Shameless Self-Promotion: Austerlitz Game Video Trailer

 

Please take a look at the Austerlitz game video trailer.  The full game video drops on July 20th.

This game was one of my favorite Little Wars TV projects to work on and we used a slightly revised version of Dave Brown’s General D’Armee rules.  The terrain was built by fellow club member Ed and is superb.

Now this game was played with a twist - two different outcomes and viewers can choose which one they prefer.  It was a super fun game that I am really looking forward to replaying at the club one day.  There was also some surprises for both sides that are best not to be revealed here.

We used my French and Greg’s Austrians and Russians for the game.  

LaSalle 2

Tuesday afternoon presented a rare opportunity to game up at the club and Greg ran a game of new version of Lasalle with his 15mm figures.  We refought the Battle of Elchingen, with Steve commanding the French as Ney and me playing the Austrians as Riesch.  Greg adapted a scenario from the Age of Eagles ruleset.  This was the first time Steve and I have played the new version of LaSalle.  I I did play test an earlier version but the one that made it to print is very different.

Steve's French troops are of superior quality but must deploy from a bridgehead and then attack my plucky Austrians are setup along a ridge.  Like most games, I forgot to take a lot of pictures but history did not repeat itself.  My Austians were able to launch an attack on the French's left flanks just as they were launching their attack on my center - the French attack had trouble breaking my lines and got stuck in while my flanking attack was very successful catching some infantry battalion in square.  By mid-game the entire French left was in tatters and Steve elected to concede the field.  The Austrian victory was due more to our newness with the rules and the fact the scenario needs to be tweaked a bit more to make it more balanced.

So is LaSalle 2 Any Good?

I am intrigued with the rules, and definitely want to play them again but there are some good and really confusing aspects to them.

Good Stuff:

Sequence of Play

The turn structure is very fluid and your opponent can interrupt your turn based on your actions when your armies get close in.  I really like the structure and think it provides for a very fluid game with lots of hard tradeoffs.

Momentum Points / Command Friction

Each player is given a set number of momentum points based on force size and a minor random factor if you choose to commit your general and get a d3 roll of extra points.    The points are based on the number of brigades that are deployed on the table so it goes up or down based on reinforcements / losses.

Fire Combat

Artillery and musket fire use the same procedure that is simple and fun - you roll a d6 and every 4+ is a hit.  There is a second save roll for hits, with higher quality troops saving on a 1-4 and average quality 1-3.  An infantry battalion in line fires with 6 dice and an artillery battery fires with 4, which is double to 8 when in canister range.  There are optional rules to add flavor, so you anglophiles get one or two extra dive for the Brits.

Small Units

Infantry and calvary units consist of 4 bases - that make moving stuff really easy and for those of us from the church of six bases per battalion means our armies just grew by 50%.  You still get the grans look of a Napoleonic game but moving stuff is a lot easier - also 50% easier!

Confusing Stuff:

I haven't played enough to label anything as bad so will list out the "confusing" issues I have with the rules.

Melee Combat is Deadly - maybe too much

The close assault procedure is an opposed dice role where each player rolls a d6 and adds their current strength plus any modifiers for defensive terrain or formation (all of which are plus 1's) - so 2 full strength battalions running into one another have a strength of 6 which you add the roll of a D6.  If you loose the combat by 3 or more your battalion is destroyed and removed from the game.  Rolling a few "1's" at the wrong time can loose the game for you.

Skirmish Fire / Initiative Determination

Initiative is determined by each player rolling some D6 based on the units you have on the table, with every six counting as a success.   The player who rolls the most 6's gets the initiative for the turn and can decide who goes first.  You also get an extra momentum point.  Sounds great right?  Oh I should mention that the number of D6 you roll is based on the battalions you have on the field.  I had 6 Austrian brigades and about 22 infantry battalion (+/-) and was rolling 45 D6 each turn which was really tedious.  I understand the math behind rolling lots of dice as it evens out the chance for really random outcomes - like rolling a 1 vs a 6 in melee combat but the giant bucket of dice used here seems a bit of overkill 

Limited Role for Commanders

While we played with the basic rules, there didn't seem to be any of the Napoleonic flavor I expect from commanders - generals aren't really used expect to either add D3 of momentum points or you can plop them down once during a turn and perform a global formation change for any units within a set range.  That's it - that's all they do.  You also only have one per side - no St Cyr or Friants to help out in a nick of time.  Maybe I'm a little to "Hollywood" but I like my Napoleonic generals to be able to attach to units and influence combat or rally rolls and be at risk to enemy action.  In LaSalle your generals are essentially administrative counters

Overall, I think the rules are very promising.  They likely will not replace General D'Armee as my favorite but I think there are some really neat concepts in them and really do look forward to my next game with them.

