Some Pros and Cons

What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing Napoleon's Battles (or any other set of miniatures rules) on computer instead of using miniatures on a tabletop? Let's take a look...

(Some of the features of gaming this way are double-edged, and so appear under Pros and Cons.)

Pros

• There is no painting involved
• Starting a new game is a simple as running the relevant scenario editor and opening the game file.
• You can save as frequently as you want, allowing you to look back at the course of the battle.
• You are not limited by numbers of figures, so the big battles like Leipzig are within reach.
• The JTNB battlefield maps are in many cases much larger than those that can be created on the standard NB 5' x 9' table giving much more room for maneouvre. For example, the screenshot at the bottom of those post shows (most of) the JTNBs Austerlitz map, and the red rectangle shows the portion covered by the map from the NBI Austerlitz scenario.
• You are no longer constrained by the space available to you, both in terms of space for a gaming table and space needed for storage of figures and terrain.
• Play does not need to be completed in a single session. This means that you can break for dinner, a holiday, whatever, and find everything exactly how it was when you come back so you can pick up where you left off.
• Portability - if you're a laptop user, you can take your terrain and figures with you wherever you go.

Cons

• You don't get the true 3D view that a real life tabletop gives.
• There is no painting involved
• Solo play only. This system works best and is really only practical for someone playing solo. I supposed it's possible for two people to play the same scenario simultaneously while exchanging information about moves etc over Skype, but I can't imagine that being anything other than slow and impractical. Perhaps one day there will be a VASSAL module for Napoleon's Battles.
• You have to play on the maps you get with the games. There is no map editor. However the John Tiller Napoleonic Battles series covers the vast majority of French Revolutionary and Napoleonic engagements.
• No sound effects. The scenario editor doesn't have sound effects for movement, firing, etc. You can however, run another minimised instance of the game - in play mode - and have the background battlefield sounds that it provides.
• Play does not need to be completed in a single session. This can mean the player is more prone to distraction, possibly stretching games out unnecessarily.

The JBNBs map of the Austerlitz battlefield. The area covered by the NB
 scenario map is shown by the red rectangle.

Some other (re)definitions

Translating Napoleon's Battles from tabletop to hex-based map required that some rules be bent, or adjusted...

Front Flank and Rear

Because of the hex-based interface. Front, side and rear are defined as follows:

A unit in square, of course, faces to the front in all directions.

Firing templates

The computer game interface, whether 2D or isometric, won't work with the standard firing and wheeling templates, so some adjustment is needed.

The unit's front facing also becomes its firing template - I'll call the computer version a fire zone to avoid confusion.  At least one of a target unit's bases must fall withing the firing unit's fire zone for it to be eligible as a target. Other rules regarding restrictions on target selection still apply.

The enemy unit falls partly within the firing template and so is a valid target.

If using the "Firing Infantry Template Placement" optional rule, I simply visualise the fire zone of a single base, and count the number of bases whose fire zones the target unit falls within. In the example above, this would mean that the firing unit could only count three bases (-1 modifier), since the target does not fall withing the fire zone of the rightmost front base.

Note that if the target unit was displaced to the left by one hex, the firing unit could still fire one base (-2 modifier), since the target unit would fall within the fire zone of the left rear base.

Wheeling:

The hex-grid means that optional wheeling rules (11.11) can't work, so the standard cost of 1" per unit width in bases applies. An alternative approach, an similar to the rules, is to count the moves of the outermost base, counting each pivot as an additional 1".  A unit, lacking sufficient movement factors, can wheel 60° or 120°.

Echelon Movement:

A base moving into either of the hexes directly to its front is considered to be moving straight ahead.

Movement of left- and right-most bases shown. The red, green and blue movement paths all count as straight ahead.

Range and distance:

Naturally, the movement allowance in inches translates directly into number of hexes moved. However, range works a bit differently.  Range, for firing and for determining command status, is the number of hexes between the firing unit/general and the target unit/subordinate unit.

The general's command range is 3". The unit is 3 hexes away and is in command.

The French unit has a firing range of 4". The Nassau unit is 4 hexes away and is in range.

Similarly, a unit is pinned if an enemy unit (or part of one) is exactly 1 hex away.

Attachments

Where a general is in a hex that is adjacent to a unit, he is considered attached only if  his 3D graphic is pointed directly at that unit. Artillery units attach in the usual way. If an artillery unit has both of its elements adjacent to friendly units, I just put the battery's Cadre Base general adjacent to the unit to which the attachment has been made.

The Allied general is attached to both units. The French general is not attached. The Allied and French artillery units are attached.

