Like a lot of other wargamers I've always fancied wargaming "1812" - the Retreat from Moscow. All the ingredients for a great game are there - I won't detail a list as I'm sure you know them.

But how to do it? Here we are talking about hundreds of thousands of soldiers; not just a corps but several corps on both sides. Dave Watkins will tell you the answer lies with 2mm figures and he's partly right - turning my head away from my monitor I can see a 2mm Austrian and a 2mm French corps lined up on my table ready for battle. But it's for than just a question of figures. Although 2mm and even 6mm figures are cheap enough to field corps, and small enough to actually get them on the table and use them, the large numbers of units, the fact that the retreat took place over hundreds of miles and over a long time period present other problems.

But it's too fascinating a period to leave along, and so I and my regular opponent effected a compromise. We would concentrate on one French corps - some 50,000 men and 100 guns. And we would take just the opening of the retreat

Our French corps was billeted over an area of several square miles, the regiments staying in various Russian villages as there was no single village/town that could accommodate 50,000 plus men - and their horses and equipment. The Corps commander received orders to prepare his men to move out and start the long journey home. At this stage the French troops were still in good morale and well equipped. Why not, they were the conquerors and they were living off the enemy. The Corps was given orders to travel (off the table) to meet with other Corps. But before they can undertake any movement they have to assemble.

Couriers were sent out to the various villages, farms and settlements giving rendezvous for the regiments and brigades to meet at. Watching them were Russian Cossacks, who took the news back to their commanders.

Once the Russians had realised what was happening they began to assemble their own forces . They had the same problem in keeping thousands of men together feeding them and billeting them. But because they were on their own soil, supported by the local people the Russians were able to concentrate their forces and keep them closer together.

We use a four foot by four foot table for the majority of our 6mm games and this campaign was fought on out normal table. Rather than use map moves and a variety of tables all the action took place on the one wargames table. The table was crammed with terrain features. There was an abundance of valleys, many home to small villages; forests. streams and rivers - all the scenery for a rural part of Russia. Down these valleys, across the streams and rivers and, even if they were really unlikely, through the forests the French moved. As they marched to rejoin their units the French were easy targets - often single battalions on the move (we didn't bother with smaller units than the battalion).

But it cuts both ways. The Russians had to bring their forces together and sometimes a single battalion or cavalry regiment had to attack unsupported. The Russian aim was to concentrate their forces and then attack smaller French units with the odds in their favour; the French was similar, to regroup and form a large enough unit to drive off any enemy forces until they reached the rendezvous. Both sides had some success, the French driving of Russian forces, especially the irregular cavalry and the volunteer spearmen.

But the Cossacks and the regular Russians managed to cut off and defeat some of the French units individually. This in itself presented problems. In many a wargame there is a tendency to agree that a unit has "gone" and it plays no further part in the game. Here unless the unit was totally wiped out it still had to fight it's way to safety and ultimately a rendezvous point. If it surrendered, and the surrender was accepted then guards had to be detailed to move it off. But there was little quarter asked and precious little given in this mini campaign. Units fought and survived or died.

But the loss of a few hundred men didn't really affect the Corps and it eventually regrouped. Then it moved of heading towards the end of the table, or more romantically the warmer climes of Western Europe.

But this skirmishing with small numbers had just been the prelude to the game. Now the "retreat" began. Although the weather was handled randomly (we used an electronic system called FOLLOW THE EAGLE but you can also use dice or chance cards) since it was winter and Russia the odds were it would deteriorate - and it did. First it started to rain and then it continued to rain. As the rain grew heavier the ground started to turn to mud, reducing the movement rates and making it harder to transport the artillery and supply wagons. It also meant that there was a chance, muskets wouldn't fire, and so the Russians took to raiding the columns.

They had the perfect raiders - their Cossacks and other light cavalry. During heavy rain visibility is reduced and the light horse were able to sneak in, do a little damage and sneak away unhurt.

In issue 1 of FIRST EMPIRE I wrote about the Turkish light cavalry that could take on and defeat French Cuirassiers, if you use them properly. Well, the same applies here. The Cossacks shouldn't be used to frontally charge French cavalry - they should skirmish and preferably take their enemies in the flank or rear. Coming out of the rain or the mist they can do just this, and for virtually no lose.

