GBCoC v2.6 Albuera

Myself and Adam got together last Thursday for another game of GBCoC (the Napoleonic variation of the TFL rules Chain of Command). The most recent playtest version had a major re-write of the command rules and the movement rules.

Command Rules: In the original version of GBCoC, units were activated by command dice (5d6 with each value activating a different level of command or giving bonus options). Unlike WWII CoC each commander that was activated could pass 1 of his command initiatives down the command structure to activate a sub commander within 9" and then this commander would be completed activated. A GdD has 4 Command Activations each time he is activated and thus if he activated a GdB, this sub commander would have 3 Command Activations. This cascading structure was very useful in allowing a player to activate almost all his units but at the same time there was a lot of Command Activations out there which really slowed play. Version 2.6 removed this command cascade in an attempt to shorten the length of time each player was taking to make his command decisions.

Movement Rules: In the original version only activated units got to make a standard movement (3d6 in inches for a French Attack Column) and unactivated units got to make a single d6 move. In version 2.6 all units can make a standard move. At the same time a standard move was shortened if a unit started within 12" of an enemy unit, by essentially removing a d6. At the same time all maneuvers were now at the cost of a d6. This did simply things. Standard movement does not allow melee to take place you can only move or fire at close range.

Command Activations: Four new Command Activations were added to the original group of Directing Battalions, Passage of Lines and the Shock Removal. These include Hurry (add 6" of movement to an individual unit), Inspire (allow a unit to enter an enemy ZOC), Coordinate (Directing Battalions and Passage of Lines on the regiment or brigade or halt a single unit before it makes it's full movement) and Direct (allow a Artillery Battery to fire at long range, they automatically fire at short range).

There were some other minor changes. When I originally read through the latest version I became quite alarmed but on playing the latest version I found they were simpler than thought and will accomplish the objective of speeding up the game.

This was the position of the troops after the first turn. I believe the French (on the left) started at their picket line while the Spanish held back initially. The British had to start in March column with their tail on the edge of the terrain.

The Spanish after the initial unsuccessful French cavalry attack moving back into line. I was able to maintain good order over the Spanish with the Coordinate Command Action. Their line never faulted. 

The French centre and right flank, you can see the lead regiment advancing in Ordre Mixte  with the battalion in line having sent out a skirmish screen. This was quite effective although the Spanish Cavalry were able to hary this regiment to slow their advance. 

The British reserve which were never activated as they were not required. The Spanish in front of them held the British army's right flank. History repeated itself.

The British right flank was a little less successful, I was able to break 2 French battalions, but my somewhat uncoordinated attack resulted in the breaking of my largest battalion. By now 3 hours had past, the French had lost 2 regiments and 2 battalions and had suffered numerous command casualties while the Allies had lost only 4 stands with 1 battalion routing. Although we did not finish the game because of some miraculous Force Morale throws by the French it was a clear Anglo-Spanish victory so we ended the game.

I believe most of the rule changes were quite successful and both simplified and sped up the game. There are certainly some rough edges with some anomalous effects of the new movement rules. We were also a little unclear about the ADC function in respect to command actions. But one would have to expect some uncertainty after a major revision.

You can find Adam's AR here, I will let him speak for himself, his photos of the action are much better than mine.

I would like to add with the loss of the cascading command, the player has less ability to make all his units do what he wants them to do. On the surface this may make it seem tougher but in my way of thinking this allows the player to focus on his strategic plan rather then the tactical details (i.e. less units moving tactically each turn). I believe this lack of choice did speed up the game. The ruleset is now more similar to WWIICoC, with a greater reliance on strategic planning with the Command Dice function now serving to instill Fog of War than purely a unit activation tool.

Finally, I will quote the rules writer Darren Green:

The position of Commanders on the battlefield is extremely important. Commanders need to be positioned so they can influence units within their Command Range. It is essential to use the order of battle to move your forces: keep Regiments and Brigades together as the building blocks of your force. It may be tempting to send individual battalions off to gain temporary tactical advantage, but it will become impossible to coordinate your force once combat gets started. New players also try and get their whole force into contact. Unless they have a really good command team with several Dynamic Commanders, this is a recipe for uncoordinated, piecemeal attacks which nearly always fail. The best advice for an attacking player is to choose a Brigade for the attack, deploy it so that Commanders can make best use of orders such as Directing Battalions, and position the Divisional General close to the Brigadier so there is a high probability that one of them will be activated each turn to keep the attack moving. 

