Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Select <b>No Retreat Overruns</b> to prevent the defenders of a melee from retreating into hexes containing enemy skirmishers.

Does that mean if the only valid retreat hex is a hex containing enemy skirmishers, the unit does not retreat and is annihilated?


<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

Just like in good old NIR. Yes they are eliminated or ZOC killed if you would like to[:)]

The reason for this rule, I believe is to prevent annihilation of big masses of skirms with 1X men strong unit retreating.

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Mayor Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
commander of Little Russian grenadiers regiment</b></center>

Oh hell. I knew why I didn't try this rule in a game.

I had hoped that maybe they would fix the problem another way, for instance simply by letting the skirmisher retreat to a different hex instead of being overrun.

Well, thanks.

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kosyanenko</i>
commander of Little Russian grenadiers
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Exactly how little are those Russian grenadiers, hm? Child soldiers? [;)]

And here I am thinking grenadiers ought to be TALL. [:I]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kosyanenko</i>
commander of Little Russian grenadiers
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Exactly how little are those Russian grenadiers, hm? Child soldiers? [;)]
And here I am thinking grenadiers ought to be TALL. [:I]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Hey![}:)] Little goes to Russia not the grenadiers. To prevent your next question Little Russia is the "old" name of Ukraine. BTW it was a vise choice of our commander to apply ukranian-named commander on the ukrainian regiment[;)][:I]

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Mayor Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
commander of Little Russian grenadiers regiment</b></center>

This rule negates the current engine default which is that if a skirmisher is blocking a retreat that the formed unit can overrun it. I dont think that it negates wagons and leaders from being overrun though.

Thus with this rule ON skirmishers can block retreat routes (again) and we are back to the days of NIR.

Its a player's own fault (sorry Mike Cox, dont mean to sound offensive in the least as I know you love this new rule) if he attacks a unit and runs his own men over indirectly. Your opponent has no power in this matter at all and its not a deal where you cant do a quick precheck to see if the unit can run over your own men.

So if you like power skirmishers (again - NIR) use turn this rule ON. If you can live with carefully selecting when to make attacks, not blame the system for something you did, then leave this rule OFF. (again, not saying that anyone was doing this but often folks have made statements about things in the game which were in their own control and not a fault of the game engine).

In the end I play with it OFF, watch where I attack and if my own skirmishers get overrun I have only myself to blame and not the engine.

To go over any gamey move on the part of the defender:

1. Ok - so my opponent on defense puts his formed battalian near a chateau hex that contains my skirmisher (only) and make it where I cant reinforce the garrison unless I attack him which then pushes him into the chateau hex, overrunning my skirmisher, and thus he now occupies my chateau!

Solution: Sheesh, use some brains. Leave an open hex for the formed unit to retreat. Crank up the Scenario Editor and like I did, learn the hexes that units can retreat to. Play out a few turns of a make up scenario where you have put attackers on the flanks, rear, etc of units and using the various setting for Weak ZOC learn how the retreat system works. Its not that difficult. Rear hexes are priority of course and then the frontal or flank hexes. Dont have type space here to fully diagram it.

2. Ok - so I am in the woods against the Austrians with my French skirmishers in Eckmuhl (lets say Teugn-Hausen). He has his big Austrian bns. pressing ahead and all of a sudden his rear area is infested with my French formed units. Now he has an enemy to the front and back. Thus the defender stays put and hopes that I attack him from the rear and thus my battalian overruns my skirmishers. I then cry foul, say that skirmishers never should be overrun in the woods and pout.

Solution: put a formed unit in with the skirmishers! Then attack from the rear two hexes with the other formed units/skirmisher to the front. Presto: you just bagged a Austrian battalian.

If you enjoy the old days of House Rules (you cant use skirmishers to surround units) and power skirmisher tactics then use this rule. I find it MUCH easier to learn how to set up a melee the right way and only once recently in a playtest game did I make a booboo and melee a unit and it ran over my 33 skirmishers. Once in about 30 scenarios.

I would rather once in awhile accidentally run over 33 skirmishers than have to have pre-game discussions about how we will handle skirmishers with melees.

Make sense?

Bill Peters
Former NWC President, Club Founder, Prussian and Austrian Army Founder, Stefan Reuter's hunting buddy. HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram)

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