First game of our campaign ... a roll of fate!

Draft write up - pictures to follow.

The following battle report is based on a game of Napoleon at War using the 'Flank Attack' scenario out of the core book. In the report the narrative is presented for each one of the six game turns, text in italics explains what happens in game terms.

Druot D'Erlon put the telescope to his eye, the sultry mid June weather seemed to cast a haze over the crossroads which lay to his front, the whitewashed walls of the small farmstead glistened in the thick lens. Glancing down he again read the barely legible note he had been handed by De la Bedoyere (Napoleon's aide). Apparently, he held the fate of the Empire in his hands an had to take the crossroad and hold it until Le Emperor arrived on his right flank, to put in the coup de grace. Surveying what was soon to become, the field of battle D'Erlon could only see a handful of battalions facing him. However, he had heard from many Generals who had faced Wellington in the Peninsular that the cunning old fox liked to keep his forces out of view, so he decided not to try and read too much into the knotted feeling in his stomach and to strike straight towards the crossroads. Orders were given out and the Generals and their aides galloped off.

D'Erlon himself and Major General Bourgeois were to lead the attack columns of the 5^th and 105^th Line flanked by the 2^nd Cavalry Brigade Lancers. First Corp Artillery heralded the start of the battle. D'Erlon wondered when his Emperor would arrive as he led his troops forward.

Sir Thomas Picton banged his umbrella down on the saddle, the clouds gathering in the sky seemed to indicate that he would, much to Wellington's ongoing disgust, need to use the device by the time the day was out. Bess, his long serving horse, shifted as the concussive blast of Roger's guns, situated to his left, vibrated through the air. Picton doubted that even his beloved Highland Brigade could hold out before the troops advancing towards him and, from what his scouts had ascertained, the mass of troops bearing down on his flank. Perhaps the best thing would be to pull back. From his side a horse appeared out of the smoke, the horse looked blown, the rider bedraggled. Sliding deftly from the saddle the young hussar thrust a document at him with the obligatory slight bow of the head and voiced, 'Sir …'

It seemed his commander, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, had decided to make these insignificant crossroads the site for the decisive battle. Picton was ordered to hold his position. Wellington himself was to try and head off the flanking force and also to relieve the troops on the crossroads. Picton just hoped he would be in time!

SET UP an Turn One- Patience and uncertainty.

We followed the prescribed set up for the scenario and laid out the terrain generated using the 'tournament' method which is suggested in the rules. The table layout is shown below.

Just a note to say we do not play in 15mm but in 10mm but all the bases and movement are to the same ratios as the 15mm ranges etc used in 15mm. SO everything should look 'right'. In any rule explanation I have used the 15mm distances (in inches as they are in the book).

The Brit player deployed their forces fairly central around the two objectives as the scenario does not stipulate where the flank forces will appear from. The French player set up in a position to head straight for the more central objective, obviously thinking the objective sitting deeper, and off to the side, would be the target of the force which are due to arrive as reinforcements in the reserve/support phase of some turn. In N@W any reserve forces will have a chance to come on at the end of the player's turn (in turn 1 one dice is rolled and if one gets a 1 a force can come on, in turn 3 say 3d6 are rolled and a force comes on for every 3,2 and 1 rolled etc).

Forces in N@W start fairly close, the attacker is allowed to deploy in their zone (often their half of the table) so long as they are 12” away from an enemy unit. This means in goo going terrain the columns can be in musket combat range after the movement phase. If the battalion is within range to fire it must. In N@W this then attracts return fire. As the column is moving and 3 bases frontage this means 3 dice with possibly -2 to this number due to the enemy skirmish bases (in N@W skirmishers take dice off the enemy's fire). Return fire from a line is going to be 6 bases at x2d6 minus any skirmishers, so probably 10 d6. As a unit HAS to stop 4” away from enemy in the movement phase this is always going to happen, the unit will then take fire as they go in during the combat (assault) phase of the turn. It is here that the subtle special rules for the different nations kick in – the French Line have a special Voltigeur rule which allows them to take skirmish bases off when they should be losing bases (normally sk bases are only lost when a triple is thrown on the fire dice).

So the French rolled their columns up to just outside of 6”(mainly in game terms so they didn't cop the 12 d6) while the cavalry were menacingly moved to the flank. The foot battery opened up on the building with their one howtizer base and managed to set it on fire, forcing a saving throw on the troops inside (and each firing phase until they put it out).

There were no support moves as their was only really the core forces on table and the French player failed on the reserve roll. The Brit turn one was basically to sit and wait, time was on their side and they resisted the temptation to move forward and fire (they would have lost half the fire dice for moving). The artillery fire forced a saving throw, but it was made …On the plus side the fire was put out in the building.

