Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT) ~ Corunna, 16 January 1809

Game: Commands & Colors Napoleonics (GMT)
Scenario: Corunna, 16 January 1809
Participants: HeavyD and Myself
Time: Fri, Sep 9th, 7.00PM - 8.30PM

More CCN! We are on a roll with CCN here in STL. HeavyD and I got together on our normal Friday night for another Scenario. We selected "Corunna" which is a large scenario. The scenario pits Soult against Moore's English. The French are on the Attack with a large force. The British have a good sized force and some excellent terrain to defend. Additionally we see some special British Units for the first time. We meet the Rifle unit as well as the Grenadier Guards.


The last time I played (with Bob) I was the defender in a scenario similar to this one. Bob and I both learned the hard way that this game is very different than CCA. Bobs attacking force was shot to pieces. We were both left scratching our heads wondering what happened and trying to figure out how to attack in this game. It's not as simple as CCA where the attacker is slightly favored in that he attacks first and units retain all of their battle dice until they are eliminated. Of course I was the defender in the prior scenario so while I knew it was different I was not some concerned to spend much time thinking about it after we played, I should have. 

Corunna, at Set Up

I recall not having a very good initial hand and it didn't get much better over the course of the game. Knowing that I had a bad hand, I started shooting at HeavyD with my Artillery, hoping to cycle through some cards and get a few together that would enable me to attack in one region repeatedly. HeavyD wisely moved forward in a couple of places taking advantage of the terrain offered and my lack of advancing. I could do little to react as I continued to draw weak cards. 


I fired at him for some time just trying to build up my deck. One card that was new was the "Supply" card, which forces one enemy unit to teleport back to a friendly board edge (to re-supply). We had not seen this card before and it was pretty interesting. I used it to push back one of his light infantry units out of the town. HeavyD wisely pointed out that I should have used it on the Artillery unit because it would have taken the artillery unit a lot longer to get back up into the line. Good point. 

The French advance on the Right...

...and get shredded

Finally I had "Give them the Cold Steel" and a couple of movement (move three units) cards for my right hand wing. I started forward. HeavyD had a card that allowed him to react (starting a theme that continued throughout the night). This I was caught in the stream with my attacking forces. I took heavy fire. Then if was time to give them the bayonets, I had three units attack the town on my right and it was a disaster. I rolled very poorly and HeavyD was able to retain control of the town while my three infantry units were shredded. Soon all three were either eliminated or running away badly damaged. 

French Progress on the Left

At this point, HeavyD started to move his left toward his center. I was down 3-4 flags and getting grumpy. I kept getting the wrong cards at the wrong time. When I did pull a couple cards that worked together, HeavyD seemed to always have cards that would allow him to react the very next turn, making it hard for me to make much progress. 


As he was already ahead on flags, I decided to move my cavalry out on the left and actually made some progress. We both we learning on the job as we went through these moves. Cavalry is very dangerous and yet also very vulnerable. We at least had some fun on my left dancing back and forth with the Cavalry. I also noticed later that I took three blocks for French Cavalry when I should have taken four, I'll never make that mistake again. 

HeavyD's British move in for the kill

Soon HeavyD was in full on counter attack mode and the game didn't last much longer. He had his six flags to my two. I can certainly see that I've got some learning to do in putting together successful attacks in this game, and that is a good thing. I am only 4-5 scenario's into the game and still have a lot to learn.