Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Has anyone played this Title?

Please let us know what you thought.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade

I have it. I haven't, yet.

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Général Mark Oakford
Duc de Smolensk, Comte d'Autun
Commandant
Réserve de Cavalerie, La Grande Armée

I like the game. Most of the battles are of medium size. But the Russkies, Prussians and Austrians are all present in the campaign, which allows for some variety.

(kicking myself in the tail here) The Battle of Montmirail needs to have the eastern map edge drawn in so that the French reinforcements arrive closer to the front. In a recent game with a friend (non-club game) I discovered that it took forever for the troops to reach the front. As the French I waited for them to arrive and by the time they did the battle only had about 18 turns left.

I plan on suggesting to Rich Hamilton that they use a new sub-map and reduce the width by 30 hexes or so. Change the location of the reinforcements accordingly.

A variant to the battle would be nice too where the French reinforcements arrive sooner.

Unless you decide, as the French, to attack earlier (not wise) the entire battle will probably be more of a stare-down contest as the Allies lack great cavalry and the French lack infantry.

I honestly have forgotten how the playtesting on this one went. The French player might have take the bit in the teeth and launched his attack early. Napoleon was smart to wait for the rest of his forces. Premature attacks usually should lead to a lot of French horseflesh on the field of battle.

If you play this battle play 041. Montmirail - Mortier's Flank March (Var.2) - it will lead to a more interesting battle.

There is also a variant that has all reinforcements on the map at the start of the battle.

But truly the map has too much room to the east. There really is no need for the town of Montmirail to be on the map. The Allies are not going to be foolish enough to move that far east until the Prussians arrive. Even so what Allied player wants to "dance" with the French Guard cavalry in plowed fields?

I also am thinking that the movement is too slow. I used a "Winter" movement reduction but now I am thinking that the PDT file should be adjusted for any non-snow winter scenario so that movement is normal. Again, not sure why I didn't pick up on this during testing. It was COLD weather ... not snow or ice conditions.

Comments?

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Comment?
Improvements are always welcome!

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Movement is slow.

I had a huge problem taking guns- even with good odds.

Something seemed off.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade

In some scenarios the weather and ground conditions slow movement and dull the impact of fire and melee (I think melee too).

I like that it has a lot of small and medium sized battles. It has more balanced scenarios than you might think and a lot of interesting situations.

I playtested it and have played a lot of the scenarios then and since.

Many historians rate this as one of Napoleon's finest campaigns and there are some longer scenarios that show some of this.

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The various phases of the campaign are covered in either a campaign file or one big battle scenario allowing for variation from the historical result.

Napoleon's First Lunge North (NFLN) is a good challenge for the Allies. The French have that incredible amount of Guard cavalry to deal with.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

This would be a tough campaign to recreate.

The French army wasn't that great, they were hugely outnumbered, yet somehow Napoleon won battle after battle.

I played the campaign with Andy Moss.

the biggest problem I had was in taking allied guns. It took several tries and it was all but impossible to take them in a frontal assault- even if they weren't supported.

I understand the slow movement because of the weather, but it made it all but impossible to attack.

I came out of the game with even more respect for Napoleon- I don't know how he did it.

I did not get a decisive victory, and we ended up in a draw in our last battle which was generously conceded by Andy.

It was INCREDIBLY frustrating trying to take his guns.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade

"The flank, the flank, always the flank ..."

Get to know the melee value for a gun ... and realize that unless units are Disordered they usually will not give ground unless you have a 2:1 odds or more on them.

Frontal attacks are something they taught you in your French "Ecole de Mars" to avoid I am sure .... just saying ...

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Plus, in my experience and dismay, Andy almost never has a gun out of position or unguarded :/

I feel for you.

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Mayor Joshua Jansen
Chief of Staff
Imperial Russian Corps

Of course.

But 700 infantry attacking 6 unsupported guns is something you can't pass up.

and I lost that one.

I even lost a melee against 6 guns that had been overrun, retaken, and were being pulled out by about 80 cavalry. I attacked with over 800 infantry and couldn't take them. Then, to add insult to injury, I charged with 200 cavalry and lost that one too.

Taking Andy's guns was the key to breaking his position and they couldn't be taken.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade

Well, it was only after I had knocked his line back pretty good and all that was left were the guns. If I took the guns, I could win the battle.
I could not take the guns.

and I did try by the flanks too. I always go for the flanks.

Of course, I understand it's all but impossible to take guns in a town- I gave it a college try and suffered for it.

I'd love to have Andy weigh in on this.

Note- I was very aggressive in that campaign against him. But I think you have to be with the French.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade

Ok .. so here is how the gun defense works:

1. Each gun is worth 40 men for melee purposes. So 8 guns is 320 men.

2. If you attack with say 800 men and get the flank, column and leadership bonus you should negate the effects of the terrain.

How many men were you attacking with? How many guns were defending?

I always go for a 2:1 ratio with assaults. You probably did too ....

Send the file to Rich H. if you think something is not working right.

Also remember that the randomness of the melee procedure introduces a high and low value. It could be that those values were working against you too.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

I will next time Bill.

We played a number of campaign games to test them out.

For the most part, they are very well designed and you do understand the history and tactics of that era as well as anyone does.

I can only imagine the challenges of doing the 1814 campaign.

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2ème Brigade, 1ère Division, 1er Corps d'Armee
Général de Brigade