Unexpected treat

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of enjoying an unexpected treat – a huge (by our local standards) game of General de Brigade. And no tiny 6mm midgets on that occasion, my dearies!We would be running that game the way wargaming magazines and Warlord Games have learned us over the years is the propper manner – 28mm plastics as long as the eye could reach, and a lot of them too!

Having the pleasure of seeing somewhere near 1500 28mm Napoleonic miniatures may be a common thing for those of you who are lucky enough to live in the land of the Queen and huge wargaming clubs, but let me tell you – here in southern Sweden it’s a rare sight indeed. My hat is definitely off for D., whos collection provided lion share of the figures on the table – very well done indeed, mate!

The game

Allright, so what about the game then? Well… I’m actually still trying to wrap my head around it. If I understand things correctly we run one of scenarios from Caliver Books’ latest scenario book for General de Brigade, dealing with 1813. The one we picked had rather traditional format – two long lines of infantry and artillery opposing each other, the village in the middle provided the major objective. Prussians apparently had some beer in local beer house and Frenchies, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to appreciate the idea of Germans having good time and and decided to crash the party. And yes, it would be one of those ‘hammer to the teeth’ affairs where attackers would rush into defenders along entire line and hope of the best.

Over next four or so hours, we managed to play grand total of five, maybe six rounds. I must admit that being busy trying to shove in as many Frenchmen into the village in the middle, I didn’t pay much attention to what happened on my flanks. Things seemed to go rather well on my left. On my right, I did manage to observe that my fellow comrade in arms had rather dismal luck with his dice rolls and failed to make any impression on Prussian defensive line.

Yours truly tried his best to keep some sort of order among French columns marching toward the village. These columns, consisting of mainly second line troops constantly blasted by artillery batteries supporting two German Jaeger battalions parked in the village and having no intention sharing that beer, had a devil of a time. By round three I managed to reach the edge of the village, but once there, my assault pretty much stalled. By round five one of my battalion routed of the table, while the two battalions that managed to reach the objective intact were repulsed, with some losses. Prussians simply refused to be dislodged from their position. With just under an hour remaining of the playing time, I did the thing I hate being done to myself – I declared that since we wouldn’t be making any headway in remaining time, we may just as well quit for the day.

Musings after the battle

First of all, thanks again to the guys based in Lund for letting me participate in their game! Visual aspect of well-painted 28mm Napoleonic miniatures deployed en massé on a large table is something every wargamer should experience at least once.

Having said that… Damn, General de Brigade is reaaaaaly slow and ponderous game system. In our game, we had three players a side and things should have moved along at a decent speed, but the average time to complete one turn was still somewhere around 30 minutes. I honestly fail to see how, using this ruleset, one can complete a scenario of decent size in a single gaming session. This in itself doesn’t mean that BdeB is a bad ruleset, but I’m starting to wonder if I can use it for purely practical reasons. Say whatever you want about ‘Black Powder’, but that thing at least moves along at decent pace.

Tinkering with General de Brigade

Sorry guys, unfortunately this is not another after-action report, but a rather lengthy rant about the ruleset itself and why, in my humble opinion, it is not The Holy Grail of Napoleonic period rulesets.

The good…

In many respects, General de Brigade is an excellent ruleset, especially if you like a strong whiff of traditional approach to game mechanics. There really isn’t anything surprising or revolutionary in it, as the turn sequence clearly indicates – initiative roll decides who is the ‘phasing’ player (i.e. has precedence in certain phases of the turn), followed by compulsory movement (routes, pursuits and such), attempts to change brigade orders, charge declarations/moves, normal movement, firing, melee and finally morale checks where necessary. Once done, rewind and repeat until a conclusion is reached.

Traditional thinking expresses itself in other ways. Both firing and melees are accomplished with 2D6 dice rolls subsequently being adjusted by a bunch of modifiers. Final outcomes are looked up on tables providing the casualty numbers alternatively results of the melee. While there is nothing innovative in this approach, I do like it (well, to a degree, see below) mainly because it allows for an approximate estimation of casualty rates. This in turn allows the player to actually plan his assault and defence and allocate forces necessary for accomplishment of a specific task.

