Et sans Resultat! Napoleonic grand battle, and Saga report

2017 turned out not to be a great year for my gaming, almost entirely due to scheduling issues. I hope 2018 will be a bit better.

Last night, we did a test game of Et Sans Resultat! It's a grand battle game for the Napoleonic Wars, and to be honest probably a bit too fiddly for my taste. But it did look very pretty on the table, with rank after rank of 25mm redcoats and line infantry clashing in the middle. Here are some pictures:

My Brits advance up the board.

The entire battlefield... more or less. The house on the left represents my objective.

My left formation is beginning to deploy into line, while my right formation is struggling to get through some woods. To my right, Dave's British cavalry have attacked Andrew's French center.

French and British exchanging skirmish fire.

Much the same as before, save that both sides are getting quite fatigued. In the center, Dave's cavalry have beaten up a few French battalions. To the far right, Vic and Andy are mucking about.

Before that, I hit the monthly Saga day at Guardian and got a couple games in; both victories for me, but both only as a result of Hail Mary plays, so I can't really chalk that up to strategic acumen.

First we had defend the homestead from the Viking Age rulebook:

My Crusaders defend a few ruined buildings from Anglo-Saxon marauders.

Had to trade 8 knights to eliminate a single unit of Anglo-Saxon warriors. This is not a good trade.

That game ended with me rushing my last group of (dismounted) knights up and just managing to kill the enemy Warlord for a victory before he was able to kill off my own remaining mounted troops.

We reracked and did a Last Stand game. This time I was the attacker, and only had six turns to eliminate all of his troops. That turned out to be barely enough time.

After my first turn: Anglo-Saxons huddled in the center, my troops have just moved on.

I charged in with my Warlord and knights on the right and eliminated a small unit of Anglo-Saxon Hearthguard at a cost of four knights. (This happened every time my knights charged in today - lost four knights every time.)

That, it turns out, was a mistake; as the photo shows, my Warlord is now gone and he won't be coming back. I did manage to pick off most of a unit of warriors on the left, though.

Just before the end. Only two Anglo-Saxons left beside their Warlord, and I disposed of them pretty quickly - and just in time, too!