The Russians also used irregular horse from within the depths of Russia who hadn't changed since the invasion of the Mongols. Some of them were still wearing armoured helmets, and carrying bows and lances. These are "E" class or at best "D" class troops BUT use them as skirmishers and they can still be worth the time and effort of painting them. Hitting the enemy in the rear or flank, annoying them with flights of arrows or just tying up the enemies cavalry are what these boys do best. And they can go along with the Cossacks on a raid.

Get these raids right and the French start to lose some of their arrogance and their morale starts to drop. Of course it's not all light cavalry skirmishers. The aim was to get the regular Russian army into a position where it could stop the French. But the more the French were worn down and their morale shaken the better for when the regular troops actually engaged them.

The campaign barometer continued to fall, the rain turned to fog and snow and the French found themselves in real trouble. Their movement rates were reduced but the attacks didn't stop. The Cossack and the "rubbish" light cavalry came out of the snow - often moving as close as 50 yards before the surprised sentries spotted them. A little firing if the weather permitted or a sudden charge into the rear of dismounted cavalry or unformed infantry, and then away.

We also used a simple system where the French needed supply wagons to keep them well fed and clothes, as well as supplied with ammunition. Apart from attacking French soldiers another target was the supply wagons. If enough supplies were destroyed the French unit suffered a loss of morale as well as a physical loss - which meant that they covered less ground and when attacked fought at a lower level. An attrition rate was set so that if food was not found a percentage of the unit were deemed to be too weak or ill to carry on.

It wasn't the proper retreat ftorn Moscow, but it was lot of fun. Using hidden movement means either having an umpire or trusting your opponent - but it is essential to a game like this. All our movement took place on the table but not all the figures were actually laid out. The Russians and the Russian player should take advantage of the weather to move around unseen and also lay ambushes for the French.

Russian Advantages

The Russians were given several advantages. They obviously knew the area, and found it much easier to stay in supply. Any village in the surrounding neighbourhood was deemed to be supporting them with food and fodder. Since they were fighting on their own soil against an invader they were given bonuses when fighting the French.

In the article on the Turks I mentioned that the "D" class rubbish was expected to rout and so their running backwards didn't have the usual detrimental affect on the rest of the army. The same applied in this game, where the Tartars, Bashkirs, Cossacks and other wild "hairy" people weren't expected to stand up to the French. If they routed then the effect was ignored by other units.

The French on the other hand were expected to be of a different calibre, and if they saw their units routing, or abandoning their guns this did have an effect, always for the worse.

It was a contrived situation, where the French player was always going to be struggling to come out on top. It wasn't a complete "retreat" - only a small part of it but it did give a flavour of what the whole game could be like. There were enough units to give a good game but not enough to get bogged down with working out who's who and what's happening to everyone. We wanted to play a wargame not work out the logistics for the entire French army and so our simple system of using wagons as supply counters kept the bookkeeping to a manageable minimum.

It still wasn't fought over one evening, but it didn't drag on too long. We used 6mm figures but anyone wanting to try something like this could use any scale. I tend to think that the smaller scales are better for Corps level games - see Dave's comments this issue - but if you have the space and the figures it can be done it any scale.

We used FOLLOW THE EAGLE computer based rules. This has many advantages not the least that the program does all the record-keeping for you, and also acts as an independent umpire. The weather, for example is changed by the computer, and although both sides knew the weather would deteriorate neither knew when. The computer system also forces you to use a proper brigade/division/Corps/army structure, and to use the command structure to issue orders. Since the courier can take several moves, can get lost, shot or captured orders can go missing or be ignored, or as frequently happens be totally out of date when they arrive.

Movement Scale

One thing we did change was the movement scale. FOLLOW THE EAGLE recommends a lmm equals 1 yard scale - this is fine for l5mm figures but gives far too big a move for 6mm figures. So we used 1" equals 100 yards which visually is certainly better for 1/300 scale figures. It also means that the 4ft square table is about nearly 3 miles square or 9 square miles. A big enough area to give plenty of problems, and yet still small enough us to manageable and enable us to have a comfortable and enjoyable game.

This particular scenario is difficult but it has a special appeal. Certainly the real French army suffered horrendously on the way back from Moscow - much of that suffering cannot be recreated on the table, and who would want to ! But as a game the retreat offers lots of attractions to go with the problems of actually playing. We had a good game spread over several evenings. Maybe this will inspire you to try it.