by Ed Wimble
THE COUNTERS(correction) Louis' Saxon horse artillery should have an organizational marking of "LF" like all the other units of Louis' command. Saxe-Weimaes Prussian heavy cavalry brigade should have an organizational marking of "SW." THE RULES5.21 Roads, Trails, and Highways (clarification) Where the charts refer to Roads and Trails, the rules refer to Highways and Roads. 5.22 Light Artillery and Streams A brook that you can easily step over could cause your average 6-pounder to immediately drop its wheels to the felsengrund, which in turn would bury the muzzle in the opposite bank. The jolt of it would break the connection where the carriage meets the caisson, if the caisson survived and the team didn't break their legs. Instead they would have leveled each bank so you no longer had this sudden drop of two feet or so. They would have torn down a nearby building and used its materials to fill-in or bridge across the brook. The French, at least, can do this in IENA since they have an engineer/pontoon unit. As you've read in the historical commentary, however, the Prussian Bridging Train was captured around Naumburg on the 13th; nowhere near the main body of the Prussian Army. That's why I didn't include it in the game. I only included the larger streams on the IENA map. So, while crossing a small brook is impossible in the time of a La Bataille turn, many such brooks aren't even included in IENA because of the relative difference in scale. Crossing a major stream effectively under fire takes really special troops. In no way can you manhandle a 12-pounder, or even a six-pounder in this situation. It requires block and tackle and a large lever. Regimental guns such as 2 and 3- pounders were factored into the infantry unit strengths (and there weren't any four-pounders around, most of your horse batteries at this time were armed with 8- pounders. In fact, in the French army units had many Austrian cannon they'd collected the year before, and these were even more cumbersome. The only time during the Napoleonic Wars that guns were standardized in size and uniformly deployed was during the Waterloo campaign- and only for the Army of the North at that. One of the errors that arise of taking Waterloo as a typical battle of the era. 7.0: (question) (During the movement phase) Can cavalry charge opposing cavalry units? A strict reading of the rules would suggest that the answer is no-as if you are in a "Zone of Influence" you cannot charge and all the cavalry have such a zone. (answer) Any unit (including cavalry) a4iacent to an enemy cavalry unit is pinned by the cavalry unit's zone of influence. So, no, cavalry cannot charge adjacent cavalry, though it may attack in the Combat Phase. (interpretation) Cavalry charging cavalry results in melee, which-as I chose to interpret the situationis an attack. (Of course, you interject that cavalry charging anything will result in melee, and therefore, is an attack also.) However, the charge rules are intended to show the ability of cavalry to effect events more quickly than infantry or artillery, thus this action of charging occurs during the-movement phase and is not necessarily restricted to one attempt per stack. Cavalry's ability to do this is relative to this advantage over slower combat arms. Cavalry charging cavalry no longer exhibits this relative difference. So that in this case it stops and resolves its conflict in the Combat phase. Thus, one thing that differentiates cavalry from other arms is its ability to prevent cavalry charges. (question) If a stack adjacent to several enemy stacks wishes to attack only one of they, may it do so, or must it attack all adjacent stacks? Do ZOIs exerted by enemy units affect this? (answer) At this scale no one is forced to attack anyone. Attacking is optional, so yes, it may ignore the other stacks. You bring up an interesting condition, however. I can see a rule developing wherein the option to attack is prioritized. And that a unit may not attack one unit if it is in the ZOI of another. 10.0: The EXC Result and Artillery Artillery may never attack or be part of a counterattacking stack. If Artillery is alone in a hex that is attacked, and an EX-C is the result, then the result is automatically changed to EX*. 10.32: Casualty Priorities In the event more than one hex of combat units is attacking the same hex, and there are multiple casualties as a result of attack (or if there are multiple casualties in the accumulated rounds of combat), players should alternate the stacks from which the casualties are removed. The priorities for removing casualties should then be:
