Coutras 1587

I took the afternoon to (finally) play one of the battles in Laurent Closier & Florent Coupeau’s Avec Infini Regret (AIR) series of games about the French Wars of Religion of the late 16th century.

BLUF: It’s fun, not too heavy a lift in terms of rules, and seems to produce fairly credible results (for someone who only knows the basics of the warfare of the period). I played a small scenario of six turns in about 4.5 hours, with time out for some rules research on BGG and some unrelated emails. I look forward to playing the other scenarios.

More detail: The rules are a variation on Ben Hull’s Musket & Pike series published by GMT. Hull himself did one variant in 2003, a game on the battle of Dreux the was published in the French magazine Vae Victis. Coupeau then published two games in Vae Victis on early 17th century battles, then teamed up with Closier to produce this series. The first three modules cover seven battles. A fourth is in progress, designed by Philippe Hardy, to cover two more battles. Coupeau also used the system in a 2008 issue of Vae Victis about two battles of La Fronde and a 2018 product, Avec Honneur et Panache, which covers two battles of the 1650s.

As with any series like this, the core rules have changed here and there over time, as holes got filled in, janky rules tweaked, and new ideas tried out. I worked with the rules in AIR Vol. I, with a little help from later modules and BGG fans’ postings. 

Anne de Joyeuse

In the battle of Coutras, a diverse French Royal (Catholic) army under Anne de Joyeuse, Baron d'Arques, faces off against a slightly smaller, slightly more modern Protestant force. 

The Royal Army has a core of the elite gendarmes cavalry, horse associated with the nobility and gentry, heavily armoured and bearing lances, but with a somewhat irregular, independent style. These are supplemented with some arquebusiers (less heavily armoured horse, who fight primarily by firing carbines while mounted) and even some estradiots (named after then wild Balkan light horse that served as scouts and skirmishers in the previous century's Italian Wars, but more heavily armoured now and carrying firearms). The Royal Army's infantry is mostly pike and shot troops of the vielles bandes, the old regional regiments of the medieval period, largely mercenaries now. They have one contingent of the doughty and dreaded Swiss, the elite of pike and shot troops. 

The Royal Army's size is also its weakness. With so many troops, they have a lot of units spread over a wide front, but only two leaders, Joyeuse and Jean de Beaumanoir, Marquis de Lavardin. Joyeuse commands the center and right of the army, Lavardin the left wing, composed all of horse. Joyeuse is an able leader, but Lavardin is just adequate.

Henri de Navarre

The Protestant army has fewer troops, but three leaders to direct them. The commander of the center is Henri de Bourbon, Roi de Navarre. His force is mostly cuirassiers, similar to the gendarmes but more disciplined, tough fighters even without the aristos' lance. He also has some arquebusiers to act as not-light-but-less-heavy cavalry. He also commands the Protestants' one battery of artillery, which was so ably handled in this battle that the scenario rules allow them to fire twice as often as is normally permitted. It is worth noting that AIR artillery is fixed; they may turn their guns to fire in different directions, but they may not move their guns once the scenario begins.

On the Protestant right is a wing under Gaspard de Valiros, seigneur de Saint Jean Ligoure. He commands four units of musketeers (the Protestants largely did without pikes, preferring the increased firepower of giving every man a musket). The Protestant left, commanded by Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de la Mauvissière, also consists of four units of musketeers. Valiros and Castelnau are both adequate leaders, but Navarre is a superior one.

Coutras setup

The battlefield is fairly open in the center, with woods surrounding it and a village/town on the Protestant left. A few hedges wind here and there across the center, which are relevant as they slow and disorder the charges of the gendarmes and cuirassiers.

Not being quite sure how to approach the battle, I figured I'd flail around and see what happened. I gave both Royal leaders Charge starting orders for their wings. Henri got Charge orders for his right and center, a more cautious March for his left. Initiative is determined by who has the highest "precedence" orders (in order from least to most: Charge, March, Rally), with players alternating wing activations at each level of precedence. Henri being a better leader than Joyeuse (the tie breaker when order precedence is equal), the Protestants went first.

Valiros' wing advanced. I'd given them a charge not because I wanted them to actually charge into the teeth of Lavardin's cavalry--foot aren't allowed to attack horse that way--but because I wanted Henri's army to have the initiative, so they needed two charge orders, and troops with those orders just have to get at least one hex closer to the enemy every turn if they aren't in contact. This way they could get closer and hopefully encourage Lavardin to charge them--troops who can fire get to shoot if anyone moves into their fire zone (one hex for infantry and cavalry), so we'd be sure to get a shot at any horsemen who came at us.

Lavardin's charge

Come forward Lavardin did. He charged.

Lavardin has two units of gendarmes, who get both a bonus every time they charge (provided the last two hexes of their movement are through clear terrain--so not over hedges) and, the first time they fight they get a bonus for their chivalric (but expendable) lances. His other horse aren't quite as valiant, and the unit of gendarmes on his left took a LOT of fire from the musketeers to his front.

The result was that the right gendarmes unit slaughtered the musketeers it faced and rode them down, while the left unit actually broke after arriving shaken (two moral steps down) to the melee. Lavardin's other horse broke off after causing some disorder.

The result of Lavardin's charge

Unfortunately for Valiros, the unit that was ridden down by the gendarmes was the one he was leading directly. Being a brave French gentleman, he was of course in the front rank and perished bravely. His aide de camp would take over for him (briefly, as it turned out) at the end of the turn.

Henri de Navarre saw all this with some dismay and sent some of his cuirassiers and arquebusiers to drive off Lavardin's retiring horse, which they did with enthusiasm, dispersing one unit of Royal arquebusiers entirely. With the bulk of his cuirassiers, however, Henri kept his powder dry, edging forward slowly.