All in all for N@W the first turn was a sedate affair … Probably wouldn't last long though!

D'Erlon flinched wildly as a musket ball passed through his hat, his aide persuaded him to let his Officers continue to take the troops in. Waving them on he let the columns pass, bearing down on the crossroads and farm. A slight look of consternation passed over his face as he looked upon the awaiting lines of skirted men, resplendent in their tall busby style hats. His Emperor called them devil amazons and he could see why as they waited, not even the rounds of artillery passing through their ranks seemed to shake them.

Major Gen. Bourgeois led his column onwards. Again the building was subjected to howitzer fire but the walls and roofs must have been well dampened Well aware that they were now within the British muskets range he urged his men on, the swarms of skirmishers stretching out in front. Without warning and spreading like a virus the men at the front of the column started to level their muskets and shoot … “Merde,” the idiots would cost them. Walls of off white powder smoke rose from the British Line as the first volley of the day for the Highlanders was unleashed. Bourgeois yelled in anger as he saw skirmishers drop lifeless to the floor …

“Foncez!” he exclaimed, urging the columns on to charge the line of red.

“Hold your fire boys, wait until you see their beady French eyes ...” Picton's admonishment was passed on in various forms down the line. At what looked like only a couple of dozen yards the line of muskets exploded as one … Some columns faltered, the front ranks levelling their muskets and trying to return the carnage. One battalion wavered, before they could anything the mass of skirted amazons in front of them rose up, and accompanied by a blood curdling scream, hurled themselves at the column. Most however continued on and pushed into the British Line, bayonets and rifle butts finding their mark as the two antagonists joined in a macabre, deadly dance.

Watching on the two commanders could see mixed fortunes, in places the thin red line held, whupping and hollering as the French columns moved back and reorganised. Fighting over the whitewashed walls of the farmhouse was a particularly bloody affair, the riflemen inside managing to stem the tide and turn the blue wave backwards. However, in other parts of the line where the East Essex were involved in fierce, almost primeval fighting the columns had managed through sheer weight of number to drive the red coats back.

Where this had happened with the 2^nd Battalion though Pack had managed to plug the gaps with the 3^rd Battalion while desperately trying to pull the 2^nd boys back.

The Lancers led by Gobrecht had almost caught the 42^nd Highlanders, only their experience enabled them to pull together a square and loose a volley off before the lancers hit. As it was a number of brave skirmishers who had tried to stop the wall of points had been killed by the metal tipped shafts, fortunately slowing the regiments down just enough. The volley had scythed down a number of Lancers and they had ridden around the square and back to reform.

D'Erlon glanced around at where one of his aides was shouting and pointing, almost hysterically, towards the far flank of the action. Aiming his collapsible telescope towards the cause of this outburst D'Erlon felt a sudden surge of adrenaline course through his body. There was Donzelot's Brigade entering the fray from the flank … Hopefully he thought the Emperor would be right behind!

Picton had spent the last hour dashing between battalions bolstering their morale. At one point he dashed into a square made by the 42^nd. His Highlanders had done him proud but he was worrying about Pack's Brigade. They had been pretty badly mauled at one point in the line. Now was the worrying news that more French forces were advancing on the flank … Where was Wellington and his support?

Game Turn Two – of columns and squares

The columns headed towards the awaiting red line. It was obvious that the second turn was not going to be as passive as the first. Firstly the French columns had to take the first volleys of fire. As mentioned above this is when being able to take a sk stand off instead of a base comes in very handy (and probably accounts for why the French Battalions cost is so much higher than most others). Most of the columns faired OK and after a brief bit of artillery fire in they went in during the combat phase. This involves the opponent having to make a choice of when to do their defensive fire. It can be made with no test but using only 1d6 per base or 2d6 dice base IF the battalion passes a drill test … If they fail they miss out on any fire. This is a tense decision most of the time except for the Battalions with the special ruls 'Cold Blooded' who can reroll a fail. As most of the line had the trait the Brit commander tried to wait, on the whole it worked. Taking defensive fire triggers a valeur test to go in .A few columns had to move back and engage in a firefight which most of the time they lost due to rolling far less fire dice. However, a fair number of the columns made it in due in no little part to the French Columns special rules. This led to some of the Essex Brigade being pushed back. In the Brit turn these depleted battalions were pulled back and fresh units put in front of the French. Moving fire from these battalions was not as effective but again managed to take off a base or two as well as some skirmishers. This would make it harder for the columns to be so effective, the 105^th Line looking particularly dodgy.

