Dipping my toes into Napoleonics

The voltigeurs abandoned the relative safety of Derevushka to take position North of the Russian line and fired a well-aimed volley at the opposing 1st Line infantry. This allowed the bloodied Guard to move into the hamlet for a more stable position, while the French 1st Line infantry held its ground.

The French 2nd Line and Polish Line infantry to the South fired a volley into the approaching Russian attack columns, bloodying them, while French artillery cut through the Russian 2nd with a well-aimed shot, sending body parts flying. True to their reputation the obdurate Russians stoiccally stood their ground, however.

Russian return fire was less effective and failed to cause significant wounds among the French. Even the imposing barrage from the artillery was not enough to seriously wound the French 2nd. Whereas the Russian columns had been advancing steadily, they have now been halted, continuous fire from the French line keeping them from charging in with their bayonets.

On the flanks the French chasseurs gave the opposing cossacks a bloody nose and thus continued to slowly grind them down. The cossacks fired frantically at them, failing to hit anything, but still managed to regroup after each successive French charge. On the Southern flank the Russian cuirassiers, supported by the cossacks, launched a coordinated attack against their French counterparts. While the cossacks strafed them with carbine fire, the cuirassiers frontally crashed into each other. A melee ensued, where the Russians were able to press the initiative and hew enough enemies down to force a retreat. The French veteran cavalry was able to regroup, however, and now endanger the flanks of the Russian attack columns!

The rules as a whole are short and sweet, but would have benefited from some more explanation or examples. This is true, for example, for the rules on retreating. It is written that if a unit loses combat, it immediately retreats backwards in a straight light. If they run into another unit, friend or foe, the retreating unit is lost. The rules say nothing about board edge, however. Whereas the table I’m playing on falls within the recommended table size, I find it a bit too small, which means that retreating cavalry would often have left the board edge. Would this also destroy them? Until now I’ve allowed units to maneuver while retreating, but this has now meant that the French cuirassiers have gained a very advantageous position. What do you think?

Lessons in tactics

Russian columns advance….and then wait? This is more of a tactical observation that one on the rules, except that it has to do with the rule that line infantry can only charge other line infantry if the defenders have fewer bases. With the Southern part of the Russian line in attack columns, there hasn’t been enough firepower from the Russian side (or too many misses) to bloody the French enough to allow a charge. So were the Russians unlucky? Maybe. I feel that I should have deployed at least one to line and then reformed when the time came. The trouble with the Russians, however, is that they have the rule “sluggish infantry”, which means that they need to commit a whole turn to changing formation. Food for thought!