Joyeuse then led the main body of the Catholic forces forward. He moved his left wing infantry to attack the leaderless Hugenot right, sent his right wing infantry forward to cover his flank, and brought a huge wall of armoured horsemen charging forward, five units of gendarmes galloping en haye with their forest of lances like a bois de fer. It was an impressive sight.

Joyeuse's initial charge

The result was not quite as impressive.

The way melee works is important. In each combat (the delineation of combats is a thing, but I won't go into it here), the attacker rolls a D10 (0 is 0), adds his troops' morale, subtracts that of the enemy, adds or subtracts an "interaction" modifier, includes a few situational modifiers (supporting attackers, attacking an enemy flank, defender's terrain, and charge bonuses for gendarmes and cuirassiers). The resulting score tells the tale of the melee, with attacker and/or defender taking morale losses and/or retreats. 

The interaction modifier may be minimal or significant. It's a way to reflect the effectiveness of each troop type versus each other type. The best modifiers are for gendarmes or cuirassiers attacking lighter horse or for troops with pikes attacking unsupported musketeers. The worst modifiers are for either heavy horse (gendarmes, cuirassiers, or reiteren when the latter appear on the scene) or unsupported musketeers trying to attack infantry with pikes. 

Cuirassiers are at no advantage in attacking gendarmes. But gendarmes are slightly disadvantaged when attacking cuirassiers (less discipline, and the latter usually greet them with a blast of close-range fire). So despite getting their charge bonus and their lance bonus, the Royal heavies (which are no better morale than the Huguenot heavies) need to roll really well to break an iron wall of Protestants. 

The repulse of the gendarmes

They did not. Which, to be fair, is what historically happened, with Joyeuse (I gather) managing to somehow lose even his charge bonus in some cases. 

Joyeuse tried to renew his attack (reactivation) and succeeded. Castelnau (the only commander who hadn't activated yet) tried to interrupt and failed. Another Royalist attack was repulsed. The Huguenots counterattacked and did some damage, and then the battle in the center lapsed for some time as both commanders tried to rally their men. 

Unit morale is the central characteristic of the game. Everyone starts fresh. A unit that is hit by enemy fire must take a morale test; if it fails, its morale decreases by a level (normal, disordered/en desordre, shaken/ebranlee, broken/brisee, and eliminated). Being disordered is not too bad; you lose some movement ability and some fire ability and a morale level (obvs). Shaken you lose the ability to move and can only fire defensively (and not well). Broken, you get your movement back, but must use it to run off the board ASAP (unless you can be rallied). And you're a sitting duck for any normal or disordered unit to hunt.

Troops whose wing is on a Charge order cannot try to rally. Troops on a March order can only rally if they are near their commander. Troops on a Rally order can all (try to) rally. Depending on the unit and its proximity to its commander, it can usually hope to recover one level of morale per turn (wings under Rally command cannot reactivate or preempt). 

Here's the thing: it's not too hard to switch a wing to a Rally order, especially if more that half its units have lost at least one level of morale. But it's hard to switch back from Rally to March, and very, very hard to switch from Rally to Charge.

Everyone tries to rally

On Turns 2 and 3, most of the wings on the board were either trying to switch to Rally or rallying troops. On Turns 4 and 5, commanders were trying to switch back, and finding it hard. Lavardin succeeded and broke the last of Valiros' troops (his ADC had lasted one turn in command and was then killed in combat as well), eliminating them on Turn 6. Navarre and Joyeuse had restored a good many of their troops to good order, but they couldn't get them back on the attack (in retrospect, I should have tried to convert to March first and then to Charge). They could move on Rally, but not closer to the enemy (I may have done that wrong).

All this time, Castelnau was making hay on his flank. Joyeuse's infantry had tried to attack him, but had not done well. Now, with their commander far away, they found it hard to rally. I allowed Castelnau to attack them (he should properly have changed order to Charge in order to do so, but I think he would have done so without too much trouble), and he drove them like sheep. He pushed up onto the flank of Joyeuse's position and could have done some mischief if the baron had not done so well rallying his men.

The Protestant artillery did them some good, forcing some shaken Catholic units to test and break, which then mostly proceeded to run off the board. 

The end of the game

At the end of the last turn, both Navarre and Joyeuse had reassembled a good part of their wings (though probably closer than they should have been) and might have been able to continue the battle the next day. The Protestants had lost all of Valiros' wing plus a unit from Navarre's, while the Catholics had lost several from Joyeuse and one from Lavardin. So it was a draw.

I think I managed to execute the rules properly with the one or two exceptions I've noted above. The only rules I don't think I took advantage of were reaction movement (units can avoid slower units advancing on them if they wish to--probably useful for horse v. foot and light horse, such as there is, trying to screen heavies) and interception (cavalry can attempt to move up and contact moving enemy). There are some specialized cases where this may be useful, but later editions of the rules have deleted the provision that says intercepted units lose their charge bonus in the ensuing combat, so they will only lose it if they are intercepted before being able fulfill the charge conditions. Cavalry could also use it to intercept infantry, but cavalry attacking infantry head-on is generally a very bad idea, unless the infantry are unsupported musketeers.

I came up with a few questions that the Vol. I rules didn't cover (clearly or at all), but was able to find answers in the Vol II rules and on BGG.

The game gets a little fiddly when there are a lot of shaken and broken units, when it becomes a battle between one battered boxer and a similarly reeling opponent, but making the best of that is one of the challenges.

I enjoyed playing the game and look forward to playing more. I enjoyed writing up my thoughts on it, but, goodness, this is why I don't do so more often: it's taken me almost as long to type up this piece as to play the game!

St Amand: The French Close In.

Editor's Note: And this is always the problem I come to with this game series, especially trying to test out and blog about a scenario. The system is so complex and labour-intensive that my interest bogs down. After starting this iteration, I got through six posts in about a week, but almost nowhere in the scenario. Part of that is surely the fault of my short attention span and my busy life, and part of it is the need to set the scene for the reader, but part of it is wrestling with less than perfect rules and the sheer complexity of the combat and morale systems. The unnecessary use of base six (including modifiers that are sometimes presented as base ten and have to be translated), OK, that's one thing. 

