On last weekend we played a battle in General d’Armee, there were four of us, Bartek and Jędrzej were playing France and me and Tomek were playing coalition lead by Great Britain with Portugal, Russia and Spanish as here allies.
Many thanks to all participants for great game and for great time after, on dinner in SOTE pub close to Bolter. Of course I hope that we will continue our games and I will wake up again on Sunday mornings.
Both sides started in opposite corners of the table – here objectives – two stone bridges. Allied cavalry appeard first, British hussars and Polish Uhlans loyal to the Tzar.Our plan was to cross the river and secure bridge for infantry.French cavalry and horse artillery.Both sides visible next to great coffee served in Bolter Cafe.Mixed brigade of Portugal, Russian and Spanish. Had to finish bases and some details of my Russian Jagers.French cavalry advances toward Allied cavalry which crossed river.French infantry march to the other bridge.Combined Portugal, Russian and Spanish brigade march slowly.French cavalry formed into combat formation.Allied cavalry formed to fight as well.British are coming.Cuirassiers securing flank.First clash beetwen cavalry.Allied cavalry losed some combats.British advances forward.On the opposite side French march in the column to take position.Several French units are too much for this bridge.Most of our cavalry regiments ceased to exists, many Uhlans were lost in the river.French cavalry rule over the battlefield. French cavalry manged to cross water in the middle – coming in sight of allied infantry.
Summary: – at the end French succesfully secured one bridge, another one was still in hands of Allied troops. I think that we need more time to play such game – we played around four hours. – thank you to Rafał for showing me rulebook for this, after small talk why I losed interest in Black Powder ruleset, which is simple, but few things with really bad rolls can destroy your will to play. Then tests with Kuba and Tomek – that’s it, I’m waiting for second edition of General d’Armee.
On last Saturday we played bigger battle in General d’Armee – on one side were British and Portugal led by generals Damian and Tomek, on the other side were mix of many different European nations represented by French, Prussia and Russia led by Bartosz, Jakub, Piotr and me.
British are coming.British centre.Part of our centre were secured by Russian infantry and Polish Uhlan regiment.Left flank secured by several cavalry regiments.French securing other part of the centre.Prussian took right flank of our combined force.British left flank opposed by Prussians.Battle for a tawern and crossroads.Russian artillery ready to open fire.Chapel – silent deponent of battle.Among British were Portugal regiment.British right flank secured by cavalry and artillery.Close range fire beetwen Russian Jagers and British artillery.British seized defensive position in tavern.Prussians taking positions behind hedgehod.British slowly advancing on left flank.Cavalry charged on British cavalry.British cavalry after short clash turned tail and fled.Polish uhlans in full speed charged British cannon battery…… and in advance galloped toward British sharpshooters.One of the Russian batallions had enough and retreated.British cavalry regrouped into squares.In act of bravery uhlans charged British square.Left flank secured and British reorganized to defend against massed cavalry regiments.
Summary: – it was great battle – from initial four players we grow up to six generals around the table. – victory belonged to continentals and cavalry did great job on the left flank.
Last Tuesday we played with Karaś small battle in General d’Armee – we still learn this system and it was third game I played and second one with field marshal Karaś. I played with my Russians and Karaś played with his Prussians.
W ostatni wtorek zagraliśmy z Karasiem małą grę w General d’Armee – nadal uczymy się systemu i to była moja trzecia gra i druga w którą zagrałem z marszałkiem polowym Karasiem. Grałem swoimi Rosjanami i Karaś grał swoimi Prusakami.
Summary: – Prussians took bridge and route Russians.
Podsumowanie: – Prusacy zdobyli most i odrzucili Rosjan.
Yesterday we played with Tomek another training game in General d’Armee. We practice it with smaller armies than proposed in rulebook and without some rules as at now they could make our game practice totally impossible. But we will return to those rules in the close future.
On Saturday we played again with small forces deployed on table – no fog of war, no reserves, visible units as they are – just learning in simplest way. So on one side were Tomek British and on the other were Europeans from Russia and others – as we wanted to have all miniatures painted.
We played on standard 48″x72″ table representing some crossroads and different types of fields – some of them were difficult terrain limiting movement to half. Everyone in those armies were regular (excluding British infantry), gun batteries were Elite. Both sides had four regiments each and up to four dices from adiutants.
Infantry in line move slower.Cavalry rode ahead.Several lucky cannonballs panicked Polish Uhlans.British against Russians.Cavalry clashes as Polish lancers countercharge British hussars.Russian batallion finally losed they nerves and fled.Another regiment of Uhlans broke hussars.One of the British batallions broke from Russian infantry and artillery fire.Another batallion broken by heavy artillery and muskeet fire.
Summary: – up to this point I know that there are some more important things we have to use in our games, at now we focus on basic rules, as we want to know them well. We will play with more rules next time. – there are different sort of soldiers avaible – so for me playing this system in usual meeting engage scenarios armies should be created with system points as irreguar cossacs or freshly recruited soldiers behave different way than regulars, veterans or elite units. Rulebook says which formations can be elite – those famous units like guards, 95th regiment and so on. It will need some investigation in the future as bulk of most armies were regular or recruits with some exceptions. – unit can be of different size, small, standard and large. We field them the same way as we do it in Black Powder. – ranges and movement are shorter for units than in Black Powder – muskeet has 9″ of range of fire, rifles are much better so it’s another reason to use skirmishing units like Jagers. I have to paint my own unit of that infantry. Units move less than in Black Powder, it’s a plus as tables are not from rubber 🙂 . – I discovered some useful things on this blog: Sir Able Brush and on this blog Chasseur Acheval – there is useful army creator – really nice work. On second blog I found some ruleset called 321 – Fast Play Napoleonic Rules. – there will be more about General d’Armee on my blog, just need time – me and people I play.
On last Friday finally with Kuba „Karaś” we played first game in General d’Armee. It was discovering something new – we played it first time and limited some special rules like Fog of War which can be really interesting addition to this game when we will know well all basic rules – at first sight all those tables scared me, but after we started everything were more clear.
Part of the table we hasn’t used.Cavalry charges, Polish Uhlans in Tzar service vs Prussian HussarsLancers broken in combat.
Summary: – thank you Kuba for a game, it’s seems that we will play in it in the future. It was our first game, so I try to think all things I saw during our game play in General d’Armee. – we played six turns, so it was good game on Friday evening, we started around 19 and finished a little before 22:00. – thank you Rafał for proposing rulebook for General d’Armee, after some talk how to improve playing in Napoleonic times. I still like Black Powder from Warlord Games, but we should also play system from TooFatLardies studio. – there will be one more article when I gather my thoughts – as on Friday (17.06) I played first game and on Saturday (18.06) I played another game with Tomek.
Today morning I manged to finish base for my newly painted officer – so now my Polish Uhlans will be deployed as separate brigade, never again to be field with infantry and artillery. Now officer is waiting for his second brigade of Don Cossacs.
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