Charges are a bit fiddly, but on the other hand I am yet to encounter a ruleset that handles this aspect of the battle in a smooth way. On the positive side, anyone familiar with Napoleonic period will understand why charge procedure works the way it does in GdeB.

GdeB’s handling of skirmishers needs to get an honorary mention. Rules governing this troop class are very simple and yet, they manage to reflect perfectly role of skirmishers during that period. What’s perhaps even more important, those simple rules also manage to reflect differences in skirmish doctrine of different nationalities in a way that actually has real impact on the ‘battlefield’.

the bad…

In my opinion, most rulesets can be described as either ‘historical’ or ‘gamey’. I’m sure other wargamers have different definitions for those words. For me, a ‘historical’ ruleset can be recognized by its more or less uncompromised adherence to history, even if it influences the game experience in negative way. ‘Harpoon’ is a perfect example of such a ruleset. A ‘gamey’ ruleset focuses on the other hand foremost on the game experience. History component in such rulesets is used to provide the flavour, but isn’t much of a speed-bump when creator’s ‘artistic freedom’ needs to flex its muscles (dare I use ‘Flames of War’ as an example for that type of ruleset?).

General de Brigade is a strange mix of those two styles. In some respects (order system, command&control, restrictions of brigade system, charge mechanism) it is obvious that author tried very hard to transfer the reality of Napoleonic period battlefield onto the tabletop. But at the same time, other aspects of the ruleset are surprisingly ‘gamey’.

The most evident example of ‘gamey’ approach is without a doubt the ‘Dispersal Point’. In it's entirety, this game mechanism is a fair bit more complex, but it essentially means that units that have suffered 50%+ casualties are to be automatically removed from the battlefield. Let’s disregard the historical implications of that rule, although it is quite amusing to wonder over how Napoleon would react if one of his marshals told him ‘Sir, this or that battalion has now lost half its strength, so it will be leaving the battle line now, if you don’t mind.’. My main objection to this approach to unit breaking due to excessive casualties is directed against its deterministic character and how it influences the players during the ‘battle’. If I know that a unit will literally disappear when it reaches a predetermined ratio of casualties, I will play in a way that will achieve that goal. That’s where ‘gamey’ factor enters the picture in my opinion. Real commanders didn’t think in such way, simply because there is no nicely predetermined “breakage point” on a real battlefield.

Same gamey approach can also be found in rules for melee, where number of casualties is predetermined by number and unit type of participants. A player can therefore calculate in advance exactly how big his casualties will be in any melee. Considering the chaotic nature of melee, that is a very generous approach to this aspect of the game.

My problem with both of those mechanisms is, as already indicated, caused by the blanket of certainty they provide to the players. I will therefore try to ‘muddle the water’ a bit in coming games with couple of house rules. In regard of melee casualty rates, I’m toying with the idea of opposing die rolls that will modify those neatly predetermined numbers. For example, the ruleset says that in a basic infantry melee the winning side inflicts 1 casualty per 6 figures, while losers inflict 1 casualty per 12 figures. An opposed die roll with D4 could then be applied to casualty rates of both sides, thus providing a spread of -3 to 3 random modifier to the butcher’s bill. Elite troops could roll with D6 dice, giving them additional punch in shock combat.

Dealing with ‘dispersion point’ is a bit more difficult and I still haven’t come up with a house rule that I like. To be fair, it has to be said that individual battalions are quite resilient in GdeB and automatic removal of units with 50%+ casualties certainly does speed up the game. But as I mentioned before, the deterministic character of this rule really bothers me and I will have to do something about it.

and the ‘meeh’

If there is a single section of the ruleset that I really don’t like, then it’s the rules that govern the risk to general officers. Basically, they are toothless. Possibility of something bad happening to a commanding officer is triggered by a result of double sixes in any dice roll used for resolution of fire or melee. Thus, statistically, a chance for a bad thing happening is 1 in 36, a very low probability indeed. Another roll with two D6 is then required to determine nature of the event. What I don’t understand is why, considering the already low probability of ‘bad things’ happening to officers, about 30% of results on effect table has no effect whatsoever!

