Wargame Rules Review – Sixth Wargame

Start of wargame

 

Another strong defensive position for the Russians

The French advance is constricted by the farm, pass and woods

And the area directly in front of the Russian army is very exposed.

 

The French start with 10% casualties on 8 brigades

This includes all three of their cavalry and artillery brigades

There are also three infantry brigades absent on garrison duty

 

The Russians start with 10% casualties on 10 brigades

All three cavalry brigades have casualties, but none of the artillery

One infantry and one cavalry brigade is missing due to casualties

End of wargame

The Russian gunners routed two artillery and one cavalry batteries

Despite this the French pressed home their attack and won the day

This was largely due to intense infantry skirmish and melee fighting

 

Almost all of the Russian infantry were C class skirmishers

In addition they lost one point when deployed in buildings or woods

This is because only one quarter of the brigade could skirmish on each edge

 

Almost all of the French infantry were B class skirmishers

When attacking woods or buildings they needed 5 or 6 with 1D6

 

Both armies started the battle with considerable casualties

This meant that they were likely to fail a morale test for further casualties

This in turn meant that supporting brigades (within 4”) often failed their morale test.

 

Comments

In all of these test games I have deployed the defending Russian army in front of the town which is the objective of the battle.  

This was to test the various combat rules in a relatively open battle. 

 However it does mean that even if the attackers win, they will not reach the town before nightfall.

 

The obvious answer would be to fight a second day for each battle.  

However this would not allow sufficient time for both armies to rally their routed and shaken brigades.  

Nor would they be able to concentrate their surplus casualties in one brigade. 

This allows brigades with 20% or 30% to replace all but 10% of their casualties.  

This results in one, or more, brigades taking on all of the surplus casualties and being removed from the game.  

Where there are infantry, cavalry and artillery casualties it can result in one of each brigade being affected.

 

During this game I resolved this problem by creating a siege.   However this was not fought as a game, but became a paper exercise.  

The number of supplies held in the town at the end of the game would determine how many days the siege would last.

 

I will give some thought to deploying the defending army either side of the town.  

This would mean that the town would be in the front line, and each game would be a combined siege/battle. 

I think it might make the defenders too powerful, because attacks on the town could only be done from one side, giving the defenders a big advantage. 

Normally the attackers must attack at least two sides at once, and thus reduce the defence factor of the garrison.