Post-Beaumont Playtesting, p.1

Wanted to play out a pretty straightforward game using the book's "Pitched Battle" scenario on p.51. There are three others: Meeting Engagement, Rearguard Action, and Flank Attack. I rolled up the two forces getting:

French: 5 Infantry [2 Elite Guard], 1 Skirmisher [Elite], 2 Cavalry, 2 Artillery

Prussian: 4 Infantry [all Elite], 2 Skirmishers [Elite], 2 Cavalry, 2 Artillery

With the roll-off, the Prussians won and chose to Defend, rolling to Defend the West end of the table. Interestingly, this has more of the towns [black squares] so is perfect!  Pre-battle events result in both sides getting "Bogged Down" and losing a couple of units, so I decided it cancelled out and ignored it - the only effect would have been some extra table space and a shorter game, which didn't interest me!

Despite this being an "Attack / Defend" scenario, both sides get the same table set-up space, which is 5" deep on their end. This is a bit tight, so I made it 6". Anyway, Both will have to rush to take towns as victory goes to whoever holds 4 of the 7.

Below, the table at set-up:

An adaptation of Neil Thomas' adaptation and bathtubbing of Mars-la-Tour, aka Rezonville, below, obviously from his book:

I picked this table to play as a straight scenario as it saves me the trouble of setting up a new table later.  His "suggested" table layout is a bit sparse in scale to me.

Prussian Left Flank force: 2 Infantry, 1 Skirmisher, 1 Cavalry. Their job is to secure at least one town to their front and hold the one behind them.

Prussian Main Effort: 2 Infantry, 1 Skirmisher, 1 Cavalry, 2 Krupp Artillery. Their job is to support both advances with the Artillery, while securing at least one town to their front. I picked this as the main effort, because the next town has a wood next to it, so a covered attack for the Prussians, or a delaying point, as needed.

Overall, I think that the four towns are in the bag for the Prussians - they just have to hold them. No problem, right??

Below, the French deployed second [and get the first turn!] and put their Main Effort on their right, opposite the Prussian's weaker flank: 2 Guard Infantry, Voltigeur Skirmisher, 2 Cavalry [they are actually Prussian Hussars...I'm very short of French Cavalry that's ready to go, turns out!]. Their job is to drive forward at top speed and delay the Prussian advance with the Cavalry, while securing BOTH towns with the Guard. Pas de probleme, Monsieur!

French holding force on the left - their job is to hold the town to the rear, and take the one dead ahead, and hold it, preferably by occupying the woods. This should be doable if the cavalry can dominate the center for a turn or two. It has:

3 Ligne Infantry, 1 smoothbore Artillery, 1 Mitrailleuse Artillery. Goal is to take the ground then hold it with the awesome firepower at their disposal here.  

I should make up some fun rules for the Mitrailleuse, but for now they function just like a smoothbore gun, short ranged and low firepower until very close up - then much more dangerous.

For the first few turns, everyone dashed ahead. Below, the unopposed Prussian dragoons quickly threatened the advancing French left. In the distance, you can see the French horse doing the same to the Prussians, with the Guard behind.

Prussian column eating the cavalry's dust - as usual! Krupp guns get to the top of the gentle slope, guarded by the other dragoons. In front, the Prussian Skirmishers [these are Landwehr figures, but they really LOOK like they are skirmishing, so...]. In the distance, you can see that the Prussians barely got to the first town before they had to slow down due to the French cavalry. 

The French cavalry made an awesome delaying force - they enabled the Guard to take the first town unopposed, and get part way to the second. The cavalry then threatened the Prussian Skirmisher, supported by their Skirmishing Voltigeurs.

A close-up of the pretty - and animated - Rank and File Prussian Hussars, with R&F Guard behind, both in firing pose [a bit awkward on the small bases].

A couple turns later, the French Ligne occupied the town thanks to great maneuvering and fleet feet. Unfortunately, the Mitrailleuse battery was left behind to cover them, and the dragoons decided to try their luck since the Ligne had Prussian Infantry right keeping them busy - didn't stop the French from knocking off two Cavalry figs, however. More R&F cavalry, with Old Glory artillerists and gun.

Unfortunately, the Mitrailleuse rolled well on defensive fire, shot off a stand, the dragoons failed morale and lost another stand, and then rolled poorly in the melee as well.  They lost, 1 hit to 1 hit! They then retreated quickly, with only two FIGURES remaining... they will need a lot of help to rally, that's for sure!

