overly harsh and, rereading the table in the Cartouche rules on morale chip losses, unwarranted. I think I need to return at least two chips for the Kurmainz unit and one or two for the Dragoons. Before rereading the rules and blow by blow, I'll return 3 chips to make it 8:15.
Phase 2, roll 1: 14:9, 4:1 pips
Empire turn cav move, skirmish move and use it on the Grenzers, turn inf move.
Prussians turn command decision (at one of the best possible times...)
Roll 2: 1:17, 12:3 (only 15 pips left)
Prussians turn dud, cav move, melee (choosing not to melee their skirmishers), reload. Fire the skirmishers at D10 d1 disordered, up1 pb, D10:D6 for 6:2, OOC. Reload and fire again, 6:1 just missing a better effect.
Then turn officer check and attempt to rally the Hussars at D20 d1 disordered, d1 rally, d1 enemy within 1 move for D8:D8 7:2 ok. Note they can't be brought under command as cav that left a mixed command.
Then turn skirmish move, but find their skirmishers are already in melee (and thus probably couldn't have chosen to skip their melee some time ago...). So turning continues with a useless maneuver, difficult move, and then a cav move.
Empire first rout their 2/Kurmainz, then move their reserve and right wing.
Phase 3, roll 1: 7:12, 1:4 pips.
Prussians charge and melee the disordered Dragoons with their Hussars. Hussars fight with D6, d1 blown, up1 charging, the Dragoons fight with D8 d1 blown, d1 -1 stand, d2 disordered for the minimum D4. Roll is 6:4, one more stand loss, Dragoons rout. Empire lose a morale chip (not multiples as I played earlier), Prussians get two bonus pips. The Dragoons rout through the Grenadiers who turn unformed. The Hussars are disordered, and roll to prevent pursuit D20 d1 disordered, d2 prevent pursuit, d1 one move range for D4:D8, failing the check 1:7. So they pursue the Dragoons 6 inches, hitting the Grenadiers on the way.
As elites, the Grenadiers fire a volley (their first!) at point blank range, D10 up 1st fire, d1 unformed, up1 range, D12:D6, 4:1 for 1 stand loss.
Prussians then turn infantry move. They move their reserve. Next they would like to advance the right infantry wing to move Hessen-Kassel through their retreating skirmishers and attack the spent 4/Kurmainz. However, the Wunsch Frei infantry is stuck in melee and will have to fight first. They do that on the last available pip, attacking their disordered enemy without a card and with D8 up1 charging, d2 disordered, d2 skirmish = D4 vs D8 d2 disordered =D4, 4:4 tie broken in favor of the attacker, routing the Mainz infantry.
Another Kurmainz battalion turns tail and runs, routed by the fearsome Wunsch skirmishers. |
Rereading the rules on morale chip losses I think these are cumulative, after all. I don't quite get it, because this treats a unit routing unralliably after a one stand loss in a 4:1 result much easier than a unit that loses two stands and rallies later, but whatever. I will remove the three morale chips from the Empire again which I corrected earlier, remove one from the Prussians for the Hussar stand lost to fire, and now 3 more from the Empire for losing a melee and routing with a 1 stand loss, so they only have a single chip left.
Empire use their one pip to let the Grenadiers melee the Hussars who pursued into them in disorder: D8 up1 charging, vs D6 down lots for disordered, lost stands etc. D10:D4, 9:1, the Hussars are wiped out for a chip loss of 1 (lost melee) +3 lost stands. Not sure another chip makes sense for routing the non-existing unit, but I'll award it to keep things a bit more interesting.
Roll 2: to be cont'd...
... or not? Looking at the morale situation with 1:8 chips remaining, I guess all that is left is a withdrawal of the Reichsarmee. I guess I'll first have to pass a player morale check before I play that out.
So let's take stock. At the moment, unit losses relevant for a major morale check would favor the Prussians. Although they have lost two units completely (one Fusilier battalion and the Hussars), the Prussians currently have three routing units and only one morale chip, i.e. one chance to rally one of them. The Empire would have to tie the Prussians by rallying one Kurmainz battalion, or routing another Prussian unit anywhere, to avoid their next Major Morale check.
Currently, this check would be a D20 having to roll >1, but only if there is a morale chip left to pay for that (so no more rallying for now). I guess the odds to make the first roll are ok, but as soon as the Empire loses a morale chip to something else their army will crumble quickly.