One big drag is the need to constantly compute proportions and its incredibly convoluted systems. Unit X has a melee strength of 11, but it has lost 2 of its 7 increments, so we have to figure out 5/7*11 and make a ratio of that to 5/6*12 to find a modifier for one of FIVE base-six die rolls needed to resolve an infantry assault?

I recognize that this system has a horde of fervent proponents. But I strongly suspect that if it were somewhat streamlined and made more playable, its playability and popularity would increase dramatically. As an old friend of mine pointed out many years ago, the most detailed game can be reduced to a single die roll or even a coin flip if one wishes. One sacrifices satisfying detail and some degree of simulation value (the amount is arguable), but one saves time and headache. Deciding where to draw the line is, ultimately, a question of taste. I don't imagine many current La Bataille followers would agree with me, but I think that my taste would be somewhere closer to the coin-flip than where this system currently stands. 

Of course, computerization is one solution; if the machine keeps track of all the details and executes all the subroutines for you, the load on the player becomes less. You also get in some ways a more realistic simulation, because players don't have access to information (and even decisions) that a historic commander would not have. One can even limit the time players have to make decisions in a more realistic way. I've used the Carnage & Glory system for moderating miniatures games. I haven't tried computer-based games (one where the entire board and all the pieces are depicted on screen) much because the visual appeal of miniatures or counters are part of what make the game fun to me. But maybe something like Carnage & Glory, but tuned to run the La Bataille games...

Also...

A General Remark: I've been struggling with these rules (again) for the past three weeks, and it makes me realize a couple of things. One, I'm really spoiled by dealing mostly with boardgaming companies who make a professional effort, eurogame companies who are trying to make a profit publishing games or wargame companies like GMT and MMP that rely on their reputation to sell games. Those publishers put a level of effort into their games that shows not only their desire to get a product out the door but to make it easy for people to play to product.

Publishers like Clash of Arms and Marshal Enterprises, both of whom put out the La Bataille series, and OSG, who put out the more grand-tactical Library of Napoleonic Battles series, are doing what they do simply because they love it and have an "installed user base" who will buy their games no matter what. They make dismayingly little effort to produce clean, well documented, well edited products.

Certainly there's one point of view that says if you're doing it just for fun, who cares if your users have to struggle to use your product? We've all certainly encountered authors who--because they have adoring fans who will buy anything with their name on it--write whatever they feel like, clearly not putting the effort into revising and rewriting that they had to when they were struggling unknowns. This is the boardgame equivalent. It's annoying and frustrating, when one pays money for a product to realise that it's not important to the producer to do the little things that would make it work properly.

Anyway, for now, back to our battle of St Amand. In the 3.20 turn, the first chit to be drawn is the non-MU leader chit. Again, no need to move Ziethen yet. Next chit is regroup; no one needs to regroup now. Next (of course) is artillery, also not applicable. Finally, an MU--the French. So with Le drapeau d'Austerlitz playing, I begin.

The 1/12me Legere declares an assault against the Prussian jaegers (who will probably Retreat Before Assault). The other two battalions close on the village to shoot up the fusiliers from close range. 1/4me de Ligne moves in column around the west side of the village, declaring an assault on the fusiliers (this raises an issue I'll address later). The 2/2me moves up behind the lights, in readiness should mop-up be needed.

The other brigade moves to attack St Amand La Haye. The lights move up to screen and fire into the Silesians west of the village center, while the line troops move in column to dispute the north end of the village with the landwehr, hoping they will make easy pickings. Girard moves to a position that he hopes will allow him to stay in command of all his troops.

The artillery positions itself to bombard the Prussians in the walled fermes at the south end of La Haye. With all the cultivated ground (which blocks LOS) around the villages, there aren't a lot of targets for it, especially at range.

Then comes the Prussian move. They will push the landwehr into the unclaimed bit of village and move the supporting jaegers into position to, well, support.

One major difference between the Marshal Enterprises version of the game (Premier Rules) and the Clash of Arms rules (Règlements, Règlements Marie Louise, 5th Edition) is in the sequence of play. In the latter (which I'm using for this example), through the system of command and maneuver units, each player moves all of their units (including declaring and executing cavalry charges), and only after all units have moved is firing and infantry assault resolved. (In the other system, one side conducts its cavalry charges, moves, conducts fire combat and melee, then the other side does so.)

So, in this case, the Prussians could simply give up on holding Le Hameau and pull their troops out during the movement segment, since the French have shown what they intend to do. Troops can fire at enemy leaving their zone of influence (the front hexes of their units), so the Prussians would not necessarily get away scot free, but they could avoid the carnage that is coming.

Only a cruel commander would have put them out there in the first place and failed to pull them back during the last few regroup opportunities. But they are the proverbial sacrificial lamb, set out there as a speedbump (to mix my metaphors) to slow down and hopefully degrade the French units before they get to La Haye. So, sorry, Prussians; you're stuck where you are.

Fire Combat Segment: Lots of shooting here. At Le Hameau the French lights will fire into the fusiliers. The 1/82me Ligne and 3/1st Westphalian Landwehr will exchange fire. The 11me Legere and the Prussian jaegers and schuetzen in front of them will exchange fire. And the French guns will try to do some damage to the Prussian 1/12th in the ferme at the south end of La Haye. They've unlimbered close enough that the schuetzen three hexes away can take some pot shots at them. We'll see if that proves to have been a bad idea.

