The Battle Of Colonieblanche (part five)

TURN 10
My gun scored a hit, but the French infantry unit was able to withdraw rather than lose a strength point. I scored two hits with rifle fire, killing a Garibaldi Redshirt and forcing the French to retreat from Colonieblanche (accepting a strength-point loss would have taken French losses to 15, meaning de Saxe would have lost the battle). I chose to fight the melee around the gun first, but no hits were scored. In the cavalry melee, it was the turn of my chevauleger to be forced back.
The French reoccupied Colonieblanche, and the battle ended in a German defeat when the last member of the 3rd Garde-Regiment zu Fuss was killed, bringing German losses to 15 strength points - more than half their starting total.

The end ... a final view of the battlefield

AFTERTHOUGHTS
One thing we could certainly agree on was that it had been an exciting battle, with the result in doubt to the very last turn. Indeed, had my uhlan unit inflicted a kill on the French artillery in my half of turn 15, it would have been a German victory rather than a French one.
As it was, the French victory was by the narrowest possible margin, and in terms of units eliminated, as opposed to strength points lost, I was ahead at the end. But however narrow a victory, it was a French one, and those were rare in the Franco-Prussian War.
How can the French victory be explained  - are the rules to blame, was it my poor generalship or was it the choice of scenario?
I like to think, and my opponent agreed, that the rules seemed fine. Most of the credit for this goes to Portable Wargame designer Bob Cordery, but we felt my adaptations to give more of a Franco-Prussian feel also worked well without swamping the core rules.
Poor generalship? Always a possibility, of course! I thought I was a little unlucky with dice throws for my gun, causing its siting on Petit Haut Rond to take longer than it should. But perhaps it was a mistake wanting to site the gun there as it can reach targets by firing from the baseline if necessary. Some credit should certainly go to de Saxe. By concentrating his forces on the west flank of the battlefield, most of them were masked from my army by La Grand Colline and the town of Colonieblanche. Meanwhile, his centrally-placed gun had an uninterrupted view of a large proportion of my army.
The scenario was certainly French-friendly. A major reason for the successes of the Germans on the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War was the pre-battle staff-work of the Prussian high command. Their superior organisational skills meant the Germans often had more units on the battlefield, rather than equal numbers as in the Battle of Colonieblanche.
In any event, my opponent and I are agreed we shall use The Portable Wargame as the basis for our Project Kaiser 150th anniversary refight of the Franco-Prussian War.
The only aspect we felt needed further tinkering is the rules for melees, which we felt dragged on too long. In future a 4 rather than a 5 will be needed to score a hit, which brings melees into line with my amendments for rifle and artillery fire. I hope my amendments, making the rules a Franco-Prussian War Portable Wargame, may find an honourable place among the increasing numbers of Portable Wargame adaptations.