The two columns of the 5^th who were attacking the farmhouse seemed on the verge of taking it, they neither suffered no base loss on the way but ended their combat phase inflicting a base but losing a base. As the combats are worked out in N@W one as they happen this meant in theory both were draws and as the attackers they drew back. However the light brigade (nominally 95^th rifles in the game) in the farmhouse had now lost 3 out of 6 bases (once they lose more than half they are destroyed). They couldn't rally any bases back as they were understrength as they had dealt some extra sk bases out to the other battalions in their brigade.

The more worrying part of the combat phase for the Brits was the charge of the Lancers on the Highlanders who were in line at the start of the phase. The Brit player had kept them in line to avoid having the French fire at them when in square during the fire phase. Now however they were left needing to make a drill test to be able to form square. If the Lancers got into the line they would have thrown 8 d6 with 4+ taking off a base AND a 6 taking off 2 bases due to the Lancer rule. Hitting a square on the other hand only gives 1d6 in total. As it happened the Highlanders made the roll but lost their skirmishers who were forced to roll a save an failed. The Lancers managed to take off 2 bases (by throwing a 6) but they were bounced off (cav always count as losing against a square) and lost a stand due to the attrition rule.

SO the middle of the table seemed to hang in the balance when a lucky roll (2d6 and a 1 and 4 rolled) saw a French Brigade under Donzelot appear on the Brits flank and move on quite menacingly. The Brits would not be able to start rolling for reinforcments until the end of turn 3 so Picton was forced to move the Highlanders he had in reserve and bricole his artillery towards the French column. Pack managed to rally a base back onto both Battalions who had pulled back.

D'Erlon saw victory beckoning as Donzelot's columns headed down towards the rear of the enemy, only a thin line of the skirt wearers in their way. Waving his hat and beckoning his boys forward he sent his columns forward again. The acrid powder smoke making an eery haze as it hung in the depression the crossroads sat in … Pack sent an aide with a desperate plea for more troops to Picton, unaware that there was little his compatriot could do to help him. Again the order was given to hold fire, this time it was not so successful!

Picton galloped from point to point as if on a fox hunt at home... He watched with pride as his Highlanders stood their ground repelling, and in one case seemingly destroying the French in vicious, brutal close in fighting. The Royal's again held out against the Lancers whose inftantry support had let themselves get involved with the fighting around the Farmhouse. But they were down to half their number, their square shrinking and shrinking, to the onlooker it was if the Lancers had overwhelmed them. The Camerons, who were tasked with stopping the flanking French columns were doing themselves proud as the columns wavered and stopped due to the withering musket and cannister fire. The Suddenly his pride turned to horror as firstly he saw the hated tricolour flag hoisted on the roof of the farmhouse. Then as one Pack's brigade seemed to turn and rout, their officers trying to stop them, but it was obvious that panic had set in an Picton could see his right flank crumble, only the 92^nd Highlanders were on the crossroads. WHERE oh where was Wellington. However bad it looked at least he was spared the view that thrilled D'Erlon.

There in there resplendent glory were Friant, Le Emperor and the men of the Old Guard moving own towards the Scottish Devils … even they would not be able to hold firm in front of the Old Guard. Surely the day was theirs? A galloping messenger reined in to a halt in front of him, through panting breath a trail of reports poured out. Wellington was almost on the battlefield, indeed his cavalry was just about to arrive. The battle hung in the balance.

Turn 3 – A very close run thing

Half way through the game and by the end the Brits were close to being forced to retreat. The French had got 2 VP (one for the objective farmhouse and one for the exhausted force/brigade) and the Brits only had 2 operative forces on the table. Once more VP are gained than the opposition has operative forces it is all over.

The centre French columns were looking worse for wear but had done their job and the 3 who were left and not understrength could rally a base or two and then attack the lone Highlander battalion on the crossroads for another VP. The Lancers had worn down the other Highlander battalion to 3 bases and the artillery and French Line no longer needed to assault the farmhouse would make easy work of them. On the rear hill Donzelots Brigade had taken a mauling loosing 5 bases across the 3 battalions but were now in the position that they could be moved back and the Old Guard could take the fore. Two things saved the Brits from an early exit at this point, firstly the arrival of one force of reinforcements in the form of the Scots Greys and secondly at least the French artillery was labouring behind.

For the first time in the day D'Erlon became a spectator as he watched the, what he could only call courageous, Scot's square disappear in a cloud of smoke and roundshot. His central forces were in a state of reorganisation and rally, massing together for a push onto the crossroads themselves. Gobrecht, having steadied and reorganised his Lancers headed off towards the advancing grey horses who were sweeping towards the Emperor.

Friant was at the head of the beloved Old Guard as they crashed into the Scot's line who had he could only presume been caught between loading as his columns had taken little fire. Napoleon watched on as his 'sons' decimated the skirted devils. It was only then that Le Emperor noticed the swarm of grey horses bearing down on his men.

