napoleonic game last night

[petercooman]

Had a scrap with Neil Thomas' napoleonic rules last night:

the battlefield, with troops aligned


french side, napoleon lining up the artillery


british defense on the hill


hanoverian landwehr batallions defending a farmhouse on the flank, assisted by the scots greys and uxbridge


imperial guard on the french flank



french columns steadily advanced on the british-held ridge



while the imperial guard had to slow down their advance, and anchor the end of the battle line with a square, to protect themselves from the light dragoons


meanwhile, on the other flank, the dragoons clash for supremacy with the scots greys


the french colums are starting to push the defenders back on the ridge


the heavy cavalry clash is still undecided, and the lancers try to catch the rifles who have been harrassing them.


marshall Quiot goes down in a volley from the black watch


columns and lines are becoming smaller, as casualties mount


the dragoons rout the scots greys, and the lancer drive the light infantry back to the woods


french about to break onto the ridge, but will they have enough men left to charge the artillery?


when the light dragoons are no longer a sufficient threath, the imperial guard get ready to move again


french take a lot of casualties in a very succesfull british turn, probably spelling their doom


french conscripts getting ready to charge home in the face of the briish gun


division commander Marcognet gets it while leading the assault on the ruined farmhouse


after a lot of exchange and some desperate charges, the british clear the hill and ruined farm of french troops, but although they win, seeing what's left of their force, you can only call it a Phyrric victory!


Fun game, but dragged in the end. The victory condition in "napoleoinic wargaming" , where being reduced to 25% means you lose, always makes the game last longer than you would expect, meaning forces get ultimately decimated instead of routing because their nerve breaks. Think i will change that one a bit. I had 3 units left for the french when they broke, one stand of voltiguers and two cannons. In reality they would have withdrawed way sooner!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Quite a game! Very cool

[bigjackmac]

That is a great looking fight, and lots of fun to read, too! I'm a fan of Neil Thomas, but being reduced to 25% is definitely a bit extreme. I've had my share (and fill!) of Napoleonic fights that come down to the last three units on the board being a light infantry or light cavalry and two artillery...

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

Yes, think i'll change it to 25% of the Main infantry batallions to make It more realistic.

[Womble67]

Looks an excellent setup

Take care

Andy

[Norm]

A very nice looking game. I have these rules and agree that things can get drawn out, plus the table starts to looks less beautiful, to me at least,  as the stands are removed as casualties, but the units fight on and on etc.

[petercooman]

A very nice looking game. I have these rules and agree that things can get drawn out, plus the table starts to looks less beautiful, to me at least,  as the stands are removed as casualties, but the units fight on and on etc.

Would actually look better with 6 base Bataillons, with the unit being destroyed after removing 4 bases. But as I have so many done already, I am not that excited to add more. I could also mark them off instead of removing them, but that would lead to more clutter.

[Techno]

Looks damn good, Peter !

Cheers - Phil

[Steve J]

Great looking game and can only echo the thoughts already expressed on the 25% casualties issue.

[paulr]

Wot they all said