Marengo, 14th June 1800 - AAR Part 2

Turn 4: 1130

Problems are looming for the Austrians, as Morzin approaches the limit of Melas’s command range, and Elsnitz is already outside it and can no longer claim to be in command because his units are travelling in march column along a road. Not to worry, though, a simple re-positioning of Melas will fix that, and Elsnitz rolls a 3 on his command check, and his cavalry gets a full move.

Melas's command range

Still in march column, and with the tail end of the column only 4” away from the Austrian cavalry, Lannes  is in big  trouble. OK so my Napoleon alter ego should have done something about this before it because a problem, but I’m an enthusiastic Napoleon’s Battles player – I never claimed to be a good one. Meanwhile my Melas alter ego is doing his best Monty Burns impression, purring “Excellent…” though his steepled fingers.

"Behiiiind yoooouuu!!!!"

One other thing to note for the Control Phase, and that is that O’Reilly’s division on the Austrian right is now fatigued, having been reduced to its Dispersal number (I forgot to mention his cavalry’s falling foul of a tied combat roll in Turn 3). So O’Reilly is fatigued and can no longer act offensively unless Melas uses the Initiative.

With Victor’s right flank starting to crumble, it’s time for Melas to get Kaim and Hadik moving and pile on the pressure. Unfortunately, the Austrian position is a real traffic jam with units getting in each other’s’ way, and the new interpenetration rule s being no help at all. Austrian infantry in column behind cavalry in line can never pass through because of the 2” depth of the cavalry bases and the 3” rough movement per inch cost when the infantry total movement allowance in column is a snail-like 6”.

Reorganising the Austrian centre

With the cavalry out of the way, at least one horse battery can come up and unlimber. I leave one of the two guns limbered as a reminder that it moved this turn, and the -2 (anti-Death Star) penalty applies. St Julien also re-positions his infantry for a clearer approach to Marengo village when the time comes.

 Over at Castel Ceriolo, Elsnitz’s lead cavalry brigade charges the rear of Lannes’ column, which cannot even attempt to form emergency square. This is looking very nasty for the French. 

Caught!

Morzin halts his grenadiers while the right-hand brigade recovers its good order, and continues to bring up his guns. The battery attached itself to the right-hand grenadier brigade.

Morzin's moves

On the right flank, no longer able to achieve anything useful, O’Reilly moves his grenzers out of the way from where they were partly blocking Hadik’s infantry, (which changes to line) and artillery. O’Reilly attached himself to the grenzers because with them being his only remaining unit, there’s no reason not to.

Fire from Chambarlac’s light infantry disperses the small AsLT brigade so now Frimont, like O’Reilly, is unlikely to make any more offensive moves today. Melas decides it’s not worth spending a free roll on to try to change the outcome, since the unit was one hit away from dispersal anyway. “I’ll miss those little grey guys,” he is reputed to have said.  Other than that, the French defensive fire doesn’t achieve anything of note.

Austrian fire starts off with the grenzers disordering the French squares opposite. Being fatigued doesn’t mean you can’t shoot. That’s as good as the Austrian fire gets, because the horse batteries are either on the move or suffering the -2 just-moved penalty. The grenadiers facing Chambarlhac get a hit on his 3^er brigade.  The grenadiers don’t get the +1/-1 line formation firer/target modifier because I decided to give that only if the unit is in line as per the rules i.e. a single row of bases.

There is only one combat in this turn, and it won’t be for the squeamish…the Austrian modifier is +4, and the French is -7. Ouch. The roll is As 3 vs Fr 3, giving us As 7 vs Fr 0, inflicting four hits and dispersing the rearmost 8-figure brigade.

Lannes' column is disappearing...

 The Austrians roll for recall and succeed, continuing on to crash into the next French brigade and routing it. Again they roll recall and rout the next French brigade, Watrin galloping away just in time.

...followed shortly by Lannes!

One to go for a full house...and the Austrians make another recall throw. This could turn out to be a very short game. The final brigade of Lannes’ command evaporates under the Austrian sabres, and the Austrians having again rolled recall, decide that enough is enough. Murat’s light cavalry brigade is in reach but it’s not nearly as easy meat as an infantry column, and the victorious ASLC brigade is within two hits of its dispersal number after taking four combat winner hits. Lannes will suffice as a target in the meantime. He fails to get out of the way in time and becomes a prisoner. Treble slivovitz’s and gongs all round for the men of 1B/E!

