Hanau, Hanau...

There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost...Hanau, Hanau, don't dream it's over.

OK, OK.  Perhaps I carry the homophone a bit too far in paraphrasing Crowded House but we know they won't win.

Scott sent a text late Saturday morning saying a buddy was making the drive north from Moscow for a boardgame session at 2pm and asked if I wanted to join in. The plan was to tear the plastic from Legion Games' La Bataille de Hanau and give it a run out on the table.  Well, without much hesitation, I replied that I would be there to watch the action as they worked through both rules and scenario.  I hopped into the car and off I went to Coeur d'Alene for the day.

Scott recently bought Hanau and Dale has the game on order.  Me, I had never seen it before although I have another in the series, Le Retour de l'Empereur from the Vive l'Empereur series.

Now, I have never played my game or even read the rules, so this is all new to me.  The Hanau game is a single mapper with only a few handfuls of units in play.  Perfect situation to use as an introduction to the system in a group learning setting.

The Hanau map.

Scott commanded the French while Dale commanded the Allied Army of Austrians and Bavarians.  I looked on.  In this scenario, the Allied task is to block the road to Frankfurt as the French Imperial Guard comes pounding in their direction.

Scott carefully studies Dale's moves.

After several hours of play, Scott managed to break the Allied Army and claim a Sudden Death victory.  Interesting situation and interesting rules.  Can the Allies pull out a victory on this field?  I hope to find out one day.

Anyway, that is how I spent the second half of Saturday.  Good fun!