LaSalle British v Italians

Two years after buying the rules Gordon and I finally got around to playing Sam Mustafa's LaSalle 2nd Edition! I used my Peninsular British army while Gordon had his Italians. We used the introductory scenario with 200 points of troops each.

The army enters the table in march column:

On the left the British deploy into line:

More British advance towards the town while the cavalry cross the stream:

The Italians have their cavalry on the British left facing infantry and artillery:

Firefight in the town:

British lines open fire as Italian infantry advance towards them. Italian cavalry lurk in the background:

The Italian cavalry charge home. I thought I could make an emergency formation change into square but was sadly mistaken on this point and the British line routs!

The two armies battle it out:

British Heavy Dragoons attempt to emulate the Italian cavalry's success against Italian infantry in mass:

The attack fails miserably and the Dragoons are repulsed:

Long lines of British infantry:

On the left musketry abounds:

The Dragoons have left their attached RHA far behind:

The Italian cavalry are forced back and withdraw to regroup:

The Italians have captured the town but lost an infantry battalion:

The Italian Guard Dragoons charge into the British line infantry who promptly disintegrate again:

The British are making progress on their right though:

Charge! The British attack:

One Italian unit breaks, the other stands firm:

Night falls with the battle still undecided:

The British had lost two quite expensive battalions, the Italians three somewhat cheaper ones. As the Italians held the town it was probably a minor Italian victory, mainly down to their cavalry being so successful!

One reason we hadn't played before was that the rules from an initial reading seemed a bit confusing, they are superficially similar to Blucher but in fact quite different! Once we had played a couple of moves though things became easier and the game moved quite quickly.

They are similar though in that how you use your 'momentum' to carry out actions is the critical part. Unlike Blucher both sides know how many MO they have for the turn but that is somewhat complicated by the individual turns actions passing from side to side via 'interruptions' which really makes you think about when to attempt to move, shoot, rally and change formation. Higher momentum gives better options and more flexibility whereas if you have a turn of low momentum you have to keep things simple! 

As ever with Sam's rules much to think about especially if we add in the advanced rules and definitely worth exploring further.