Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Mssrs.,

I fully support the use of the "embedded melee" house rules, but there is a slight problem with Sir Muddy's implementation of them.

Specifically, the MOEIII house rules don't consider assaults on skirmishers to be a "melee" for purposes of the "embedded melee" phase. However, they specify that the attack must be against skirmishers with a strength of 100 or less. Since the bigger Austrian bns generate skirmish cos that are 120+, a strict application of this rule would be patently unfair: The Austrians can smash the French skirmish lines at will, but the French are stopped from doing the same to the Austrians because they have oversized skirmish cos.[xx(] A more reasonable interpretation would be that attacks against a single skirmish co. are always permissible.

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Comte de Marseille
Duc d'Abrantes</i>

I completly agree[}:)]

Lieutenant Christian Rizo
58e Régiment de Ligne
1e Brigade
11e Division
IIIe Corps
Armée du Nord

"Un Hussard qui n'est pas mort à 30 ans est un jean-foutre" - LaSalle

Well, this is true, those strong coys are "bit" more usable with this EM rule modification.
But, on the other side, there is a fact that french army commanders, having more-but-weaker units could have "bit" more skirmishers at their hand, balancing this advantage of Austrians partially.
From this point of view the "worst" army would be Russian one, with bigger units and weaker skirmies, but, on the other side, their[:D] Golden morale ... [:D]

GM. Pavel Stafa
Kommanduyuschiy Korpusom Rezerva
2-oy Zapadnoy armii EIV

Also, it would be a little late to change the rule. From what I'm seeing the Frenchmen solves the problem by stacking to skirmishers together thus preventing the melee .

Seems balance enough since the French have tons of skirmishers!

General de Brigade Doug Fuller
Comte de Hainaut et Duc de Lutzen
CO Brigade de Voltigeurs de La Jeune Guard
7e Division/CC
II Corp
AdN

Seems the same to me. The French can afford putting 2x7? men into every hex of the skirmish line and that more thank makes up for one Austrian 120.

Général de Division D.S. "Green Horse" Walter
Baron d'Empire, Duc des Pyramides
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3ème Division[/url], VIème Corps Bavarois, L'Armée du Rhin
Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde

I think no problem here. We have 2 difference army. Each army has own advantages and disadvantages. One of disadvantages for French is smaller units of skirmishers but French has important advantages also. Find and use it.
Master of Europe must be Expert in game for any army.

General-lieutenant Konstantin Koryakov,
8 Infantry Corps,
Life Guards Litovskii regiment,
Russian Imperial Army
[url="http://www.komikor.narod.ru"][/url]

Mssrs.,

To begin with, please note that I am commanding an <font color="red">Austrian</font id="red"> army in my MOEIII game, so my comments were entirely disinterested. My record speaks for itself and I do not need to rely on rules "lawyering" to gain an advantage over my opponents.

A more crucial point is that setting the bar for what are essentially "trivial combats" at only 100 men is far too low. The game engine actually sets it at 250 men, e.g., melees against a stack of 250+ skirmishers will disorder a formed bn as though it had assaulted a formed unit. Clearly it is within the discretion of Sir Muddy, as GM, to set whatever standard he chooses, but, IMO, a more reasonable standard should be set by either increasing the cut-off to 150 and/or always allowing an attack against a single co., irrespective of its size.

Regards,

Paco

<i>Maréchal</i> M. Francisco Palomo
<i>Comte de Marseille
Duc d'Abrantes</i>

I am not playing in MOEII - how about an unbiased answer: discuss rules before the games begin.

That rule has always served us all well.

How about incorporating this kind of stuff into the planning for next year's MOE and go on from here?

These arbitrary numbers are always hard for a guy like Muddy to determine (or whoever came up with that amount).

Thus in all fairness to the GM - put it in a list of things to ponder for next year and continue to play on!

Oberst Wilhelm Peters
2nd Kuirassiers, Reserve Korps, Austrian Army