Our second “go” at Lasalle

“No Room at the Inn”

Scenario Link:

https://basilhare.wordpress.com/lasalle-28mm-petit-tactical-napoleonics/no-room-at-the-inn-lasalle-scenario-brief/

Lasalle Game 2

After rethinking our table width and tweaking our “No Room at the Inn” scenario a bit, the old grognards of the “West Texas Wargamers Association” gathered in my garage to have another “go” at the Lasalle rules using my 28mm peninsular collection of troops. We set up the game on a 10’x5’ table and the 5’ width seemed about right for my 2” square sabots that we are using as standard basing for the system.

The rules, basing and scenario worked perfectly and it would be one of the more enjoyable games that I have had in miniature gaming in awhile. We played 17 turns in about 5 hours, which, given our newness to the rules was not unreasonable. Jim Grifford and Faron Bell (me) ran the British-Portuguese side, while Mike McGrail took on the role of Lorell (French Division CO). I took the Portuguese, a couple of battalions of British Line infantry and a regiment of Brit Hussars on the Right. Jim took the British Left and had mostly Line troops, a regiment of Brunswick Hussars and the 95^th Rifles. McGrail’s French Allied force was made up of a mix of Conscripts, Veteran line and Vistula Legion Infantry supported by a Dragoon & Chasseur Regiment.

The game was set up as a meeting engagement and all troops entered the board in march column. The victory conditions were centered around 5 on board objectives worth 1 VP each. There were two ways to win: (1) The opposing side fails army morale first or (2) failing that, control more victory objectives than your opponent when the game ends.

Given that the VP’s are mostly in the center to center-left (French center-right) of the map board, I was given the task of trying to tie up as many of the French troops as possible while refusing our right flank. This strategy worked well at first, but began to fall apart later in the game. 

Open moves saw both sides jockeying for position and moving towards the hills and town squares in the board center. As the game unfolded, I took the Church square as Jim assaulted the Inn square. We secured both built up areas and managed to take the two hills as well. The Brunswick Hussars moved across the river and spent much of the game in a grand march around the bridge and into the French right flank. 

Meanwhile, Mike’s French and Vistula Legion Poles threatened our center-right and right flanks. I attempted to keep my shaky Portuguese and outnumbered Cavalry out of harms way, while demonstrating against the French left. This worked well until later in the game as Mike began to turn my flank. My Line battalion that was deployed in the church square repulsed no less than 3 assaults by a conscript & Vistula Legion battalion. All was holding together for us well into the middle part of the game. Meanwhile, Jim’s British Line troops were pressing the French right (our left) very hard. 

Things began to fall apart for me as my Hussars grew weary of retrograde movement and decided to stand against the French Dragoons but were easily routed. Mike’s Chasseurs assaulted a Limbered RHA battery on the hill to my right but were driven back (1^st of two such incidents where the RHA battery defeated the Chasseurs). The 18^th Portuguese Line formed square (3 DISR) and held for the entire game against repeated cavalry charges and fire from a French Battery. The Vistula Legion, however, broke my center-right section and penetrated into my flank and rear. 

Meanwhile, Jim was doing basically the same thing to the French right flank. He managed to swing his Brunswick Hussars around into the French flank and also a line unit in march column blew through a hole in the French center-right and penetrated deep into Mike’s posterior. The game was shaping up to a be a race towards whose army morale would fail first as both sides hovered dangerously near their break points. 

The game was afoot when, on the 4^th charge, the Vistula Legion & conscript battalions finally broke my line battalion in the church square and threatened my center. This pushed us over the edge and the Brit-Portuguese failed morale on turn 17. 

Very close run game, as we were already into bonus turn 3 and the French would have had to test morale on their turn. 

After today’s game, we all agreed that we genuinely liked the Lasalle system and really didn’t see anything occur that we had a problem or concern with. The rules worked great and played beautifully. I was especially proud that my scenario worked well with the system and seemed to be well balanced. The 2” mounting does require a big table with a 5’ depth or width. You want 30-32 BW’s of table width to make the game play as it should. I think that was some of our problem in the first run through of the game. 

More 28’s are on the painting table and we are looking forward to another game in a month or two.

Br Right Pre game

Br Left center pre game

Fr Right Pre game

Fr left pre game

Fr Left opening moves

Br right opening moves

The 95th advances early game

Br take the Church Sq early game

Fr center right early game

Portuguese advance early game

Fr and Vist Leg prepare to assualt mid game

Br Cav hangs back

Br center right mid game

Br Hussars fall back mid game

Desperate struggle mid game

9 pound RA

Br center left late game

Br left late game

Br right late game

Fr right late game

Fr 4th Chass loose to art late game

Port line repulse Chass late game

Brunswick Hussars press Fr left late game

Br press French right late game

Br Hussars continue retrograde late game

Br Hussars routed by Dragoons

Vist Leg breaks thru Br center right late game

Br right late game, pic 2

Br right late game, pic 3