Two games of Napoleonics with two different sets of rules.

 Happily I have played two games over the last few days. First up Howard invited me over to his house for a game of General D'Armee (GdA). Howard set up a scenario where my British were on the defensive and had to hold onto Le Haye Saint for 8 turns (or 5pm if that came sooner) and he had to try and capture it. Although the French as attacker had more Brigades we both had re-enforcements hopefully arriving soon. 

The British advance on their right flank to try and hold that flank of Le Haye Saint. 

On the left flank the French did not advance very far until their hoped for Cavalry Brigade appeared. 

Finally Howard throws the right dice to bring on the cavalry. 

Howard charges his lancers into my Hussars and despite Howard having more dice the lancers lose the melee and retreat back to their own lines. 

In the centre Howard made three separate attempts to storm the British garrison and all failed. 

Finally Howard threw his cavalry forward again and despite his lancers throwing well the Hussars threw a double six forcing them to fall back again. The dice only really failed me on the off table ADC throws as my hoped for Brigade of Dutch Re-enforcements failed to appear. 

This was a game severely affected by Howards poor luck on the dice and my overall good luck. This was very strange as we were both using his dice! Overall a good fun game and we certainly got through the turns quicker than in any previous game of GdA. Setting a time and turn limit helped focus the action in the centre of the table and the British Garrison did well to fend off all those French attacks. 

Today Ian, Nigel, Charlie and myself met at my house for a game of Valour and Fortitude. Nigel and Charlie took command of the larger French force, Ian and I were the British. 

The scenario had the French trying to withdraw from the board against the advancing British. They also had to hold a hill on the east side of the board and blow up the bridge over the river. The British needed to try and capture both the bridge and the hill. The game was to be 8 turns long (or a 5pm finish). A quick dice throw decided that the French sappers would arrive on turn 3. With the French deploying first they positioned a whole battery of 4 guns on the hill and then some of their troops went on the offensive to try and slow the British advance down whilst other Brigades escaped over the bridge. 

Nigel had also made some very good 'Fate Cards' which were much better than looking their effects up on the various armylists. I wish I had taken a photo of them for the blog. The Fate cards are a simple way of introducing both random events and national traits/army specific rules.  

My light cavalry unit did rather well, chasing off Nigel's Heavy Dragoons thanks mainly to be a slightly larger Brigade and some great dice throwing. Sadly, the Royal Horse Artillery failed their activation roll at least 3 times and never managed to get deployed or be of any use at all. 

Some of the French deployed ahead of the bridge as they had a secondary escape route around the side of the hill to the east. Random dice throws also forced the French to withdraw whole Brigades and I think the French lost 3 Brigades in this way over the course of the game.  

Charlie took some of his French Infantry to Garrison the Farm near the centre of the battle which really slowed up the British advance as it took Ian ages to dislodge him from there.  

Ian marches his British Infantry towards the Farmhouse.

Nigel's French Heavy Cavalry threaten my British Infantry who were not going to advance any nearer to them. The whole of Nigel's French cavalry was soon one of the Brigades forced to withdraw immediately. 

The ruler points to the last of the French cavalry on the western flank, the whole Brigade was forced to withdraw by a random dice throw just as they threatened to get around the rear of Ian's troops. 

French troops withdrawing over the bridge.

Took me some time to deploy my rocket launcher but it managed a six on it's first shot. 

After this I forgot to take any more photos as there was so much going on. The French managed to blow the bridge up on turn 6 and by the end of turn 7 it was obvious that the British were not even going to get near the hill. So a clear win for the French as they had achieved both objectives but a good fun game. If I were to play this scenario again I think I would make the two forces more evenly balanced to try and prevent too much of the French delaying tactics. 

So, having played both 'General D'Armee' (GdA) and 'Valour and Fortitude' (V&F) in the last few days which set of rules do I prefer. I think GdA, as a fuller set of rules contains more Napoleonic 'flavour' but can be a bit slow moving at times. V&F is a much slimmer and therefore simpler set of rules but gives a faster moving game ideal for our Tuesday games which are usually multi-player. Overall I think I prefer V&F but am happy to play either.

Just for fun, next week we are going to play 'Soldiers of Napoleon' for the first time. Our fourth set of Napoleonic rules in recent games. My poor brain!

It was good to have Charlie playing again today and happily for me he is keen to try the Dark Age rules 'On Bloody Ground' soon so expect a Norman civil war soon.