Another Playtest of GB-CoC and some French Indian War Play

I am on my travels now and have been in Montreal since the middle of June and it has been nice. This is the first time I have taken a full month off since 1989! I have been here by myself aside from separate 2 day visits from both my son and daughter. My wife is joining me this weekend just in time for the International Jazz Festival but in the mean time I have had lots of free time for gaming pursuits. I had some rebasing to do for some 18mm Napoleonics as well as painting some figures to supplement my French Indian War forces. I have also almost finished the cart set from Warbases UK for Sharp Practice 2. Lovely models, I am surprised they work so well in mdf. Some photos will be forth coming soon.

I have also got in a couple of games at my friend's Iannick's new house in the suburb of Ahuntsic. Iannick now has a purpose built games room, a painting room and an office! I am not sure how he got away with it, but he is certainly all set up now. He really has collected a lot of stuff over the years and now it is all easily accessible.

GBCoC

Our first game was a week ago, and for this Rusti of Crossover Miniatures drove up from Northern Vermont. I exerted a bit of pressure and got them to playtest the Napoleonic rules based on Chain of Command from Darren Green, the author of the Le Feu Sacre ruleset. I suspect that neither of them were that keen to play Napoleonics but both are experienced wargamers and I needed to broaden the number of people who have play tested them. I acted as the referee.

We played the Albuera scenario I had written, this was the third go with this scenario. I like it as it has a good mixture of infantry, with one side having a preponderance of cavalry. We have found this useful as it forced one side's infantry to go into square and it seemed that these rules were little tested.  It also has 3 brigades per side which is really the maximum the command system in this ruleset can tolerate. Rusty took the French and Iannick the Allies (who would of thought that). I did not take a lot of photos, nor to I plan to write an Action Report, I was really focused on giving the rules a run with a new set of gamers. Things went relatively well, and I only made a couple of errors in refereeing the game. I think I have a relatively good grasp on the rules now.

I did make some minor changes to the scenario as written above. The British have to start in march column with there rearmost bases touching the northern edge of the terrain. This was an attempt to duplicate the historical conditions of the action, where the British forces were caught out by Soult's feint to the centre and had their left flank protected by only their Spanish allies. On to some photos.

Looking south from the northern edge of the terrain with the two British brigades rushing to their left flank. The Spanish started the game in attack column with their artillery to their right flank and their cavalry in reserve. As per the scenario rules the class of the Spanish troops was unknown until they went into action (1-3 untested, 4,5 seasoned, 6 elite as thrown on a d6). All the French and British troops were seasoned. As you can see Iannick elected to hold back his troops from their front line (the red discs laid down from the patrol phase).

Here we have the French initial set up, Rusti was more aggressive bringing all his units up to his picket line. The cavalry brigade on his right flank with a infantry brigade in the centre and another infantry brigade going through the olive grove on their right flank. Again all in Attack Column except the brigade going through the olive grove which were in line.

Well how did the playtest go? The players had no problems with the patrol phase and were satisfied after one go, I did offer to replay it. We played for 3 and 1/2 hours and although the game was not brought to conclusion we did get a lot of play in. The basic mechanisms of movement, firing and combat as well as combat resolution, unit morale and force morale were all easily learned (it is easy with a referee). As it was a first game they had some difficulties getting to use the tactical bonuses (although I should say very few 5's and 6's were thrown), aside from the interrupt. They generally did well with movement by directing battalions, but no one seemed to be able to set themselves up for passage of lines (one of my favourite rules).

They also seemed to have little problem with attribution of command initiatives and utilizing the command dice. I use d4's to help with this but they seemed to find it unnecessary. One suggested that chits be used instead, maybe not a bad idea. We decided to call the game at 11pm, I think the Allies probably would have won but it was a well fought game by both players.

Well what did they think? I believe both of them were not really that impressed with the ruleset. They were some big reservations in respect to base removal and the size of the units, but really this is a personal preference and really has little to do with the ruleset. I personally like rulesets with base removal and variably sized units. I can see problems with rulesets scaled at the grand tactical level when this is the case but at the battalion level a diminishing footprint works for me and as I like to refight historical battles variably sized units is a necessity especially in the Napoleonic era. So I dismiss these reservations without hesitation. One also complained about skirmishers, but coming from the Sharp school of wargaming, I also dismiss this out of hand. I like skirmishers!

