Salamanca

Josh took the Brits, who are tasked with attacking in this battle, although there's no real terrain objective or time limit. He launched a quick bayonet assault on a unit in my center, destroying ith, and then withdrew because he had no other cards to use. After that it was some long range artillery fire which wiped out my battery on the right, plus lots of reshuffling of troops, both sides wishing that we had useful cards.

I brought my light infantry on the right up into the town; the Rifles whittled it down to one block, but I played a Rally card (even though I had no other damaged units) to save it and got two blocks back. I fired on the Rifles, killing two of three blocks, and they retreated. The next turn, I fired on a five-block British Light Infantry unit, with a +1 for the card play, and ended up rolling five dice--for five hits! Josh was disgusted. He directed artillery at my Legere until he wiped it out, but they will live on in song and story.

After that it was more shuffling units around and waiting for cards. I tried a cavalry charge but ended up losing my squadron without doing anything to the target. That left me with three infantry and nothing else on my right; after a while, Josh amassed the cards to send his three cavalry (two heavy, one light) across to force my units into square, after which he sent three battalions of infantry to finish them off.

Final score: Brits 6, French 1.

I've read about the difficulties of attack in C&C:N, but the defense is also difficult. As the attacker, at least you get to hoard all your "left flank" cards, if that's where you want to attack; as the defender, you have to be prepared to respond in any sector, and not enough cards for a reserve.