Battle of St. Quentin

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Rmarsden
Corporal - 5 cm Pak 38
Corporal - 5 cm Pak 38
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:05 am

Battle of St. Quentin

Post by Rmarsden »

Almost done with the Italian Campaign, and I'll let others do after-action reports for the English Civil war and 30 Years War.

St. Quentin, a French army is on the run and decides to use its cavalry to buy time against a strong force of Imperial cavalry. The goal is to get the army off the map, but you only control the cavalry. The AI directs the infantry's retreat.

I believe the scenario wants you to have your cavalry engage with the enemy, but this is a losing proposition. The French infantry have a long march to make, and it will take 35 or so turns for them to escape. Meanwhile, the Imperial cavalry is filled with gendarmes, reiters and more than enough skirmishing units.

Rather than try to fight it out, I had the majority of my cavalry turn tail and run along with the infantry, while my skirmishing cavalry moved to to the flanks of the enemy and kept them thoroughly distracted. Because of the ability to evade, my cavalry would sometimes be run off the board, only to return later, behind the enemy, who would go back the way they came to do it all over again. Over and over I was able to get behind the enemy army and they'd chase after them. The AI was a bit too generous with its desire to chase my distracting units.

In the end this was a looooonnnnnng slog. My infantry got off unscathed and my cavalry more or less escaped intact. When the enemy skirmishers overextended, I would round on them, and route them while the rest remained distracted.

I did perhaps too good a job. My skirmishers kept the majority of the enemy cavalry running about their initial deployment zone, however, this meant it took forever for my cavalry that were messing about to get off the map or routed. Often they'd run off the map, only to return and I'd have to go through the dance again.

56 turns later...

I was able to get my army off the map and most my cavalry and match the enemy in percentage of routed units. An interesting scenario, but by no means a quick one!
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