First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now. Also, I know that traditionally the 12 Days of Christmas happen after Christmas Day (starting on December 25th and ending on January 5th also known as Twelfth Night) but I want to do this in a lead up to the holiday.
On the 5th day of Christmas War Gaming, my true love gave to me…
5 Russian Battalions Defending the Flank
The Battles of Napoleon Series is an epic game series that is intended to simulate the most famous battles of Napoleon on a tactical scale sharing the same basic rules across all of the entries. The series portrays the most important aspects of battles of the Napoleonic era with easy to learn and remember rules, intuitive mechanics and procedures. Players may focus on taking decisions and playing rather than consulting the rules. The system has its main focus on the “cat-and-mouse” game of coordination and timing of the various formations of the different arms without too much crunchy chrome. Infantry was the predominant and most important element in every European army of the period. It usually formed between 60 and 90 per cent of an army in battle, and was both the cheapest and the most versatile type of troops. The foot soldiers had to endure most of the fighting and casualties. Depending on their task, they were either deployed in line (fire power), column (maneuver and assault) or square formation (protection against enemy cavalry). Last year, we played the first entry in the series called Eylau 1807 from Sound of Drums. This game is a fantastic example of a deep and interesting simulation of the period but with very approachable rules and mechanics designed to be able to appeal to any level of wargamer. While we didn’t experience the grand campaign game contained in this box, we did play a very approachable and relatively low counter density scenario that taught us the basics of the system and really gave us a taste for more!
In our chosen scenario, the Russian forces were tasked with holding the town of Eylau as the main brunt of the French army was approaching from the south. Fighting in the front was bloody and brutal and the French commander decided to attempt to bust up the flanking force on the edge of the Russian formation and then follow up this cavalry charge with another sweeping assault from the cavalry coming down the road. The attacked took advantage of a small opening in the line and was able to break the defensive wedge with a join attack from 2 different cavalry units. This game is very much focused on maneuver and the key to the proper use of cavalry is to charge in force and break lines and then follow that up with an infantry attack. The one downfall to this type of attack is that the cavalry units will become exhausted and can only do this once without a negative effect. Ultimately, the Russians withstood the first attack and were then able to shore up the end of the line with their own cavalry to stop the attempted envelopment.
We just really had a great time with Eylau 1807. And even though we played a smaller scenario to break ourselves into the system and get an idea about how it works, this one is going to come back to the table as I believe that the intent of the game is best realized in the play of the campaign. Here is where fatigue will matter more and the attritional style of the combat losses will begin to add up. But this system is top notch and very fun. I was super impressed with the design and really feel like what we were doing and how we were trying to do it. Uwe did a good job with this one.
If you want to know more, you can check out our video review at the following link:
If you are interested in Battles of Napoleon: Volume I – Eylau 1807, you can purchase a copy for €89.00 ($104.65 in US Dollars) from the Sound of Drums website at the following link: https://soundofdrumsgames.com/battles-of-napoleon-eylau-1807/
You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:
2 Armored Trains Supporting – 1920: Nest of Eagles from PHALANX
3 Federal Agents in Hot Pursuit – The Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth from Blue Panther
4 Ships Bombarding – General Orders: Sengoku Jidai from Osprey Games
-Grant
The Players' Aid 