Quatre Bras at the Club, Part 2

 

Last night we finished up the Quatre Bras game.  Tom and Ed returned to command the Allies.  For the French we had new commanders in the form of Greg and myself.  The ruleset was General D'Armee.  Since I was playing, I didn't take any pictures except at the end.

The game resumed at turn 8 and the French attack continuing with the Allies getting ground down.  Last game Josh had effectively formed a grand battery of all the French Artillery and it continued to pound the Dutch troops.

Greg sent in Jerome's Brigade, which had the best French troops in a series a attack columns and punished the Dutch the Dutch in the center.  At the same time both Ed and Tom launched calvary attacks on both Flanks - one forced a French brigade to retreat while the other was me by French Cavalry and pushed off.  Their two British Infantry brigades deployed along the cross roads and became a formidable defensive position.

After a few turns of trading blows, the French managed to break the 2 Allied cavalry brigades on either flank.  That brought our broken Allied Brigade tally to 4, which was enough for a French victory.  It was kind of a cheap way for us to win but there you go.  Taling on those British brigades would have been difficult as the French infantry was pretty chewed up by then.

Greg did comment that the club has played Quatre Bras a number of times with the "Age of Eagles" ruleset and every game resulted in a resounding French Victory.  It's a tough scenario for the Allies to win.  Our game was a little closer run but the French moved with a bit more alacrity than they did historically.  Perhaps a better way to balance the scenario is to put some limits on the French command dice.  I really like the overall scenario and will run it again with some tweaks to make it a little more fun for the Allies.

Quatre Bras Using General D'Armee

 

Last night at the club, we re-fought the Battle of Quatre Bras using my 15mm Naps and the General D'Armee ruleset.  I was the GM with Steve and Josh playing the French and Tom, Greg and Ed commanding the allied forces.

I used the scenario for the excellent 100 Days General D'Armee scenario PDF which you can get from TooFatLardies.  The scenario started with 7 French Brigades on the board against 2 Dutch brigades of questionable quality.  The allies will receive a brigade or two per turn.  The French have a heavy Cavalry Brigade coming on mid game and by then the sides will be "evenish" with a troop quality advantage to the French.

The French attack got off to a slow start given some bad luck with ADC rolls and a good number of resulting Hesitant Brigades.

Finally the French made contact Bylandt's Brigade - one of Bylant's battalions managed to form a square and the other, well, didn't.  Lancers and Infantry don't mix well.

On the other side of the table Steve's French finally started moving and began enveloping the Dutch - to their rear there are two British Brigades coming on the table and none-too-soon.

We got to turn 8 of 18 last night and will continue the game next week.

This will be a hard one for the Allies to pull off.

Monday Night Gaming at the Club

 

Last night Ed and I got to playtest a new set of rules Greg has been working on.  These were Napoleonic campaign rules where the a stand is an entire division  and 1 inch is 2 miles.  It was like playing a hex and counter game on the tabletop but better.

The campaign we fought was Marengo - I was the French and Ed was the Austrians.  We're looking down at the map from switzerland

The game is leader focused - your corps commanders have lots of special abilities but once you exhaust them you may not get them back the next turn - its a die roll.

Terrain is pretty basic  - the tan strips are roads and those are very critical to movement.   The green "hedges" are rivers which can only be crossed at bridges or you can use a general action to build a pontoon bridge.

Defending a river or town halves the number of dice your attacker is throwing at you.

I managed to force a river crossing by building a pontoon bridge but that exhausted Napoleon and he wasn't involved in the ensuing attack, which while successful could not dela a crushing blow to those dastardly Austrians

In the end Ed won a well deserved victory but I am intrigued by these news rules and will gladly play them again anytime.