So the best the Empire can do is beat a fast and efficient retreat. I don't think I'll play that out, but will start to see how quickly things go south. So the goal is: don't spend pips on anything but retreating and maybe occasionally firing off a lucky salvo at the pursuing Prussians. Let's try that.
So Roll 2: 19:16, Empire turn a heroic... cav move to forced rout their Dragoons off the table.
Prussians advance their right wing and withdraw the heroic Frei infantry.
Roll 3: 11:17, 2:4 pips.
Prussians fire at their right wing opponents. 1/Hessen-Kassel at the routing Kurmainz infantry, D10 up1 1st fire, up1 rear, and I'll ignore formation modifiers for the target as they are currently half way between disordered line and routing column of march. D12+1 vs D6 is 3:4, no effect.
2/Hessen Kassel fire at the Grenadiers, D10 up1 for 4:1, one stand and the last morale chip gone. Then advance their reserve (now the left wing) but not the Fusiliers in the center. The left most Grenadiers stay back to face the Grenzers in the forest. These fire at the Grenadiers, D10 up1 1st fire, 10:4 disordering the Grenadiers, making them ooc and costing a morale chip (still 7 left for the Prussians to none for the Empire).
The Prussians then turn cav melee and maneuver.
Empire turn elites reload, but keep that active for later and refill one opportunity pip.
Roll 4: 4:14, the remaining 6 pips go to the Prussians.
Prussians turn a heroic deployment with no use, and another infantry move. They use it on their right wing to charge the routing Kurmainz battalion and the Grenadiers.
They immediately melee Kurmainz at D10 up1 charging, up3 rear for D12+3 vs D10 d1 stand loss, d2 disordered for D4, 6:3 for 1 stand loss, 2 pips and 2 morale chips to the Prussians (lost melee, stand loss) and a 3" retreat.
They turn dress lines and an officer check. The commander loss roll is a 14, no problem. They try to rally the victorious Fusiliers, D20 d1 disordered, d1 rally, d1 enemy within one move for D8:D8, 5:3 ok. Then try to assert command over them, D20 d1 for enemy distance, 2:4 fails. The poor CiC tries to rally the Grenadiers on the left wing, D20 d1 poor, d1 disordered, d1 rally, d1 enemy near, for D6:D8 for 3:1 success.
On their right wing, the Prussians start to advance and drive the crumbling Empire left off the table |
Phase 3, roll 1: 18:8, 7:3 pips.
Empire reload both Grenadier units, and immediately fire the Grenadiers facing Hessen-Kassel in the middle of the fire fight shown above. D10 d1 stand loss, up1 range, 3:5 no effect.
They refill an opportunity pip, turn musket reload, use it on the Grenadiers and fire at Hessen-Kassel again, this time for 4:3 and again no effect.
Prussians turn dud and musket reload, use it on Hessen-Kassel.
Roll 2: 3:12, 3:6 pips.
Prussians reload Frei and 1/Hessen-Kassel, then fire 2/Hessen-Kassel at the Grenadiers D10 up1 range, 4:5 no effect. It must be raining.
They turn cav move, Officer check. No casualty roll needed. But try again to bring 1/Hessen Kassel in command at D20 d1 enemy range, 9:2 ok.
Empire turn dud, maneuvre, cav move.
Roll 3 for one pip: 3:18, Prussians try to assert command on the Grenadiers on the very left, with another d1 for the poor commander, 8:8 no.
Phase 4, roll 1 (only 1 card left in the Prussian sequence deck...): 3:6, 1:2 pips.
Prussians advance their brigade commanders, Empire turn melee resolution.
Roll 2: 11:18, 2:5 pips. Prussiand turn their last card to end the turn before the Empire Grenadiers can melee Hessen-Kassel...
Turn 7
Sequence decks: Prussians are two units down, Empire 3. Both sides add a major morale check (one turn late).
Thinking about what the armies will try to do this turn I can't see much that is worth playing out anymore. The Empire will retreat as fast as possible, and the Prussians will not be willing to follow too aggressively, risk taking close range defensive fire while trying to charge the retreating units. So I'll leave the march off the table to the imagination of the reader and consider things a clear Prussian victory despite valiant efforts of the Empire to seize the initiative and make the best of the day.