Under the normal rules, the French column (hidden under the big 3) planning to charge the fusiliers in Le Hameau would not fire, nor would the fusiliers, because the fire of assaulting troops and their targets is done separately during the assault segment. Same thing for the French and Prussian skirmishers nearby. I have mixed feelings about this rule. On the one hand, it's tied into a whole procedure: both units check morale to see if they are actually going to commit to the melee, then both fire, then you resolve the melee and its denouement. On the other hand, it's separating out the normal processing of some units' actions from others. It also makes this situation... tricky. The French skirmishers south of Le Hameau are going to fire on the Prussian fusiliers in the hamlet. The fusiliers would like to fire back. Technically they have to wait to fire on the troops assaulting them. If they were not able to do that because of formations and fields of fire, I would let them fire on the skirmishers and to hell with the rules. But since they are holding the village, they are in General formation (not battalion line or column, but kind of dispersed to make best use of the terrain), so they will be able to fire at the troops charging them.[Ugh. Except that apparently troops can be in any formation BUT general in village, as distinct to town--the only difference being that buildings in towns are more substantial. I'm calling bullshit and making villages general order terrain too, just a tiny bit less sheltering

So let's resolve some of this fire. All fire on a target is combined, so the two French light battalions add their factors (3x4 and 3x4 = 24; no more than 3 increments of skirmishers can fore per hex) and compare them to the defense of the fusiliers. Infantry in towns have a defense of 14 in general order, 16 if in skirmish order; let's say these guys are a 12--better than line in the open (9) but not as good as skirmishers in the open (14). So all that fire from the lights comes to 2:1. A die roll of 5,3 inflicts one hit on the fusiliers, their sixth loss, since they start with five hits (out of a TO&E strength of 8). 

Units check morale for fire causalities according to which increment loss it is--an even loss, an odd loss (including or not including the first). That designation is made on a module by module basis, to differentiate the fragility of various armies at various times. I find that an overly complicated rule, but whatever. 

Here, though, we come to one of the instances of sloppy publication that annoy me so much. I have the first edition of the game, but the second edition documentation is available online, so I've been using that (it has substantial changes to the OBs and setups, among other things). 

The original Ligny exclusive rules consist of four pages of special rules, six pages of scenario information, eleven pages of historical commentary, a page of acknowledgements, and five pages of charts and tables. These are printed without any reference numbers, just section heads. The second edition exclusive rules contain seven pages of numbered special rules, nine pages of scenario information, and seven pages of charts and tables. 

The new edition's special rules, despite being numbered, are badly organized and confusing. Guess what they omit? The critical piece of information about when units take morale checks. To quote the table entitled "When To Check Morale: Recapitulation": "As a result of casualties from a fire attack (see #4 in the Exclusive Rules".  Section 4.0 in the Exclusive Rules deals with Terrain. 

Fortunately, I have the old Exclusive Rules to fall back on, so the Prussian fusiliers will follow those provisions, which are that Prussian units check on odd losses, including the first. So no morale test for now.

In the area of La Haye, the French infantry column fires into the landwehr. The landwehr will fire back, and the adjoining jaegers from their regiment will joint them, as their officer sees the column as a bigger danger than its skirmishing buddies. Their Silesian comrades will fire on the lights to their right front. Each battalion of lights will fire on the skirmishers to their front.

The column has a basic FP of 8; firing at the troops in the village with their defense of 12, as I decided above, makes a 1:1.5 ratio. A roll of 3,6 is no hit.

The landwehr in genera order fire at 5 FP plus the two-factor jaegers at 6 (2x3) is a total of 11. The French infantry column would be a 6 defense, but the shoulder-high green rye they're moving through obscures them, making them 8 defense. That's not quite 1.5:1 ratio, and 4,2 on 1:1 is a miss.

The French lights fire on the jaegers: 3x4 = 12 at skirmishers (14) in cultivation (16) is 3:4, 1:1.5 but not 1:1. Roll 3,3 no hit.

French lights firing on the schuetzen, also 12:16, roll 6.5, a hit. That'll need a morale check.

Schuetzen firing on the skirmishing French: 2x8 = 8, skirmishers in open 14; better than 1:2 but not 1:1.5 [these would be SO MUCH EASIER to resolve if the charts were written as decimals--0.50, 0.67], roll 2,4, no hit.

One last shot: our French artillery, having unlimbered, put some cannister into the schuetzen at the south end of town, who fire back, hoping to pick off some gunners with rifle fire.

This artillery at range 2 fires 16FP, that's exactly the defense value of skirmishers in cultivated terrain. Roll of 2,5 is no hit. The rifles don't lose FP at two-hex range, so they are 2x4 = 8 to artillery unlimbered in the open, 8, so 1:1. Roll 1,6, so no hit.

So with all our shooting, only two casualties, only one of them requiring a morale check. The Silesians took an odd casualty. It also constituted 50% of their strength. They will take a check modified by a -6 for reaching half strength and another -6 for taking 50% losses in a single combat event. They roll 3,6, which becomes a 1,6 for the two -6 modifiers (-6 x 2 = -20 in base six! :). 16 is lower than their fairly good morale of 23, so the Silesians become disordered.

There we are with all the shooting. Next up: the two declared (attempts at) melee.

The Fight for St Amand: Shots Fired!

 

All fire is simultaneous; that is to say, all fire is allotted and resolved, but the effects don't take effect until all fire has been resolved. Also, units that intend to assault their adjacent enemy are marked during the Movement Segment, and the fire of those units is conducted in the Assault Segment.

So assaults were declared here, so all three French units will fire, as will the Prussian jaegers. Cultivated ground, like the area where the jaegers are standing, blocks line of sight (LOS). So the 2/12me cannot see into Le Hameau (if tracing LOS along a hexside, blocking terrain or troops on either side will block LOS). So 1/12me and 2/12me will fire at the jaegers; 3/12me will fire at the fusiliers in the village, and the jaegers can fire at either one of the battalions in front of them (with the exception of squares, a hex can only fire or be fired on once per Fire Segment).

