The following is a general description of events and ideas for a more interesting wargame scenario, that arose during a recent Napoleonic Campaign.....

The fictitious town of "Nova Ves" (New Village) lies on a major trade route. With the Austrians and Russians at war, the trade route and the town assumed a greater importance.

The Austrians recognised the importance straight away and detached two infantry divisions - 24 battalions plus artillery and cavalry - to take the town. The Russians had a small garrison in the town - 2 Jager battalions - and immediately made plans to reinforce them.

The nearest available troops were a brigade of irregular cavalry, made up of Karpov's Cossacks with it's attached horse artillery and 1,500 irregular horse archers (Bashkirs). Good for skirmishing but of doubtful use in defending a town.

So 2,000 Jagers, with 2,000 irregular cavalry and just one battery of 6 light guns must face 30,000 Austrians in an attempt to save the town.

You might think this is not going to be much of a wargame, but of course the Russians are sending reinforcements. Twenty plus battalions plus regular cavalry will even the odds, but they are several moves away.

This is the crux of the game. Will the Austrians be able to take the town before the Russians arrive ? When they arrive will the Russians find the Jagers still holding it or will they have to retake it building by building ? And will they be able to ?

For this game I used the computerised Napoleonic Rule System FOLLOW THE EAGLE (FTET), but the main elements of game can be handled by any rule system.

Since the initial Russian force is so small it isn't deployed on the table. The Jagers are hidden in various buildings and/or woods or various types of cover. Only when they are driven out of the cover, come into contact with the enemy or the Austrians get in a position where they could actually see the Jagers are figures placed on the table.

The idea is that the Austrian artillery fires at targets without knowing if they are occupied , and without knowing how effective they are. Of course, if you're using a computer with FOLLOW THE EAGLE the programme will handle all of this - deducting casualties and adjusting morale without telling the Austrians what effect they are having. But the same thing can be handled by any set of rules.

For many years my regular opponent and I have played games with troops in buildings or cover, with or without hidden or off-table movement. There's one essential ingredient - trust - but then I wouldn't play wargames or any other games with people I don't trust. If you can't trust your opponent to tell you truthfully what damage your bombardment has done you don't want to be sitting opposite him.

And talking of bombardment the one thing that is rarely seen on the wargaming table is an artillery bombardment. Look at battles of the period and most start with an artillery pounding often lasting several hours. Take Borodino for instance where regiments just stood and took casualties from artillery for hours on end. But most wargamers are advancing their infantry and cavalry in the first move.

With this attack on Nova Ves we started with an artillery bombardment, the guns trying to destroy the buildings before any assault was made. If you're using conventional rules you might like to try a "mega" move. Work out the artillery factors/damage etc. and multiply by several moves - quick and easy but at least you start to get some of the effect of artillery.

OFF TABLE MOVEMENT

If you're using FTET then the computer will handle all the off-table movements. It will calculate when units arrive, where on the table, how many men have dropped out on the way and what state the rest of them are in. Fancy stuff, and the sort thing computers are good for - and why there is so much interest in them for wargaming. But you don't have to have a computer to use off-table movement or flank marches.

The simplest way is to decide what move the troops will arrive,and where. But this allows you to plan knowing that you will be reinforced on a particular move. Better to work out what move they should arrive on, and then determine some extra factors. If you don't have an umpire ask your wife or children. Just get them to roll 2 dice (the number and the type depends on your factors) and not tell you the result. At the end of every move tell her what move you are on - when the move corresponds with the dice throw your reinforcements arrive.

Another dice throw will determine whether they arrive at the designated spot on the table, or whether they have deviated from their march and arrive in some other not so useful, or more advantageous position. This is all very simple and there are a range of mechanisms to allow for much more complicated marches. Try getting some of the older wargaming books, such as ADVANCED WARGAMING from your library. There is also an association that specialises in developing and sharing mechanisms for wargaming - the Solo Wargaming Association. They have evolved systems for hidden movement, off table movement, flank marches and just everything else you could want to do. It depends how serious and complicated you like your wargaming.

Hopefully the above may make you want to try a game like this, with totally unbalanced forces. In our own game the irregular cavalry skirmished but since they were D Class they didn't hang around for too long. One unit under Suleiman Bogda were charged by Austrian Hussars, which effectively finished them. They didn't take many casualties but for all intents and purposes they were out of the game. Sahdurkar Khan's Bashkirs didn't fare much better. They loosed of a couple of thousand arrows, but didn't actually hit anyone, and were then forced back.

The Cossacks did better. They forced some infantry into squares and slowed down the advance. After skirmishing with Austrian cavalry they dismounted and formed a skirmish line in the woods. The Cossack horse artillery battery stopped a brigade in its tracks, although it only caused light casualties to the Austrians.

None of the irregulars did much damage, but they tied up and held up parts of the Austrian forces. They slowed down the initial advance, which was all they were really expected to do,and although they routed they actually lost very few causalities

The Russian Jagers were in various buildings and cover. They suffered from artillery fire, but not badly. Since the Austrians had a choice of several buildings and woods and had to guess which contain the Russians their fire was not as deadly as it could have been. The opening barrage was laid on a building that was empty. FTET allows for an "overshoot" and some of these shots actually hit a building containing Russian Jagers. But the Austrian gunners had no idea whether they were hitting anything or not. Some cotton wool, shell explosions and craters were dotted around the buildings under fire, which gave a good visual impression but no clues as to actual damage.

One of the best artillery devices I've seen is the artillery "spider" in SKYTREX's World War One rules. (I bought mine from IRREGULAR MINIATURES who advertise in this issue but presumably they are available from SKYTREX and others). The "spider" introduces elements of over and undershoot as well as deviation into artillery fire, and although designed for W.W.I. could easily be adapted for other periods.

THE OUTCOME

The Austrians drove the Russians from the town, but the reinforcements had started to arrive. Of course the reinforcements arrived in the wrong positions and in the wrong order which made the ensuing battle even more interesting. Heavy cavalry regiments arrived when what was desperately needed was infantry, or the other way around. Either way it was always the wrong people arriving, and in the wrong place as well.

But that was what made the game so enjoyable. Both sides had approximately the same number of figures - 20 odd battalions plus cavalry and artillery. If we'd had a stand up fight both sides would have had an equal chance. But this way things developed totally differently.

The Austrians now hold Nova Ves. But shortly their army will move on, leaving the town to be garrisoned by just few battalions. Then the Russians may well decide to come and take it back. This time we might include an uprising by the townspeople to coincide with the first Russian assaults. Give the Austrians something to worry about inside the town as well as outside. And if they are in the streets putting down riots then at least the Russians will know where they are !

Then of course the main Austrian army will have to force march back to see if they can keep the place. Looks like this little village will give us quite a few hours of enjoyable wargaming.