Wargame Rules Review – Third Wargame

Start of wargame

Much more open battlefield, though both sides have obstacles and strong points

This type of terrain is not much of an advantage to either side

Russians are on the right, French on the left.

Both armies start the game without casualties

 

All three French corps have orders to advance, but the main attack will be in the centre

The French CinC starts the game without any brigades under command

But he is well placed centre rear to take control, or add support, as required.

 

The Russian flanks are secure, but the centre is thinly spread

The CinC has not taken brigades from the flanks to strengthen the centre

End of wargame

The heaviest fighting has been in the north, and both sides have suffered heavy casualties

At nightfall the French have taken the village and routed 2^nd Russian corps

 

Fighting still continues at nightfall; however the French have the advantage

 

The Russians have counter attacked in the south, but the fighting is undecided

They still hold the woods, but the French hold the fortified farm

 

At the end of 12 moves the French have lost 5 infantry, 5 cavalry and 5 gunners

They also have four brigades in rout

The Russians have lost 15 infantry, 5 cavalry and 1 gunner

They have eight brigades in rout

The Russians are still fighting, and they still hold the town

So they can claim a victory

But it is hard to see how they can continue to hold once the French have regrouped

 

This was a much faster flowing wargame, and we are both enjoying the new rules

 

The Russian artillery are better than the French (plus 1) and battered the French gunners

They require 5 or 6 for a hit, and managed to rout all three French corps artillery

They have the advantage that they fire first, as the French advance and unlimber

And they managed to throw very good dice at this critical time

The French gunners managed to throw particularly poor dice, which did not help

 

Cavalry melee are similar to our previous rules.

Unless they roll a one or a six, both sides suffer 10% casualties

Brigades are shaken or routed quite easily, but they also rally more often

 

Infantry combat are much more interesting

They can skirmish, volley fire or melee

We both check carefully how good each brigade is at each type of combat

The Russians are poor at skirmish, but average at volley or melee

The French are much better at skirmish, and tend to hold back to use this advantage

An infantry brigade can move a maximum of 6” each move

Skirmish range is 4” and volley range 2”

They can advance half a move and skirmish or volley, providing they are in range

 

The advantage lay with the Russians for most of this game

However in the last three moves it moved to the French

This was enough to break the Russians in the north

But not in the centre or south, where they continued to fight at nightfall

 

After three games we are both finding how best to use the new rules

We draw a poker chip to decide the sequence of movement for each corps

And whilst learning the rules we both discuss options for the corps moving

This helps us both to consider how best to use each corps

It also helps us both to learn the new rules

 

For the first time it felt like a proper wargame, rather than a rule learning process.