We'll start with the jaegers. That unit will fire into the first French unit, the one to their right. The jaeger detachment consists of two increments (that's marked on its front side) and up to three factors of skirmishers can fire out of a hex, so they can fire at full effect. Checking the Fire Effects Table, that says that jaegers in skirmish formation multiply their fire factor (upper left of the counter: 6) by 3. So they have 18 FP. They are firing at skirmishers in clear terrain, who have a fire defense of 14. Looking at the fire chart, that ratio (18:14 or 1.3) is more than 1:1 (1.0) but not 1.5:1 (1.5), so the jaegers need 51-66 to hit.

This is where I should explain that one of the very unusual (some might say weird) things about the La Bataille system is that it is so Old School that it uses only D6. And it uses them almost as percentiles; one rolls 2D6, reading one as the sixes and one as the digits. So a roll of 1,2 becomes 12. And since this becomes essentially base six, additions and subtractions work the same way; so, for instance a roll of 2,3 plus six becomes 33.

So, to get back to our friends the jaegers, their fire combat odds require a roll of 51-66 in order to inflict a hit, which is pretty low. The Prussians roll 4,2, so they miss.

Now the French fire at the jaegers. The two battalions facing them have 5 increments each, but only three increments can fire out of hex when troops are in skirmish order. So each French battalion can fire with 3/5 of their 8 factors or a total of 9.6 factors between the two; they also get a multiple of 3, so they fire with a total of 28.8 FP. The fire defense of skirmishers in cultivated ground is 15, a tiny increment better than skirmishers in open. So the French have 1.5:1 odds but just barely not 2:1. They need 42-66 to get  hit. They roll 4,3 and they hit, eliminating one of the jaegers' two increments.

The small French unit fires at the fusiliers. It can use its full 6 factors, times 3 for skirmish fire, but halved for firing at long range, so 9 FP. The fusiliers are in general order in the village, which means their fire defense is 16. That ratio (9:16 or .56) is just over 1:2 (.5), so they need 62-66 to hit. They roll 2,3 and miss.

All firing done, we have to implement results. The jaegers get a 1 marker to show they have taken 1 hit. They have lost half their strength; they would be severely penalized if they were a battalion or regimental sized unit; as a company, they do not suffer that penalty but they still have to take a morale check. They must roll higher than their morale of 25. They roll 2,4 and fail, which means they fall into disorder.

There is no assault combat this turn, so we move to the Reorganization Segment. If the jaegers did not have adjacent enemy, they could recover from their disorder at this point. As it is, we flip over leader markers and move to the 3:20 pm turn.

Fight for St Amand: The French Advance

 

Girard's first move takes his skirmish screen close to Le Hameau, with the rest of his men moving toward La Haye and his battery looking for a good position from which to bombard.

(The solid pale green hexes are ground slightly lower than "ground level", bottomland closer to the creek.)

The reinforcement chit, which I should probably just have left out, comes out next. Last is the regroup chit. This allows units that were not part of MUs some limited rearrangements. In this case, the remaining units of Steimetz's brigade can move closer to him, trying to get into his command distance for next turn. That's the two remaining battalions of the 24th, the remaining landwehr battalion, and the landwehr's jaeger detachment. All of 1st Brigade is now within his command range except the two jaeger detachments posted at the southwest corner of La Haye, and they don't need to be in command to shoot, which is their job for the foreseeable future.

We are finished with the Maneuver Segment of 2.40pm. No infantry are within firing range (one hex for most infantry, two or three for skirmishers) of enemy, and no artillery are unlimbered, so no Fire Combat Segment. No units are in position to assault, so no Assault Segment. Reorganization Segment: no one is disordered or routing. Morale levels are checked and all are at Level 0, since no casualties have occurred. No cavalry are exhausted, no units are in Administrative March. Leaders flip back to their ready side. The first turn is over; only ten more to go.

Turn 3.00 pm.

In Ligny, a check must be made at 3.00pm and every hour thereafter to see if there will be a thunderstorm. French roll 5,3; no storm. Command Segment: Same MUs for this turn. First chit out is Regroup; nothing applicable at this time. Next chit is the French MU. 

The 12me Legere's two normal-sized battalions move up to the Prussian jaegers in Le Hameau, ready to blast them from close range. Both the French and Prussian skirmishers can fire at two-hex range--the schuetzen can even fire at three. However the musket-carrying French are 1/2 firepower at two-hex range, while the rifle-armed Prussian jaegers and schuetzen fire at full strength at two hexes, so no reason to give them an advantage. The small legere battalion positions itself to take pot shots at the understrength fusiliers in the village. The other regiment in that brigade, the 4me Ligne, moves up in column, ready to rush in if the Prussians waver. Girard's other brigade moves up to face off against La Haye; the lights also shake out into skirmish order with the line columns and guns behind them, but they don't enter the long range of the schuetzen just yet. Girard moves to maintain his command distance with all his units.

The next chit is non-MU leaders. Ziethen holds position for now. 

The next chit is the Prussian MU. Steimetz sends the 1st Westphalian Landwehr to occupy the north end of La Haye and moves the 24th Infantry into position in and behind the center of the village. He moves his staff position slightly north so as to keep in contact with the landwehr, and he tells his single battery to unlimber in pointblank position behind the center of the village. He could have had it position further up the slopes leading east from the stream, but artillery can never fire over friends even if elevation allows it line of sight (LOS), so it would be difficult to find a position where it could hit the French on the other side of La Haye, and up close it will be able to use its full effect.

The next chit is artillery, but the Prussian guns as yet have no targets and the French guns are still limbered. That concludes movement, so we go to Fire Segment. 

Next up: Actual Shooting!

The Fight for St Amand Begins

The French stepped off at 2.30pm, with one of the regimental bands playing La Victoire en Chanant, otherwise known as Le Chant du Depart, one of the most popular songs of the Revolution after La Marseillaise. Here's a lusty rendering of it, illustrated with scenes from a number of apt films.

