Gerry’s new take on Waterloo.
This proved to be a good game incorporating a lot of the “new” rules for In the Grand Manner Ged has been playing with for a while now.
Hougemont stands like a rockBriefly, they include using skirmish screens as 12 man units rather than six, which reduces their flexibility and means skirmisher buildings become redundant.
Also, he’s introduced Skirmish Battalions: These are normal units (36’s 32’s, whatever) which perform exactly like skirmish screens. So, they fall back if advanced on, evade if charged, can romp around in woods at will, count as skirmishers for being fired on by infantry and artillery etc. The difference being that they fire like skirmishers as well although they are fired on and take casualties like a normal unit (with the modifiers for being skirmishers). So while the unit is in the first bracket they get 12 D6, second bracket 10 D6, third 8 D6 etc. This is irrespective of their starting strength, so a 30 man unit gets the same number of fire dice as a 48, say. If they fall beneath 50% they disperse. Also, if they fail ANY morale test, they also disperse.
They are signified by being in line with their bases staggered.
Other rules we were using was that a unit always needs his divisional (not corps or army) general with in 12” to initiate a charge.
Finally we were using the disengage rule: This allows an entire formation to roll to attempt to pull out of the line, 5 or 6 needed, modified by Army Cox’s if in range (Napoleon and Wellington were +2 each, Blucher was a MINUS2!)
If successful, the ENTIRE formation, infantry + any attached cav or artillery, teleports back out of the line 30”. All rout and retreat markers etc are removed and the whole formation goes onto “retire to own lines” followed by 2 turns of “walkabout” just like a cavalry unit. It can shuffle units around without going closer to any enemy and then after its walkabout is free to move off again.
This sounds at first like a fairly mental rule, but for big games, with lots of reserve formations it works really well. When a formation is getting knackered or has a lot of units routing, you can pull it out and re-organise. It rewards players who keep a second line to then throw into the gap, or if you have a plan which will allow 1 corps to trundle forward to do the damage and then have a fresh outfit ready to finish the job.
Enough for now….a bit more to follow on Waterloo, Plus Torgau and Chemnitz revisited… (The Return of the Gedaye)!
Also, he’s introduced Skirmish Battalions: These are normal units (36’s 32’s, whatever) which perform exactly like skirmish screens. So, they fall back if advanced on, evade if charged, can romp around in woods at will, count as skirmishers for being fired on by infantry and artillery etc. The difference being that they fire like skirmishers as well although they are fired on and take casualties like a normal unit (with the modifiers for being skirmishers). So while the unit is in the first bracket they get 12 D6, second bracket 10 D6, third 8 D6 etc. This is irrespective of their starting strength, so a 30 man unit gets the same number of fire dice as a 48, say. If they fall beneath 50% they disperse. Also, if they fail ANY morale test, they also disperse.
They are signified by being in line with their bases staggered.
Other rules we were using was that a unit always needs his divisional (not corps or army) general with in 12” to initiate a charge.
Finally we were using the disengage rule: This allows an entire formation to roll to attempt to pull out of the line, 5 or 6 needed, modified by Army Cox’s if in range (Napoleon and Wellington were +2 each, Blucher was a MINUS2!)
If successful, the ENTIRE formation, infantry + any attached cav or artillery, teleports back out of the line 30”. All rout and retreat markers etc are removed and the whole formation goes onto “retire to own lines” followed by 2 turns of “walkabout” just like a cavalry unit. It can shuffle units around without going closer to any enemy and then after its walkabout is free to move off again.
This sounds at first like a fairly mental rule, but for big games, with lots of reserve formations it works really well. When a formation is getting knackered or has a lot of units routing, you can pull it out and re-organise. It rewards players who keep a second line to then throw into the gap, or if you have a plan which will allow 1 corps to trundle forward to do the damage and then have a fresh outfit ready to finish the job.
Enough for now….a bit more to follow on Waterloo, Plus Torgau and Chemnitz revisited… (The Return of the Gedaye)!
The Death Star at Cheminitz
