The One In Which I Play Napoleonics

Having got my Commission Figurine figures all ready for the Cotswold Wargames Day on Sunday, I needed to decide upon a scenario and, more importantly, give it a run out in advance to see how it played. I settled upon a favourite of mine, from the late Stuart Asquith book 'Wargames Scenarios For All Ages', and tweaked the OOB slightly to try and fit in with the day and Black Powder II. 

Looking at the scenario, and others of this ilk, they seem to be very much geared towards the SYW or Napoleonics, which is no bad thing, but making them work for say the ACW or the FPW might be more difficult. For the trial run I decided to give the Napoleonics option a run out, just to see how I felt playing this period, whether I was comfortable with it, and of course to make sure it gave a broadly decent and fun game.

So I set the board up, my normal 4'x4' one, but at the show the table will be the standard 6'x4'. Both sides had roughly the same number of troops, with slight variance in the types of Cavalry available. The objective was pretty simple in that both sides needed to be in control of the bridge at the end of the game.

I took some photos as I went, so not a traditional AAR, but hopefully the captioned photos will give you an idea of how things panned out. So without further ado.

An overview of the table, with Red coming on from the right and the bottom, Blue from the left and the top.

The inn of the Sixth Happiness next to the bridge. I am trying to get a stone one painted for the show, but it might be tight to get it finished in time.

The walled Chateau or more correctly, a fortified manor house, as per the scenario.

The Red force on the right.

The Red force on the bottom.

The Blue force on the top.

The Blue force on the left. These would arrive on a random Turn, determined by a dice roll. In the end this would be Turn 2.

The end of Turn 2. Both sides have reached the bridge, and some firing has begun. The arrival of the Blue force from the left has forced the Red units to react to their arrival.

Dragoons ready to charge some Hussars. This will not end well for the Hussars.

Red struggles to deploy because of the woods.

Red approaches the bridge and the very defensible positions of the inn and the chateau.

A Cavalry clash that will end up badly for Red in the long run.

Blue for square and deploy their artillery in case the Blue Cavalry are defeated.

The end of Turn 4. The fighting intensifies around the woods and the bridge. Neither side has yet got the upper hand.

Blue struggle to advance as Red deploys a refused flank to meet the threat.

Light Infantry from both sides are in the woods and firing upon the enemy Line Infantry.

Red's numbers make it hard to deploy between the inn and the chateau.

Both sides have lost some Cavalry and has withdrawn to recover as best they can.

The end of Turn 6. Blue has the advantage on the Cavalry front, having destroyed all of Red's Cavalry. However the Blue Infantry as struggling, with one Brigade broken and in retreat.

Blue Dragoons ready to pounce on the Shaken and Disordered Red Line Infantry.

A Blue Infantry Brigade fall back and retreat from the bridge, broken due to heavy casualties.

Blue have crossed the river to threaten the Red right flank, but they can easily occupy the chateau and it will be hard to shift them from it.

Red have a very strong position by the bridge.

Ditto by and in the inn.

End of Game

At this point I called the game as a broad draw, as time was against me and I had learned plenty from the run through of the scenario. Blue had a Cavalry advantage to threated Red's LoC, but Blue would struggle to shift Red from the BUA's near to the bridge. So neither side could claim a decisive victory in my view.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was fun and rather a steep learning curve on how to try and play Napoleonics with BPII, as I'm not very au fait with the period! But it has whetted my appetite for more, whether with these rules of 'Shadow of the Eagles'. Anyway, a few thoughts on the game:

• For BPII, I certainly need a 6' x 4' table, as if you get off a good command roll, you can be on or near the objective in one Turn.
• I allowed all the units to arrive via the table edge, rather than in column of march, purely to speed things up. For the show I will use the column of march approach to give time for the action to develop. However I will allow Cavalry and Light Infantry to come on via the table edge to reflect their general flank protection role.
• The chateau was too large and gave Red a massive defensive advantage, so I will reduce it to just one building for the show. It will also give a bit more room for deployment as it was somewhat of a bottleneck by the bridge.
• To keep things simple, I will probably class all Cavalry as Dragoons, to try and make them stay on the table a bit longer, as the Heavy Cavalry felt too powerful and the Hussars to weak.
• I think I may need to tweak the number of units in the game, as it all felt a bit crowded, but this may be down to my rather quick and dirty approach to the game, with trying the rules out my main aim. Something to ponder.
• The wood by the bridge was a tad too large, so I need to reduce the footprint or move it back away from the bridge to creat a bit more room, which I feel will make for a better game.
• The fields and crops were purely visual, but for the show and other games I will probably class them as rough ground, to help slow things down a bit, which will hopefully help on the manouevre front rather than racing straight to contact.
• I felt OK with the rules, but need to re-read some bits in light of the game and with a view to using them for Napoleonics, something I have not done before. Things such as Line Infantry forming into square, or Assault Columns, are not on my radar for my games, so a bit of a steep learning curve for me!

So now it's a case of getting everything packed and ready for an early Sunday morning start. Thanks for reading and as always, any comments greatly appreciated. I may even see some of you at the show...

TTFN.