Teugen-Hausen 1809 (Again) with COMMANDS & COLORS NAPOLEONICS!

The usual suspects were over  to play Napoleonics.  Since I had all the units prepared (and even labeled!) for Teugen-Hausen (using Fast Play Grande Armee [click]) I thought it would be fun to play the Teugen Hausen CCN scenario  [click] to see how it matches up to the historical battle and some of the other rules sets I have been trying of late.

Ken says I "drank the cool-aid" in regards to CCN and I have to say I agree with him.  I really like Commands and Colors Napoleonics (even if I do need to brush up on the rules quite a bit!).  I love the look of the battlefield and I like the tension created by the cards.  You can read about my first, solo adventure with CCN here with Wellesly in the Peninsula at Rolica [click]. Anyways, on to the action!

Ken (Davout) maneuvers his forces to get into position to assault the first series of ridges.  The ridges are a "temporary majority victory banner" which means the player with the majority of them garners 2 banners for the first ridgeline and 1 for the second.  It's a race to the ridges first which Ken wins.  Dave moves his Hussars up to the first ridgeline to contest and Ken forms square to try and beat them back.

Ken's infantry hold the hill but can they keep it?  Note the square formation.

The French squares would remain for the rest of the battle in the front-left.  Hunkering down in the face of menacing Austrian Hussars!

Friant falls to an errant shot in the middle of the squares!  The first (but not last) officer casualty of the game.

Much of the day's fighting would center around the French front-left ridgeline which surprised me a little

 Much brushing up on the rules I have to admit.  I missed a few rules (supports, combined arms attacks come to mind)  I didn't have my rulebook with me as Alex is borrowing the rules right now.

The whole battlefield.  Teugen is visible in the upper center.

 I'm not sure what Ken or Dave's plan is but it seems the action is heating up on the Austrian right quite a bit and it is the scene of bitter fighting for the entire battle.  Ken feeds in units to the right to seize more of the hills, while Dave uses small right-centric cards to keep him from going further!

Dave's Grenzers holding down the left flank.

 THe center and right don't see much action, save for an Austrian cannonade, and the 57th Ligne assaulting the Austrian position battery (with deadly results for the French).

The Austrian left-center.  A tough nut to crack!

Austrian infantry reserve in the center

Dave's hussars (painted RISK pieces!)  take another crack at the french square.  They only can attempt 1 hit per round and same with the square.

Ken storms the ridgeline!  Lights are identified by the skirmisher bases on the sabot

 Ken tries to assault the guns in the center with deadly results!  The French advance to the very muzzle of the Austrian guns to be mercilessly cut down by the Austrian gunners!

More hot fighting for the ridgeline -Dave keeps his Hussars in place to keep Ken's infantry in square.  Ken uses a tactician card to move more infantry up and into place

 The French Artillery is all on the French left/Austrian right now, guarding Ken's flank against those marausing Hussars.

The French right is mostly quiet.  Note the blue dice marking battlefield sections

Austrian left - all quiet!

2 French Brigades in Square on the ridge now and Dave is clawing his way back up onto the hills.  For many turns, Dave and Ken held an equal number of the first ridgeline and neither could claim the 2 banners! 

close up of the action as Dave's hussars menace the ridge!  Ken has fresh infantry on the hilltop as well along with a leader.

 The tactician cards really add some nice flavor to the game and open up a ton of options.  The guys seemed to like them very much.

Grenzers facing off against lights!

The markers are casualties.  Technically we could have removed stands but this looks so much cooler!  Note the unit attrition - the constant fighting is taking its toll!

The Austrian left still fairly quiet

Gratuitous shot of the French lights

Note Ken's victory banners near Teugen.  Dave's are in the upper-center

Endgame.  Dave has enough forces on the second ridge to push him over 8 victory banners at the start of his turn.  Austrian victory!

Thoughts
While being a little historically lopsided, the game was alot of fun to watch and looked like a great time to play.  As is evident in the post, I was very surprised that the majority of fighting occurred on the Austrian right since the majority of forces were posted on the left.  Still though, a general doesn't always get to pick where he fights!  I like that the events in CCN are unexpected and I love the grand-sweeping visual effect of the battlefields.

We quickly realized that ranged combat is deadly - in fact for stationary units it is no different than melee in many cases!  Same amount of dice!  You've been warned!

The Austrians, much derided in CCN, played a very conservative game and that turned out to be a winning strategy.  Dave focused his attention on the first series of hilltops and stayed away from sweeping maneuvers that he knew he couldn't sustain.  Sit tight, and shoot!  You've got 5 shooting dice!

  I like that you never know what your opponent is going to play and that you have to make the most of your cards in order to execute your grand plan.  I think had I reviewed the rules a little more carefully before the game, this would have played much faster.  Overall I really like Commands and Colors and I would like to play even more CC's games including CC Ancients for Roman Civil War, CC Tricorne for AWI, and BattleCry for ACW come to mind.  I'd even like to play Memoir '44 for Operational Level Games.  Naturally this year I'd like to play more CCN for more Napoleonics.  In fact I am thinking I need to really start my Prussians in earnest and get the supplement!