Soldiers of Napoleon

I played a first game of "Soldiers of Napoleon" by Warwick Kinrade.  We played a "Large Divisional" battle, British and Hanoverians against advancing French.

I won't review the game per se, suffice it to say that I liked it enough, that I immediately sat down and finished another battalion of Austrian infantry, and am seriously hoping to move the painting along and get the army finished by, say, the end of 2024.  That can be considered a big thumbs up for this rule set !

No rush, of course, as my wargames chums have plenty of armies for me to fight - British and Russians at the very least.  Still, my French army being 14 battalions of 4 bases strong, I want to do about the same with the Austrians; then add some light cavalry and perhaps some cuirassiers to the French.  When that is done, I will no doubt build up both, but with ready-painted purchases to flesh out my self-painted "core".

Here are the latest additions.  So far I have 4 battalions of "German" infantry at 6 bases each, so still a fair bit to do.  Jaegers next, followed by some "Hungarian" units with their flashy blue trousers, and of course I will build a brigade of Grenadiers.

As always, Warwick Kinrade's rules lend themselves very well to adaptation.

I wanted to use this post to jot down some ideas I have.  Remember I have only played once, so these amendments are not to be taken as criticism of the rules - even when I state why I might want to change some things, it is only to remind me where the idea came from.  When I have played enough to give truly constructive criticism, I will write up a proper review, with the amendments I have decided to keep and why I wanted to keep them.

So here is what I think I might want to change after that first play :

Movement

These are not fast-play rules (thank goodness), but that does mean they have the inherent problem of Napoleonic rulesets - by the time you get to grips, it is almost time to pack up and go home, especially if you are counting on good tactical use of reserves, which should be a key to victory in the rock-scissors-paper nature of Napoleonic warfare.

I very much like the way movement itself is handled.  It is neither unhistorically fluid, nor too stiff and inflexible.  Planning in advance is definitely rewarded, but you won't end up in a gridlock-style traffic jam because you decide to change aforementioned plan.

However, given the time frame, anything that breaks up forward momentum, as it were, may unnecessarily slow the game down.  In SoN you lose a whole move to change formation, or send out or recall skirmishers, and whilst I love the rallying rules, a full backwards move is a lot, in the time frame of the game.  If you analyse it, the time lost in formation change actually makes march columns pretty worthless, outside roads of course, and that removes an element of choice for me. 

Incidentally, we played our first game in 15mm with 1 pace = 2 cm, and that felt about right.

Unit crunchiness

Units have plenty of stats and enough unit special rules and flexible unit sizes to create a lot of diversity...which I then feel SoN has not fully exploited.

Unit Quality and Discipline, for example, are more or less mechanically tied together, with only a handful of exceptions, so they are sort of like one stat.  This is even more the case given that Unit Quality, excepting its impact on MV, barely effects the game with a simple +1 die in mêlée for whichever unit is better.  The Firing stat cannot really be tampered with, as that creates a very big impact, so most units are at 4+.  Even mêlée, whilst it has a wider range of values, basically reflects the difference of weapons rather than troop type.

The more I think about it, the more I think that a D10 for Discipline (or even a D10 all round) might have been a better idea, but I'll avoid going down that road, for now at least !

Skirmishers

As many reviewers have said, whilst the skirmish mechanics are very good, they do tend to discourage actually coming to blows.  Although this might be partly linked to the time needed to deploy or recall skirmishers, it has to be admitted that skirmishers are also inherently punchy, although I like the way that the parent unit temporarily loses a base to get them out there.

So here is what I have tentatively come up with to (perhaps) improve (for me) what is already a really great game.

Orders

- Units may make a March move at half speed before or after a Change Formation or Limber/Unlimber Order, if they pass a Discipline Test.  If they fail the test, they may still carry out the order as normal.

-  Add a "Drilled" Unit Special Rule allowing a reroll for a Discipline test in that context.

-  Units may deploy or recall skirmishers during a March, At the Quick or Withdraw Order, if they pass a Discipline Test.    If they fail the test, they may still carry out the order as normal.

-  Add a "Voltigeurs" Unit Special Rule allowing a reroll for a Discipline test in that context.

-  The Intimidate Order cannot be used against Heavy Cavalry, Infantry in square, or troops occupying ground that is considered Difficult Ground for the intimidating unit.  For extra crunchiness, it cannot be used by Lancers who have "Lances Broken".

Skirmishers

-  A 15 pace range for Skirmish Fire seems more natural [although I'm starting to think, after running through in my head how the mechanics might play out, that retaining a 20 pace range will give a better game; if skirmishers become too weak, nobody will use them].

-  All hits by Skirmish Fire give rise to a Discipline Test, and each successful test cancels one hit

Mêlée

-  The mêlée modifier is +1 for each level of difference in Unit Quality

Rally

-  Rally by Withdrawal requires at least a half move backwards.  A unit that rallies a full move backwards can remove a second point of Disruption through a successful Discipline Test.

-  A minor point, infantry in square should not actually move when they use Rally by Withdrawal, that seems counter-intuitive.

 

Rally to the Colours Unit Special Rule

-  Rallying is no easy affair, and that brought up the idea of tampering with the Rally to the Colours mechanisms, in such a way as to give more crunchiness as to what the Discipline stat represents.

Just as all units have a SK value (from 0 to 3), all units have a RtC value (from 0 to 5), given as a Unit Special rule to avoid messing about with the stat lines.  When they make a Rally to the Colours roll, they roll an extra number of D6 equal to their RtC value.  Any 6's remove a point of Disruption, as before.

The RtC value should be seen as a nuance on the Discipline value, which already plays a big role in avoiding hits in the first place.  By that I mean, just because a French Line unit has Discipline 4+ and RtC 3, a French Guard unit which has Discipline 3+ does not automatically have to benefit from RtC 3 or better to show its superiority.  Discipline at 3+ already does that.

This change might potentially lengthen the game by allowing units to withstand more punishment; but on the other hand, it could make it easier for units to actually get into close contact (volley fire or bayonet), which is more decisive.

Markers

I also made a list of useful markers to make for the game :

-  Last Brigade Played marker (the national flag would be appropriate) 

-  Command Points for the Divisional Commander

-  "Disorder" counter, to avoid breaking up the lines to show it

-  "At Risk" event counter

-   "Full Caissons" and "Fine Horses"

-  "Lances Broken" and "Colours Lost"