Another issue that I have with this mechanism is in its inability to deal with high risk decision of placing commanding officers in front of the troops. Leading from the front has always been regarded as noble and brave… and for a very good and rather obvious reason! Not so in ‘General de Brigade’ though. Letting brigade commanders to lead troops charging into a melee is in my opinion a no-brainer, simply because additional bonus in charge morale checks heavily outweighs possibility of them ‘buying the farm’ due to a random double six. Just to illustrate the inadequacy of this method, I’d like to remind the reader of a situation in my game where a French battalion suffered 10 out of 26 figures in casualties during a single melee. That’s  more than one soldier in three. Needless to say, the brigade commander who led them from the front didn’t even get a scratch during that engagement.

Final thoughts

Let me be clear on one point - don’t let my critique give you the impression that General de Brigade is a bad ruleset. My opinion is in fact quite opposite – it is apparent that a lot of thought was dedicated to it being able to realistically recreate a Napoleonic battle at battalion/brigade level. However, there are in my opinion certain aspects in this ruleset that are  ‘compromised’ for the sake of the gameplay. Some may live with it, others will feel the need to ‘correct’ this or that aspect of the game. After all, that’s the beauty and the curse of our hobby – no ruleset survives the first contact with a gamer.

Eckmuhl Redux–Part III

As promised in previous post, I’m now posting the final part of after action report for assault at Lachling villages. The narrative of this post resumes after L. decided to “quit the field”. Thus, all events described in this post were controlled/caused by yours truly.

Before I continue with the tale of what turned out to be a mammoth of a game , a short recapitulation of situation on the table seems suitable. After twelve game rounds, Unterlachling was safely in French hands, while the massive Austrian garrison of Oberlachling was about to be assaulted by a slightly weaker French brigade. Furthermore, an inconclusive low level skirmish was going on for a couple of rounds on the high ground behind the villages.

Those who pay attention will upon examination of pictures below discover that two of Austrian units – those pesky Cheval Legeres on left French flank and light artillery battery on the other edge of the battlefield have mysteriously disappeared from the field. The reason for those somewhat peculiar disappearances is quite simple – upon rereading the rules I’ve discovered a rather important rule saying any unit suffering over 50 percent casualties is to be immediately removed from the table. L. and I completely missed this rather significant rule, but fortunately I could apply it to relevant units without any problems.

Assault on Oberlachling

At the time L. and I called it the day, the focus of our attention was at Oberlachling, where two French battalions were finally ready to storm the village. In his last action of the game L. prepared for the blow by increasing the garrison of the village to maximum allowed number. It was now held by two line battalions. Defenders in the village were also supported by yet another battalion deployed on the outskirts of the settlement. This extremely strong position was now to be frontally assaulted by two French battalions.

French assault is launched…

During the couple of days that passed between the end of “second session” and the time when I picked up the dice to continue the game on my own, I came to the realisation that the French assault with forces available at that moment will probably end in a bloody repulse. Thus, my first action on the evening I resumed the game was an attempt to recall the assault order. I failed and two French columns charged forward against my better judgement. They were met by crushing point blank salvo from Austrians hiding in the houses, which was enough to stop one of the French battalions (falter result on pre-charge morale check) in its tracks. In the melee that followed, the French were to my great surprise almost successful in ejecting the enemy from the village, but there were simply to many defenders. After suffering over 25 percent casualties, the attackers were obliged to retreat, which they managed to do in good order.

…and is repulsed!

French battalion that stalled in front of the village suffered much worse fate. Unable to move, it was hammered by Austrian fire in following round and promptly routed. They were however not quick enough and after upon taking additional casualties reached the dispersal point and were removed from the field.

Austrians didn’t have it all their way though. In following rounds, the battalion supporting the defenders of the village came under murderous fire from French artillery battery and skirmishers from right flank brigade. They were sent to support the doomed attack on the village, but arrived to late. Now though, they had their chance to take their pound of flesh. For a while I hoped (of course only while I had French general’s bicorne on my head) that the Austrians would break after taking huge casualties. However, due to a rather inventive rules interpretation, I managed to get the exposed unit out of harms way and hide them inside the village just before they reached their dispersal point.
 

French payback!