In our scenario, before the French can start moving, we need to undertake the Command Segment of the first turn (2.40pm). In this phase, both players designate which troops will be moving this turn. Command distances must be checked to see what troops are eligible, then "maneuver units" (MUs) must be designated--troops who are both in command and assigned some of that side's precious Command Points (CPs) for that turn. Chits representing those MUs and certain other activities go into a cup, to be pulled randomly to sequence units' movements. Light cavalry leaders who are not part of MUs also get a chance to be included, to show the initiative and speed that light cavalry had.

The French and Prussians both get 1 CP in this scenario, because very few troops are involved. Girard sets up with his division, so all of them are in command to begin with. As mentioned, most of the Prussian 3rd Brigade is not allowed to move at all, and 2nd Brigade can't enter play until the Prussians lose much of St Amand La Haye, so 1st Bde. is the only one whose command status matters to start. I've circled its brigade commander here and marked which of his units he can reach--most, though not all of his brigade. Steimetz is within 6 hexes of Ziethen, his corps commander, so if Ziethen could reach another brigade commander, then that officer and any of his troops he could command could be smushed into one big I Korps MU with Steinmetz if there were an army commander to activate Ziethen. Otherwise, there are two 2nd Brigade units in Le Hameau, and one 3rd Brigade unit (those landwehr next to the 2/12th) in La Haye, but their brigade commanders are far away, so except under some exceptional circumstances (there's an aide-de-camp to a corps or army commander sitting with them), they can't be included in an MU. Interestingly, Ziethen can't walk up to a unit and put it in command; I find that a bit curious.

So the French and Prussian 1st MU markers go in the mug (the VASSAL module even has an image of a mug for you to drop them in) and on the groups they represent on the map. Also into the mug go markers for leaders without MUs, regrouping, artillery, and reinforcements. When those get drawn, those elements may come into play (though there are no French reinforcements in this scenario, and no Prussian ones available yet). Light cavalry commanders can attempt to generate their own MUs without the cost of a CP, but we have no cavalry, light or otherwise, in this scenario. 

Then the first chit is drawn.

Of course, just to screw with us, Madame Chance brings out the Prussian MU chit first. Steinmetz checks to make sure all his troops that were in command when the MU was designated are still qualified, and then is allowed to move them. This includes 1/24th Infantry and 1/ and 3/1st Westphalian Landwehr, plus the artillery battery, all on the other side of the creek. He can't stuff more than a battalion into town, village, or special structure hexes. He has four more village hexes of La Haye to garrison, so these moving troops will do nicely for that. He can also shift eastward himself so that next turn he'll be within range to activate all the rest of his brigade over there. It would take him away from La Haye, a little, but troops don't need to be in command to shoot or defend, so that should be OK for the moment. However, during the Regroup Action, units that are not close to the enemy and that are out of command can move closer to their immediate superior, so we'll just wait for that to happen instead of taking Steimetz away from the fight.

All those battalions are in column, so they will get their printed movement potential. All three battalions end up moving through the woods south of Ferme le Cuile, which forces them to change from column into general order, but they change back again once they leave the woods. The landwehr are headed to the north end of the village; 1/24th is moving to hold the center of town (where it will hopefully be joined by its sister battalions). 2/12th moves south to link up with the rest of its regiment. The artillery moves into a position where it can shred any enemy fighting in the center of town. Positioning a battery has to be done carefully, as they aren't always easy to move once shifted.

Once all the Prussian MU has moved, its commander is flipped over to remind the player that that MU is done for this turn.

Next chit pulled? Leaders without MUs. At the moment that only means Ziethen. He can help people fight better, but when he gets in the line of fire he may end up a dead 'un (as Girard did historically), so we'll hold off moving him into the fray until we see a need.

Next chit? Artillery, meaning unlimbered artillery may fire. Neither side has unlimbered guns as yet.

Next chit? The French MU! En avant, mes braves!

The Fight for St Amand: The Prussians

 If we look at the Prussian force defending the St Amands, it looks impressive.

The Prussian force consists of most of the Army of the Lower Rhine's I Korps: three of its four infantry brigades, though none of its cavalry and only one battery of its artillery. Here I've arrayed them all in lines going from left to right and top to bottom; first brigade, then second, then third. Impressive lot, aren't they? The scenario handicaps them by freezing 3rd Brigade in place and holding 2nd Brigade out of action until the French take St Amand La Haye. So to begin with, the Prussians are fighting with only a third of these numbers. Still pretty potent, especially given they are holding good defensive terrain.

The corps commander, von Ziethen II, is the 0-10 at the top (as with the French officer, 0 meaning that as an officer with his staff, he has no gross combat strength, and being all mounted and with numerous staff aides, he can move/effect up to 10 hexes per turn).

Below von Ziethen is 1st Bde. commander von Steinmetz. Up and to the right from him in the 12th Infantry Regiment (three battalions: F, 1, 2, meaning fusilier and #1 and #2 musketeer battalions) and a jaeger company attached to the 12th. The next row below them is an artillery company and the 24th Infantry Regiment and two companies of Silesian schuetzen (also rifle-armed skirmishers, like the jaegers, but organized in their own battalions). Then below them the three battalions of the 1st Westphalia Landwehr Regiment, with their attached jaeger company.

The 2nd and 3rd Brigades are much the same: a commander, an infantry regiment numbered 12 or lower, an infantry regiment numbered higher than 12, and a landwehr regiment, with various rifle companies added in.

