After losing the Battle of the Pyramids in the last blog post, mainly on a technicality (the author not really knowing what he was doing), Napoleon was given a second chance this morning...
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| Snipped from National Geographic |
The line up is the same as in the previous post only I've added a couple of palm trees to hopefully make things less abstract.
The French squares once again prove themselves a match for the Elite Mamluk cavalry
This time they are also fighting off the frankly unreliable Mamluk infantry who got the better of them in the first effort.
Order (and sanity) is restored with the historically correct conclusion
Having (finally) gained a foothold in the Middle East, Napoleon returns to France, sets himself up as First Consul and then goes back across the Alps to recapture the Italian provinces he had earlier taken.
Battle of Marengo
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The Austrians have a great deal more artillery than the French and get a pre-battle bombardment. They also have a unit of line infantry fortified in the village (Monopoly hotel).
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Part way through the battle, the French Elite Cuirassiers enter the fray and start doing all sorts of damage.
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The Austrian Artillery is now established in the village and the Grenzers have been slain or chased away, and the Austrian Cavalry get to duel with their French counterparts.
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With both sides reduced to half strength the battle is finely balanced
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Another victory for Napoleon!
I'm enjoying these games very much and will definitely continue to work my way through the historical battles listed in the rule book. I can quite easily get involved with the action when played with just a simple grid, but, as I've said before, a little bit of scenery definitely adds to the thing, so I'll be using it in future.
I'm also enjoy your games. I really like the way you turn boardgame tokens into 'tabletop miniatures'. The Monopoly hotell makes the part. I also think the building and palm trees added scenery and terrain in a simple way to make the game more visual interesting. Perhaps even more hotels can be added to create the image of cities or larger villages?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Thank Roger! A few years ago I made a little hilltop town of Monopoly buildings for a Campaign using the Risk figures and Bob Cordery's Napoleonic Portable Wargame rules - https://pampersandp.blogspot.com/2020/06/twin-duchies-campaign-game-5.html
DeleteAt the pyramids things went much better for Napoleon this time around. Perhaps you were using his favoured “lucky” dice? 😉
ReplyDeleteI think your Austrians did quite well at Marengo. The outcome of your refight was quite close and certainly no walk over for the French. I look forward to more battle reports ⚔️⚔️
Cheers,
Geoff
Thanks Geoff - it was a close fight with the Second Coalition!!
DeleteNice work sir! Superb campaign mechanism here. Nice rules for making the battle quick and decisive, whilst where to place troops in the wider campaign, affecting the battles that happen is key. A Hyborian campaign would be quite epic
ReplyDeleteCheers - Steve's Dominion rulesets would certainly make quick Campaigns easy and fun to play through. For Robert Howards' Hyboria the Dominion of the Spear rules could easily be converted and Army Lists are available to reduce the workload
Deletehttps://www.wargamevault.com/product/103732/Royal-Armies-of-the-Hyborean-Age
Good to see Napoleon back on track. This time your results were very historically accurate. Any plans to string groups of the battles in Dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte together as mini campaigns?
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark - yes these turned out a bit more like expected.
DeleteI was thinking of doing the Waterloo Campaign battles as a mini-campaign battles with some sort of points system..?
I had the same thought. Using my mini campaign system Quatre Bras 1pt, Ligney 2, Waterloo 3. In case of a tie Wavre (have to do ones own scenario) as tie breaker. Steven has a number of Italian campaign battles in the book, these would make sense to link as well. Perhaps using a version of Captain Kobolds card based system outlined in his recent Dominion night post?
DeleteNice idea Mark. Kaptain Kobold's campaign in tha posting is very good.
DeleteNice reports 👍🏼👍🏼. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteI always like seeing your Risk armies in action, and giving Boney a chance for a rerun only seems fair, after his previous trouncing. Looking forward to any other batreps, as and when…🙂
Thanks Martin - yes, I had to have a rerun (if only life was like that) as I had messed up a bit. Hope to get some more done in the near future.
DeleteGood to see these Risk Armies working hard!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark - one of my go-to figure sets and a very good investment considering how many battles they have fought!
DeleteYes indeed! How I wish I had known about Risk figures and had your blog to show me how to wargame simply and cheaply many years ago, without being demoralised by all the photographs of expertly painted figures on diorama-standard terrain that I knew I would never be able to emulate, but which the hobby press held up as the standard to which we must all aspire!
ReplyDeleteAnd how pleasant to have simple rules like One Hour Wargames, the Portable Wargame and this new Dominion series, that give playable games that can be fought to a conclusion in a reasonable time. When I started wargaming with some schoolfriends, all our battles had to be cleared away, unfinished, so the table could be laid for dinner!
Cheers Arthur. My lack of skill when it comes to painting and model making led me to look for other ways of gaming I think. As an impressionable 11 year old I was told that I shouldn't be gaming with unpainted figures as that wasn't done so I didn't for years.
DeleteI had the same experience of half-finished games in the Wargames Club at school - we'd be pondering over the rules for too long! I always preferred Featherstone's rules or Terry Wise but they weren't "New" enough. Solo games seemed the best alternative!
Looks great with the Risk figures and a bit of scenery. I've just got the Napoleonic set and am looking for some suitable figures/counters to use to at least make the games viable - all my Risk figures are tricorn ones though.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Funnily enough, when I was looking for RISK figures, I really wanted the Tricorne ones but could only find Napoleonics.
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