Having received Radetzky’s March couple of days ago I was anxious to test it in a real game as soon as possible. The occasion came earlier then expected and last Wednesday I had opportunity to play it with Marcin – we tested first two scenarios to get a grip of the game.
Scenario 1
This is very small skirmish, played over 5 turns (no supply rules), with one corps on Austrian side and two divisions on Piedmont one. The scenario is automatically won by Austrians should they manage to grab critical cross-road of Vigevano; otherwise, we count loses on both sides:
Having in mind what are the victory conditions I had started to quickly move towards the objective:
Unfortunately, my attack slowly came to a crawls; and when majority of my forces rolled engaged result during battle, it completely halted:
Well, that scenario definitely went well for Marcin / Piedmonteste.
Scenario 2
Second skirmish is definitely bigger, with more strategic options; we were also able to test well the initiative / activation mechanic of the game – Marcin had 4 divisions, I commanded 2 corps but each of us could use only two formations per turn. Which limited Piedmontese forces to only half of possible formations:
This time two cross-roads (Vigevano or Mortara) were giving the automatic victory to my forces. Thus instead of attacking both targets, I focused all my corps on one – which in the end proved to be good decision. But before this, Benedek and his forces severely damaged vanguard of second Piedmontese division:
After dispatching the advanced Piedmontese forces, 1st and 2nd Austrian corps started to converge on Vigevano – moving quickly and attacking everything in front of them. The initial, hasty assault on Vigevano was however repulsed:
Thus I had to bring more forces and start pounding with all he might – using sometimes suicidal attacks to make space for main thrust. In the end, lucky roll on 6 allowed me to take the target!
We had a really great fun with the game and cannot wait to play full scenario, especially with 4-5 people. That will be fun!
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