Other questions raised have come up before and less easily dismissed.
Variable Movement: Almost all TFL rules have variable movement, i.e. 3d6 (in column) if no restrictions on terrain or formation and 2d6 (in line) or 1d6 if adverse terrain or maneuvering. This gives a range of 3-18" of movement with 3d6. This makes it easily remembered, as you remove 1-2 d6 if you move through rough ground or are changing from column to line etc etc. I like this but almost everyone (3 groups) to whom I have introduced the game dislike it. It is hard to get rid of though as the the whole movement/maneuver mechanic is dependent on it and is very easily remembered. One of the other testers on the Yahoo group suggested that for movement one could substitute AvD (average dice). So still using 3 dice the range of movement would go from 6-15" now. The more I think about this the more I like it, although I can here the complaints about having to use AvD.
Weakness of French Tactical Bonuses: Another constant refrain in respect to the Peninsular Bonuses, Huzzah (fire and charge can be vicious) but there is not even a close French equivalent in effectiveness. I have suggested that En Avant (4d6 of movement) be substituted with Pas de Charge (4d6 of movement + 2 shock on each enemy unit contacted). It has been argued and maybe fairly that historically the thin red line did not wilt under attack from the French Attack Columns but even if so it does seem a little unfair to refuse to even the score for gaming purposes.
Number of Command Initiatives: It has been suggested that the number of command initiatives available each turn is slowing down the game because of their cascading nature (a Divisional General can hand down 1CI to a Brigadier General who now has 3 CI's). It has been suggested that the cascading CI's be -1 (so the above transfer would result in 2 CI for the Brigadier rather then 3) to decrease the overall initiative number. I think this is reasonable, the command structure and activation (the 5 Command Dice like CoC) is a critical part of the ruleset and I would not like to see it go. We tries this in the game, but really the players were not conversant enough with the ruleset to appreciate or analyze this change.

So an intersting playtest and the most negative evaluation to date, but I still like this ruleset and really none of the other 5-6 Napoleonic rulesets I have tried, have attracted me as this one does. So I will soldier on, but will try the above 3 amendments in my next playtest.

Muskets and Tomahawks

Last Saturday, I sat down with Iannick and we had a game of M&T, this is probably the 3 or 4th game (but not for a couple of years) of the French Indian War with this ruleset and they are enjoyable and relatively easy to play. Unfortunately I had not realized that we would be playing this game, so did not have my rulebook with me and the rules were a little rusty, but the game flowed smoothly.

It is interesting in that this was probably one of the first skirmish games I played and I subsequently have played a lot of Dux Britianarium and Chain of Command, both from TFL. As noted it is a good ruleset and gives a good game with lots of drama as the units of men are activated on card initiative, which I certainly like. The movement and firing mechanisms are quite simple and are reasonable. I found combat a little tedious as it has up to 4 steps; throw dice to hit, throw dice to confirm, if you lose throw more dice to see what happens and if something bad happens throw even more dice to see if more men die. Each of these steps has a number of modifiers so it can get a little complicated. French allied Indians are quite brutal, they get to re-throw all misses in combat so you want to kill them before they get close. I also found it strange that British regulars in firing line have normal movement. Another odd thing is despite it being a skirmish game in combat each man only engages one enemy. So if 6 indians attack 16 regulars only 6 figures on each side are involved in each combat. I have to admit I think we may have had this wrong, but if it is the case it is odd.

Overall though, we had fun and the game was over in a couple of hours which is nice. We are hoping to have a game of SP2 in the FIW setting in a week or 2, it will be interesting to compare the rules. Anyway some photos to follow.

Iannick has some lovely terrain which gave us a good game. I believe he fielded 4 units of Indians and 1 of French militia. I fielded 2 units of Rangers, 1 of Indians as well as 2 of British regular infantry. 

I kept my regulars in the middle in firing line.

The Rangers ascend a hill which gives them lots to fire at.

Near the end of the game, we had both lost a lot of figures but Iannick sent his 3 remaining units of Indians in to attack my British Regulars who really had yet to see action. Unfortunately I left the officer out front, who was almost immediately taken out by the rapidly moving Indians.

The card draw favored the French and before I knew it they were on top of my British regulars, I had whittled them down to 6 but they were still quite ferocious but I was eventually able to fight them off. It was a fun game.