After the defeat of Prussia in 1806/1807, Napoleon had cruelly stripped the most famous army in Europe of its riches and dignity. Prussia was only allowed a small standing army of about 40,000 men. In order to rebuild the army without openly defying Napoleon, the army trained men in batches, many of them being dispatched home to act as a sort of trained reserve. The core of the army remained a disciplined professional force, to be supplemented with these "reservists". When Prussia joined Russia in 1813 in war with France, the infantry brigades created included one each of the "old" line regiments, Nos. 1 to 12, the regiments formed of reservists (13-24), and the landwehr or militia regiments. IN 1814 and 1815, further reserve regiments were created, Nos. 25 to 31. Some of these were formed from freikorps, volunteers who had enlisted in 1813 in military units raised privately to serve alongside the regular army. Others were transferred more or less wholesale from the army of Berg, a German state that had been gifted to Prussia after Napoleon's defeat in 1814.

You'll notice there's a pretty wild array of uniforms. Officially the Prussian army in 1808 had adopted a simple, spartan uniform of short blue coats, grey or white trousers, and black shakos with very little lace or frippery. But crippled by French indemnities and cut off from international trade by the Continental System, Prussia had become poor (or poorer). Greatly expanding the army had stretched the country's resources, and two years of campaigning had work out the uniforms of 1812. Many line and reserve units had simple fatigue uniforms of grey cloth. Others had to be clothed by handouts from Great Britain, which shipped tens of thousands of uniforms to Prussia of all sorts of colours--some blue, but also green, black, or red. The Berg regiments still wore their former white regimental coats; according so some accounts, French soldiers recognized them and called on the Berg troops to desert their new masters. Jaegers and schuetzen did their best to keep to the traditional huntsman's green uniform.

There's a wide range of quality as well. Here are the backs of the 12th Regiment (on the left) and a  landwehr battalion, a jaeger company, and the artillery company (on the right).

Like French legere infantry, the fusiliers have a hunting horn and a range 2, showing they can skirmish. They also have a slightly better fire factor (8) than the musketeers of the same regiment (6) and better ratings for melee (20 versus 16) and morale (22 versus 24--again, unlike all the other ratings, the lower a morale value the better). After the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, which both hardened green troops and wore away the core of solid soldiers, regular and reserve regiments were much the same in 1815, with a few exceptions. 

The landwehr (top right) were also more experienced, at least those that had fought in the earlier campaigns. But Berg was not the only territory Prussia had picked up at the conference tables in Vienna, and some landwehr units in 1815 were formed in these newly Prussian lands, had not seen the campaigning that their Pomeranian or Silesian opposite numbers had seen, and may even have been resentful and surly about being pressed to fight for their new overlords. This landwehr unit shoots almost as well and his regular counterparts, and his melee value is good, but his morale is several steps worse then the regulars. 

Looking at the jaeger below him, keep in mind that this unit consists of about 200 men compared with the line battalions' 800 or more. Jaegers are also trained to fire and retire, not stand in line of battle. And the artillery has much the same values as the French battery with Girard; same trained professionals, same number and quality of guns.

Last but not least, the Prussian officers. The French divisional commander Girard is a dashing 4/-/2/4, superior to any of his opposite numbers, the Prussian brigade commanders. Ziethen, the corps commander, is more Girard's equal. Ziethen also has a cavalry rating, and a good one (4). And no wonder--Generallieutenant Hans Ernst von Ziethen had served in the Prussian army since 1785, when he joined his father's regiment of hussars. He had fought in the wars of the French Revolution, in 1806 at Auerstadt, and in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814. 

Up Next: La Victoire Chantant!

The Fight for St Amand La Haye: The French

So, the other half of our scenario, of course, is the French army contingent. The French attack on St Amand commenced around 2.30 pm on the 16th with an assault by Vandamme's III Corps, augmented by Girard's division from II Corps. The scenario suggests that Girard alone occupied the focus of the Prussian I Korps, but this description is not borne out by any of the accounts I've read (Hofschroer, Uffindell, Nofi, Schom, Siborne, or Alain Arcq's account in Ligny: 16 juin 1815). Those authors agree that Girard's was one of four divisions that took part in the attack on the St Amand "cluster"; it may even have been the last to move into combat, after III Corps proper was engaged. Perhaps it is for simplicity's sake and as an introductory scenario that only Girard is included here. (In fact, reading through several of the above authors' accounts, the scenario as presented seems to be bear only a sketchy connection to the historical events.)

In any event, General de Division Count Girard's aim is to capture St Amand La Haye (or at least more than half of it) by the end of the scenario. He has two light infantry and two line infantry regiments, totalling nine battalions, at his disposal, as well as one battery of artillery. Given that the French are disallowed from attacking St Amand Le Chateau and that it's filled with Prussians who aren't allowed to move but would be more than happy to shoot at passing Frenchmen, there's plenty of reason to give Le Chateau a wide berth in moving toward La Haye. St Amand Le Hameau also flanks the target, but it is held only by a small force, and the scenario does not immunize them from the French, so they might be an early target, just to clear the way, so to speak.

Girard can begin anywhere within ten hexes of Ferme l'Alouette, which means essentially as far as the westernmost crossroads on the Mellet-to-St Amand Le Chateau road, south of the Chapelle St Bernard. 

The French have eleven turns (the beginning of the 2.40 turn to the end of the 6.00 turn) to take and hold five of the eight village/town/special structure hexes of St Amand La Haye. That seems on the face of it more than enough time. Once the French capture five of those hexes, the Prussian I Korps, 2nd Brigade--being held in reserve--is released to reinforce the troops in St Amand. So my first instinct, in a gamey sense, is to slow-roll the attack. Why fight more Prussians than you need to sooner than you have to? But that assumes that the French player knows the Prussian decision points, and while they could probably guess that reinforcements would be sent to hold or retake a strongpoint on the army's flank, I think the first impulse ought to be to take the town as fast as possible and worry about holding it after.

So Girard's men are going to be arrayed to take Le Hameau swiftly, then move on to seize La Haye and "hold until relieved". But what formation(s) to use? It will take about half an hour to march from their start point to the St Amands, so I don't seen any need to start any of the infantry in road column to get there faster. 

