A Game or Two of ‘Not Brother Against Brother’

This weekend I played two games of ‘Not Brother Against Brother’ with my friend, Ed M.  The first game was a practice affair with Ed's excellent Prussian and French figures.  The second game we used my British, French and new Spanish Guerrilla figures.  I have not completed basing of the French Foot Dragoons or the Spanish, but we used them anyways because we wanted to try out some new troop qualification stats in the game.

We used Ed's Napoleonic adaptation of the very fun Brother Against Brother rules system.  He has really tweaked the base rules to give it more of a period feel and to also clean up what we find to be some inconsistencies within the rules themselves.  These two games gave us reasonable results with no game situations running outside of what could be 'expected'.

The results of the games were both a draw, but we were playing more to test new rules than to really try and gain a clear cut 'victory'.

Here are some photos of the first game:

And some pics of the second game featuring the new troops:

All in all it was a great couple of games.  I am looking forward to playing some additional games with my Napoleonic troops in the near future.  I also am looking forward to maybe tweaking the rules for my War of 1812 collection.

Northern Conspiracy Game Day 2017

Our good friend, Ed M. planned and executed a wonderful Napoleonic themed game day at our local club.  The game was simply MASSIVE with several hundred figures on each side.  Prussians vs. French with the Orders of Battle from the Waterloo Campaign and the terrain we fought over was the field of Ramilles of 1706 fame.  We used Napoleon's Rules of War written by our very own club member, Charlie G.  It is a great set of rules with the main maneuver element being an infantry battalion, cavalry squadron and artillery battery.

For this event, I had the honor of playing the role of Marshal Grouchy, Commander of a reinforced French Corps d'Armee.  In the weeks leading up to the game day itself there was a lot of planning.  We set the order of arrival for each of the divisions (3 line, 1 Young Guard, and 1 Reserve Cavalry - Dragoons) along with an artillery reserve and an attached Hussar Brigade.  Along with the sub-commanders I was able to develop a general plan to assault and secure the town of Ramilles.  The plan also included the deployment of four advanced guard detachments each of a Legere Battalion and two squadrons of Chasseurs a Cheval.  During the approach march on game day we were able to adjust our assault plan on the fly, but there was not much that we needed to modify as we had a pretty solid plan.

The table-top game was a hard fought affair and we wish we had more time to really get to a conclusion.  We had the typical ups and downs as determined by General Dice.  We were not able to push the Prussians in the North as much as we wanted, but our Hussar Brigade was able to hold off a major push by a full Prussian Brigade in the southern part of the field.

Overall the battle was adjudicated to be a draw, but it was a tremendous amount of fun for all involved.  Many thanks to all of the hard work that Ed put into the preparations of the game and for Ed and Charlie for running a great game.

Following are a few of the photos I took of the game in progress:

The Prussian opponents from across all three sets of tables.  Closest is the French (our) approach table, the center main battle table and then the Prussian approach table.  Players were nominally not allowed to go to the center table until they had troops on the main board.  No one from the French table was allowed to go to the Prussian side of the table during the game.

The indomitable French command team.

The French approach table.

Friendly conversations as the first units arrive on the main table.  The conversations would soon turn into banter between commanders locked in the grip of mortal combat!

An advance guard force composed of a battalion of the 36eme Legere and two squadrons of the 4th Chasseurs a Cheval.

The French advance guard forces move onto the main battle table.

The French 2nd Division maneuvers south of Ramilles.

Prussian commanders look over their options on the game QRS sheets.  In the foreground is the French 2nd Division.  In the middle distance left is the French 1st Division moving to secure the town of Ramilles.

From the top of the table is the French 3rd Division moving to secure the Corps' Left (North) flank.  In the middle 1st Division and the Young Guard move to secure Ramilles while 2nd Division moves just south of the town to put pressure on the Prussians covering on Ramilles and to secure the French Right (South) flank.  In the foreground is the heroic separate Hussar Brigade which held off a combined arms attack from a full Prussian brigade.

The Young Guard and reserve cavalry move on the French approach table.

Prussian commanders try to figure out how to stop the mass of the French Dragoon division as it appears on the main battle table.

Prussian commanders on the French Right flank as they face yet another attack from the dreaded Hussar brigade.

Another view of the dashing Beau Sabeurs of the French Hussars!

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.

Napoleonic Game Last Friday

I had an opportunity to play in a Napoleonic game last Friday hosted by my friend Ed.  We played a Volley & Bayonet wing scale scenario of Placenoit pitting French against Prussians (of course).  Ed has done an amazing job modifying the basic wing scale V&B rules.  They really play well and I enjoyed the game very much.

Ed also has amassed some incredibly beautiful armies.  Here are some photos of them.

This is one of the regiments of Prussians that I commanded for the evening.

Here is my division command stand.  This was "Me" for the evening!

The Prussians on the move!

The initial assault on the first town sector in Placenoit.

The center of the battle with the Prussians trying to push their way across the road down the center of the photo!

Enjoy the photos!