Delaborde gives a birthday present to the Emperor (and dies)

Today being August 15, the birthday of Napoleon, I decided to replay the first position in the battle of Roliça. The gamebook is Mike Lambo's Battles of Napoleonic Europe, but played in the recent spruced up French version. This time Delaborde outdid history and managed to hold the hill, but he died while directing personally an artillery battery. Wonderful solo game with 20 customs AIs tailored to each scenario.

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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...

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...

Best produced fantasy battlereps channels on YouTube

I will list some of my favorites in the fantasy genre and highlight a video from each one. A big caveat is that I prefer miniature agnostic and indie games, so this list must have the disclaimer *excluding Warhammer. I know there are fabulous Warhammer channels out there with high production values and millions of viewers. Good for them! This post complements my recent post about the best produced historical wargaming channels on YouTube . Skirmish Wargames . Wonderful and plentiful selection of indie games recorded with close-ups, voiceovers, fixed cams. Highlight : This Fear and Faith battlerep is hilarious and frightful at the same time. Gray Army Gaming . High production values and interesting skirmishes. Highlight : I love his videos using the ultrasimple rules One-Hour Skirmish Wargames, such us this fictitious (for the moment) Defending Ice-Island . The Fantasy Skirmisher . Highlight : This Sellswords & Spellslingers linked campaign is quite an eyeful and showca...

Morris' Wargaming Escapades

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