18.64MB - View From The Trenches

Hannur. From Charleroi south, extend the Charleroi
turnpike through VVl5/WW14/XX14 and off the
board. Secondary Roads-from UU9 south, extend
the road through VV9/WW9/XX8 and off the map-
board. From U36 norrheast, extend the road through
H28/G28/F28 to join the road to Wavre (not cross-
ing any rivers).]
5. New Combat Results Table
The real heart of this rules revision is the new
CRT, with a whole new set of combat results based
on totally different ideas about the effects of battle.
There are 16 odds columns in place of 11, captur-
ing a wider spectrum of possible encounters. Above
all, there are two dice. This is the most revolutionary
change of all.
With one die, all six outcomes have equal prob-
ability at any odds. At 2-to-1, for example, the
suspense can be murder! You can lose everything,
or kill all the enemy, or retreat-and there's not the
slightest hint of which it will be. With two dice,
we have a middle range ("5" through "9") which
occur two-thirds of the time, and two extremes
which each occur only one-sixth of the time-one
bad for the attacker ("2" through "4") and one
bad for the defender ("lo", "11" and "12").
"Surprises" on the dice become truly unusual
variations from the ordinary, expected results. Also,
additive effects of modifiers are a serious matter,
skewing the most likely combat results to more
serious defeat or complete victory. A +2 modifier
means there are six chances for a "12" instead of
just one, and means results will fall in the "high
extreme" range more than half the time.
The possible outcomes of combat vary a great
deal. Contact means no effect. It is the best result
you can get-all the grief is in the enemy's lines.
Shaken means a unit must roll for morale (see
below). Passing the morale check is equivalent to
a "Contact" result. Withdraw means your com-
mander saw his unit getting mauled and conducted
an orderly one-hex withdrawal. Retreat is with-
drawal combined with a morale check. In particu-
larly unpleasant circumstances, a unit Breaks
without the luxury of a morale check-this is a
retreat and automatic failure of morale.
[OPTIONAL: French advantage-After resolving
all his artacks, a player may move all his cavalry
and horse artillery one additional hex IF this move-
ment will end with another attack. These units may
attack even after first round combat, but they must
attack without infantry or foot artillery being in-
volved. They may exposeJanks to adjacent enemy
units without attacking them so long as they attack
all units in theirfrontal squares. This sort of cavalry
"mopping up" is particularly effective .against
broken, retreating units when it can be managed
safely. After such charges, cavalry and horse
artillery must return to the hexes from which the
charge began.]
[OPTIONAL: Allied advantage-Foot artillery
never "charged" into enemy lines during an attack.
After an opening bombardment, it was up to the in-
fantry and cavalry. To reflect this, foot artillery is
left behind one hex to the rear of attacking units
(horse artillery may gallop forward with the
attackers). In attacks, foot artillery is counted as
firing two hexes, a bombardment which occurs
before the advance to contact by the infantry/
cavalry. No combat results or morale checks apply
to the "bombarding" artillery units themselves.
However, they may not fire unless there is an empty
hex between their guns and the enemy target at some
time during the movement portion of the turn. After
combat, the foot artillery may advance to stack with
any units participating in an attack on the same
target. Artillery defends normally; there is no
"bombardment " on defense, and no two-hex defen-
sive range. Combined arms bonuses still apply to
"bombarding" artillery.]
6. Combat Results Modifiers
Rivers and hills no longer double defense factors.
Instead, they are but one set of modifiers on the roll
of the dice. As such, they join a number of other
factors considered here. When resolving a battle,
roll the dice and then go through each of these
sections in turn, accumulating all appropriate
modifiers.
Combined Arms effects (see table) essentially re-
ward stacking infantry, artillery and cavalry
together. When a unit attacks alone from a stack,
use the column for units involved in that attack only.
Do not count other unit types in the same hex which
do not participate in the attack. Different unit types
in different hexes gain the combined arms modifier
if they attack the same defensive unit(s).
Unit Integrity effects (see table) give a bonus to
Guards and a penalty to Landswehr. These bonuses
apply only to infantry and cavalry, never to artillery
(neither horse nor foot). In mixed stacks, infantry
always takes precedence over cavalry in determin-
ing this modifier.
Elevation effects are separate from other terrain
modifiers, so they can be cumulative with such other
effects. High ground is good defensive terrain. Slope
hexes are the same elevation as the plain, but are
"below" hilltop hexes. Hilltop hexes themselves
are not "above" adjacent plain terrain however.
Terrain effects include river fording, forests and
towns. The defending player chooses any one
applicable effect. Rivers offer the biggest advan-
tage. The penalty for attacking from a hex in which
the attacker also crosses a river applies even when
bridges are present (crossing a bridge and then
deploying into battle formation while facing a
formed enemy is just as much a liability as fording
in the face of fire). As always, river hexes are those
in which a river both enters and leaves the hex. All
hexes with green coloring are forest. Remember,
these effects are cumulative with elevation effects.
[OPTIONAL: Artillery fire is drastically hampered
by dense forest. Hexsides partially or wholly covered
by green are forest, and artillery fire across such
borders is halved (retain fractions) for both attacker
and defender.]
Finally, the attacking player chooses one of the
"Facing" effects if applicable. For all these
modifiers, there is but one simple guideline. If they
are in the same paragraph above, only one is
applicable, but one DRM from each paragraph may
be applied and are cumulative.
Orders of Battle and Appearance for
THE CAMPAIGN GAME
SITUATION-7 am on June 15, 1815
This chart lists all the units that are in play at the start of the Campaign Game (beginning as
in my "Crossing the Sambre"), and all the units that enter as reinforcements. Players must place
these units as indicated.
French Army
Napoleon HQ, Pajol HQ, Soult, Subverie, Excelmans HQ,
Stroltz, Chaste1 XX14
Gerard HQ, Pecheux, Vichery, Hulot, Morin, IV Artillery,
1 rmv I
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