What if - on the 16th of August, the Imperial Garde would have been send in ...

 ... to save the Army of the Rhine (no bias here)? For the first game of the new year, I decided to give Francois Achille Bazaine a bit of an heureka moment and the Imperial Guard corps a moment to die or shine! 

Mars-laTour, 1870, in 10mm, with Black Powder "plus amends", with the usual suspects in advance (the III Army corps plus the v. Rheinbaben cavalry division) maybe a bit weakened by giving the 1st and 2nd division (Verge and Bataille) the usual Krupp treatment. The two french divisions would have been withdrawn behind the artillery fog to recover and be ready for rear guard actions needed along the way.

I'm quite aware of the simplifications, but we also wanted to play over "Houseparty" so the rules just needed to be tweaked to give a feel of the era. The artillery and cavalry were marauders, the cavalry units had low stamina, making them just usable for mob up actions or Horse vs Horse. The needle gun range was 12cm, chassepot 20cm, French artillery sucked  and were outranged by the Prussians. I gave all ammo dice to indicate that they could run out of it. Some of the Prussians guns had less ammo and some infantry were dented by previous hits/ actions of the morning.

So initially Bart didn‘t want to miss out playing the French for anything in the world, so I had to play the Prussians. The situation was quite a role reversal for the Prussians had to hold out, while the French had to attack aggressively, so quite a fit for our battle styles.  The Garde was fresh and a bit better than their actual performance, so the advanced in good order, mostly attack columns. Everybody seemed to sway towards the Vionville - Rezonville road, as to clear them from the Prussians was the ultimate goal.

The first attack came from the famous Zouaves. My normal Prussian line with already been hit previously, was no match. which started a multiple fire and charge fight north of Vionville. I brought more in to die while the Zouaves just repeated the attack.

In the centre Bart was a bit shaky first, trying to get by my guns which weren't in their right positions, but then attacked Flavigny with the voltigeurs. My jaegers who had made a run for it to occupy it first, defended it for the whole time(!!!) until Barts advanced artillery positioning finally shot them to hell.

On the western plane some voltigeurs and the chasseurs attacked  half heartedly and took some Prussian metal and the main brunt, but in the end bottle-necked some needed infantry of the soon-to-be-Kaiser ... also my guns were running out of ammo!

North of the Bois the Tronville though was were "the Pope was boxing in his chainmail suit", as we say in the Rhineland, were the actual party was. There our cavalry divisions decided to abandon the others to their fate and do a good old shock and charge! And pretty much every regiment charged with deadly consequence into the foe, and immediately even countercharging heroes were send to hell, leaving said attackers so depleted that the same fate would occur to them from the other side in the next turn. A horse slaughter that would have provided "sour beef" for the complete Rhineland for weeks.

Talking about death rides, even so I refrained from introducing any special rule (other than giving cavalry an anemic stamina score) - I could not resist to test this vs some Infantry - with devastating effect, yes it works, in most lucky circumstances hussars can  push back shaken Zouaves, but end up shaken and disordered in the woods ... other "try-outs" weren't less fortunate...

As my position wasn't surely getting worse than better, my infantry were mostly shaken, my cavalry were dead or shattered in the woods, half of my guns were out of ammo -  yet, we had to call it a day and agreed on a draw! But it was clear that the Prussians were hanging by their teeth at Vionville and two fit Grenadier de la Garde were just coming up for them ...

We had a lot of fun, me especially seeing the Prussians once taken by their horns, have more difficulties in defensive positions than to attack.

The initial set up

The French left, a sea of voltigeurs and chasseurs!

As the powder fog slowly lifts ...

... the Garde sweeps slowly to the west.

Vionville seems secure ... but just ...

The field is clear, we see each other!

First attack of the Zouaves.

The Garde Horse behind the Grenadiers.

The Guns and ammo reach Vionville...

The French cavalry sneaks up forward ...

And the German coutnerpart hastily scrambles up behind the woods.

First clash of the horses!

Second attack of the Zouaves...

and repulsed by fire ...

The cuirassiers and dragoons reorder for new charges.

The third attack of the Zouaves!

Mid battle - Prussians lines are in tactical disorder ...

Both cuirassiers clash!

The grenadiers slowly approach Vionville!

In fact, the whole corps attack.

The attack of the voltigeurs disorders a Leib infantry regiment!

The French attack (in column) Flavigny!

The grenadiers and the Zouaves attack the Vionville position for the forth time!

French Cavalry around the bois de Tronville!

And cavalry clashing again!

The French set the Prussians under pressure.

The 6th div. guns are running low on ammo!

More pressure cooking on north of Vionville!

On the east the Leib regiment is hanging by a thread.

The fifth attack on Vionville is a fire fight.

The Prussians running out of cavalry!

More pressure around Vionville including a deathride!

French guns advance and increase fire!

Prussian horse is off table!

The Hussars are in the woods ... exhausted Prussians defend Vionville.

The last salve of the guns of the 6th div.

The morgue of the field ...