The French roll for the early arrival of the 1230 reinforcements, but their luck isn’t in. It was a 10-1 shot anyway.  The French heavy cavalry rallies, which is good news since at 5, the French were already scarily close to their early Army Morale number of 7. Chambarlhac’s 2B/2/V also rallies. Bonaparte is close enough to take command, and decides it’s time to give ground, “Reculer pour mieux sauter,” he consoles himself. 

French moves

Murat would like to charge Morzin’s brigade to buy some time, but Murat’s division is still under the effects of the Fatigue caused by the routing of the heavy cavalry and the effects won’t be lifted until the next French Control Phase (because the Fatigue Step comes after the Rally Step). His good order FrLC brigade can, however, have a React Marker placed for non-phasing reaction moves. Watrin attaches to one of his broken brigades to try to get it back in action. Napoleon moves to bring everyone into his command range, and Marmont continues bringing his guns up. The rallied units haven’t moved and so shed their disorder markers.

"Look busy! Here comes the guv'nor..."

 The Austrians shoot at Murat’s FrLC with the 1B/M AsGRZ, inflicting a single casualty. At 2 hits shy of the dispersal number, this is worth a re-roll…or so Bonaparte thinks…but the re-roll  is worse…and now the French 2B/CR takes two hits, reaching its dispersal number. The Dispersal Prevention roll fails – more bad news for the French…time for another re-roll. Half the French Free Rolls have been used now and the battle is still falling apart…but at last a success and 2B/CR stays on the field…for now. Austrian artillery fire against Gardanne’s 1B/1/V is ineffective, but Hadik’s artillery and O’Reilly’s AsGRZ inflict three hits on Gardanne’s 2B/1/V.

Austrian fire

The French fire phase fails to achieve anything, and that wraps up Turn 4.

The situation at the end of Turn 4

  

Turn 5: 1200

Elsnitz and Morzin are the only Austrian generals outside Melas’ command range. Morzin passes his, but Elsnitz fails. Under the standard rules, this means his 2B/E brigade is  marked with a Half-Move marker. His 1B/E brigade is outside his command range. Under the standard rules this means a No Move marker, and under the optional command step rules it means the worst that can happen is a Half-Move marker which I think goes too far in the other direction and is a bit too lenient, so I’m trying out a rule tweak which applies only to cavalry: if the unit rolls <= it’s RSP -3, it gets a full move, if it rolls > RSP-3, but  <= RSP, it gets a Half-Move, otherwise it’s No Move. A roll of 6 gets 1B/E a Half-Move marker. The two brigades reorient themselves so they will be within Elsnitz’s command range in Turn 6. Kaim’s left-hand brigade is out of command, Kaim having drifted too far off to the right. It fails its RSP roll and gains a No move marker.

On the Austrian right, Hadik and Kaim’s infantry and artillery advance with Gardanne’s disordered and in square 2B/1/V in their sights. Things are starting to happen at last in this sector. In the centre, Kaim repositions to bring his2B/K back into command, and Frimont attaches himself to his cavalry brigade and gives it a React marker. Hadik’s cavalry moves around the Austrian left with the aim of outflanking Victor’s line and providing some protection against the French heavy cavalry in that sector. On the Austrian left, Ott has a choice, to follow the road to Castel Ceriolo and be held up by Elsnitz’s cavalry, or take a wider sweep off-road and go further west before turning south. He opts for the latter, putting his trust in the rules for command status of off-road march columns. With no French units to its front, Morzin’s 2B/M reorients towards the southeast.

Both sides have ineffective fire phases, and there are no combats to resolve.

