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Here is a vexing problem often encountered when playing the French at
Quatre Bras. How to handle all those Dutch-Belgian
skirmishers? Well, there are several different ways, but an
effective one is to use your cavalry to keep the Allied Player
honest. In Figure 1, the Allied player has set a large field of
skirmishers not in the zone of control of any of his other units. We
know this for certain even with Fog Of War in use, because hexes labeled
"A" and "B" in Figure 1 are in view of the French units (because
skirmishers do not block line of sight) and contain no Allied
units. Further, though not easily apparent in Figure 1, the
hexes labeled "C" and "D" also are visible and contain no Allied units,
which makes the leaders at the top of the image vulnerable to capture by
cavalry. This is a situation that must be handled roughly to show
the Allied player he can not get away with such lax placement of his
skirmishers. The French infantry could be called upon to assault
these positions, but the fire and fatigue losses incurred would be
considerable. Cavalry takes no fatigue or loss during overruns for
charges. |
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The cavalry units at the bottom of Figure 1, which were out of sight of all Allied units, were brought up into charge positions. Note that the French skirmishers originally facing the Allied skirmishers in the fields have been brought to the left flank. These will melee each Allied skirmisher to prevent them from running to the right side of the woods in the Allied movement phase and shooting down cavalry. Unfortunately for the Allied player, there is not a lot he can do to prevent the overrun of many 100 SP skirmisher units. |
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The cavalry have charged and overran in this phase no less than ten ~100 SP skirmisher units, all light infantry from the 2nd Dutch-Belgian Infantry Division. In addition, the leaders captured at the top were no less than Perponcher, himself, and Biljandt. There are a few corrections that should have been done better in the French cavalry charge. The skirmisher at "A" should have been pushed out of the woods to prevent encirclement of the charged cavalry during the Allied player's turn, and one of the squadrons at "B" should be one hex to the right to create an unbroken zone of control in front of the cavalry. |
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(1) Don't put large numbers of skirmishers out in open areas without the
protection of zones of control of larger-sized units which can stop
the
charge of an enemy cavalry unit. This may not save one skirmisher, but
several hexes in a row will not be mowed down as was done in
this example.
(2) When charging your cavalry, make sure you create an unbroken zone of
control after the charge is completed to prevent encirclement in the
ensuing enemy movement phase.