This ruleset has a lot of promise for doing tabletop campaigns from the AWI through the ACW.  I am always impressed by Greg's level of creativity.

NOLA Campaign: Third Battle of the Tenesaw Gap

 

Last monday we fought the third and likely final battle of the Tenesaw Gap from the NOLA Campaign.  There are two turns left in the campaign and the French and the outcome is still to be determined.  The NOLA campaign is my silly Napoleonic game that simulates a French invasion of America, which is defended by a combine US and British force.  The battle was fairly even with 5 US and British divisions (4 Inf, 1 Cav) up against 5 French divisions (all infantry) plus the artillery reserve.  We played the game using the ESR ruleset.  The scenario had the pursuing French army catching up to the retreating US/British force.  The French would enter on the left side of the map and all of the US/British forces are deployed.

Lannes enters with his single division on the far side of south western corner of the map 

Ed begins shaking out his  two British infantry divisions into line formation.  I took command of the US Corp in the center of the picture.  We placed the cavalry division in the center and planned to use it to support whichever flank had the most pressure.

My forces getting prepared to meet the french attack.  Lannes continues to move against my flank as Davout's 2 divisions and the French artillery reserve enter the board and eye my positions menacingly.

Ed elects to defend a forward position as he hopes to switch to the attack if the opportunity presents itself.

Josh (Napoleon) deploys his artillery forward he is attempting to form a grand battery and if he can do within range of our forces it will be devastating.  Artillery range is only nine inches in ESR (using 1" = 100M) but a grand battery can erase whole divisions at a time.

Seeing an opportunity the British cavalry charge forward trying to catch the artillery unprepared.  They can not form the grand battery but the six batteries do get off individual fire and its enough to force the cavalry to break off the charge  and retreat to lick their wounds- a golden opportunity lost

Lannes (Greg) forms into line for the attack as Davout (Dave) moves toward the hill

My 2nd division moved to occupy the woods (we removed the canopy) while the 1st division prepares to meet its French hosts on the reverse slope of the hill.

While the calvary recovers - Ed sees a gap in the line between Soults(Dave) corps and Davouts and elects to attack.

Lannes and Davouts attacks charge home - there will be seesaw fighting for 4 turns in the woods and on the hill

Josh can not bring his artillery reserve to bear and decides to move forward - the calvary see their chance and charge again - this time the french can only unlimber a few guns and the charge goes in devastating the limbered guns

Ed continues his attack.  By the way it's a general rule of thumb in the club whenever Ed consults the rules during a turn it usually means something really bad is about to happen to your army.

Just as the cavalry charges the guns for a second time the fight in the woods is over as both divisions break at the same time.

With artillery dispatched, the British cavalry wheel and charge Davout's attacking division in the rear - caught between the cavalry and an American infantry division they are overwhelmed.

We called the game at this point as time was running out.  It was declared a US/British victory and will have a major impact on the campaign.

The Second Battle of the Tensaw Gap

 After a COVID19 delay, the NOLA campaign has resumed with turn 9.  Right before the "COVID-PAUSE" the US/British side was retreating form the closely fought Battle of the Tensaw Gap, which resulted in a narrow French Victory.  The French, sensing they had Ed on the ropes, allocated a lot of Operating Points to seize the initiative and managed to catch Eds retreating army - setting up the Second Battle of the Tensaw Gap.

One of the joys of running a campaign is that players often have different strategies than the GM anticipates so battles play out in wildly different patterns.  I knew this was the case with this battle as Ed's initial deployment was not what I had anticipated.  His initial forces consisted of 4 Infantry divisions (3 in column and 1 deployed at the top).  His pre battle instruction said he could win the battle if could retreat off the lower sides of the map in good order.  Ed had other plans.  The french would enter form the top of the map and their force consisted of 5 Infantry divisions and the deadly French artillery reserve.  We used the ESR rules for this game.

Initial contact!

 Ed left one divisions deployed in line to delay the French while assembling the other 3 in a defensive position along a crest.

Ed continues to hunker down on the hill while Soult's corps maneuvers around his left flank.

