An update at last!

I’ve been busy marking papers and exams for the last few weeks, but in the meantime, my copy of Lasalle arrived, and very nice it is too. My AB command figures and flags also arrived, though because of the papers and exams, I haven’t had chance to do any more painting. To make up for my absence, however, I’ve done a review of the game:

The latest in a series of recent releases for Napoleonic wargaming in a ‘glossy’ format (Napoleon, Black Powder, etc), Lasalle, from the author of Grand Armée, Sam Mustafa, is a petit-tactical game that covers roughly a division or so, plus supporting units. The time period covered is from around 1805 through till the Hundred Days campaign in 1815 (thus omitting the Revolutionary period). The game should be able to be played in about 2-3 hours, and thus is an excellent candidate for playing a game in an evening at the club, rather than some previous Napoleonic rules which encouraged you to set aside a month or so to finish off a game. As far as presentation goes, this book is a beauty – filled with photos of 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 25mm and 40mm figures painted to an excellent standard, as well as copious diagrams to aid in understanding the various situations described in the rules. The writing is clear and eminently understandable, does not degenerate (like some wargames rules do) into jargon-filled paragraphs, and offers many examples of play (with the aforementioned diagrams).

In his introduction, Sam notes that this is the first book in the Honour system – the next in line will be Blücher, a much larger scale game where players will control entire corps. He also makes it clear that there will not be supplements released for Lasalle in the future – you’re buying a complete game here – but that the Honour website (www.sammustafa.com) will offer new army lists, optional rules, historical articles and a scenario wiki and forum for questions / comments etc.  Indeed, there’s already a lively group of posters in the forum, a number of scenarios in the wiki, and several downloads, including FAQs, errata (of which there are very few) and another copy of the QRS.

The game can be played with any size bases, but there are recommended sizing for competitions etc, and any size figures. For the purposes of this review, I’m using 15mm figures. As long as all players use similar base widths, there shouldn’t be a problem. Recommended base width size is 40mm for Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery; markers for skirmishers, engineers, objectives and disruption are suggested, but optional. Commanders should be based on smaller bases, usually just one or two figures, while infantry units generally consist of around 8 figures in 2 rows per base, cavalry of about 3 figures per base, and artillery one gun and several crew per base. Base depth doesn’t matter as much as width, but the recommended size is 25mm, though many people (myself included) are using 30mm (40mm for artillery). Units are usually 4 stands for normal units of infantry and cavalry, 6 stands for large units (some large Austrian units, some British guards units, quite a few cavalry squadrons), and between 3 and 5 stands for artillery units, depending on type and nationality.

After discussing basing, Sam goes on to define a few terms (What ‘near the enemy’ means, for example) , and straightforward basic concepts such as formations (line / abreast, attack column / waves, square, march column. Each is clearly shown with the aid of pictures, for both small and large units. Other concepts include disruption (each unit has 4 or 6 disruptions, depending on size), which covers both morale and casualties – when you reach the limit for the unit, it breaks. Some can be recovered, but this is not easy. Each unit also has an esprit level (valiant, reliable or shaky) and a discipline level (experienced, amateur or irregular). Some units have other qualities (shock and pursuit cavalry, lancers, and guards units). Command and control is quite basic – if a unit is within command range, they’re fine; if outside, then they can’t charge and suffer penalties to combat and discipline tests. Terrain and cover affect movement and combat, as is usual.

The turn sequence is one familiar to Principles of War players, but may be new to most other Napoleonics players. The first phase is the reaction phase, and covers changing formation, countercharging, falling back and firing; the second phase is the combat phase (at the end of which, units may fall back / advance some more). The third phase is the activity phase, where units move and make recovery attempts, and the final phase is the status phase, where reinforcements arrive, army morale is checked, and where the possible end of the game is decided. In effect, you react to your enemy’s moves in your first phase (including shooting at them), conduct any combats that resulted from his movement, then you make your own movement. As with most wargames rules, discipline, formation and terrain affect movement, and formation changing is relatively easy unless close to the enemy. Shooting is directly ahead of your unit, and is not allowed if another friendly unit is even partly in the line of sight – this is going to take some getting used by some until they learn not to position units in the way. Skirmishers are covered quite simply – each unit has a 0 to 3 skirmish rating; advantages go to the unit with the higher rating. There’s the usual stuff about target priority, partial targets, and modifiers depending on formation, cover and terrain. Each unit has a number of dice depending on size and formation, skirmish capability, artillery range etc, up to around 10 dice or so at a maximum. The number of hits is cross referenced on a simple chart to give the effects – no effect, 1-2 disruption, or an immediate break result.

