Battle of Ginly - Imagi-Nation report

The first full engagement of our mini-campaign using our Imagi-Nations and the Wulfenbuttel War by Charles S. Grant kicked off Sunday.  We use Batailles de l'Ancien Regimes by Bill Protz for rules, 10:1 figure ratio, card driven mechanics.

It has been a while since I posted on this campaign, so in brief review the Ottoman state of Venaria with Russian vassals learned of a plan by neighboring Odessenau and Latveria to join armies and invade.  So stealing the initiative the Venarians have invaded Odessenau.  In this action engaging the (mostly) Odessenau army with the objective of controlling the crossroads by turn 12.

Venarian army on the march to the crossroads.

The Odessenau advance guard moves on.

The raison d'etre for the battle.

Slowed crossing the water barrier the army moves forward.

A single squadron prepares to sacrifice itself to slow the Venarian
advance.

My saving throws started awful.  But they can't stay that way.
Right?

The light cavalry is routed away but now we face steady lines
of infantry.  Enemy lights are in the woods which disorder formed
troops.

The natural bottleneck greatly slows our advance.

By this point an all too familiar pattern was emerging for my games of late.  First, any time it is important to get the movement or fire card it goes to the enemy.  Additionally, my saving throws have remained consistently below average.  I even changed dice part-way through to no avail!  My friends joke that I love the game but the cards hate me.

Our lights charge an Odessenau gun and capture the crossroads.

From the Odessenau perspective.  They have gotten reinforcements
and are now roughly on a par with us after our losses.

Bosniaks drive off the lights and recapture the guns.

But then an opening volley wipes them out.

Even though we have an extra 30 infantry at the start, the table
shape keeps us in disadvantageous formations and the clock is
now a factor.

A huge cavalry scrum ensures with the advantage going to us,
but a full enemy battalion occupies the crossroads.

The cavalry melee was finally decided by disordered but victorious
cavalry charging into the rear of the enemy heavies.

I lost track of taking pictures for the last couple of turns.  The freakish card distribution meant we were doomed.  To add insult to injury, getting a joker allows you to "trump" an unfavorable card.  They got both of them.  So I take a little satisfaction that the game wasn't decided until the final turn.  A little cheese with my whine is needed.  <GRIN>

Darkness fell and ended the slaughter.  Though many would rejoin their units, either from recovering their courage or patching a light wound, but at the end 1,680 Venarians were missing against 1,550 Odessenauers.  In our campaigns each casualty gets a d6 roll.  Dead on a six, heavily wounded and out of the campaign (but could be a prisoner) on a four or five, and will rejoin the regiment next day on a one to three.  The only trophy was a standard from an Odessenau cavalry unit.  The defenders guns, which changed hands several times, ended up back in the possession of Odessenau.