Albuera: A GB CoC Playtest

Last night myself and Adam had another game of General Bonaparte meets Chain of Command. This is the first time that I have commanded the French for quite sometime and the first ever with this rule set. As you can see above we played an historical encounter based on the opening French attack in the Battle of Albuera. We did not get to a conclusion, but I believe the French given time would have won the game.

End position of Patrol Markers

GB CoC has a patrol phase, not particularly exciting but it did bring the troops within 18" of each other. Force Morale 10 for the French and 8 for the Allies, both starting from 9. The French can set up on the right behind a imaginary line that connects the markers. Likewise for the allies.

The French Initial Disposition

My plan was to soften up the Allies with a cavalry attack followed by infantry. And although I was the attacker and had first move, the initial throw of my command dice was quite poor and I could activate only 2 units!

The Initial Allied Disposition, Spanish to the right and the British to the left and to the rear

Not a real accurate position especially for the British in line. I believe I will change the scenario so the British have to place their troops in march column at the beginning of the game, as well as being at least 12" behind the Spanish front lines. The scenario is trying to duplicate that when the French attack was noted by the British, it was only the Spanish that stood between them and Allied right flank.

The Spanish, skulking in square

First failed French attempt to break a Spanish square

Then an attempt to break a British square.

The advance of the French Attack Columns

I did not take a lot of photos as the action quite quite heated. The allies moved into square in the initial part of the game, which made it tough as the French had no cannon. Fortunately most Spanish units when encountered came up as untested, except for the Cavalry which came up elite. They were not able to stand though, in a French cavalry assault they were thrown back, not to re-enter the game.

The French made a few goes at attacking squares and were able to weaken them and I believe may have broken one. But they were eventually thrown back, and I then threw in the French Attack columns. These had some success and through some luck dice and were able to give the Spanish cannon some trouble. Especially troublesome for the Allies was that Major-General Stewart was wounded in the assault and lost 2 command initiatives.

The game then went into a bit of a slog without the best command dice on either side. Lots of combat though with multiple fire fights. I believe there were 4 broken allied units and 3 broken French units by game's end. The highlight for the French was attacking the Spanish guns in attack column and getting away with it. The Interruption with a special 5 dice was what made it possible.

Near the end of the game I made multiple cavalry charges as time was running out, but my movement dice failed me, one charge ended up 1/2" short. It was unfortunate as their were multiple almost broken British units as well as untested Spanish units that I just could not get to in time. By now 4 hours had gone by and we had to call it a day. I had one whole brigade that never even became engaged.

It was a good game, and I really liked the OB, it made for a very interesting game. We got to play test many mechanisms that we had not previously encountered. I have raised several questions on the yahoo group especially about squares. I do not think I would change much in the scenario aside from restricting the British initial dispositions. Adam felt the olive grove maybe should not have taken up half the board, but I am not so sure. When I look back at the game, I see that I made a pretty basic strategic error that if corrected could have won me the game. Can you see it? Look at the photos with the French and Allied first positions.

Attacking cannon in Column, very tricky!

Spanish Army of Estramadura

I have been interested in adding a Spanish force to my Peninsular war units for some time and the commissioning of a new 18mm army allowed me this opportunity. I really know very little about this army and I have to say researching this force was much more challenging than I had expected. I did not even know where to start, I knew I wanted a brigade sized force rather than a division. The Napoleonic variant of Chain of Command that I favour as a ruleset usually has 3-4 brigades per side, so I felt the addition of a Spanish unit would add some variability to a game.

With some research I found out that Spanish Divisions in the Napoleonic era were actually brigade sized so this worked out well. I then left it to Pep, the commission painter who would be doing the force, to pick something that he was interested in painting. He decided on Portago's 3rd division at the Battle of Talavera in 1809. I asked that he add a unit of artillery and cavalry to the force and off he went.

The Spanish Army underwent a massive change after the battles of 1808, where the regular army was essentially destroyed by the French. The cities and regions of Spain responded to these loses by raising many volunteer infantry units. Steven's Balagan website provides a very nice overview of the Spanish Order of Battle during the Peninsular War. Here is a direct link to a painting guide on his site.

Within a couple of months he had the force painted and I received that last figures about a week ago. He really did quite a nice job on them. The only Spanish Napoleonics I had previously painted were from an earlier period when they all had white uniforms, so I was happy to see the blues and browns that make up this post 1808 force.

