AOR3: Prussian Attack

Assault on a hill position

After a so-so playtest of the new Age of Reason 3rd edition, we resolved to try it again with a scenario from one of Mark's Wargamers Annual magazines. This was a pretty straight up fight, with the Prussians attacking a French held hill and the Prussians outnumbered the French by around 3:2. There was a massive cavalry battle in the first few turns on both flanks, which seems to be a staple for our AOR games, where the Prussians came out the worst for it. The French then counterattacked towards the village, which began a series of firefights, attacks, and counterattacks that went on for several turns. The remaining Prussians tried to move into position to attack the hill, but the French cavalry threat meant that they had to proceed cautiously with flank guards.
The Prussians could not get any traction and even when their cavalry returned to the fight things didn't get any better. Both sides brought their cavalry into position, then launched another series of charges, where again the Prussians were defeated. When the Prussian infantry began falling back and over their 25% withdrawal check it was decided to call the game as a decisive French victory.
After the game there was a lot of talk about whether the AOR3 rules were the problem, our style of play was for the wrong period, etc. We came to the realization that since we're playing smaller battles on smaller boards that using the 25mm charts for 15mm figures no longer worked. We'll try the 15mm charts next time out.

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