Net result of the assault on Oberlachling – one ruined French brigade and one Austrian battalion reduced to less than 70 percent of its strength.

Meanwhile, somewhere not far away…

…French light brigade, after forcing opposing artillery battery to retire from the field, slowly advanced toward the main Austrian defensive line which was hiding in the woods covering the heights behind Unterlachling. Deployed in open order, the French were a much harder target to hit than Austrians deployed in massive, but unwieldy lines. Austrian casualties soon started to mount, causing the struck battalion to retreat in panic. For a moment it looked as if French would simply roll up the Austrian flank one battalion at a time.

French light infantry playing hide and seek with the Austrians

This hope/fear was however short-lived – next Austrian battalion that the French encountered delivered a devastating salvo into their opponents, causing one of French units to disperse due to reaching excessive casualties (yes, the dispersion point has been reached). Pressing on with a single battalion, itself already significantly reduced in strength, was pointless. Thus, I had no choice but to recall the remnants of the light brigade back to Unterlachling in following round.

Re-evaluation and decisive actions

Once the action on the high ground behind the villages petered out, I realised that French were in trouble. True, Unterlachling was taken and held in strength, but the brigade holding the left flank was shot to pieces and was by now to weak to accomplish its objective even with help of still fresh Bavarian reinforcements. All those troops now could do was to hold their position and hope that the Austrians didn’t counter-attack.

Of course this was exactly what I decided to do once I exchanged French bicorne for Austrian general’s casket. Task to crush the French brigade was given to the brigade which held the central part of the high ground and which was completely fresh. Its battalions were to move as quickly as possible to the right of Oberlachling and once reaching that position, to decide the day by smashing the enemy in front of them.

Taking the decision wasn’t a problem. Getting the huge Austrian battalions to move was a different matter. It took a lot of time for them to change formation and arrive to their assigned jump-off positions. This allowed for the French to prepare for the onslaught. Artillery was placed in flanking position, lines were straightened out… Nor was it all. Seeing that significant part of Austrian forces holding the heights was now abandoning their positions, I decided for one last desperate French gamble – high ground behind Unterlachling was to be attacked yet again!

Austrians getting into jump-off position

French forming for yet one more attack on the high ground behind the villages

Thus, the final act of this game consisted of two almost simultaneous assaults on opposing ends of the battlefield. French attack turned almost into a disaster, as two of the three battalions initially refused to charge the Austrian line. Second battalion of 57:th actually failed twice in a row, thus gaining the distinction of failing all three of its charge morale tests in the game – so much for its elite status! Fortunately, its sibling battalion upheld the regimental reputation and swiftly broke its opponents, thus buying time for the rest of French force to recover and dislodge the remaining Austrians from their positions. Both Austrian battalions that broke in this action failed to recover in their subsequent morale check, thus making this desperate assault a complete success!

Vive le Emperor!

Austrian assault offered its own set of surprises, although of different variety. As the brigade dedicated to the task moved forward, I  decided to reinforce it by an additional battalion from the brigade holding the Oberlachling. Following the rules of General de Brigade, to be able to do this I had to create a new brigade, out of necessity commanded by the CinC himself. The problem was that Austrian CinC wasn’t the sharpest tool in the toolbox and completely out of position. Sorting things out took therefore some time, but finally everybody was ready and Austrian columns started to move toward the enemy.

Austrian CinC General Davidovich explains intricacies of chain of command according to General de Brigade to one of his brigade commander

Austrian assault finally on its way with Davidovich leading rightmost batalion in person!

At first sight, Austrian force consisting of three huge line battalions and smaller Carl Erzhog militia unit seemed unstoppable. Bavarians holding extreme left flank of French line took were shot to pieces after putting up short, but spirited resistance. Next, the French battalion previously mauled by Austrian cavalry simply dissolved just before being charged. And then, just as it seemed that the French line would simply fall apart, things started to go wrong for the Austrians. A failed charge morale check for one of the battalions in the middle of Austrian line separated the unit under command of Austrian CinC from the rest of his forces. This unfortunate unit now came under wittering fire from the front as well as from the rear. Extreme French luck with dice not only did turn this unlucky unit into an uncontrollable mob, it also made Austrian CinC to panic, ride off in wrong direction and become captured by somewhat perplexed French infantrymen.

