Harout, Tac, Lancier vs Dragon

[[N]Harout]

NE battle officially but I rather defend my self in home court first.

Tac, Lancier and I selected from our coalition roster, which is inherently defensive. We took britain, russia and spain two of which have low manpower and the third being a turd at chasing. The dragons brought two French and one polish all three are highly maneuverable and for which they are so well known. With them they fielded tree batteries in total and none with a high caliber. We fielded tree 12pounders and two 6pounders. From these initial facts alone one might expect us to be at least inclined to stay static if possible. Next factor that came in to play is the field of battle, the name of which eludes me, this was a map that was made for loc yet hosted by the dragons as a deathwatch without timer. This map being one of the new fullin creations where terrain plays a massive role presented us with no possibilities on the right or center. Where massive forests blocked all artillery deployment let alone use. Tac discovered on the very left a relatively open field which through two of our armies could march while one followed the road in the same direction. Our goal was a plateau on the left center of the map there we expected to deliver a great struggle and once the enemy was pushed off the use of our guns.

Soon we discovered that the Russians are indeed very slow and so are our12 pounders. That despite our best efforts to maneuver the jungles, the French and polish had unsurprisingly beaten us to it. They had the house next to the plateau and the platue it self. At this stage Russian troops started to arrive at the front which was solely held by Britain who had taken the road. The Spanish stayed their course in an attempt to engage the polish in a fire fight who formed the right flank of the dragons. We also learned that our artillery had to get up a short yet steep elevation to be on the same level as the plateau. Tac put his sixes on the left and right from this speed bump and started supporting the British who wear threatened by two French dragons. At this point the Spanish came from the extreme left having survived malaria and what not in the jungles littered on the map. They immediately spread out in an attempt to engage the polish who were also deployed in a comparable front.

Yet the polish retreated into their forest when the Spanish marched up, a short engagement later I retreated out of good sense and finally moved up the 12's. The British now truly under great pressure were forced to do a fighting retreat while the batteries set up and Russians arrived in support. After a frighteningly close combined arms melee attempt was aborted by the French our line stabilized once the guns started to roar. The French and polish artillery positions on the plateau were routed and their infantry hurried behind the platue for cover. Another attempt to engage the polish resulted in the same retreat as before. Now though the enemy was split in two one half facing the Spanish and the other the British with the Russians being the reactionary center. A fire fight finally broke out on the extreme left between the Spanish and polish which resulted in a massively long line where the Spanish guard was caught more than twice out of square yet repelled the polish light cavalry with their twenty melee stats. No combined effort was made by the poles during the whole battle.

The Russian 6's redeployed to get better shots at the opposition while Britain was overstretched trying to find the French who had retreated to their own forest. After the British recall the spanish left started to retreat into a more manageable position where artillery support was hoped to be received. Sadly this support never materialized because of the constant French cavalry and infantry presence on behind the plateau. The Spanish guard and line started to give ever so slightly against the polish manpower. If not for the French retreat from the British front relieving Russians to support the Spanish this might have been a break through. Spanish artillery at this stage was purely there to keep the French off of the plateau.

A little later French were still not on the right but had started to mass behind the plateau and the polish, relieving poles to put more pressure on to the Spanish left. Any thought that previously had existed of pushing the artillery up was wiped off the board by constant French light cavalry charges under infantry cover. The Spanish line had to retreat even further yet stabilized due to Russian reinforcements literary holding the Spanish up with units in their back. Tac had moved his six slightly to get better shots at the poles but the 12's couldn't do much besides hold the French in their trenches. With Britain strolling about trying to find the French and engage, this time in an orderly manner. The French marched up with what must have been one and a half army with their hordes of cavalry it up on to the plateau and despite constant shelling steadfast towards the Spanish guns. Very similar to the assault in the waterloo movie albeit that this time it partially succeeded. One 12pounder was limbered to get the fuck out of dodge while the other held the line with the squares of Spanish volunteers (three moral). British cavalry was ordered to charge through our squares in to the French infantry engaged in melee this resulted in french routs and an eventual retreat once the rout had gained momentum.

We had nothing to follow this up with and seeing the enemy cavalry superiority we decided to leak our wounds and push with the Brits. My Spanish dragoons counter charged a half strength polish kurarsier that was coming in hot for the remaining 12 that had moved forwards to shoot French and polish infantry threatening our hold on the plateau. With help from British cavalry the kurasier was routed and we stabilize the situation as best we could. Britain wasn't given the opportunity to be decisive and came back once the French retreated. Sadly the dragons realized that our central forces would now join in against the poles called for a retreat. Lancier asked the dragons if they wished to quit but they declined.

What came next was madness. We didn't have the man power to pursue, especially not into woods. My Spanish line was a shell of its former self every unit was below 80 men with two guard units having been retreat from the fire fight due to their rout risk at below 50 men. We re aranged somewhat and found our selfs being flanked from both sides, we were in fact being enveloped when the Spanish retreated from a renewed polish march in to French direction! Seeing only one option for the survival of my men I hurried them back towards our guns and had them turned to face Poland who stayed behind a slight depression out of our effective fire. This is when Tac's nerves started to collapse as we had to constantly redeploy his guns facing renewed enemy massed assaults.

More time went by with our noob circle constantly expanding from one side only to be forced to retreat and expand from the other. Tac put his artillery behind a small hill and caused the increase of our disbelief, there was a lot of laughing, units were overlapping on their paths to their new positions it was an organic fortification! Lancier and Tac considered to pronounce “fuck it” but not me, oh no not Harout, I kept barking redeploy, redeploy, redeploy. From our point of view only a melee charge could really break our castle because the massed French musket fire, even though effective, only dented a corner that would immediately collapse and expanded on the flanks. With freshly reloaded 12's to face the tightly packed French.

Tac was relieved of his agony only when he dropped which obviously was the end for our living fortress. Lancier threw in the towel and thanked the opponents, but not me, oh no not Harout, I kept reloading, reloading, reloading.

The next day, unprovoced and unexpected. I received the following message from the self styled emperor of dragon. As anyone else I found his title quit amusing but faced him respectful and read the link he had provided: http://www.napoleonicempires.com/viewto ... f=13&t=165

Coupled with the following steam messages:
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}:http://www.napoleonicempires.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=165
Harout: thanks for sharing
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: np
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: I do not pronounce your name
Harout: you imply that we behaved incorrectly
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: sure
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: pathetic gamer
Harout: what do you want from me I dont want anything from you, leave me alone
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: you should go play on the vanilla
Harout: I will take it into consideration
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: yes sure
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: do you never put in front of me.
you is not worthy.
[|DRAGON|]-De Oudinot{Empereur}: bye

Not expecting the battle to be on anyone's mind let alone the hosts, if anyone it should be us who are outraged for having played a ridiculous situation with such determination. I can only conclude that the “emperor” of Dragon demands unorganized cattle to march into his meat grinder instead of actual opponents. I apologies for missing the small print.

Replay and Screenshot provided:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpb802pokih8z ... 3.1.replay

[[N]Chromey]

i love dramas