Song of Drums and Shakos Solo - Part 1

Annotation: What follows is just a short description of what has happened as far as the "story" is concerned. I do not decribe game mechanics in detail now, but will summarize my impressions of the rules in a seperate blogpost.

The Setup - viewed from the Prussian side of the table

The Austrians move out of the woods, fire a volley and one of the bridge guards falls to the ground

The Prussian miserably fail their first activation attempt and play immediately passes to the Austrians again!

The Grenzers rush towards the bridge, muskets still loaded

One Grenzer finishes off the fallen Prussian with his bayonet. The Prussian standing next to the rock still hasn't got his pants up again ...

One Grenzer knocks another Prussian of his feet. The Croat NCO (partly behind the tree) rushes towards the Prussian Feldwebel Kunkel ...

... and BANG! Aimed shot - Instant kill. The Croat NCO is dead! A serious loss for the Austrian side. The Prussians Officer finally gets his act together and leads his men towards the bridge. One of them finally has his pants up again

Hand-to-hand fighting on the Bridge. Prussians begin to form a firing line

The Prussian NCO wounds another Grenzer with his Kurzgewehr. The second rank of the firing line and Hauptman Beskow are in position

Himmel! What is this?! Feldwebel Kunkel blocks the firing line! Does he think he is a reincarnation of Horatius Cocles*

* = In 508 B.C., when Rome was under attack from the Etruscan King Porsena and about to be conquered, one man, Horatius Cocles ("the one eyed") stood on a small bridge leading into the city centre, all alone. He defended it against the whole army of the enemy until his comrades cut off the bridge behind him. He fell into the Tiber in full armour, but managed to reach the roman river bank (according to Titu Livius; according to Polybios he drowned!).

To be continued ...