Haslach-Jungingen, the game

The Haslach-Jungingen scenario looked at first as if it was going to provide a surprise Prussian victory, but it all rather fell apart when a cavalry charge from the flank into the infantry behind Jungingen was repulsed by a combination of squares and light infantry in the woods. James, who played the Prussians, instinctively turns his units to face the direction that they are moving rather than leaving them facing perpendicularly across the table. The latter is surely more reflective of the its origins as a boardgame as well as, in my opinion anyway, being aesthetically more pleasing. I only mention it because I can't help wondering if this habit also subconsciously makes him start thinking of flanking bonuses and lines of retreat directly away from the enemy instead of back towards his own baseline. Neither of these things exist in C&C, which might in some small way explain why his tactics didn't work, especially as he once again displayed an uncanny ability to roll the symbols that he needed on the dice.

We played that some cards could be used across sections of the battlefield as previously described except that 'Give Them Cold Steel' was allowed to be across all sections, but limited to four units, and didn't get played in any event. This house rule for certain cards seemed to work better to us and will stay. The one lingering doubt we seem to collectively have is about movement being too slow. The cards with three stars (which must have a proper name, but I still don't know what it is) allowing extra March moves worked, but only up to a point. I have some ideas which we'll give a go next time. That might be a while because following the fundamental wargaming (and indeed boardgaming) principle that as soon as one gets familiar with something one should abandon it in favour of something new, I have a hankering to return to the trenches.

One other thing that came up is that with all the expansions containing special rules and with the card deck having changed so much it is sometimes difficult to work out which bit should take precedence.Two issues arose which I adjudicated somewhat arbitrarily. The first turned out to be correct as I subsequently found the rule that says explicitly that the Prussians can use as many Iron Will counters as they wish on one unit and at the same time; which in no way alters my opinion that James rather threw them away on something not perhaps as pivotal as it might have been. In the second case I have changed my mind; I now think that if you use the 'Break the Square' Tactician card in conjunction with the 'Cavalry Charge' Command Card that you should get the bonus for the latter and I shall, as long as I remember, rule that way in future.

Here, for my own future reference more than anything else, are the OOBs. In the actual battle the French cavalry were dragoons; given the binary choice in C&C of light or heavy cavalry I have made them the former.

Prussians

7 x Line Infantry
7 x Reserve Infantry
7 x Landwehr Infantry
3 x Foot Artillery
1 x Cuirassier
1 x Light Cavalry
2 x Landwehr Lancers
4 x Officers

4 x Command Cards
4 x Tactician Cards (both starting and maximum)
3 x Iron Will tokens


French

2 x Grenadiers
5 x Line Infantry
4 x Light Infantry
3 x Light Cavalry
1 x Foot Artillery
1 x Horse Artillery
5 x Officers

6 x Command Cards
6 x Tactician Cards (starting; no maximum)


French move first