French defence line crumbles…

…and bites back!

Under other circumstances this event could have decided the entire engagement, but not this time though. Neither the unexpected rout of one of Austrian battalions nor loss of their CinC managed to affect the remaining units in noticeable way, which realigned their line and commenced with what can only be described as mopping up of French remnants still present nearby.

Situation at the end of the game

All good things…

By that time I’ve played over thirty rounds and was nearing a whooping total of twenty hours playing time. French side had a strong grip on Unterlachling and controlled for the moment the high ground behind the villages. However, the Austrians wiped out one of French brigades and it was easy to see that given time, they had enough troops to win everything they lost by weight of numbers alone. I put the French general’s bicorne on my head and with deep sigh gave orders for general withdrawal. Assault on Lachling villages failed for a second time.

Eckmulh Redux–Part II

So… by the time L. and I decided to temporarily cease the hostilities, the situation on the battlefield was, seen from the French side, as follows:

• Two battalions of French light infantry were engaged in indecisive duel with an Austrian 6pdr battery.
• Defenders of Unterlachling were expelled, but Austrian line between that village and Oberlachling remained intact.
• French brigade on the left flank suffered heavy setback when one of its battalions was ridden down by Austrian cavalry, but rest of brigade was now in jump-off position for a frontal assault on the village… or so everybody thought.

When we picked up the game couple of days later, L. set a time limit of two hours (more on that later). During those two hours we managed in rather brisk tempo to get through five game rounds, which in itself was rather impressive, considering the fact that in the initial session we got through six rounds in five hours. Conclusion – GdeB is not the most rapid of rulesets, but once you get a grip of it, the pace increases significantly.

Of course, the five rounds we played through would be even more impressive, if we actually managed to achieve anything substantial during their course! Instead, we had to endure one of the most anti-climactic and non-eventful game session I can remember.

So what happened? Well, yours truly bears most of the responsibility. There were times when I as a spectator was amazed over how unimaginative some players are when they find themselves stuck in the middle of the crisis on the tabletop; this time around it was my turn to give general Mack run for the money. But hey, I do have an excuse! You know, the usual one – my dice was broken and refused to roll anything higher than 4 throughout the evening!

During the interlude I had plenty of opportunity to study the situation on the battlefield (after all, why not take opportunity of the fact that it’s smack in the middle of my living room ) and decided to concentrate on ejection of Austrians from Oberlachling. Once it was taken,  I intended to commence general assault on their second line on the heights.

First setback of the evening came almost as soon as we resumed the game – it was then that I discovered that those two battalions that were in range for assault on Oberlachling…weren’t. So that round was wasted on a final march toward the village. In next round another horrid realization stopped the assault cold in its tracks – this time around I discovered there was no commander in range to give the order for French assault. Brigade commander was chased of with the battalion that was previously routed by Austrian cavalry and my CinC was busy picking his nose at a some distant location. So another round went by, this time on getting my commanding officers in right positions, while 1200 French infantrymen some hundred meters in front of Oberlachling wondered when the show would get on the road.

In round three everything was finally ready for the assault that the rest of French army was waiting for. Officers issued necessary commands, drummer boys started to hammer signals, scattered voices shouted ‘Vive le Emperor’… and nothing happened – I failed morale check for both battalions, turning them into hesitant, uncontrollable mobs (or as the condition is known in GdeB terms, they ‘Faltered’). It would take all of next round to sort that mess out and let’s not forget – during all that time, half of Austrian line battalion continuously poured musket fire into hapless French ranks.

Assault on Oberlachling stalls

By that time L’s Cheval-Légeres recovered from their glorious charge and that fact seemed to reinvigorate L., who up to that point was suitably passive (he was supposed to be Austrian general after all!). He pushed his cavalry forward one more time, ordered another battalion into Oberlachling and to make things even more interesting, gave orders to retake Unterlachling.

