This scenario depicts first serious encounter after Napoleon maneuvered near Chareloi in June 1815 coming up against a Prussian blocking force at village of Gilly.
An interesting scenario and one which legitimately has Napoleon actually in charge on the field !
I of course used my Prussians against Stephens French.
Been a while since we used GDA (November 2018) but we got into the flow of the Command ADC system and turn sequence pretty quickly.
Couple of usual queries over the wording (actually lack thereof at times) of some stuff with multiple targets being main query today as in unsure if when a unit fires it can or must target/effect all units in its 'beaten zone' (indeed we may have discussed this before !).
We ruled volley fire is indeed split but not 100% clear.
Fun game with French Cavalry stymied by the stream (the could only cross in Column at the bridge or singular ford) although with hindsight we realised that the Empress Dragoons could have crossed and changed formation in one turn.
As it was the French sort of refused their left allowing one of my Brigades to advance across the stream and for my Reserve Landwehr Brigade to redeploy to my right.
Central French Brigade was under Infantry Assault orders from start of scenario but never really defined its target and so sort of languished on its side of waterway.
But French Artillery did some damage to the large unit of Prussian Musketeers in the village.
French did try one assault on this weakened unit but retired once faced by reinforcing 2nd large unit.
However in GDA units cannot be driven back by shooting as such when assaulting a built up area so always at least a chance to oust defenders which we thought was better than the 'fortresses' in OTH.
Game not finished (too much waffling as ever) but whilst French were weakened one of my Brigades was Faltering (I had rallied 2 previous Falters with uncharacteristic rolls of 6) with a unit Dispersed and had lost a battery of guns.
However debatable if the French could carry the position in 4 turns remaining (10 turn scenario possibly extended one turn per broken Prussian Brigade)
GDA have a lot going for them generating a game that feels to us quite Napoleonic and is fun system to play just some definition/clarity lacking.
Prussian right with ford visible (placed by French)
Mounted Brigades look acroos stream at each other.
Lovely looking game. No doubt if you played these rules all the time as a 'go to' set, the ambiguities would probably end up sorted by decision, familiarity and house rule, but trying to hold the rules of GDA, OTH, Field of Battle and Black Powder (?) is no easy task. I am presently trying to streamline rules and systems into series games, so that more regular play makes it easier to hold the rules to memory, a bit like your Combat Commander. Do you have a fave Napoleonic set of the above mentioned? I know you like boardgames, it might be worth you having a look at the new Quatre Bras 1815 game from Hexasim in their Eagles series (also waterloo, Ligny and Austerlitz done so far), I think you would enjoy those. Cheers Norm.
ReplyDeleteHi Norm not having used GDA for several months doesn’t help but to be honest bar that one ‘issue’ all was smooth sailing. Yes sticking to one rule set (to rule them all) would be of course more sensible but part of our ‘problem’ is we play different levels of game with units representing Bttns Regts or Brigades as fits with game/scenario or even just available time scale so not one set that covers all this easily (although FOB and BP are flexible enough).
DeleteAs to favourite well now that’s a question !! As with any rules they all have there pluses and minuses. As a go to/desert island set I would go for FOB as a nice balance of playability and flavour BUT the other sets offer different experiences/challenges so not sure I would only want to play FOB exclusively either.
And that is not forgetting other sets I like such as Shako or Field of Glory. Also we play numerous periods besides Napoleonic so rules retention/overlap/confusion always likely to be an issue :-)
Not seen the Eagles series but not a big fan of Tactical Napoleonic games as I miss the pageantry of minis but have enjoyed titles such as Age Of Napoleon or Wellingtons War for the Operational/Strategic aspects.
Most beautiful and impressive pictures Sgt, and 1815 is so crucial for Europe, great looking game!
ReplyDeleteCheers Phil would 1815 be a Frexit instead of Brexit ? :-)
DeleteInteresting scenario; thanks for the report!
ReplyDeleteYes nicely balanced scenario interesting scenario.
DeleteSteiner. Did you find that there is no advantage anywhere in the rules for the French,
ReplyDeleteThere are very few ‘national characteristics’ type rules in the system guess it up to players to be ‘French’ ?
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