At the game midpoint, French Player Turn 7, the situation is looking good for the French: in the North, the Guard have managed to isolate the last Prussian defender of the town, and are advancing upon it with two battalions. Their Skirmishers destroyed the Krupp guns with some great rolls, after the other dragoon unit failed to activate being out of Command Radius. The Voltigeurs then occupied the vacated hill. 

To the South, the two Prussian battalions in the woods are regretting their quick advance [or at least I am...] as it looks like they will neither take the town and lose the one behind them! The three French Ligne are pretty beat up, and the guns have been running around trying to do something and failing to do anything.

North flank, Turn 7.

South flank, Turn 7. With a 4-2 plus 2 gun advantage, I can't see how the Prussians will succeed here.

French Player Turn 8. They set up for a flank charge while moving the Artillery around the town to support the defense. Voltigeurs close in on the town at bottom.

Guard advances!

Prussian Turn 8. Sacre bleu! C'est impossible!  The Flank attack LOST [very bad dice] and in the shooting phases, the Prussiand got a clear edge, then charged into the town and managed to destroy the French holding it! They then occupied the town as the guns were just out of reach of their maximum pursuit distance. 

They decided to refresh themselves in the cafes a bit, anyway...

Next turn, the same Prussian heroes charge the other French Ligne in the flank and destroy them, too! They then pursue into the Artillery, but the fun ends there, as the Mitrailleuse battery shows them the meaning of real firepower [well, barely].

Meanwhile, to the North, the Guard make a sloppy attack but manage to rout the Prussians out of the town, The pursuit was successful, and the left Guard managed to contact the retreating Prussians who managed to get one hit while the Guard completely blew their roll and got none. Will the Prussians survive??

Nope - the Guard managed to shoot the Prussians down before they could even Turn around and face them!

Back in the center, the Hussars managed to rout the Skirmishers - barely. Taking a lot of casualties in the process, however.

Despite help from the Voltigeurs and one Ligne Infantry, the cavalry had to drive off the Prussian Skirmisher - the units were too depleted to have effective firepower.

Game end. French Player Turn 13. I thought the Prussians would turn things around with the amazing attack to the South, but they had lost too many units and eventually the two French Artillery batteries made their presence felt - they drop a lot of dice up close, and the Prussians weren't able to shoot the gunners fast enough. With 8/10 Prussian units destroyed, the game is over as the last two are isolated and dare not depart from the woods.

That was a pretty near thing, which makes sense as the forces were basically equal. In tactical terms, the French having the first move was a huge help, as the cavalry were set up to advance 24" and contain the Prussian advance to a few short moves. The French batteries were not used well, and didn't have any effect until the second half of the game. The Prussian batteries were engaged quickly and were shooting the heck out of the Guard, but they misjudged the threat of the French Skirmishers and Infantry, and ended up being shot down.

The Cavalry was used well by the French, but did nothing for the Prussians who added insult to injury by rolling poorly for them after handling them poorly. The Prussian Skirmishers were a lot more effective, but ultimately couldn't handle French Infantry battalions closing in, despite being in cover.

Overall, this was an interesting game that generally had good feel. If the Prussians had been better handled, then they *might* have won. If the French had the numbers they needed to attack, *really*, then they would have been able to seize most of the towns, say 5 of 7.

There were some game mechanic issues that I will address:

1. Fighting in woods and towns bogs down with the Rally rules as presently written - you just don't inflict enough Hits to make progress. Rallying as a mechanic needs to be more limited near the enemy.
2. Generals shouldn't help morale - they should focus on command and control at this level of game, except for the occasional exceptional leader. And the Command Radius should be a bit shorter.
3. You need to inflict more Hits up close - there's no close range in the game, which the Prussians saw as the decisive reason for their repeating rifle.
4. Charging small targets like batteries is a bit awkward - this has more to do with the basing scheme of these figures, which I'm going to change anyway. 

Other observations:

1. Cavalry worked great in the combined arms if I was thinking, but they need several turns to Rally afterwards! I think they play just perfect.
2. The overall scenario setup was good. I think that Skirmishers and Cavalry should set up a bit farther forward, perhaps, to represent their scouting abilities. The pre-game sequence was fine, but didn't impact the game at all. Had I rolled for a Flank March or Forward Deployment, that would have had a big impact.
3. Overall pace was good and all unit types made sense on the table. Infantry is clearly the best overall unit, but benefits from the others.

I can heartily recommend Neil Thomas' "Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe: 1815-1878" to anyone interested in the period and many interesting wars fought during it. It looks like Napoleonics, but it has a LOT more variety and therefore many more tactical challenges for the gamer who has had their fill of Nappy.