The classic wooden block wargame:
Although we had a small turnout this year, the competition
was exciting with most games being very closely fought. The final
was a rematch of last year's finals, but instead of a 40 minute
rout of the French, Scott Cornett and I played a 4-hour nail-biter
until 2 am.
Scott bid 10 for the Allies and set up with a variation of his
patented "Autobahn defense." Desperate to find a solution
to this defense, the French unleashed its "jump-dog-jump"
attack. It is so named because it is reminiscent of holding a
bone over a dog's head and tempting it to jump -- then pulling
it up higher just out of reach as the poor dog jumps. In this
case, the bone was Ghent left largely undefended, but which the
English and the heart of the Prussians could reach and retake
through aggressive force marching. The French jumped at the bone,
but also sent a decoy force (nine 2's?) down the road to Liege.
When confronted with the Prussian cavalry and five other blocks,
this decoy force cowered as expected and promptly retreated back
to France.
As the French arrived in Ghent (jump dog, jump), the entire
English army and most of the Prussians force marched to prepare
for the decisive battle. Upon seeing the French decoy force cower
in fear, the Prussians committed their entire army including
their cavalry to the battle leaving only a few pickets to guard
Liege against slow moving 2's. In response, the French then put
its tail between its legs and ran away abandoning Ghent. Strangely,
no yelping was heard from the French dog. At this point, the
dog bit the ankle of his master!
The "decoy force" now jumped at a different target
and force-marched on Liege overrunning the picket with three
4-strength cavalry. Instead of nine 2's, the decoy force consisted
of three large cavalry, three large guns, and three medium infantry!
The Prussians now seemed doomed in a predictable number of turns.
Meanwhile, the rest of the French army just wanted to stay out
of reach of any remaining Prussians before they died.
The Allies then responded with a swat on the dog's nose --
bad dog! For the next several turns, the Allies who controlled
the middle of the board zigzagged back and forth while keeping
the frustrated French not knowing where the decisive battle would
be. Since Liege could be retaken by determined force marching,
the French had to hastily redeploy their cavalry to be able to
force march to reinforce Liege. With much of the French out of
position and scattered, the Allies chose to pounce on the isolated
French center army. Nearly surrounded, the French could not easily
retreat out of battle. However, since they did have most of their
remaining guns in place along with a few good cavalry and infantry,
the battle was closer than expected. In the decisive battle,
the French held the center with two big guns. The Allies pounded
the French infantry on the right with their grand battery, then
eventually assaulted the 1's. Meanwhile, the French charged with
their cavalry on the left gaining the upper hand on that flank.
After bloody fighting on all flanks and with the French right
flank down to a single 1-strength unit plus Napoleon, the dog
decided to accept his punishment and go lick his wounds. The
French chose to save Napoleon and pulled him back to reserve,
rather than let him get shot by the Prussian guns. The French
could now only hope that when the Prussians disappeared, the
remaining French could somehow consolidate and take on the rest
of the Brits. All the Allies now needed to do to win the battle
was pass at least 1 of 4 morale-rolls on the left flank -- aided
by Wellington's leader bonus. Grrhh! As you have already guessed,
the dog growled and struck fear into the hearts of the British.
The 1 in 81 chance came true, and the Allies were routed before
the French could retreat. Dog now owns bone for the next 12 months.
Arf!
For more details on the tournament, go to:_http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/rabdwombat/wbctempl.htm_
(http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/rabdwombat/wbctempl.htm)
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