Allt this Austrian activity and my preparatory responses took the rest of remaining rounds by the time we reached our limit of two hours, only two of L’s orders were completed and, one must say, with mixed results. Oberlachling’s garrison was doubled doubled in size. The village has suddenly turned out to be a tough nut to crack for my two battalions, which by that time had sorted their formations, but were by rather mauled by original defenders of the village. Activities of L’s. Cheval-Légeres were less fortuitous – they impaled themselves on a square formed by their former victims, who now had their gruesome revenge. Austrian attempt to re-take Unterlachling was on its way and would have been launched in next round, if we continued to play.

French infantry gets some payback

Inconclusive action at Unterlachling,
Austrian counter-assault moves toward the village

French light infantry duelling with Austrian battery

Alas, the two hours were up, the battlefield looked pretty much the same as at the start of the evening’s session and we had reached the end of yet another inconclusive game. Which leads us to the next part of this post with title…

What the heck is wrong with us?

I don’t know how things work in other wargamer communities, but in our group a typical game looks like this: we set up the game, we play for a couple of hours, one or two guys must leave early, if we’re lucky a breakthrough takes place somewhere in the lines, we extrapolate from that event what would happen if we continued the game, we pack up and go home. The funny thing is though that in nine times of ten, this “critical” breakthrough that made us quit isn’t really that critical at all, while the “defeated” army has plenty of reserves to recover from its setback and the game is most probably far from being decided, but folks had their fill for the day and want to go home. Perhaps I’m alone in this opinion, but I find games of that type more and more frustrating and unfulfilling. It is slightly incomprehensible to me that, considering the amount of time it takes to paint the figures and prepare the terrain, we can’t find the time and engagement necessary to actually “consume” the fruit of all preceding efforts.

Well, not this time. Like I mentioned before, the “battlefield” is in my living room and this time around I intend to play this game on my own until I have reached to the point where a decision has been reached.

OK, rant hat off. Check this space, part III of this AAR (Solo edition) will follow soon.

Eckmuhl Redux–PART I

Yesterday I had a chance to have another run at General de Brigade rules and the Eckmuhl scenario L. and I played couple of months ago. For details about the scenario itself have a look at my first AAR.

Preparations and deployment

This time around, I’ve made slight changes to the terrain layout – I added one hex row to the width of the “battlefield”, thus increasing the distance between the villages. To add a bit of variety to the scenario and break up LOS (Scenarios in GdeB scenario books from Partizan are notorious in this respect with maps providing information only about prominent terrain features), I’ve randomly scattered clumps of heavy vegetation all over the place. The other addition, plowed fields, are there for purely aesthetic purposes.

Once again, it became my responsibility to lead the French to victory. Remembering lessons learned from the first game, this time around I decided to stick with the KISS-principle – I decided to commit my line infantry brigades to a brute frontal assault, one brigade each against the two villages.  The remaining brigade (consisting of two battalions elite light infantry) would this time around be ordered to move as quickly as possible on my right flank and pin the enemy on the high ground behind the settlements, thus hopefully disturbing any counter-attacks before I took control of the settlements. Finally, I deployed my single battery in the middle, between my line infantry brigades, with intention of causing as much mayhem as possible among Austrian infantry deployed between the villages.

Austrian deployment in this scenario is rather hamstrung by deployment instructions – each of the villages must be garrisoned by a brigade, while the remainder of the troops is to be placed on the high ground behind them.  The one significant change in L’s initial dispositions when compared with previous our game consisted of his decision to properly garrison the villages themselves. He placed one line infantry battalion in each of them and deployed rest of two brigades in his first defensive line between the settlements, thus securing the flanks of his defensive position. Remaining infantry was deployed on the heights behind, as per scenario instructions.

The game – day one

Yes, you read correctly – day one, since we had to split this “little” engagement over two days and at the moment this text is being written, the battle is still very much undecided and hanging in balance!

We managed to get through seven rounds during first sitting. The game developed in rather predictable fashion. During initial phases the French advance was pretty much undisturbed, if one disregards the fire from lone Austrian battery in the middle of L’s line. As my light brigade came into range, the other Austrian battery joined the fight and drew their first blood.