The final French infantry division shakes out of column and their artillery reserve is deployed - It's unlikely Ed can survive the combined onslaught....

But Wait - Ed springs his drop - coming up upon the rear of the French is the British Heavy Cavalry division - now it's 5 divisions for each side!

In yet another surprise, Ed elects to march off the board rather than attack and the US/British force exits to the east. 

What is this cunning strategist up to the French wonder?

I wonder what turn 10 of the 12 turn campaign will bring?

Battle of the Tensaw Gap, Alabama Territories Sep 1811

Last Monday we fought the first tabletop engagement of the NOLA campaign.  It's turn 8 of a 12 turn campaign and things are getting very interesting.  We're using the ESR ruleset to resolve tabletopl engagements.

The battle commenced with two allied Corps: a British one under the command of Packenham and an American corp under the command of Winfield Scott) marching onto the board.  Their objective was to seize the Tensaw Gap (middle left side of the table).  Initially opposing them was Davout's III Corps (or so they thought...)

Ed and Keith were the allied commanders and adopted a mass column of three divsions with a fourth in reserve.  That formation was dubbed the "sledgehammer" - here you can see them making initial contact with Friant's division of Davout's Corp.  They steam rolled Davout and sent him scurrying back to the rear.

The white cards on the table are order changes.  In ESR orders are issues in one turn and then rolled for to see if they take effect the next.  While the cards don't look all that good, they did make it easy to keep track of pending orders.

The allies were surprised to see the Emperor himself commanding a grand battery on the hill covering the gap.

As the Allied Sledghammer continued on it ran into Morand's division deploying along a stream in an attempt to stem the tide.  Morand's division was also swept aside but fatigue was mounting in the British Guard division

Perhaps more worrying for the allies was the surprise of seeing dust clouds to the north, heralding the arrival of Soult's II Corp.  Had the French sprung a trap?

Indeed they had for a few turns after Soult showed up to the North, Lannes arrived from the west with a single division.  It was now 5 on 4, in the favor of the French.

Soults and Davout's calvary catch a lone British hussar brigade in a calvary sandwich.  It did not end well for the Brits.

Napoleon repositioned his grand Battery and effectively evaporated the US 2nd Infantry division which quit the field.  Seeing themselves now out numbered 5:3 Ed and Keith chose discretion over valor and executed a skillful withdrawal to the south.  The last thing heard form both commanders as they left the field was shouted orders to their aides to erase any mention of the battle in their dispatches as an "assault" and replace it with the word "raid"

The battle was a very bloody affair with the Allies taking slightly more casualties than the French - Grand Batteries are devastating in the ESR ruleset.  Both sides had enough replacement points to replace their losses but their stockpiles are growing very thin, indeed.

NOLA Campaign Kicks Off

With things around the house returning to normal, I've had some time to finally gets my campaign rules organized and kick off the NOLA campaign at the club.

I was very fortunate to get 8 club members signing up to play in the campaign.  These test subjects -oops- "players".  The are 4 French players: Napoleon, Lannes, Soult and old baldy himself Davout.  Opposing them is an un easy alliance between the US (Jackson and Scott) and the British (Wellington and Crawford).  The sides are roughly equal in size but there are a lot of minor allies they'll be trying to influence to join their cause.  Both sides have roughly 100K troops to deploy and the sum total of all the minor allies can add up to 30K troops in total.  Given how the diplomacy system works not all those troops will come into plays and the sides should get maybe 5-10K each.

While an invasion of US by Napoleon is a rather silly scenario, during the war of 1812 there was a furious diplomatic effort to woo different Native American tribes and even the Baratarian Pirates (Jean Lafette) by each side.  For this campaign there will be 4 Native American tribes, the Baratarian Pirates, Texicans and even the Spanish that each side can try to enlist over the course of the campaign.

I'm really happy with the rules but this is the first time they'll be used on the table top.  I suspect there will be a lot of opportunities for improvement.  The rules may actually get published of assuming I don't get tarred and feathered by my players.   The risk of that form of retribution is non-zero, so I enter this campaign with some trepidation.

