Wargame Rules Review – First Wargame

Start of wargame

 

The only way to really test the rules is to play a full length wargame.

 

The two armies started off 18” apart; this was well out of maximum artillery range which is 12”.

 

Counter artillery fire should have been ineffective, as the firer needs a roll of 6 on 1D6.   12 pounder guns add plus 1, 6 pounder guns minus 1.   Two of the three Russian guns are 12 pdr, so they had a considerable advantage.   They put it to good use by causing 3 casualties to the French gunners.   This allowed the Russian guns to dominate the game.

In the north the Russian gunners prevented a frontal attack by the Polish corps.  Instead they had to concentrate on the farm, and failed to take it by nightfall

In the centre the French cavalry won the opening melee and allowed their infantry to take the woods and break the Russian centre.   We tested skirmish, musket and infantry melee rules, all worked well.   All gave a much faster and cleaner out come.

In the south the Vistula lancers lost their melee, but their artillery drove off the Russian cuirassiers.   The artillery was ineffective on the woods, and the fighting was mostly infantry skirmish and melee.  Again the rules worked well.

By the end of move 8 the Russians had lost 12 infantry and 4 cavalry, and five brigades were in rout.   The French had lost 2 infantry, 2 cavalry and 3 artillery casualties and had one brigade in rout.

With four moves still to go the French had clearly won the battle.   The Russians still held their right flank and the town.   But they had lost their centre and left flank.

It is still early days, but I am very pleased with this first game using the new rules.   They are much easier to remember, having only 1D2 instead of 2D6.   This does give extreme results with 1 or 6, but that is what I wanted to achieve.

It is also easier to rally shaken or routed brigades.   This is a good thing, because it allows the losing side to rally a second defensive line.   But in this particular game the Russian casualties were so much greater than the French that the winner was obvious.

Brigades defending farms or woods tended to do better than with my previous rules.   This was largely because it was so much easier to rally them when casualties were received.  It was also because Jan used her three elite grenadier brigades to hold the farm and both woods.   I only took them because I had taken care to position my best skirmish brigades to lead the attack.   In both wooded sections this worked.   However both elite defenders and most effective skirmishers took casualties.   So it will be interesting to see how both perform in the next game.   Both will retain at least 10% casualties, which will reduce the elite grenadiers to trained troops.  And the A class skirmish brigades will be reduced to B class.  

End of wargame 

The Russians hold at the top, but are in retreat in the centre and bottom

 

White stars indicate where fighting has taken place during the last two moves.  

Green stars indicate Russian brigades in rout

Blue stars indicate French brigades in rout