Pace picked up as my troops came near the village. By that time, L. got his Cheval-Légere regiment into position where they would become a major disturbance on my left flank. Their first action was to chase away my skirmish screen. That pushy behaviour was rewarded by a rather devastating salvo from outermost French infantry battalion, but that didn’t chase them away for long. Once they turned around, they parked themselves on the outer flank of troops in Oberlachning, effectively hindering one of my battalions from storming the village (GdeB rules hinder charges of any kind within half charge range of an enemy cavalry unit). I decided to wait for a turn – a decision that turned out to be horrific. In one of the last actions of the day, L now boldly ordered a charge against the my line battalion, still formed in column and too close to their assailants to form square. It was a close fight, but in the end my column was pushed back and retreated, with one third of its soldiers laying dead or wounded on the ground. The only reason why the engagement didn’t turn into complete disaster was that L.’s Cheval-Légeres blew their horses in the charge and had to retreat and reform behind their lines.

Assault against Unterlachning developed according to the French script. Once in range, two battalions of 57e Ligne charged into the village in a bold bayonet charge, swiftly ejecting its Austrian defenders. Or at least that was my intention, ‘cause in fact, only one of French battalions went in, the other deciding to sit this one out in last second (failed morale check before charge). Fortunately, that was enough and Le Terrible 57e managed to keep its reputation intact.

In the meantime, a vicious little fight developed between my light brigade and artillery on the heights behind the village. Frenchmen, in open formation, kept the battery under fire, but they paid the price. At this time, that engagement is still undecided.

French right flank…

…and the left flank

Austrian perspective

Taking of Unterlachning

Cheval-Légeres victorious at Unterlachling

First taste of General de Brigade

There are times when I have serious concerns about my approach to wargaming. My General de Brigade-project is a perfect case in point. I bought the ruleset some six year ago. Never read it, but decided nevertheless that it would be THE Napoleonic ruleset for me. Started painting 6mm Adler miniatures shortly after that decision and yesterday I was finally able to play my first real game.

The scenario

For the inaugural game we used first scenario from first of scenario books for General de Brigade - Hilaire's assault on villages of Ober Laichling and Unter Laichling, which were part of the battle at Eckmuhl. In my opinion it's a perfect introductory scenario to the ruleset. It is relatively small - about ten batallions and some artillery on each side. French side enjoys better troop quality, but that is balanced by Austrian advantage in regard of artillery and the fact that they field the only cavalry unit on the battlefield.

The objective of the scenario is simple - French need to take both villages and the high ground behind them. The Austrians need to stop the French. In other words, the scenario is perfect tool for training of both the defensive and offensive tactics.

Initial deployments

As a French commander without a clue, I decided to keep things simple. Two brigades would concentrate on Unter Laichling, take it as quickly as possible, then press on to the hill. Austrians positioned at Ober Laichling would in the meantime be pinned down in place by my last remaining brigade and hopefully be cut off by the time I took the high ground behind them.

 
The game begins

Part of the fun of Napoleonic games at this level (with individual battalions as maneuver elements) lies in the intricacies of initial deployment. General de Brigade offers full scope of possibilities in this area - battalions can deploy in line, columns of companies/divisions, squares and different types of open order/skirmish formations.

Selection of appropriate formation and correct orders (assault, engage, move, support, hold, retreat) is essential for success. My main assault formation was formed in following fashion: brigade in front was under engage orders, formed in single line, four battalions abreast, protected by its skirmish screen. It was supported by second brigade formed in columns by division to its rear. The idea behind that deployment was for front brigade to soften up Unter Laichling's defenders with musket fire. Once that goal had been achieved, the Austrians would get a taste of the bayonets of the rear brigade.

Ober Laichling would be engaged by two light battalions deployed in open order. The advantage of that formation is that troops deployed in this manner shoot as effectively as conventional line formation, but are themselves harder to hit due to looser ranks.

French assault formation
(seemed like such a brilliant idea at the time)

Austrians are initially deployed in rather predictable manner - one brigade each in and around the villages, the rest on the high ground. To my surprise, L. and H. choose to deploy their "village" brigades in front of build up areas, a decision which would have some consequences. Cavalry reserve is deployed behind the hill, out of the sight of French commander.

