March Attack

 On one of my periodic meanders through what new rules are available for Napoleonics, I had a proper read of the rules by Crusader Publishing called "March Attack." I remembered being quite encouraged by the level of combat and the mechanisms that I saw when I first bought the rules but then I got lost in the plethora of made up terms and abbreviations that I needed to nail down the definitions of, before I could understand how the rules work.

Once I got my head around what "manoeuvre groups" were (not that complicated really) and Valour et Discipline tests (VD tests? Hmmmm!) things quickly fell into place. What I really liked in the rules:

The scale; battalions / cavalry squadrons are represented by two bases of figures, so divisional or even Corps level battles are possible on a regular sized gaming table.

Casualties; unit size and quality are combined into one Combat Value score. This tally of morale and actual casualties can be whittled away during a battle until a unit effectively ceases to have any effectiveness and is "destroyed." This does require keeping unit status recorded on some sort of roster but I am fairly relaxed about that.

Command level; even though individual regiments / battalions are represented and act individually, the rules encourage the wargame general to think at the level of the "Manoeuvre Group" (brigades or divisions in effect.) For example skirmish combat is not required to be ordered or controlled. It is assumed that the battalion colonels know what they are doing for this. Instead an overall effect is calculated for complete areas of the battlefield and the results applied to the individual units. Also morale is only tested for complete Manoeuvre Groups once they have lost a third of their component units.

As an inveterate tinkerer, I was always going to make adjustments to the rules as written... Some are to streamline or amend rules that I don't like but more often it is to introduce mechanisms or flavour that I want in my games.

An example of the former is the Skirmish combat which in the game has an esoteric calculation that ends up with each side having values that are compared. I decided to simplify this to whole number skirmish values for each battalion that can be represented on the table by that number of skirmisher figures. (I have the figures and by God I am going to use them!) The starting number of skirmishers and when they are lost can be recorder on the roster as we already have it for the units' CV record...

An example of the latter is the use of "blinds" to represent groups of units until they are contacted by the enemy (or found out to be fakes - just a few skirmishers screening nothing behind them.) 

To add period / national flavour to the rules I am quite keen on the idea of Opportunity Cards. These are played as an interrupt during the opponent's actions. Just as an opportunity fire or to do something that reflects the strengths and skills of a particular army. Different nationalities will have a hand of cards that will hopefully encourage the player to use the army historically, because that is how it is most effective. 

Another way to encourage historical behaviour from Old Regimes armies is to give them some advantage to sticking with outmoded tactics. 18th Century armies were usually drawn up with units in line formation and closely supported by neighbouring units on either flank and to the rear. One idea I had was to make the brigades immune to morale checks whilst they have a f deployment like this. So a brigade that has its 2/3 of its constituent units steady and in line with support on flanks or to the rear, does not take Army morale checks until it has 2/3 unit losses.

A French Battalion

I have now finished painting a second battalion of French line infantry. (Gosh.) I am glad to hear that Alban Miniatures are both back up and running  and turning their attention to some more French infantry. Otherwise I was considering painting up a brigade of combined elite companies such as those that were formed on occasion so that I could use the available voltigeur figures. The Victrix plastics are nice enough miniatures but I wouldn't want to have to stick together many more of the little blighters!

Shown here the 2 battalions deployed in columns with a screen of skirmishing voltigeurs.

Skirmishers

At the level of game that my variant of the Piquet rules will be aiming at, (multiple Divisions on the table) the individual battalion decisions about skirmishing are assumed to be handled by colonels at a local level and thus do not need representing with figures. The exception to this that I am going to try is where a large proportion (50%+) of a unit is dispersed into skirmishers. There were a few regiments in different armies who were highly trained light infantry or very high calibre soldiers who could cope with unusual circumstances. Or so poor that it makes no difference if they are in line or skirmish (I am thinking of Revolutionary War Levee en Masse here.)

My representation on the table for this situation will be:

This shows the skirmish line, which can be covering neighbouring formations and the rallying point (practise was to have a reserve of some sort for skirmishers for form on.) As I write this I am thinking that the individual skirmish figures could also be used to show where a brigade has attached companies of riflemen (as per the British in The Peninsula and the Prussians post 1813 IIRC.) I am toying with the idea of a combat resolution card just for skirmishers but I am not decided yet if that come under the category of "no business of the Brigadier" and an unnecessary complication.

Anyway, here are my first few individual skirmish figures painted up. They are supposed to be the Voltiguers from a line regiment. The figures are Victrix 1807-1812 French infantry that I aquired a few sprues of on eBay. I didn't like the chunkiness of these compared to my slim Alban Miniatures French but I have mitigated the effect a bit by swapping the heads for sparePerry Miniatures hussars heads.

The Look of It

The basing scheme I have decided upon for my Napoleonics venture is a product of a variety of constraints. First off I want to use 28mm/30mm figures from a couple of different ranges (see below). This has an immediate effect on groundscale issues and practicality. I am not particularly interested in skirmish games, which are the obvious way to use 28mm and larger figures, when a gaming table the size of a tennis court is not available, so some sort of compromise in the way massed units of troops will be deployed must be adopted.

