Et Sans Resultant! (ESR): First Test Game at the Club

Russian initial deployment

Last night I ran my first game of Et Sans Resultant! (ESR) at the club.  We refought the Battle of Vitebsk from the Master of the World campaign book (Invasion of Russia).  The battle was fought in July of 1812 and involved a Russia rear guard action outside of Smolensk.  The Russian forces consisted of two infantry and one calvary corps were attempting to delay Murat who had the IV Corps and Nansouty's reserve calvary division.  The French had a slightly advantage in numbers and commander quality.

I choose this scenario because of the wide range of unit types and command structures and lots of calvary.  The French Objective is simple - get off the far end of the board.

The Attack  of the French Cav Corps

The French elected to delay their entry by two turns but march on the board fully deployed.  They also wasted no time in launching a furious calvary charge lead by the 1st Heavy Calvary Division again the Russian calvary corps (upper center of the picture.  IV Corps two large infantry divisions split their efforts.

I wonder if the water's cold?

 Simon's French division prepares to cross a stream.

The calvary action was very bloody - the Russians managed to repulse the 1st Heavy Cav and effectively take it out of the game but were two weakened to hold off the following French light Calvary division.  Calvary is both very powerful but also brittle in this game system.

at the bottom, Simon's French Division is now ready to launch it's attack on the Russian right flank

Simon's attack goes in but the Russians counter the attack and throw in one of their reserve division.  There were several turns of fighting but eventually Simon was outflanked and his division broken.

The situation at the end of the game.  Both sides left flanks have been broken but the French can exit the map and the 1st heavy Cav has been rallied and is moving up so the game was called a marginal French Victory.

So what do I think of ESR?  I liked it, I liked it a lot.  This is a large scale game where command is the central component - trying to sequence your order issuance is both difficult and fun.  Calvary is very flexible and enemy calvary can be most troublesome when you're trying to orchestrate the movement of thousands of men.  I really liked how the game played and we will definitely play this again.  I think we got 60-70% of the rules right.  There are a lot of nuances that need to be discovered with how order types and formations combine so this is a game that take 2-3 plays to really get a feel for.  Players take the role of army / corp commanders so a lot of the tactical detail common in most Napoleonic games (forming squares, attack columns etc is ignored.  Formations are either deployed (ready for combat) or ployed (in march column).  The tactical details are left up to your tabletop subordinates.

These rules are published by The Wargaming Company and both the rule book and campaign guides are stunningly presented.  Everything is printed on high quality glossy paper and then spiral bound (a big plus for laying flat on a table.  The rules are extremely well laid out and provide all the information you need to field armies from just about every Napoleonic combatant.  The campaign guides present 8-10 historical scenarios from a specific campaign and detail the map layouts, briefing's for both sides and forces involved.  They also have superb uniform painting guides for all the units involved in the depicted campaign.  I highly recommend the campaign guides for anyone interested in Napoleonic gaming with or with out using ESR.