The army is made up of regular and volunteer line units, a light unit as well as a militia unit. I would love to hear from readers on how they would rate the units in this force. GB-CoC allows for elite, seasoned and untested units. The most valuable resource I found on line was actually the blog of another wargamer, JJ's Wargames. I found this excellent painting guide on his site for those who are interested. You can also read an excellent series of posts about his Spanish army and the Battle of Talvera on his blog.

All AB Miniatures with flags by Adolfo Ramos

Badajoz Volunteer Line Infantry

2nd Antequera Volunteer Light Infantry

Imperial de Toledo Volunteer Line Infantry

Provincial de Guadix Militia

Leales de Fernando VII Volunteer Line

Jaen Line Infantry

Rey Cavalry Regiment

Foot Artillery

Major-General Marquis de Portago 

Another GB-CoC Playtest: Barossa

Myself and Adam got another chance to test the General Bonaparte meets Chain of Command ruleset last Thursday. The playtest version is now at v2.4 and is really coming together. It had been 2-3 months since we played the rules so they were a little rusty in the first turn or 2, but then things came together and the game moved along. This game was based on the Battle of Barossa with some heavy substitution in the OB because of my figure collection but for those who are interested in an authentic OB set up for GB-CoC one can download a version here.

You can see that we got through several turns, it was a real back and forth game with cavalry, unusually playing a significant part. An excellent Action Report is on Adam's blog The Fencing Frog. We tried Adam's modified movement rules and they worked well. There was some discomfort with the range of the variable movement as now in the ruleset. For example, infantry battalions in column move 3d6, Adam has adjusted this to 2d6+4" thus adjusting the possible movement from 3"-18" to 6"-16". This played out well, we will have to see how the other play testers feel about this.

Overall, I am still enormously impressed by the rules. They play very well and the mechanisms are quite simple and the game moves smoothly. My main observation from this game is that it is very difficult to play a division per side game with 28mm figures on a 4x6' terrain. It really confirmed my choice to shift to 18mm Napoleonic gaming for this size terrain (I find this the most convenient size to transport and the club has mostly similarly sized tables).

Still some questions about ZOC and supports that we are hammering out in the play test group now. I have also put together an FAQ which one can download here. I will try to keep it updated. Finally a photo from the game showing the action.

For Sale

I have placed several French Units on TMP or Ebay. For readers of my blog however special pricing is available......just make an offer.

French Ligne Crusader Miniatures $175

French Legere Front Rank Miniatures $525 (SOLD)

French Guard Chasseurs and Mameluks Wargames Foundry $180

Anhalt-Dessau Line Perry Plastics $120

French Lanciers Wargames Foundry $120

French Vieux Garde Victrix Plastics $125

GB-CoC Playtest: Maida

We have had two further playtests of General Bonaparte meets Chain of Command. I have discussed the rules in a previous post and a discussion of our first playtest is documented here.

You can see the Action Reports on the Fencing Frog blog here and here. Thanks to Adam for so carefully chronicling each game.  We used the same scenario for both games. Maida is really an excellent scenario for testing rulesets, two almost evenly matched sides with varied troop types.

In our first game we had two veteran gamers Adam and Mike. Adam has played a lot of Dux Brit with me while Mike has been my pretty regular CoC opponent. In the second game, I finally got to play.

Many moons ago, I came up with a list that was important to me in respect to a Napoleonic ruleset.

• Preference for Tactical.
• Like the ability to field variably sized units plus rules for skirmishers
• Rules are base dependent and figure independent.
• Good Command and Control. I find games very boring where one player moves all his pieces and then the next guy moves all his pieces, it is just not real for me. It is important that the player be not able to utilize every unit every turn thus forcing him to make tactical choices each turn.
• Easy movement with simple and variable movement.
• Simple melee and firing mechanisms with minimal and similar steps.
• Easy casualty marking with base removal.

Well it would be hard to say that GB-CoC does not fill all those criteria, so I am quite excited about the ruleset. I hope to entice my friends in Montreal into a game soon, and who knows Curt may show up there this fall. Both Adam and Mike have no reservation in playing the ruleset again. I will have to work a little harder to get the local gaming group interested, there are about 30 members in the group and a significant proportion play Napoleonics on a regular basis.