On the French side, Napoleon is now in command of the battlefield, ending his generals’ command problems, apart from Marmont, struggling forward with his guns, which should really have been in March Column. Another lesson learned the hard way. Murat’s heavy cavalry, our of Murat’s command while he is attached to the light cavalry, fails its command test and is marked with a No Move marker – the roll was 9. By the book, this would have been meant a Half-Move, but under the PJ trial rule it’s a No Move. A roll of 1 – 4 would have meant a normal move and 5 – 7 a half move. This is bad news for the French. One piece of good news, however, it that Watrin rallies one of his brigades, and the other remaining brigade self-rallies (required 3, rolled 1). Murat's light cavalry was unable to removed its disorder marker, deciding instead to back up to put more distance between them and Morzin's AsGRN brigade with its attached guns. Both brigades are of course permanently fatigued and may take no offensive action but they might be useful as a roadblock to slow up the advancing Austrians. A piece of nearly good news was a roll of 1 for the arrival of reinforcements one turn early, but Melas forces a re-roll resulting in a 10, and no reinforcements for the French just yet. The Fre nch lines step back a bit but that's about all they manage. Marmont is taking his time with his guns. On the plus side, Murat's light cavalry is no longer disordered and the two surviving brigades from Lannes' corps are back in good order.

Apart from forcing the use of another French Free Roll to save Murat's light cavalry from dispersing, the Austrian fire phase was ineffective, as was the French. There were no combats in Turn 6.

The situation at the end of Turn 5

Turn 6: 1230

The Austrians have a good command phase, with everyone "on-message". The Austrians continue to cross the stream and send Hadik's cavalry against the French left. The infantry that has crossed the Fontanone closes on Gardanne's command and to the north of Marengo, Morzin's grenadiers continue their advance against Chambarlac. Elsnitz's cavalry division reunites with the intention of taking on Murat. To the northeast, Ott's column starts to deploy.

Austrian moves near Marengo village, 1230.

French defensive fire disorders Kaim's 1B/K but doesn't achieve anything else. Austrian fire against Gardanne's flank brigade in square is much more effect, scoring a double hit. Because this would disperse the unit, the French re-roll...and get the same result. Definitely ein guter schuss for the Austrians, bagging a brigade and one of the French free rolls...or they would have if Gardanne hadn't stepped in and prevented the dispersal. Of course, there is still the combat to resolve and with disordered infantry in square facing good order infantry in line, this brigade will be very lucky to be still in existence on the next turn. On the other side of Marengo, Morzin's shooting against Chambarlhac's light infantry is just wasted powder...

There is only one combat and Melas looks forward to it with glee...+2 vs -6...and rolls a 1 versus the French 8. Luckily, the Austrian has enough shots left in the free roll locker to spare on for this almost-sure bet. An As 5 versus an Fr 3 does the trick, and the French 2B/1/V evaporates, but Gardanne escapes.

The French command phase is easy enough apart from Watrin and the surviving brigades of Lannes' corps, which are out of command. Murat's heavy cavalry on the left is out of command, but rolls its response number, so it gets a half-move. Some good news for the French is the arrival of Desaix's 1st Division, Murat's third cavalry brigade, and the Consular Guard.

The French edge further back, away from the Fontanone and the advancing Austrians. Gardanne's remaining brigade forms column, since it lacks the necessary movement to be able to back up while in line. COL, of course, means it will be at a disadvantage if an Austrian unit in line moves into combat contact. The nearby heavy cavalry doesn't have enough reach to force the nearby Austrians into square (due to that half-move marker) but it heads in that direction anyway, to give the Austrians there something to think about. Murat's light cavalry opts to increase the range between it and Morzin's artillery, but this means its disorder marker stays in place.

French moves around Marengo village,  1230.

There is some good news for General Bonaparte, though; Monnier's division of Desaix's corps has arrived, along with more of Murat's heavy cavalry and the Consular Guard. It will be a while before they can get stuck in, though. Their arrival does, however, raise the French Army Morale level from 7 to 10, giving Bonaparte a bit of a breathing space. But will it be enough?

Reinforcements at last!

With most of the Austrian artillery masked by friendly troops for now, the Austrian fire phase is ineffective, apart from forcing the French to use yet another free roll to prevent the dispersal of Murat's light cavalry. With only one casualty between that brigade and oblivion only one French free roll left!  Murat would be better off charging with it, disordered as it is so that at least it will probably achieve something before disappearing from the battlefield, which it's sure to do soon anyway.  The French achieve even less in their fire phase, scoring not a single hit.

There are no combats or pursuit moves this turn.

The situation at the end of Turn 6

To be continued...

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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