Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

With the new rule on no melee eliminations I think a refresher on the various rule combos is in order:

for instance..

No Melee Eliminations and No Retreat overuns are used together.

Basically, If I want to use rule X what other rule is required ?


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[img]</center>
<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>

I am adding my enthusiastic approval of this topic. Being new to the club and the HPS games, this would be very helpful for me personally. The game documentation does not seem to provide a lot of detail on why I should use a particular optional rule and nothing I can find on the interactions between the various rules. I am also very interested in the combination of rules for what is considered the most historically accurate game play by experienced gamers. Do I check them all? Or none? Are there different opinions on this?

Michael Goeller, Sous-Lieutenant, Ier Corps de Réserve de Cavalerie, Armee du Nord

If you press the "help" button when the Optional Rules Dialog is open you will find quite an extensive explanation of the various rules.

That being said, I would say the following is a pretty standard list of Optional rules being used in the club today, there are probably a few variants, I know some people prefer WZOC off for example.

ALL Rules are selected (checked) except:
-Manual Defensive Fire
-No Retreat Overruns
-Line Movement Restriction
-Multiple Infantry Melee
-No Melee Elimination

The last rule is part of the new Jean and Waterloo packages and I imagine will be available as an optional rule now that patches are out for the other games as well. The jury is still out on No Melee Elimination though, you can see some members weigh in on the subject in a post on this page.



Marechal Mitchell
Duc de Rivoli
Comte de Bordeaux
1er Regiment de Grenadiers a Pied, Veille Garde
1er Division D'Infanterie, I Corps AdN

Thank you for the list of commonly used optional rules, this is very helpful. I have read through both the in game help info and the User's guide. What I meant by info lacking is, for instance, the multiple melee rule description. It is fairly basic, but based on the description, I'm not clear on whether game play is more historical by using this rule or not. The descriptions can be very basic. As in this case, there is an assumption of background knowledge that I clearly don't have (yet).

Michael Goeller, Sous-Lieutenant, Ier Corps de Réserve de Cavalerie, Armee du Nord

The big question I have is which rules need to be checked to make the No Melee Eliminations rule work properly.

Rich, Tomasz, Dierk, any thoughts?

regards,

Baron Jim Pfluecke

Austrian Kavalry Reserve

There are no rules that need to be turned on to make NME work properly. Even the Partial Retreats rule now has been synced to work with it for the most part. Here is what John sent me about the NME and Partial Retreats rule being ON at the same time:

"It prevents Partial Retreats for melee when NME is
selected, but retains it for routing."

So if you have a unit that is ZOC'd but has a friendly unit in an adjacent hex the Partial Retreat rule will allow it to retreat for routing purposes but not for melee retreats.

Other than that guys the NME rule stands by itself. Weak ZOCs would effect the retreat ability of course but other than that ... no effect from any other rule.

Bill Peters
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt and ... more to come)

[url="http://www.fireandmelee.net"]Fire and Melee Wargame site[/url]

Sous-Lt Goeller,

Understanding the effects of both the optional rules and house rules should be covered by your training in the Ecole. It is critical for you to understand the sometimes major effects on game play these rules have. VPs for Leaders causulties has little effect. Playing with line movement restriction on makes it almost a totally different game (especially for the Allies). I had one Allied player that insisted we play Line Movement Restriction on. On the first turn he disordered about 75% of he Allied infantry due to movement (I had not fired a shot). It was one of my easiest Major Victories. Marechall Mitchell has given you a start with the 'standard' set but expect it to vary widely. I also will only play the HPS games using the "Embedded Melee Phase" house rules listed in the MOE III Tourney page. Most people also play with some kind of skirmisher lease in the Battleground games.

This would be a good discussion area for Pierre's (and the allied brothel that the shopkeepers run). Would someone be so kind to send me a password for Pierre's?? The Gendarme's have no sense of humor...

General de Division Doug Fuller
Duc de Montmorail et Comte de Hainaut
2e' Grenadiers a' Pied de la Vielle Garde
I Corp Commander
AdN

I'd be interested to know how many people who previously used the 'embedded melee rule' will still be using it now that we have the no melee elimination optional rule. Does this option render the embedded melee rule redundant or is it still needed to give the games a better historical feel?

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/Napoleonic/nap.htm"]Lieutenant Colonel Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/anglo_allied_army_stats/Anglo_Allied_Army_Cavalry_Corps.htm"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps[/url] ~
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/dragoons.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
</center>

Thread started in Pierre's

<center>
[img]</center>
<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>

Lt Col Barlow,

I will still be playing with the embedded melee rules, reguardless of which optional rules I play.(NME or not) I feel its to easy to get at artillery without playing with them. The artillery just get overrun if to close or they are to far away to be usefull in the fight (especially the light gun batteries.) Artillery were historically the killers and if they have to be a klick+ from the fight they are pretty useless. I still play (always) with multiple cavalry melee witch gives them the proper threat vs. artillery, but you have to get close (Can't hang back two klicks from the fight like in the BG games, move along a road, then charge) and risk the horse. I look for the balance between the arms.

I would have posted at Pierre's but my seniors were going on about how great oppossed river crossings are. I think they have been into the cups to long, but Helga wouldn't cut them off (they were buying...).

General de Division Doug Fuller
Duc de Montmorail et Comte de Hainaut
2e' Grenadiers a' Pied de la Vielle Garde
I Corp Commander
AdN

"I would have posted at Pierre's but my seniors were going on about how great oppossed river crossings are."

... and I for one am happy you chose not to interrupt us!

Colonel Al Amos
1erè Brigade Commandant
2ème Division de Dragons

Here's the rules set I prefer to use:



Really don't use house rules, except in multi day scenarios then I have some preferences for how night turns are handled.

Maréchal Hamilton, Baron d'Barbancon
21st Division
VII Corps, ADR

Saxon Leib-Garde, de la Jeune Garde, Garde Impériale

ok,
Am I the only one who does not like victory points for leader casualties? I feel like you are punished enough for their loss in command and control.

Baron Jim P

Austrian Kavalry Reserve

Hi Jim,

I feel the victory points for leader casualties makes you really think where and how you use them. Some people consider their position/use a secondary concern to the troop action up front. So deciding to use them in the line to add "punch" and "moral fibre" or in the rear to help the disorder/rout recovery was a real double edged desision. For low officered armies this can be crucial at the right times and with the higher value leaders it really was an issue to the armies ability to carry on. What if Wellington had been killed at Quatra Bras or Blutcher(nearly!)at Ligny? So the double punishment your not keen on I think is valid.

Mike Ellwood
VII Saxon Corps
ADR