I was inspired by the memory of an article many moons ago in Miniature Wargames, about a project to game Waterloo representing every unit on the table each as one dioramic base. Each base would show a small portion of the soldiers making up that regiment in action, instead of trying to represent a shrunk down version of the entire line/column. One base is a little too restricting for my needs but 2 bases still allows some flexibility in showing different unit formations.This is the basic infantry battalionI am decided on, with 2 bases of six figures. Side by side they show the infantry in line and one behind the other one of the variety of columns used on the battlefield (companies or divisions for example.)The cavalry are based just the same (but with just six figures,) representing a regiment. I am fairly happy with this as a compromise between playability and complexity that will allow me to do divisional sized games or larger with a realistic prospect of painting the figures and completing games in a reasonable time.

Efforts so Far

My painting efforts have, so far, been a bit sporadic and random. I have simply been painting figures as they have taken my fancy and without a particular plan in operation. Starting with the figures from The Assault Group (now with Alban Miniatures) that brought my attention back to Napoleonics, the first few stands I have painted are Austrian Jagers.


Part of the attraction of this unit was trying to get the grayish blue colour right for these figures. The basing is what I am adopting as my standard for infantry; six figures on a 60mm x 50mm base. Two bases for a battalion.

The Eagle Figures Spanish by Ian Mountain, are very fine and a pleasure to paint. There is a great selection from full uniform through partial uniform to entirely civilian clothing:

The only cavalry in my chosen ranges that currently exist are hussars for the Austro-Hungarians. The plastic cavalry from Perry Miniatures are a good substitute. The cuirassier and hussar boxes are both excellent and there are some British hussars on the way.


The French figures from Alban are currently limited to infantry from light regiments but only the Voltiguers (the light company) from line regiments and this leaves me potentially short of the bulk of French infantry. The Perry French are too late for my needs so I have tried an experiment of using spare Perry hussar heads on Victrix bodies. The results are reasonable but I am hoping for figures from Alban to fill in this gap.


I do love the flexibility and ease of conversion that plastic figures allow, so earlier Perry French infantry would be almost as acceptable.

The Plastics Revolution

In the last two to three years rigid plastic wargames figures in 25-30mm "scale" have gone from an experimental rarity to being a thriving and expanding part of the wargamer's buying options. There are now eight companies producing at least one box of historical figures* and probably more will enter the marketplace this year too. The first to get to market was Warlord Miniatures closely followed by Perry Miniature, who brought their trademark superb quality of sculpting with them. Quality across the different companies has been very variable, as has size/ scale.

I have bought quite a few of the available boxes out of curiosity and for periods I am not committed enough to to want the expense of metal figures. When I have paid £1.00+ for a figure I do the best I can with what painting skills I have, 50p or less, not so much. The opportunities for adding Napoleonic regiments to my collection in the slim, proportional style of miniature that I am trying to stick to looked promising at first but so far it has been quite limited.


Of the manufacturers who produce Napoleonics, only Perry and HaT figures are close to a proportional style. Perry are chunkier that Alban and HaT are shorter and not such nice and consistant sculpts. The Perry figures have until recently been mainly focussed on the Hundrd Days rather than the earlier periods. The French infantry produced by Victrix do include a box based on the earlier uniforms (pre-Bardin) but althought the bodies of these figures are similar in size to the Perry offerings, the heads are a bit too chunky for my needs. I have experimented with Victrix bodies with spare Perry heads and these will do until there is another choice to fill the ranks of the Premier Empire.

(*For the record: Perry, Warlord, Victrix, Gripping Beast, Immortal, HaT, Conquest Games and Wargames Factory. Sorry to any I have missed.)

A Project Stalled...

There is always a surfeit of projects available to occupy my butterfly brain, so when The Assault Group stopped releasing figures for their Napoleonic line of Austrians and eventually sold it to Alban Miniatures this project was stalled in favour of simpler fare.

In the meantime the revolution that is 28mm rigid plastic figures has occurred, which has given a new boost to interest in Napoleonics as a period. The availability of figures at a half to a third of the price in metal has tempted many people to have a go or return to what has always been a popular period. An added bonus from my point of view is that the Perry sculpted miniatures are quite close to the proportional style that I prefer from Alban Mioniatures, ex TAG (sculpted by Richard Ansell.)

Luckily for my wallet (and probably sanity) the Perry twins have concentrated on the Waterloo/ Hundred Days campaign and this means that only a portion of their range of plastic and metal figures are suitable for the years I have decided to concentrate on - 1805 to 1811.

I have chosen these dates for a number of reasons: firstly the French army under Napoleon is at its peak in 1805 and is dressed in the most elegant version of uniforms of the time. The French still have a tactical advantage in this period as its opponents were slow to learn from their mistakes. This means that on the tabletop there will be contrasting tactical systems, which makes for a more interesting game. As I am already commited to fielding Austrians these are interesting years where they go from their most crushing defeat at Austerlitz to acheiving the first victory of any opponent over Napoleon at Aspern-Essling in 1809.

So far none of my regular opponents has been drawn into the mire of this period so currently I will have to be paintiong and organising at least 2 armies (they'll catch on after a few games!)