General d'Armee 2 - French vs Russians 1812 (Pick Up Game)

Stephen and I tried GDA2 again today using the Pick N' Mix lists to see how Russians fare under rules.

Stephen defended with Russians and I attacked with French.

Russians rolled a Commissariat (most likely result) and French had usual Campaigner.

French ended up with a Bold Brigadier whilst Ivans had no Bold nor Poor types.

The Commissariat meant only 1 CinC command available and reduced list of available orders and additionally the French gained an Adjutant (first we seen one of these), so Russians a bit less flexible overall but their actual troops are pretty much the equal of anyone else.

We are starting to fairly whizz through the basic phases of the game and the actions.

Only query we had this time around was use of Reserves which come on on central sector in that can they just move where they want or must they use a Redeploy order to enter the battle line (this concept we find a bit wholly as we did in original GDA).

I had less than stellar Initiative rolls (even when Stephen was rolling 3 or 4 dice) and lost initiative on 4 out of 6 turns we played although my adjutant did gain me some additional ADCs (he can re-roll one failed roll of 1)

I conducted a charge with my Veteran Battle Dragoons with support into lowly Campaign Hussars also with support but bounced at contact (ie went unformed) after Stephen rolled a 11 to my 7 and the Russian Hussars counter charged with Elan.

In the ensuing combat I had 5 dice vs Stephens 6 but lost 4 hits to 2 being Retreated.

On other flank I charged (just to see how this would unfold) a small Artillery Battery with my own supported Campaign Chasseurs but suffered 4 causalities and a failed DT test making my lot Unformed and then was forced to Withdraw in the charge resolution (another 11 by Stephen) narrowly avoiding becoming Broken.

Not unexpected and small Artillery are pretty good as they shoot just well as Standard or Large batteries, we sort of expected them to be diluted somewhat but no (although they do die if suffering 6+ casualties whereas others would just be worn).

We are both liking the style of game in GDA2 as it has a nice level of 'detail/chrome' within a playable system set at Division sized game.