One thing I added at the last minute was personality traits and a set of secret objectives for each players characters.  These rules are completely optional but playing along with them will earn the player personality points which will be used to award the highest scoring general with the coveted MVP award.  MVP stands for either the "Most Valuable Player" or "Most Vile Player" depending on the personality traits of their character.  Some of the generals are not the most reputable of characters.

The majority of the traits are structured to encourage the players to get into tabletop battles.  One thing I've noticed when playing a campaign is that a player who is normally very aggressive in a single battle style of game can suddenly become rather timid in a campaign as outcomes matter for the next turn.  Your's truly has that affliction.  Hopefully these rules get the guys to mix it up a bit. 

Reporting on the campaign will be hard as there is a lot of hidden movement but I'll keep the blog updated and do a full turn by turn report and also list out all the things that need to be improved in the rules.  I suspect that will be a very long list.

Turn 1 order submissions are due soon!

New Campaign at the Club

With our Waterloo campaign coming to a close (and likely defeat for the French, who have me as Grouchy), it's time to start up another Napoleonic Campaign.

I've always wanted to run a campaign, so have volunteered to do so.  This campaign will be focused on a rather silly idea of Napoleon invading the US and will use a set of campaign rules that I've been working on.  Pray for my fellow club members who are now subjected to my whims dreams of rules writing grandeur.

Why the silly scenario?  Well, last summer at Historicon, my hypothetical invasion of Britain game (To Catch a King) proved 4 out of 5 times that Napoleon would have won so naturally he would attempt to re-possess Louisiana as his next move.  Seems logical to me.  Then again, I'm a moron.

In reality, I'm hoping to run the campaign relatively quickly - (within 6 weeks) to refine the rules and see if it's feasible to run a campaign during the course of Historicon's 3 days where the details of the battles are based on how the campaign plays out.

Pictured above is the campaign map, which is based off a period map of the British Gulf campaign during the War of 1812.  This scenario has the french invading from Port-au-Prince (the bottom center box).  Napoleon will have an army of 75,000 men to invade the new world.  Opposing him are two separate forces - The US army under Jackson and the British Exile Force, or BEF, under Wellington.  For game play purposes both sides will be fairly even which implies the US built up its armed forces prior to the campaign.  It's a stretch, but I'm making this thing up anyway.

The campaign will also feature 7 potential minor allies that both sides can try to woo with diplomatic actions.  These allies include:

The Spanish
Jean Lafitte and his Baratarian Pirates
Texicans (cause why not?)
4 different Native American Tribes
- Seminole
- Upper Creek
- Lower Creek
- Choctaw

I'll use the blog to report general progress of the campaign but because there is hidden movement will wait until it's completed before going into detailed moves.

I really do want to get this done is six weeks, which means tight deadlines for turns.  One of the biggest problems with gaming campaigns is they start off with great enthusiasm but players can loose interest if things drag on and/or their position appears hopeless.  Let's see if we can avoid that.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X: Three weeks of Painting

It's been a productive three weeks.  My first submission for the Challenge was these 3 Russian generals from AB Miniatures in 18mm scale.  As I've said many times before AB makes the best 15/18mm Napoleonic miniatures around.  Old Glory's Blue Moon line is a close second and may pip them on value but AB's have stolen my heart. 

 Next up some 28mm WW1 Sailors formed into a Landing Party.  These are for to use with both the upcoming Blood and Valor skirmish game plus a convention game concept I'm working on that may see the light of day at Fall In 2020.

Next up Some Austrians and Russians.  From left to right for the Austrians are 2, 24 figure Austrian infantry Battalions, 10 skirmish stands, 3 batteries and 6 generals.   These are almost all Old Glory figures.  Next we have some Russian command stands and 12 artillery batteries, all from AB Miniatures.  When the Challenge is over I'll do a review of my entire 15mm Napoleonic collection, which now has forces for the French, British, Spanish, Portuguese, Austrians, Russians and US (War of 1812).  Sadly the Prussians are missing - I suspect that will be remedied over the course of 2020.  The club is thinking of doing a Napoleon in Egypt project so there may also be some early French and Ottomans/Mamlukes joining the ranks.

 A space Marine for one of the "X-Marks-the-Spot locales.

