Game Night - Napoleon's Rules of War

Played a game of Napoleon's Rules of War at game night last Friday.  We were playing a practice game for the upcoming Game Day scenario.  It has been a while since I last played NRW so this was a great chance for me to get reacquainted.  As we played the game I began to recall why I like the system so much!  Simple to play, but gives a very realistic result if you play using authentic Napoleonic tactics.

Here are a few pics of the evening's festivities:

The Prussian commanders begin their deployment. From left to right, Pete, Byron, Bob and Mike.  They did an excellent job throughout the evening.  I think they will be formidable foes come Game Day next month!

The French commanders likewise prepare their troops for the battle.  From Left to Right; Rob, Ralph, Earl and Charlie.  It is always nice to have the author on your team!

Prussian National Cavalry lead the attack on the French left flank.  When I first looked, these looked like Dragoons.  Fortunately for our side, that was not the case.  These light cavalry were all Earl could handle as Pete put in a really effective combined arms attack.  Ed has done a great job painting, basing and marking all of these units. I really like the unit tabs Ed has developed as it makes it very easy to track units and use the game play sheets.

Earl's French infantry defend the left flank under heavy attack from Pete's troops.  I didn't take too many pics as I was very involved getting back into the rules.  This picture also shows the unit ID tags that Ed has developed.  Rings on the units represent hits and as a unit gains these hits it begins to 'waver' which affects its combat effectiveness.  As additional hits are accumulated, the unit routs off the board.  A very effective way to limit book-keeping.

The Prussian players in disbelief as Earl rolls lights out and the French left holds firm.  At the end of Turn 1 the French players had the same look on their faces.

Overall the game went very well.  Ed was trying out some slight rules modifications like an additional bonus when defending in line.  Ended up not being such a slight modification and the game really swung on a couple of battles that would have gone the other way if the modification hadn't been made.  I'm thinking that Ed might put it back to the original version for game day.

During game day I will make sure to take more photos of the troops in addition to the players.

Finally Back On-line - Chosen Men Game Report

Well, it has been a long time away, but I am finally back!  I have had a great summer doing some traveling and having many visitors at the house.  It has been a good time, and now as fall is on the horizon and the trees start to change from green to various tones of yellow and red, I am returning to the hobby table.

Last night I traveled to Manchester and tried out the new (for us) Chosen Men rules from Osprey Publishing with my friend Gordon.  We did a pretty simple scenario using my War of 1812 figures.  Gordon played the British and I handled the Americans.

The British had two infantry squads, a Major Commanding Officer and a single Spy (horse mounted). As the Americans, I had a Major Commander, two infantry squads and a half/squad of Riflemen.

Gordon set up a great looking table.  Because we were both playing our first game of CM we took it very slow and basically read through the rules as we played the game.

Here is a couple of photos of the game as we came together at the end of Turn 1.

Americans on the right and British/Canadians on the left.  The Americans defended the wall very effectively and  we used the 'Feint' strategy to make the British Light Infantry squad to break cover and charge.  They ended up being short of the Americans during the charge and were out in the open to be fired on.  Gordon decided to try and shoot it out with the Americans and even with his great rolling, the wall provided enough cover to leave the Americans in possession of the wall at the end of the game.

I did not take any other photos as we were spending so much time reviewing rules and concentrating on the game itself.

The rules themselves are pretty interesting.  We each had four units and that seemed to be about right for what a new player can handle within an evening game for fun.  We played about three and a half hours of actual game time.  We played through five turns during the game and by the end of the game I think I had a pretty good sense of how to play.

The game mechanics are interesting with an alternating of units moving through its actions then an opponent's unit getting to play and back and forth until all units have moved.  That is one turn.

Infantry fire combat is a bit cumbersome with three die rolls, hits-saves-kills.  It could probably be reduced to two rolls if modifiers were inserted at one or two levels, but if you are doing a beer & pretzels type of fun game have fun rolling your hearts out!

The other thing we learned is that cavalry is particularly effective against exposed infantry.  On two occasions Gordon killed several infantrymen with a single mounted figure (including all of the half squad of riflemen).  Infantry needs to be in the correct formation and needs to be under strong leadership to be effective against cavalry to their front.  We think that the Hold and Fire order is one of the potentially effective ways for infantry to confront cavalry.  Once contact is made by charging cavalry, they will be devastating on an infantry squad.  Of course, Gordon was rolling lights out, so that may have been part of the outcome.  Sometimes you can't fight General Dice!

We also noticed that as casualties increase the morale checks come more and more often. Gordon faced this with his Light Infantry in front of the wall.  He passed several checks but as the unit took additional casualties, he had to take more checks and he finally broke.

I like the rules.  I hope to have a slightly larger game sometime soon.  I hope the second game goes as well as this first attempt.