Combat is similar – esprit, disruption, qualities such as guard status etc all affect the number of dice rolled, along with the usual modifiers for terrain, cover etc, up to a maximum of about 18 dice. Results are either decisive (if one side rolls double the number of hits that the other does) , which leads to the defender breaking or attacker losing some disruption and falling back, or inconclusive, in which case one side falls back and takes some disruption. Cavalry also take 1 disruption whether they win or not, to represent being blown after a charge. As can be expected from such an illustrative book, these sections are filled with many, many examples of complex situations and examples of combat.

Army morale depends on either losing control of any objectives or reaching break point when too many of your units have been destroyed. Each turn, dice are rolled in the final phase to see whether your army continues or not. Games have a finite length – usually 16 turns, with dice being rolled in the final phase to see if another turn is played, up to a maximum of 5 more turns.

The rest of the book covers various supplementary stuff – town fighting, advanced rules such as engineers, 3 historical scenarios, the set-up procedure for the table (which includes 12 basic set-ups that can be customised) and the army builder. This latter part is the army lists, covering Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, Russia and Spain, with a load of info about minor countries following. Army lists are split into five theatres – Conquest, Empire, Peninsula, Liberation and Hundred Days. Not all nations took part in each of these theatres (with the obvious exception of France). Each list has a core of troops that you must take (eg an Austrian Avant Garde Division from the Empire theatre, which is what I’m working on in my blog) has 1 Jäger, 2 large Grenz, 2 large Infantry, 1 large Uhlan and 1 cavalry artillery battery, with a commander and subcommander. If I’m going to be attacking, I also gain a large Hussar unit and another large Infantry unit as well as another subcommander. In addition, I can take at least one support unit – though if players agree, more than one can be taken – from a list that (for the Austrian A-G) includes Infantry brigades, Cavalry brigades, Hussars, Grenadiers and Cuirassiers. The latter two are reserve brigades, which means that they don’t start on table, but come on during the game as reinforcements. Reserve brigades tend to be better units (cuirassiers, grenadiers, French Old Guard etc). There are also allied brigades, for those minor nations, but the Austrian A-G doesn’t get those. Support units tend to provide another 2 (large French Old Guard Cavalry) to  7 (Russian Opolcheniye) units. Each of the army lists also provides some special rules – nothing gamebreaking – some armies have to use linear tactics, the Austrian large units can form a mass formation, Grenz can be regular or irregular, etc. Unit statistics are given here too.

Ending the book are a section of FAQs and 4 sheets of QRSs, covering pretty much everything in the rules, in fairly large print. The rules for the most part are pretty simple and easy to understand, and after a few games, you’ll probably be relying on the QRS rather than the rulebook; after a few more games, you’ll probably only be glancing at the QRS every now and then. As such, these rules are perfect for quick competition or pick-up games, while still allowing players to use historical OOBs to refight parts of certain battles (the attack on the granary at Essling, for example, rather than the whole Essling battle, which would be better served using the forthcoming Blücher rules), or small engagements.

So, how does Lasalle play? In a quick test game, it went very smoothly. The game lasted for just under 2 hours, a French Guard division trampling the Russian Infantry division. The support choices certainly give much to think about – do you go for some light cavalry or more infantry that you can use now, or wait for heavier cavalry to come on later? If the latter, do you hang back before launching an attack until your reinforcements arrive, or attack forthwith, hoping the cuirassiers come on quickly and hurry down the table? If a defender, do you hold your position, or advance to meet the enemy before his reinforcements arrive? In the test game, the Russians decided to defend, even though they had their grenadier support already on table, while the French Guard hurried forward without their Old Guard Cavalry support. Luckily for the French, their attack columns were aimed straight at the mass of Russian infantry, leading the Russians to hastily scramble to get their grenadiers into the fight. While the formidable Russian artillery caused quite a few hits on the oncoming French, the elite status of the Guard soon made itself felt when the two armies clashed, and the early arrival of the old guard cavalry really made the battle decisive, facing no Russian equivalent. Although the French took some damage, the Russians reached breaking point first after losing a good number of their infantry and a few grenadiers and the luck if the dice meant that they failed their morale on the 14^th turn, their remaining hordes scurrying away. The game was fun, and I’m looking forward to another attempt soon. The game flowed smoothly, without much looking up after the first few turns, and wasn’t just a lucky / unlucky dice affair as some fast play rules can be.

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