 Some 28mm Aztecs, cause I had them on hand

Another X-marks the spot submission in the form of Swedish Dragoons from the wonderful "By Fire and Sword" game system.

Lastly, some War of 1812 miniatures in 15mm from Old Glories Blue Moon line.  A bunch of US commanders and two large calvary groups - US light Dragoons in the front and Mounted KT rifles in the back.  You'll be seeing a lot more of these chaps in a few weeks.  In the lover right are 10 stands of Native Americans.

I would like to leave this post with a plug for Old Glory and their "Army Card" subscription option.  Old Glory make very nice and affordable figures but they also have an option to pay an annual fee of $50.00 and get a 40% discount on the entire line - thats 40% off already reasonable prices.  It's the best deal I know off and one you should take advantage off if you're building out just about any army in 15 - 18mm scale.  Thanks Old Glory!

What's on the Painting Bench?

Lots of US war of 1812 mounted figures - Generals, Dragoons and Mounted Kentucky Rifles.  Oh - and some Native Americans

All of the figures are 15mm from Old Glory's Blue Moon line.

There's a bunch more to do.

Play Testing a New Napoleonic Ruleset

 Last night at the club we were play testing a new Napoleonic ruleset using Greg and Tom's wonderfully painted 6mm armies.  It was a meeting engagement between a French army (Greg and me) vs Tom's Russian hordes.

The base unit is a battalion (with 4 bases).  Since we haven't given any feedback to the author I'll not disclose the ruleset.

Overall, I really liked the rules - especially the command control aspects.  There are some things that seemed a bit wonky but that's why one playtests, isn't it?

Any night you can get some Nappy's on the table is time well spent.

Salamanca! Using ESR

 Last night I ran a refight of the Battle of Salamanca at the club.  We used the ESR ruleset which worked out very nicely, especially simulating the early morning maneuvering the came before the fight itself.

While the historical outcome was a decisive British victory, both armies were evenly matched, with the British having a slight advantage in infantry while the French had a tad more in calvary and artillery.  ESR also simulates the tactical doctrinal differences nicely with the French having a smaller number of large formations while the British having a lot more smaller more flexible units that done have as much staying power but are very flexible to use.

The French are entering the board from the lower right side.

 Another shot of the initial set up showing the build of the British Army marching up for Salamanca (upper left).  There are a number of hills on the right side of the picture that don't really show through in the picture.

The initial moves have the French marching quickly to sieze Great Apriles in the center like they did historically and sending Curto's light calvary division and two infantry divisions to their extreme right flank to try and catch the English baggage train which Marmont can just see (the train is located in the center Bottom of the picture)

As Curto's calvary approach they discover that Marmonts telescope needs some refinement as what was thought to be the baggage train is actually Packenham's 3rd division!  This event also happened historically and was a really fun surprise to spring.  The French also had a surprise - they could have one of their divisions move Off-map 18 inches per turn and then enter where they wanted.  The trick is once those orders were set they could not be changed.  The French picked well.  It came on about where Josh's hand is now anchoring the extreme French right flank and allowing the two divisions by Josh's hand to switch to the attack.  It was a very well timed move.

With the Light Cav checked on the French left flank, the battle moved on to three separate actions, with each becoming more important and successful for the French as we moved left to right along their line.

The British center division gives way which allows the French to gang up on the Brits left flank by sending 3 divisions agains the lone British one.

 The French assault on their left flank stalls out as Tony attempts and massively fails an order change which effectively allows 2 French divisions to idle and trade pot shots with the British.

Here's a hint for ESR, which bases died roll on 2 D6's - DONT ROLL TWO ONES.  Something always really bad happens.

While successful on their right flank the British center and left flank collapse under the weight of the French attacks.  It was a very close run as most of the French divisions were one or two fatigue points away from collapse.

I do apologize for the ugly green rectangles,  They are movement trays for attack columns that I have pressed in to service to be Reformation areas for each division.

Given how much we like the ESR tules set, I'll be making proper ones to use in the next game.

This is the third time I put on an ESR game at the club and I must say the rules are a lot of fun and provide a very good game.  This one could have gone either way, but a rare French victory in the Peninsula isn't that bad of a thing...