If the French are going to attack Le Hameau first, let's try shooting up its defenders and see if we can drive them off that way. The French have two regiments of legere (light infantry), all of whom can skirmish. Skirmishers can fire better than columns, so let's use skirmishers to start with. Troops in line can fire even better, but they are more vulnerable to return fire than skirmishers, and they move more slowly too. Troops in column move speedily, but they generate minimal firepower, so let's not use columns. There are jaegers out skirmishing on the outskirts of Le Hameau, but it's one small unit; the legere can overwhelm them with numbers.

So let's start one of the light infantry regiments in front skirmishing and the rest of the infantry behind them in columns for a quick follow-up.

So there is Girard, with one regiment of legere out in front, skirmishing, accompanied by the divisional guns, which will be looking for a good position to set up for supporting fire on the assaults. Behind the front line are three regiments, two battalions in each, in columns ready to move forward behind the skirmish screen. Girard will advance to the northeast, sweep through the hamlet, and move on to the main course.

What does Girard have to work with? Here's a snapshot of his command, displayed as broken down into battalions.

First is Girard himself, the 0-10. The 0 shows that he and his staff officers, while they represent a locus of command, have no combat strength. The 10 shows his ability to move during a turn. As a division commander he has a third, unprinted rating of 3--the distance he and his immediate staff can reach out and command troops. Any troops more than 3 hexes from him will be out of command, so he needs to stay close to the action. The II on his counter shows he is part of the French II Corps; the 7 below that shows he commands the 7th Division. His counter, like all those in La Bataille games, is a representation of his uniform: a blue coat with gold lace, white breeches, a particoloured sash, and on his left breast is the ribbon and star of the Legion of Honour.

Below him are four lines of counters, slightly more stylised in their design. The legere (light infantry) wear their blue coats and trousers; below them the ligne (line) regiments have blue coats and white trousers. The center of the counter shows the facings of the regiment (again, blue or white) with white crossbelts (which also mimic the X symbol of traditional NATO imagery for "infantry"). In the top left corner, all of them show the 7 of Girard's division; below that a 1 or 2 to show their brigade in the division (there are no separate brigade commanders shown in the French OB--they were there, but they play no role in the game's mechanics). At the top of the counter are two red dots; an adaptation of traditional NATO symbology to indicate the unit depicted is a battalion. Below the unit's crossbelts is a brass badge like that worn on the regiment's shako (hat), showing the regimental number; to the right of the counter is the number of the battalion (regimental component) that counter represents. So, the first brigade of Girard's 7th Division consists of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 11th Legere and the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 82nd Ligne. For some reason, the artist has given the 1/11th Legere an imperial bee (Napoleon's personal badge) on their counter; I'm not sure why.

Each unit also has two more numbers: its strength and movement potential. Strength (the lefthand number) represents roughly how many hundred men it consists of. Movement is how many hexes of open terrain it can cross in twenty minutes. That's planned, intentional movement; troops may move more than that in a turn if they become disordered or broken and seek to fall back or flee. Note that the light troops move just a little faster then the line (and are marked with a hunting horn, the symbol of hunters, scouts, and--curiously--postal carriers in European symbology). Did they truly move that little bit faster? Or does it represent the little bit more initiative usually attributed to light troops, or a little longer reach of their inherent skirmishers? Who knows? It may just be a designer's grace note.

The division's second brigade is similar; its legere regiment has three battalions rather then two, thought he third, only about two hundred men, is very small.

Bringing up the tail of the column is the division's artillery company. Note the single red dot to show a company-sized unit. It is the 3rd Company of the 2nd Regiment of Foot Artillery, though in this period artillery was rarely deployed as anything but companies--regiments were more an administrative element than an operational one. The cannon ball on the crossbelts is a small touch to denote artillery. With its guns and limbers, the artillery does not move as fast as the infantry. Were these horse artillery we would see a faster movement potential, as those units included riding horses for all the crew, not just enough to move the gun limbers and ammunition caissons.

And here's a glimpse of the all-important back of the counters (I moved the artillery up to show it as well).

Girard's counter shows his name and command role. It shows four numbers that represent his ability to influence his troops. On the left, the bonuses he gives for infantry (upper) and cavalry (lower) combat. No surprise, he gives a bonus to his infantrymen but none for cavalry, of whom he commands nine. To the right, his bonuses for artillery (upper) and morale (lower) for all arms. Girard's ratings are good, if not stunning. He was a brave leader who led by example; in the battle for St Amand, he was mortally wounded leading his men in combat. His counter bears the imperial badge of the wreathed N to show he is an officer.

The four infantry units are largely the same. Their unit designation (division/brigade/regiment/battalion) across the top. Below it on the left their fire value (top), melee value (middle), and morale value (bottom). These are exceptionally good troops; these are strong values. Note that the legere units also bear their light infantry hunting horn badges and a 2 on the right side. This shows they can fire out to a range of two hexes rather than the default of 1, because they are trained as skirmishers. This represents the main body sending out bodies of troops in open order to fire at the enemy from close range. These skirmishers have supports to fall back on, should the enemy advance, and can fall back on the main body of the battalion if pressed hard enough. This additional range can only be used when the unit is operating in skirmish order, as denoted by flipping over the counter in play to show this reverse side.

The artillery unit also starts with its designation. On the left side are three fire factors, for close, medium, and long range. Close range is always 2 hexes, medium 3 to 5, long range 6 to the battery's maximum. The top number on the right side of the counter is that maximum (so long range for this battery is 6 to 8 hexes). The middle number on the right is the unit's morale; the bottom number its melee value. The better the morale of units, the *lower* the number (so the infantry at 14 or 16 have better morale than these artillerists at 21). The better the melee value, the *higher* the number--so these gunners (3 versus the infantry 11 to 15) had better be doing their fighting from long range!

Next time: The Prussians.