Posonby had the bit between his teeth as he spurred on the Greys, at last his father would be avenged, he would destroy the Old Guard and could that be the French Ogre with them,

“Onwards my lads. Onwards to Glory ...”

D'Erlon could see it all unfold in front of his eyes. One Guard Battalion smoothly moved into square as if they were on the parade ground, Napoleon and Friant taking refuge inside. BUT wait the other Battalion wasn't moving, maybe the dip in the ground they had been fighting in hid the enemy … the Heavy Cavalry would turn them into mincemeat. Suddenly he caught sight of a sea of triangular flags, the pennants on the Lancers instruments of death. As the Greys descended onto the Guard the Lancers intercepted them. Even over the noise of the battlefield D'Erlon imagined he could hear the impact as four of the finest cavalry regiments crashed into each other.

From his vantage point it seemed to Picton the Greys had hit the square, then he noticed the Lancers and then the Greys pull back, looking like only a small measure of the force that had charged in. Not that the Lancers looked in much better shape as they trotted back, rallying around their flags.

WHERE was Wellington?

Turn 4 – the roll of fate!

The Brits were hanging on; just. The Camerons took a 'licking' from the Guard. In N@W the Old Guard were as strong as their real life counterparts were reported to have been. Rolling an extra 2d6 in combat the first column got in without losing a base. Their extra saving roll saved them on the exchange of fire getting into assault range and the Highlanders failed on their 'point blank' fire test, even with a reroll which meant the Guards got in an rolled 8d6. They actually rolled all 5s nd 6s which obliterated the Scots. Why the French player didn't form square with their reorganisation move is a bit of a mystery as there was 8 bases of Heavy Cavalry bearing down on them. After the game the excuse was, 'I got carried away and forgot' – oh the fog of war.

This took the Highland Brigade to under half strength but they passed their Valeur roll and stayed on the table. Unfortunately they still counted as an exhausted force which meant that they didn't count as 'operative' anymore. The French now had 2VP with the Brits only having one operative force UNLESS reinforcements arrived.

The Brit player wasted no time or the opportunity to charge into the Old Guard who were standing in line in front of him. The first regiment went in and the Guard passed their test,forming square and repulsing the cavalry. Neither side lost a base in the clash but due to the attrition rule a base was removed from both.

A little yelp of pleausure was heard as the second Guard Battalion failed to make their roll and looked destined to take the heavy charge in line without any defensive fire. It must be admitted it was only at this point that both players realised the Lancers were probably within counter charge range! Their test was rolled and made and they crunched into the Greys as they charged in. The resultant combat was the worst of the day. Cavalry halve their dice in combat with each other so the Lancers only got to throw 2d6 and to rub salt in the wound they had to reroll any hits as they were not classed as 'battle cavalry'. Normally they wouldn't be fighting the heavies but it was the only hope the Guards had. They rolled a 4 an a 5 – normally two bases gone but they had to reroll them. The Brit player's giggles of derision soon turned sour as the reroll showed a 5 and a 6 … THREE bases gone as the 6 counts double with the Lancers rule. Down to 1 base the greys could fight back if they passed a valeur test. Which they did and then inflicted one base … but not enough to win the combat and they fell back and being under half strength were deemed to disperse. The Lancers limped back to lick their wounds.

So it all rested on the Brit reserve roll – they needed 1 force to come on to get the game to carry on as at that point in time the French had 2VP and the Brits only one operative force. On turn four this meant that 4 dice were rolled with any 1,2,3 or 4 rolled seeing a Force come on. But the dice had obviously geared themselves up for combat as the dice settled … 5,6,5 and 5.

It was all over …

Picton saw the Greys pull back, he watched as the aide he had sent to find Wellington returned, is horse blown. The look on his face told Picton all he needed to know. The Duke had been delayed by a report of a French force on his flank and would not be there for another hour. It later came out that this was the French artillery that had got lost and saw the opportunity to open up on the Duke. Picton had no choice, even if he could hold the regrouping French to his front the Old Guard would be envelope him. He ordered his men to pull back to fight another day.

Game wise it had been very tense all the way through and an excellent opener to our campaign. The rules give an excellent feel (maybe a bit to stereotyped for many Old Nap Salt out there with the national characteristics) for me. The simple mechanics when combined with the troop abilities actually give many a subtle effect that are missed on reading the rule book.

Campaign wise Napoleon is now marching on the capital. Wellington needs to slow him down by securing the river crossings which would give him time to pick a spot for the decisive battle. Napoleon needs to keep moving, putting the master tactician on the back foot. The next scenario in the campaign will be the vital bridge scenario.