Archduke Piccolo has now fought a corps-level battle as a follow-up to his very recent divisional-level battle. In this instance, the defeated Germans have taken up positions that block any further French advance, and as reinforcements begin to arrive for the Germans, a French corps is moving forward to attack the German force in and around the twin towns of Grand and Petit Rosiere.
What follows is a small selection of some of the photographs he used to illustrate his battle report.
This battle report reads like an account of an actual battle, which is one of the objectives that I had when I designed the corps-level rules included in THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME. Archduke Piccolo raises some interesting points in his battle report, particularly with regard to combat between cavalry units, and I will look at the combat system to see if it needs modification.
In truth, I'm not a great lover of horses in general and cavalry in wargames in particular, and this may well have affected the way I designed the rules relating to cavalry vs. cavalry combat.
Many years ago, I worked alongside a blacksmith doing farrier work. This often involved shoeing horses ... and I can tell you that they can be vicious and unpleasant when they want to be. I had my feet trodden on (thank God for safety boots!), I have been bitten, and I have had horses try to defecate and urinate on me. None of these are likely to engender a feeling of love for horses.
As to cavalry ... well in most wargames they seem to do their own thing, and just get in the way of the real fighting that is being done by the infantry and artillery. PUNCH may well have had it right when they published the following cartoon.
As a result of fighting this battle, Archduke Piccolo has suggested an alternative Cavalry vs. Cavalry RESOLVING HITS ON UNITS table. It looks like this:
I rather like the look of this, as it should improve the outcome from a specific type of combat. I hope to play-test it, and once I have and I am satisfied that it does improve the rules (and I have few doubts that it will as it fits in with the basic design philosophy of the original rules), I will publish it as a fully-credited, official addendum to the rules.
Please note that the map and photographs featured above are © Archduke Piccolo.
What follows is a small selection of some of the photographs he used to illustrate his battle report.
This battle report reads like an account of an actual battle, which is one of the objectives that I had when I designed the corps-level rules included in THE PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME. Archduke Piccolo raises some interesting points in his battle report, particularly with regard to combat between cavalry units, and I will look at the combat system to see if it needs modification.
In truth, I'm not a great lover of horses in general and cavalry in wargames in particular, and this may well have affected the way I designed the rules relating to cavalry vs. cavalry combat.
Many years ago, I worked alongside a blacksmith doing farrier work. This often involved shoeing horses ... and I can tell you that they can be vicious and unpleasant when they want to be. I had my feet trodden on (thank God for safety boots!), I have been bitten, and I have had horses try to defecate and urinate on me. None of these are likely to engender a feeling of love for horses.
As to cavalry ... well in most wargames they seem to do their own thing, and just get in the way of the real fighting that is being done by the infantry and artillery. PUNCH may well have had it right when they published the following cartoon.
As a result of fighting this battle, Archduke Piccolo has suggested an alternative Cavalry vs. Cavalry RESOLVING HITS ON UNITS table. It looks like this:
I rather like the look of this, as it should improve the outcome from a specific type of combat. I hope to play-test it, and once I have and I am satisfied that it does improve the rules (and I have few doubts that it will as it fits in with the basic design philosophy of the original rules), I will publish it as a fully-credited, official addendum to the rules.
Please note that the map and photographs featured above are © Archduke Piccolo.
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Hi, Bob,
ReplyDeleteI picked up the Perry's Travel Battle set in part to experiment with your Portable Napoleonic rulebook, but am unsure which set would go best with them (some of the recommended units look a little tricky to fit into a single square, for example). I understand you used them for your playtesting; which rules would you best recommend for the figures and boards in Travel Battle?
Thanks!
Jennifer,
DeleteI used the pieces from TRAVEL BATTLE at the very start of the development of my PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME rules. I began using the modified version of Joseph Morschauser's rules - which are the first rules in the book - and then played around with having four (i.e. 2 x 2) TRAVEL BATTLE squares = one PNW square. This made it easy to play-test the mechanisms used in the other rules in the book as I could get more than one figure base in each 'square'.
I hope that this makes sense and answers you question.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
DeleteThank you! That's very useful. Two Travel Battle boards, normally 10x20, would thus be 5x10. I'll try that as a starting point; given the layout squares might need mixed terrain.
Jennifer,
DeleteGlad to have been of assistance.
I don't know if the following link (https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-simple-idea-that-seems-to-have-become.html) might be of interest to you. I drew each of the Travel Battle boards out so that I could see what they would look like if painted, and then drew a couple of coloured campaign maps using them in different combinations.
The relevant blog entries are here (https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2017/05/travel-battle-campaign-maps-couple-of.html) and here (https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2017/05/travel-battle-campaign-maps-more.html).
All the best,
Bob