Battle Chronicles - Retreat from Moscow - Batrep - Bridge of Ice & Smoke - Game 4

Paul, Lee and myself got together mid week in Posties shed to playtest the last scenario in the up and coming Battle Chronicles - The Retreat from Moscow book, we ironed out a few problems, added and took away bits and pieces as the game went on. 

At the end of the evening Lee took home a few of my figures and some of our terrain and posed some figures, for pics in the ruleset. The pic above is one. I have to admit, it looks Good!!!

Obviously, Lee took a million photos during the game.

The idea of this game was to get the French survivors and any civilians they picked up on the way in the first 3 games over one or more of the 3 bridges on the tabletop, avoiding any Russians, the red rings are wound markers, each French figure has 4 wounds. Our wounded are in a bad way, they will move slower than the fit and strong. 

Do we leave them behind?

Do we sacrifice them for the good of the company?

Will they drag us down with them?

Will they sacrifice themselves?

What to do?

Two of the bridges on the far side of the 4 foot square table top.

The 3rd bridge, off to the French right.

Inevitably, with some Cossacks on the hunt. 

My initial plan was to move diagonally across the table to the bridge on the bend of the river.

But now with the Cossacks on our right, I decided to hug the left side of the table. Which I didn't really want to do, as the green arrows are possible Russian entry points onto the table.

A close up of the third bridge on the right of the French.

And the main bridge, which the French will now be heading for.

Here come the Cossacks!

They are looking rather angry!

And very pretty too!

Lee sure made a good job, painting these.

Russian Infantry, make it on the table.

A healthy Frenchman can help along their wounded friends, but we've started to break up already.

And it doesn't help that the Cossacks and Infantry are hot on our heals either!

Its looking chilly out there.

The Cossacks can smell blood!

They move up there full move of 14 inches.

To make matters worse, Russian infantry appear on our flank.

We deal with two of them, but one still remains and the group scatters.

Some have decided to leave their friends and run!

The bridge isn't far away now, but is it safe to cross?

The French dispatch the lone Infantryman, but more appear in front of them.

It's a race against the elements and time.

More Russian's enter the table, on our flank once again. It's a throw of a dice where they enter the game and Lee was throwing well!

I had to try and remove the threat, but this would slow me down again.

Mean while, I'd reached the bridge. It didn't look good, there was a danger it might collapse as I crossed. The more who crossed the worse it would get. For every person who crossed at the same time gave you a minus 1 on a D6. So if all 5 went to cross I'd need a 5 or 6. I didn't like the odds, so 1 man crossed to safety.

 

Another group rushed to the second bridge on the corner, they made it to the bridge, I was running out of time so took a chance for all 4 to cross at once, it was a disaster, halfway across the bridge collapsed and all four fell into the freezing water, none made it back to the shore.

In a cruel twist, the four wounded Frenchmen we're left behind, to cover their friends escape.

They we're cruelly cut down to the man, but everyone else escaped with their lives and the French had won the battle and the campaign.

Look out for more of these battles, we will be playtesting them again soon. Here's a few more shots of some of the figures to finish this post.