Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

As to ZOC kills, like some of you have stated I don't mind units being eliminated when my opponent takes advantage of careful planning or I make a mistake a leave a unit in danger. It is the loss of units to a sequence of attacks that irks me. My distaste for this arose in my game in the Garde's Tournament in a Borodino scenario when our opponents constantly attacked, often at marginal odds and simply overran our entire army. Once this Russian steamroller got going there was nothing we could do to turn it around. Anyway I have a couple of ideas that might warrant discussion. One is three hex frontage instead of two. I have noticed in the civil war games it is harder to slip around units. I haven't given any thought to how this might effect other aspects of the Nap games but it might be worth some thought. The second idea expands on something we already have. That is the effect when a unit will retreat over a skirmisher that is blocking the path of retreat. Perhaps a unit that is forced to retreat could "push" an enemy unit out of the way. If the defender is of greater numbers than one of the blocking units the blocker would be displaced.

Marechal Jonathan Thayer
Moyenne Garde
Duc de Saalfeld et Prince de Friedland
10/III
Armee du Nord




jonathanthayer@bellsouth.net

I am a late joiner to this dabate but it is a common topic and, given the number of contributions, one that needs to be resolved.
Complex house rules are not the answer, as they are difficult to monitor and frequently result in squabbles. Embedded melee solves most problems with ZOC. It usually prevents the multi-melee steam roller effect that we dislike because once you have punched a hole in the line with your first melee, you cannot repeat the exercise until the next turn, so your opponent has time to react. If a cavalry charge can occupy the rear most hexes then a surrender of the unit may be realistic.

Another simple rule may be that a unit has to be isolated before it can be ZOC'd. Because the isolation marked appears the next move after it is surrounded, this once again gives the other player time to extricate the unit.

Finaly, I suggest a suitable patch for the game would be that only routed or high fatigue units suffer elimination by ZOC. That should not be too difficult.

Général de Brigade Malcolm Fletcher Cumberlidge
"Vigueur et Honneur"
Chef d'Etat-Major
1er Corps de Réserve de Cavalerie
Armée du Nord