A Napoleonic bash - General D'Armee

Last Saturday Scrivs hosted a pretty spectacular 100 days game of General D'Armee.. all of the 28mm figures and terrain were from his collection and he acted as GM/host for the day, taking Tom and I through the game as neither of us had played before.

I took charge of the British, facing Tom's French.

You can see a good account of the game on Scrivs blog .

My movement was limited to pushing out skirmishers and swinging out the right wing of my infantry (both forces held their cavalry in reserve off table).

Tom advanced his French in columns, bring up a battery on to a central hill. Lucky for me, some crucial failures to retain command caused Toms left Brigade to halt and delay their advance to contact, giving me a chance to fire and eventually drive off that battery.

In the centre, Tom spotted a weak spot and pushed hard against the Hanoverians who held on grimly, seeing off repeated assaults and replenishing their line with fresh troops. Meanwhile, my guns kept up a steady barrage on the advancing columns.

On my left the French made steady progress, whilst Toms most rearward battery failed to score any real hits (apart from on themselves!)

Sensing a chance to break through as a couple of British units on the right softened up, Tom's cavalry arrived. I anticipated that and brought my own dragoons on to see if they could counter that threat.

By this point, our time was up.. both Tom and I having to take our leave, so we called it a 'winning draw' for the French (although of course, like any good gamer, I could argue that it could have gone either way!)

All in all, good fun and spectacular game. The rules emphasise command friction and choices, and although there were a few more lookups / modifiers than we're used to these days, it didn't feel like one of those old rulesets from the gold old card cover days :-)

Do I regret selling my Prussian army? maybe.

The armies deployed

British right wing advance

British centre and left wing

The French advance

French columns close on the British left

British guns did sharp work all day

Infantry close and exchange fire on the British right

View from the French left

View of the French right

A view across the table as the forces closed

The British centre under some pressure

The Hanoverians give a good account

Clash on the left

Across the table the smoke thickens

British dragoons arrive to counter the arrival of French cavalry

As we left the day, French bruised but still pushing

A German affair..

On Tuesday my Prussians took to the field for a game against Quint's Austrians. As this was more of a 'test' than a proper game, we didn't concern ourselves too much with points or strictly accurate formations.. If I remember rightly;

The Austrians 

CinC
Cavalry Brigade with two small regiments, one of Dragoons, one tough Cuirassiers
Infantry Brigade with 4 Hungarian battalions and one Grenadier
Infantry Brigade with 2 Grenadier battalions and two 12 per gun batteries

My Prussians were more numerous but lower quality generally..

CinC
Cavalry Brigade of Dragoons and Hussars. Both regiments larger than the Austrians
Infantry Brigade with 3 Landwehr battalions, Two line musket and 1 Light (Fusilier), supported by a medium Gun battery
Infantry Brigade with 3 Landwehr Battalions, Two Reserve infantry battalions and a medium gun battery in support

As we were playing on  fairly small table, I struggled to deploy my fat blue line with any room for manoeuvre.. however, I placed my horse out on the left, decided to hold the centre with one Infantry brigade and to push on my right with the other. 

(Only had my phone again, and in poor light, so apologies for crap pictures..)

Early moves, Prussians on the left

The Austrians came on in good order in the centre, taking just about enough fire to keep them at bay, whilst stretched command distances made my right wing very slow to move into position.

The main lines draw closer

Reserves manoevre on the Prussian Right

The Armchairs (!) form a stout line

Some notable events included a heroic cavalry skirmish which saw the Prussians numbers make the difference, and terrifying and devastating fire from the Austrian guns, who expertly manhandled, deployed and loosed a very accurate volley at the Fusiliers, driving them off the field in dismay.

The cavalry about to join

The rules are Quint and Ade's own and mostly use D10s a system of accumulated morale/damage and a simple but very effective way of limiting command ability. There are a couple of areas to tweak and define but they are easy to pick up and give a good game.. the intention being that they give a good Napoleonic game, and not a generic horse and musket war-game. 

Our battle drew to a close before we really reached a proper outcome but our analysis was that it was fairly balanced at that point..

The climax of the action

Napoleonic Goodness

This morning I popped down to the Polly to join Quint and Ade who are play-testing their upcoming Napoleonic rules. Apart from the obvious pleasures of a table full of gorgeous painted 28mm Napoleonics, it is always interesting to be in on the thought processes and get some understanding of (and hopefully some input into) how a particular rules set comes about. Quint generously gave me the Austrian cavalry on the right wing to 'command' and I resisted the urge to send them charging in straight away (I struggle to 'get' cavalry, usually abuse them badly)

My Prussians were too late arriving today to appear on the table, but hopefully will get an airing soon.

The battle did not get too far as there was quite a bit of debate (all positive and constructive), and explanation of concepts.. however, an enjoyable way to spend a few hours on a Saturday!

I took some pictures on my phone, not expecting much.. they actually didn't come out too badly, so I shall share here.. I can't claim credit for any figures or terrain, everything is Ade and Quint..