Napoleonic Battlerep with Hordes of the Things

Today I tested my HoTT Napoleonic variant playing a battle of French Vs British with Wofun 18mm miniatures. I used the Solo Tactical Engine uploaded by David Lemon to the file section of the DBA & HOTT Wargaming FB group. It worked great!

Before the battle, poor scouting only revealed to the French the presence of Highlanders in the village.

Napoleon deploys with a strong center of veterans wearing dustcoasts

... and a battery strategically placed on the heights

Wellington chooses a mixed center, allied infantry stiffened by the thin red line...

...and close artillery support...

...which he directs personally.

The battle rages on!! Specially in the center and the French right.
On the left, conscript units on both sides just stare at each other

The French veterans advance and do not waver when battered by cannon fire

On the British left, 1st Foot infantry advances with Dragoons in close support

The chaps of the 1st Foot face and repel an ambush
from voltigeurs lurking in the woods

...and then they gallantly charge uphill going for the guns.
Alas! Moved by elan, they outrun their support

The center devolves into a firefight. The mixed Allied line holds well

The critical moment arrives. Napoleon releases the Imperial Guard

And the Highlanders stream out of the village to meet them.
A clash of two heroic units that will tip the balance of the battle.
Who will lose 12 Army Points?

The Guard prevails! Another victory for Napoleon!!

Yet again it has been shown that you can play literally ANYTHING with this rules: Fantasy, Historical, WWI (see MW #255), Vietnam, Spaceship combat in Star Wars... and Napoleonic.

Comments

5 wargaming mechanics that I dislike

1. Command Radius . Ok, it may work if there is only one general (like in DBA), but this business of each commander having his own radius as if it is a shouting contest... Wally Simon debunked it long ago better than I could: "There was only one way Kris could maintain control of his entire division, keeping them all within his magical 3 inch radius, and that was to continually scrunch all six units together in one solid mass, cavalry, infantry and artillery [...] There are many gaming ploys that deal with command response functions, systems that supposedly reproduce the difficulties of commanders keeping their forces under their control, and, in my considered opinion, the 'mysterious aura' ploy is probably the worst of them all" (PW Review May 1999) Guilty party example: Grande Armée. 2. Rerolls . The kind of rerolls that bother me are not those tied to some mechanic but what I call the insert-coin reroll. You start the battle with X rerolls and you may use them wh...

Simplicity in ACW

A variant for Simplicity in Practice (Battlegames issue 23) for the American Civil War FIRING RANGES Infantry 15 cm Cavalry 10 cm (mounted or dismounted) Artillery 40 cm RELUCTANCE TO CLOSE-IN All infantry and cavalry units that wish to charge must take a test (Elites +1). Roll a d6: 1. Unit advances half way to the target of the charge, stops and fires with 2 dice. There is no melee. 2. Unit advances half way to the target of the charge, stops and the target tests to see if they retreat 10cm (50% chance, 16.66% for elites and units in cover). There is no melee regardless of the result. 3-6 Charge normally CAVALRY DUAL ROLE Mounted: They act for all purposes as LC in SiP Dismounted: They act for all purposes as LI in SiP, except they cannot interpenetrate. Movement deduction for mounting/dismounting 5cm. Only one change of status is allowed per turn. They may fire in the turn they dismount but with 2 dice (in successive turns 4 dice). LIGHT COVER (rail fe...

One-hour Simplicity - Bridgehead (scenario 5)

A contested river crossing is one of the hardest situations in warfare. I present scenario 5 from the book One-Hour Wargames , but resolved using another Neil Thomas' ruleset called Simplicity in Practice (SiP). For adaptation notes see my first battlerep with this combo HERE . The objective of the scenario for BLUE is to consolidate a bridgehead north of the river The composition of the armies is: BLUE: 4 infantry, 1 skirmishers, 1 cavalry RED: 3 infantry, 1 skirmishers, 2 cavalry Blue will arrive along the road and Red piecemeal at three random points: west of the woods, on the road and east of the hill. At the start BLUE has a single unit north of the river: shadowy voltigeurs have taken the woods. The first RED units show up west of the woods Since cavalry cannot enter the woods, they take a tortuous route around them. Unseen, the lurking skirmishers take aim BLUE cavalry crosses the bridge benefiting from a road move of 30cm. In a river crossing, Space i...

Morris' Wargaming Escapades

Search This Blog