Austrian troops at Unter Laichling

Austrian reserve on the high ground
behind the villages

The game

Events of the game can be described in a couple of sentences. My main assault force marched slowly but surely toward their destination and was immediately fired upon by H.'s 6-pounder battery. My skirmish screen rushed forward, got too close to Austrian main line and was promptly repulsed, suffering 25 percent casualties. This exposed my battalions in line to artillery fire, increasingly accurate as they closed the distance. My leftmost battalion was severely mauled and broke as soon as my formation came into Austrian musket range. It failed to recover (some bad dice rolling on my part resulted in its dispersion during the rally attempt). However, the remaining battalions of front brigade engaged in a firefight with Austrian infantry and duly forced one of opposing battalions to beat hasty retreat.

  Almost there…

The moment for the assault on Unter Laichling has now arrived... and my lacking knowledge of the rules was ruthlessly exposed. While setting up my formation, I was aware of the fact that my second line would have to pass through the battalions in front. To be able to do that, both units participating in the interpenetration have however to make a so called Formation Test. Failure results in unformed units, which are pretty much helpless and need to spend one turn to reform. Horrid dice rolling resulted in five out of  seven battalions becoming unformed. Luckily the two battalions that managed to keep cohesion belonged to the assault brigade. Unluckily, one of them broke due to casualties taken just before it came into contact with the Austrian line, while the other one faltered in its pre-charge test and refused to move forward. A complete French fiasco was now a fact.

 
Stalled French assault, Austrian reinforcements
can be seen marching in the background

In the meantime, another type of engagement took place at Uber Laichling. My light battalions, deployed in open order advanced toward Austrian position and engaged the enemy. L. countered by sending his light cavalry regiment toward my flank, forcing me to form square with my leftmost battalion. The other battalion kept on fighting and even managed to break the opposing Austrian battalion. Nevertheless, both I and my opponents recognized the fact that my position was precarious, to say the least - with cavalry threatening my flank and Austrian reinforcements with clearly hostile intentions moving toward me, it was dubious I could stay in contact with the enemy without risking total annihilation of the brigade.

Left flank - French light infantry in precarious position

Overall picture at the end of the game

Austrian perspective at Unter Laichling

"Luckily" we never found out the fate of my stranded assault force and its exposed flank protectors, because at that time we decided to break off the engagement due to usual bane of all inconclusive tabletop battles - we were hungry and wanted to eat dinner. :-)

The ruleset

So... was my rather hasty decision to nominate General de Brigade as my Napoleonic ruleset of choice all those years ago a correct one? It's far too early to give a definitive answer to that question, but the first impression is absolutely a positive one. There is nothing revolutionary about this set of rules, in fact I would go as far as saying that it's rather conventional both in regard of game sequence and mechanics. However, it has to be said the same time that it manages to deliver that distinct Napoleonic feeling and that is the main selling point for me.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the basics rules do make perfect sense and are therefore quite easy to absorb. Command and control, movement, formation changes and firing are based on simple game mechanics, which most players should be able to memorize without difficulties after a couple of games. Charges and melees do seem a bit involved and require some fiddling with distances between units and morale checks, but I guess it's unavoidable for a ruleset at this unit level. The difficult part will be in remembering all the "chrome" rules of which there are quite a few, but since they add value to the game, then even that should be achieved with time without any problems. Overall, we all agreed that General de Brigade is a solid ruleset and we are looking forward to next French attempt to take those pesky villages of Laichling.

Stop the presses!

It was bound to happen sooner or later – I’m actually done with a project!

Some time ago I started to paint first batch of 6mm Napoleonic French with the intention to run a test game with General De Brigade rules. Object of my interest was one of the smallest scenarios in first scenario book for abovementioned ruleset - Hilaire's  assault on Laichling villages during battle of Ekmuhl. At the time it seemed like a relatively quick job - eleven batalions for the French, ten battalions and some cavalry for the Austrian, three batteries of artillery. How long would it take to paint up those figures? I expected to be done in six or seven weeks, at the most.

Well... those six to seven weeks turned out to be closer to five years, but who's counting, right? The important thing is that I am done - all figures are painted and based, bases are flocked, flags are mounted.

Below is the first batch of pictures - eight battalions of French Line infantry, ready for action.