Batailles de l'Ancien Regimes

 With COVID-19 surging in WI this may be my last game for a while, so I was pleased to gather five others in my garage (all doors opened) on a cool Saturday night for a fun BAR game.  BAR, if you're not familiar with it, is a card-driven "old school" wargame with big battalions.  For us, 48-60 figures each.  In our game a turn of the card allowed the CO to pick a player to move.  It's not uncommon for one side to entirely move first,  Then you start the flipping again for shooting purposes.  Melee is the last thing.  Casualties are dished out in staggering numbers at times, but each casualty gets a saving throw depending on type and formation.  You don't test morale typically till you get to 50% casualties.

Our imagi-nation countries were well represented.  The hybrid Ottoman-Russian vassal state of Vaneria  fielded Russian musketeers and grenadiers, Ottoman Janissaries and Azab regulars, along with dragoons and Sipahis.  Rondovia had three musketeer and one grenadier regiments, along with two squadrons of cuirassiers.

Opposing them were two regiments from Prochistan and a squadron of Polish winged hussars.  Austria provided two musketeer and one grenadier regiments and three squadrons.  France offered the Irish regiment Lally, Auvergne, and the Grenadiers de France, with two heavy cavalry squadrons.  Each side had four medium guns.  Sorry for the poor picture quality, the garage was not well lighted and telling whether it was in focus was difficult.

My French, the stragglers are off table in the column.

The other end of the table.  Charging across the stream
necessitates a morale check to not fall into disorder.

Early in the game we drew a joker.

The joker allows you to later "trump" an unfavorable turn of a card.  Almost always used in shooting situations, it is a big advantage to know that when you really need it, you will fire first.

My orders as the French were to drive on the center.  Cavalry
starts to drift that way in the hopes of an eventual opening.

Our side pushes forward all along the table.  Opening vollies
are particularly devastating.

We greatly reduce their line on our left, but my saves
for the Irish are particularly poor.

My history of saving throws is both storied and sad.  I went through a stretch of nine fails out of thirteen (50-50 chance) and so on and on.

The advantage seems to be with us everywhere.

As the Grenadiers de France push forward, the Russians
risk a charge, while struggling to find fields of fire.

The Russian musketeers rout away, as do the poor Irish, but this
opens the gap the cavalry has awaited.

Progress in the center and another joker is used for our side.

The cavalry charges, but the Rondovian grenadiers are
able to refuse a flank so are not disordered.

Up until this point the turn of cards had evened out and they had been getting a lot of opportunities to shoot first taking a toll on our men.  Both jokers had been played so the run of red cards early on for mostly movement, was balancing itself.

Unable to control themselves any longer, the Sipahis,
Polish lancers and hussars rush to engage.

After routing the grenadiers, the cavalry retires disordered 
to reorganize, having failed to pursue as Auvergne looks to move up.

Amazingly, the hussars beat the armored lancer Sipahis,
while the Polish squadron also routs.

One Russian and two Rondovian regiments have routed and the Janissaries are near gone against one "French" and one Austrian regiment lost.  The fresh Austrians and French are advancing and so the Vanerian and Rondovian side declared a fighting withdrawal and we ended play.  We use BAR for the campaign books written by Charles S. Grant, but there was no need to bitter-end tonight's game.

If indeed COVID-19 forces a suspension of games for a time we ended on a fun note.  Both sides had fun and took the luck factor all in stride.  We're fortunate to have such a mature group to game with.  Till next time, stay happy my friends.

Our redrawn map of Europe to incorporate our Imagi-Nations.