“Rank & File” Napoleonic

 

Well another battle report and two this week, since we managed to get two games in. As always Britt wrote the report and i took the pic’s.

“Greg came over today & we had two games of “Rank & File” Napoleonic miniatures using 15mm French and Russians. It can’t be said that we’re not evenly matched opponents, since we both hit “Army Morale” on the same turn in both games. “Great minds think alike,” right Greg? In any event both were fun and enjoyable games, the rules flowed well, and we were able to complete a game using 10 units a side in about 1 & ½ hours each. Each side had two 2-gun batteries of light guns, 4 units of regular infantry, 1 unit of veteran infantry (our ‘Guards”, what a joke!), a unit each of Cuirassiers, Lancers, and Light Cavalry. I was suppose to be French, Greg the Russians, but we both figure these guys were more from one of the minor German States. In both cases our Guard Infantry ran like rabbits for little reason while our Regular Infantry fought heroically. The less said about artillery effectiveness the better! Check Greg’s Blog for more & better pictures.

Game One: The terrain was much more open than in an ACW game. Several hills were on the western side while the center & east were open except for the woods on the extreme east. Greg would slowly push a unit up this strip, though it would see no combat. The French pushed forward strongly all along the front. The ‘Guard’ got hit with some musketry & ran! I was not impressed. Soon all the ‘big fights’ in the centre had degenerated into small patches of shaken & retreating men. Pretty realistic actually! Cavalry clashes in the west proved nothing as we both ground each other down. Pyrrhic victory for both. 

Game Two: Much the same terrain, but now with a central hill. On turn 1 the sneaky (or bold depending on your POV) Russians tried to site both their batteries on the central hill and generally hose the French from that position. French Lancers chased the limbered artillery for 2 turns, but was forced to withdraw. Still, this averted a catastrophe. There was a lot more activity in the western hills this turn. Talk about the “ebb and flow’ of cavalry!  The climax was Greg’s successful charge against my battery there. It was glorious, but there were few left to celebrate the victory on either side. In the eastern woods, 2 units of French skirmishers finally evicted a unit of Russians. Otherwise, it was massive losses on both sides which finally led us to once again reaching our critical army morale level for losses on the same turn.

Both games were very good fun. They were fast (even more so than the ACW due to more open terrain), provided excellent tactical opportunities, and a lot of laughs. Great games Greg. We’ll do the same again next Sunday, upping one battery to medium guns and the other to horse artillery. ( & replacing the blind gunners?)”

Hope you enjoyed the read and may the dice roll high for you.

Regards

Greg