LaSalle French v Russian

My second game of LaSalle, this time in Norfolk using my French against Pete and Mel's Russians. This time we went for the 'Hold Your Ground' scenario at the large (300/250 points) scale.

I was defending with the French and went for a French Infantry brigade, a Bavarian Infantry brigade, a Light Cavalry brigade and a Cuirassier brigade. All the cavalry started off table and would hopefully arrive quickly. The objectives were two towns and a point behind the French held hill.

The Russian army was huge with masses of artillery. The Bavarians deployed to defend the town on the left, the French the one on the right:

The Russians advance:

Russian Cuirassiers advance on the Bavarian infantry:

On the right the Russians prepare to cross the river and assault the town:

They cross the river and attack the town:

Disaster for the French as their outnumbered infantry are broken and flee:

The Cuirassiers menace the Bavarian infantry who form square in response. This may not be a good idea given the amount of Russian artillery in the distance:

On the right the Russian cavalry advance over the hill but are faced with French infantry in square:

On the left the Russians assault the second town:

Disappointingly the Bavarians are also routed: 

The rest of the Bavarians are still facing off the Russian Cuirassiers:

With the failure of any French cavalry to arrive the rest of the army is starting to struggle:

It's not all bad for the French though as some Russian Jaegers are routed by fire:

At last help arrives, it is only the Light Cavalry though. Perhaps they can stabilise the situation:

They certainly have an impact, immediately forcing the Russian infantry to rethink their plans:

Fire almost takes out another Russian unit:

The French line charges home and finishes the job:

At this point we called it a day as it was getting late. The Russians had captured the two towns but lost slightly more units giving them a minor victory. The failure of the Cuirassiers to turn up (in five turns) didn't help the French at all!

As for the rules we are still working out how to do things, using your momentum is critical with the timing of when you fire, move and rally troops influenced both by the tactical situation and the amount of momentum available to both you and the enemy.

Two things that did strike me during this game were firstly that Russian artillery in mass is very effective and secondly that it almost appears to be worth charging units as it appears much less dangerous to be the charging unit than the target.