2. Highest Morale 3. Order in which the counters occupy the hex. 10.5 (addition) Cavalry that wish to retreat before combat may only do so before an attacking force of infantry and/or artillery if they are not in an enemy ZOI and if they succeed in an initiative check. Cavalry that wish to retreat before combat in the face of enemy cavalry may do so if they make a successful die roll based on the cumulative difference between their movement potential and the pinning cavalry's movement potential, and the difference between their compared morale values. EXAMPLE: a light cavalry unit with a morale of 4, attempting to avoid combat with a line cavalry unit with a morale of 3, would have a difference in morale of 1, plus a difference in movement potential of 1. The light cavalry unit, then may retreat if it rolls 2 or less. 11.02 Mist (clarification) Restrictions during these turns only apply to units that are moving voluntarily. Units may still move involuntarily (retreat) into nonroad (Highway hexes. Units, however, may not attack or advance into non-road hexes. 12.22 (question): A Prussian Division shatters when all the steps of its regular infantry component are lost. An army group disintegrates when three or more divisions/korps are shattered. When an army group disintegrates all divisions shatter and all Saxon units are removed from play. Does a division with only Saxon regular infantry remain permanently shattered after disintegration? Does this mean the red army group can never be reconstituted after disintegration. (answer): Yes. 13.11 (change) When tracing the Command Radius of a French leader along a road or trail, City and Fortified Town hexes do not count as 1/2 a hex. 13.24 (question) When you roll for a Prussian Korps leader to see if they are in command does the result apply to units in command range? Or if you fail can a division in command range of the Prussian Army Leader still move towards its Command marker? (answer): If they move under orders, yes. 13.26 (amendment) The 4th sentence is amended as follows: Divisions that are in command through "Orders," if they move, must move towards this Comm and Assembly Marker (CAM) by the shortest path possible; etc. 13.28 Ignoring Orders (clarification) Prussian Divisions that are marching under Orders may also ignore them if within the command span of their Army Leader and that Army Leader is acting in an operational role. They must be stacked with the Leader only on the OBMT if moving against orders there. 13.4 (question) If a Prussian Division does not move can it attack adjacent French units? (Assume its command marker is in the other direction.) (answer) No, it may only defend unless it passes its initiative check. Fatigue: If using this rule begin Scenarios 3, 5 and 6 with the following Fatigue Points:
French VIIth Corps 5 pts. 15.12 (change). Units that are surrounded by enemy units and/or a combination of enemy units and prohibited terrain, are NOT reduced to cadre status. If a well-mounted leader cannot get away in this situation, how are enough men going to escape to rally a viable unit afterwards? Combat Units in this situation must surrender. THE SCENARIOS20.1 Reinforcements (French) (correction) The Campaign Game ends with Turn 8, October 16. French Reinforcements are in command during the first turn of their arrival on the game map. If their entry hex is blocked by either enemy units, or enemy zone of influence, then these units may delay their arrival. Or, having delayed their arrival for at least one turn, they may enter anywhere on the map edge within their movement potential in hexes i.e., one turn after their scheduled arrival, a French infantry unit may come onto the map within 5 hexes of its arrival hex. 20.3 Scenario 3 (clarification) The Schimmelpfennig Lt. Cavalry brigade may also move if it succeeds an initiative check per the usual procedure for Prussian and Saxon Light Cavalry. Players will note that Division Pritzwitz has two cavalry brigades. The Hohenlohe player decides which of these will start in Dornberg and which will stay with his division. Skeptics often bleat a wargame cannot duplicate the historical moves each side made in a campaign. Are they right? Take out you copy of The Six Days of Glory and see how closely you can maneuver in the footsteps of "le Tondu". Write me at c/o OSG, PO Box 50207, Baltimore, MD 21211 or e-mail me at kzucker@charm. net with your comments. Back to Art of War Issue #29 Table of Contents Back to Art of War List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Clash of Arms Games. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. |