1757- a SYW battle report

[valleyboy]

That's an excellent looking game

[Spanner]

Now and again the French did win a battle or three, mate, so don't be too surprised. Obviously the French have spies in your camp and knew that Fred was busy with bratwurst and ale in a tavern somewhere, not marching to battle.

How did the rules work? Any changes or tweaks that you think need to be made?

[ochoin]

I hope you're not going to say that the Swiss foot got crushed my the cavalry?

Far from it. The Swiss Etranger infantry battalion (2/Eptingen), routed one Prussian cavalry regiment & saw off another. It also helped destroy the Prussian garrison of Moy. We chose it as the unit of the game.

The French might not be able to fight, but, by God, they know who to hire to fight for them.

donald

[ochoin]

. How did the rules work? Any changes or tweaks that you think need to be made?

They are a bit "quick & dirty" in that they don't cover everything....but that's OK because they provide a genuinely quick game.
That one went for about 5 hours.......& we were learning the rules & discussing aspects of them.

What needs fixing is minor. Because it was a game of movement, columns were used quite a bit to get the extra distance. We'll add some more penalties if they're caught in combat.
I set Brigade morale at 1/4 losses for the first step. This is too low & we'll go back to 1/3. ETC - that scale of tweaking.

The "big" change is in the order mechanism. There is a menu of 6 orders (Attack, Support, Move, Hold, Reserve, Flank March).
You add a brigade & a target/destination to this for a brief, written order. We all need experience to think ahead but this is a tad narrow -especially given the difficulty of changing orders eg it took the French 3-4 turns to send an ADC to their furthest brigade. So we think we'll add "conditional" aspects to the above (but only one condition).
eg " Hold the central ridge with Mollwitz's brigade but if the enemy retreat, pursue them."

I need to see more of RMD's work on TRICORNE & compare to what we've got. I repeat, his input to our rules was considerable, valuable & gratefully received.

donald

[Essex Boy]

I hope you're not going to say that the Swiss foot got crushed my the cavalry?

Far from it. The Swiss Etranger infantry battalion (2/Eptingen), routed one Prussian cavalry regiment & saw off another. It also helped destroy the Prussian garrison of Moy. We chose it as the unit of the game.

The French might not be able to fight, but, by God, they know who to hire to fight for them.

donald

I'm very happy to hear it. And no one needs to know the reason why.

Cheers mate.

E

[RMD]

Superb! Sorry I completely missed this earlier!

I see that your ADCs have as much luck as my mate Phil Portway's!

[RMD]

And sorry for the everlasting delay... I'm constantly baffled as to how rules-wrtiters manage to get all those thoughts down into writing and understandable, clearly-written rules...

Re columns; I class them in 'Shako' terms as fighting with their disordered morale rating, with the sole exception being post-1759 Prussian cavalry (trained to attack on in column on a one-squadron or two-squadron frontage).

[ochoin]

Re columns; I class them in 'Shako' terms as fighting with their disordered morale rating,

That's certainly worth thinking about.

BTW re: orders. As you know, brigades operate only under orders issued by the army general, unless changed via an ADC.
My pals want these to allow one condition where necessary eg " Von Klein's brigade to MOVE to the bridge & ATTACK any enemy, if present."

I'm inclined to agree.

Also, I've borrowed a SHAKO2 book (they cost 3 figures to buy?!?) & although there might be one or two things I can borrow, I can't believe how the rules grew more complicated & (IMO) less satisfactory.

donald

[RMD]

Re columns; I class them in 'Shako' terms as fighting with their disordered morale rating,

That's certainly worth thinking about.

BTW re: orders. As you know, brigades operate only under orders issued by the army general, unless changed via an ADC.
My pals want these to allow one condition where necessary eg " Von Klein's brigade to MOVE to the bridge & ATTACK any enemy, if present."

I'm inclined to agree.

Also, I've borrowed a SHAKO2 book (they cost 3 figures to buy?!?) & although there might be one or two things I can borrow, I can't believe how the rules grew more complicated & (IMO) less satisfactory.

donald

Yeah, I must admit that I've always used conditional orders as a given. Must make that a rule...

I never bothered with 2nd Edition. I've read 2nd Edition, but there's nothing in there I want to adopt apart from the generals' initiative rules (which includes a necromancy clause, whereby a general rolling an unmodified 6 can restore 1 casualty or disorder (disorder before casualty where both are present)). It's a whole stack of unnecessary fiddling with a perfectly good set of rules.

[ochoin]

I never bothered with 2nd Edition. It's a whole stack of unnecessary fiddling with a perfectly good set of rules.

They clearly suffer from the disease that makes you tinker with rules to the point they become unplayable. I know- I'm a fellow sufferer.

Even during the initial game & in emails since, there's been a stream of perfectly reasonable suggestions from my pals with "fixes" for glaring omissions. I'm resisting just about everything for the Greater Good.

donald