BAR Game Invitational

 On the Sunday after Tundra Con (see separate blog post) we have an invitational game of Batailles de Ancien Regime, or BAR.  This year COVID limited attendance but we persevered on an 18x6' table, with back tables for initial deployment and movement of reserves.  The main antagonists were the Imagi-Nations of Rondovia vs. Odessenau with help from France, Austria and Prussia.

Pictures below with minimal description.  Enjoy the eye-candy and you may click on the image to "big-up".  Battalions are 48-60 figures each, a cavalry squadron is 12-16 and a battery typically two models.  The cardboard buildings are from Russia and part of Bob Rondou's collection.  BAR is generally classified as "old school" with lots of hits, partially negated by saving throws.  Card driven for activation, both sides move everything then cards are flipped again for firing.  In this game we activated by brigade.  Enjoy!

The long view of the center table, soon to be contested.

The back table for the Austro-Rondovian army and friends.

First move from the Odessenau side.  Hampered by
the village.

The "big picture."

Odessenau right flank.

A see-saw action developed between heavy
cavalry with both sides feeding in additional
squadrons.  Apologies for the fuzzy pictures, I 
couldn't tell at the time.

In BAR, saving throws are determined by class of troop.  An ordinary infantryman in close order saves on a 4+ roll on a d6.  Open order infantry and armored cavalry save on a 3+, so anything but a 1 or 2.  Easy-peasy, right?

Unless the Odessenau CO rolls this for his cuirassiers.

Elsewhere a confused struggle ensued, with our 
forces messed up by the village.  Prussian jagers
cleared out the opposing lights by point of bayonet, 
but it still remained as an obstacle to maneuver.

Early maneuvering on the left as the light cavalry
seeks an opening.

We do this in part for aesthetics.  At the bottom of the
picture is my Prussian drum corps.  Spencer figures!

The Austrian cavalry seeks a decisive encounter,
but face Prussian converged grenadiers.

The fight becomes general on the left with the advantage
being solidly with the Prussians.

Another fuzzy picture, showing how the "allies" and
village confounded each other.  Still, we gave better
than we took.

As always: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

As we ran onto our time limit at the American Legion Post there was no clear result.  The Prussians had exacted a high toll among the Austrians at minimal cost to themselves, but the Austrian heavy cavalry had yet to be committed.  On the Odessenau-Rondovian right, the cavalry had nearly neutralized each other, with several units simply gone though Odessenau still had one fresh unit.  The infantry on both sides were barely engaged, though a few Rondovian units were shot up.  So honors to both, particularly to the winged hussars from Prochistan, who destroyed cuirassiers and rampaged to the opposing back table.  We might have considered promoting them to elite, but none survived the game.  

I hope you enjoyed the foray into the 18th century and strange lands that never existed.