Battle of Zweifelder: Cavalry Charge! (with Charge!)!

The battle continues. A more comprehensive write up of the entire affair will be posted once the matter has been decided.

Today, though, I present an illustrated discussion of a rather singular heavy cavalry melee that took place not two hours ago.

The general situation:

Turn Five: With Elven line infantry pushing back my lights on my left (upper middle in the photo), and elven lights harassing IR Zwregtuefel on my right (in the wood, lower left) I ordered the Bayrum and Anthill Dragoons to charge the elven heavy cavalry. In this they would be supported by the Hussars of FreiKorps Rote Bart.

In "Charge!", even if successful, units must rally after a melee. Hit them while they are rallying and they suffer a combat disadvantage of -1 to their dice rolls. Combats are won by rolling at least 2 more on a six sided dice than your opponent.

Should a heavy cavalry figure find itself in melee against a light cavalry figure, the heavy gets to add 25% to his dice throw. It was this advantage that allowed the Anthill and Bayrums to overthrow the Hussars de Juene early in the game.

My hope was, or more properly still is, that win or lose the heavy cavalry melee, my Hussars will be well placed to hit the Cuirassiers as they rally afterward, giving them both the -1 penalty, along with presumably now being outnumbered by my fresh regiment.

Such is the plan in any event.

The First Clash:

Naturally the elves were not to be caught standing still and the first clash took place astride the road.

I had Margraf Frederick deploy two squadrons forward with one held back for a second round of melee should it develop.

The Cuirassiers countered with two squadrons forward and two in reserve.

It is worth mentioning here that although the forces were numerically similar, I had organized the A&B's in three squadrons of  6 OR's and one Officer. Two OR's had been lost against the de Juenes, and one was still minding the prisoners taken in that engagement. A total of 19 sabres present now all told.

The Cuirassiers were organized in four squadrons, each of four OR's and an Officer. Their Colonel was in addition to this giving them 21 sabres for the engagement.

Surprisingly, despite the equal odds or near as, my dwarves gave better than they got in the first turn dropping six elves for three of their own lost.

This would have provided the necessary 2 to 3 loss rate needed to claim victory, but it was not to be.

You see, in "Charge!" one must dice in order to see if a melee continues for a second turn, or is over in one.

Fate decreed the fight would go on.

The second round is always a bit more chaotic than the first what with holes having developed in both lines during the first turn.

In the second turn each side found a number of opportunity to gang up, 2 versus 1, at various points. 

In Charge! the side pitting 2 vs. 1 gets to double it dice score, thus markedly improving its chance of winning.

In most cases the 2v1 fights were forgone conclusions. 

However Hauptman Muller, carrying the regimental standard , distinguished himself by fighting off two Cuirassiers, and killing one of them! 

Margraf Frederick was un-pigged and disappeared under a storm of hooves and dust.

When it was all over I had lost four more dwarves for four elves.

All told that was seven of mine to 10 of theirs.

The elves had snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat. 

As mentioned in a previous post, in order to better reflect the differences in fantasy races I have instituted saving throws, otherwise absent from Charge!

Dwarves save on a 5 or 6, and elves on a 6 only.

Rolling the saves two elves were recovered.

Of my seven the only recovered was Margraf Frederick!! Spotted by a trooper and given a riderless pig (or so I like to imagine).

Very dynamic melee and a good deal of fun to boot.

I do hope you enjoyed this little peek into the meat of "Charge!"

Future posts will finish the battle report (when the battle finishes naturally enough), as well as take a little look at the process of photographing and recording games in general, using this game in particular.

Till then....

Thanks for stopping by!