Marengo, 14th June 1800 - AAR Part 1

"From the Jaws of Defeat"

(This game is played using the John Tiller game "Campaign Marengo")

With the Army of the Reserve he had brought across the Alps, First Consul Bonaparte was trying to discover the whereabouts of the main Austrian force under Melas. On the evening of the 13th June, Bonaparte new that Ott with his force was in front of him in Alessandria, and sent out forces to find Melas. Unknown to Bonaparte. Melas was in Alessandria with Ott, and the next morning they attacked the outposts of the weakened French forces. By 10am, the situation looked like this:

Situation at 1000

The plans are fairly obvious; for the Austrians, send Elsnitz and Ott to outflank the French via Castel Ceriolo, while hitting them from the front with Kaim, Hadik, St. Julien and Morzin, while O'Reilly makes a nuisance of himself on the French left. The plan for the Frecnch is even simpler: (a) hang on, and (b) keep your fingers crossed for Desaix.

Austrian deployment at 1000

French deployment at 1000

Turn 1

The Austrian assault kicks off, with the infantry of O'Reilly and Hadik's divisions advancing against Gardanne's right. O'Reilly's light cavalry charges Murat's heavies in order to keep them away from the Austrian infantry.

Austrian moves against the French left

Meanwhile on the Austrian far left, Elsnitz heads for Castel Ceriolo, for some reason taking the longer way round...

Still reading the manual for his GPS, Elsnitz misses the turn for Castel Ceriolo

Meanwhile, Morzin's grenadier brigades set off on a smaller-scale flanking manoeuvre.

Morzin takes aim at Chambarlhac's flank

For O'Reilly's cavalry, it's mission accomplished, they take a single hit from the combat with the French heavy cavalry, and both sides bounce disordered. The Austrians bounce back to their start point, to put the stream between them and the French, just in case.

O'Reilly's cavalry reorganises behind some protection

For the French, there isn't much to do in Turn #1 but bring up Lannes...

Lannes leads Watrin's division toward the sound of the guns

...and Marmont with his handful of heavy guns.

Marmont limbers up

The situation at the end of Turn 1:

Situation at 1030

Turn 2

Elsnitz reaches Castel Ceriolo.

Austrian cavalry in a position to threaten the French right

Ott sets out after Elsnitz to add infantry and some more cavalry to the move against the French right.

"Follow Elsnitz, he's got the GPS!"

Meanwhile, Mozin's grenadiers have crossed the Fontanone unchallenged.

Chambarlhac's flank is in the air

As if Chambarlhac didn't have enough to worry about, Frimont's fire disorders one of his infantry brigades, and Frimont's cavalry follows up...

Will the fact that the Austrian cavalry is fording compensate for disorder and not being in square?

...and inflicts 3 hits on the French, but fails to break them, so the cavalry bounces back, the French infantry saved by the steep riverbank.

Murat decides to put the brakes on the advance of Morzin's grenadiers, and charges with his light cavalry.

Murat's charges, but the grenadiers form square in time

The cavalry bounces disordered, but forcing the grenadiers into square will  slow up their advance. Meanwhile, Lannes is getting close and will soon be able to make a difference, but he has Austrian grenadiers ahead of him and Austrian cavalry approaching from behind. Not a good time to be in march column.

"Behiiiiiind youuu...!"

In Gardanne's sector, the French heavy cavalry, having recovered its good order after the fight with O'Reilly's horsemen, charge O'Reilly's grenzer brigade for the same reason Murat charged the grenadiers over on the right - they're getting uncomfortable close. The grenzers form square in time, and inflict 3 hits on the French thanks to a tied roll, and we have our first rout of the battle. The French cavalry retreats to the woods, with should be out of reach of the the Austrian cavalry on the other side of the stream.

"Run away! Run away!"

The situation at the end of Turn 2:

Situation at 1100

Turn 3

Another blow against the French as Morzin's grenadiers shake out of square into line and rout Chambarlhac's right-hand brigade.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

Notmuch else happened in Turn3. Morzin puched his larger grenadier brigade out in line towards Lannes, who is still in march column for some reason, but instead of charging at Lannes with his cavalry also in march column, Elsnitz decided to stop and change to column formation instead. A lost opportunity?

The situation at the end of Turn 3:

Situation at 1130

The story so far:

To be continued...

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About this blog...

This blog will contain accounts of solo Napoleonic wargames using the Avalon Hill Napoleon's Battles set of miniatures rules, played out in the scenario editors of the Jon Tiller Napoleonic Battles series of games instead of on a table with figures.

I came up with this way of playing after years of owning NBs, but having insufficient time, space and cash to devote to miniatures gaming. The light-bulb moment came while trying Talonsoft's Battleground: Waterloo scenario editor, in which you can move units around any way you like, unrestricted by the game's engine. It occurred to me that since the game and the rules both used the same ground scale, perhaps the editor could serve as a virtual tabletop. Lots of experimenting and trial and no small amount of error showed that it could do a pretty good job of it, albeit with a couple of compromises.

Since then the Battleground series has evolved into John Tiller's Napoleonic Battles series, and Napoleon's Battles has passed from the hands of Avalon Hill and is now in its 4th edition.

My thanks to Javier Gamez of Napoleon's Battles for his support with this project and to John Tiller and his team for kindly allowing their games to be showcased in this...unorthodox...way.






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