This set of skirmish rules is offered for your enjoyment. It includes a fast paced set of tactical rules and a strategic situation you will use to establish random situations to play out with the tactical game. You have just been placed in command of the rear guard of the retreating mob recently known as the Grand Army of the Empire of French. You have a mixed force of infantry and cavalry with some artillery. It is made up of the following: Yourself and your aide de camp both mounted Two other mounted officers Six experienced non-commissioned officers. Ten Grenadiers armed with muskets w/bayonet Ten light Infantry men armed as above Twenty line infantry men armed as above Ten officers acting as infantry armed as above Ten artillerists, five armed with muskets only, five with short swords. Two officers of artillery Three officers of various cavalry regiments on foot armed with two pistols and sabers. Six dragoons/hussars/cuirassiers dismounted armed as the Officers above One doctor/barber. Four sappers armed with muskets and axes One cart that can carry one ton pulled by an old mule One cart that can carry one half ton can be pulled by four fit men One four pound gun that can be pulled by five men. Additionally you have fifteen walking wounded/sick tagging along, they move at one inch less than the roll for the main body. Each musket has 10 rounds and you have five rounds of cannister and three rounds shot for the four-pounder. You have no rations for the men but some fodder for the horses in the cart pulled by the mule. NOTE: Use what ever figures you have on hand, this list is just a suggestion. You will need the following 15mm or 25mm troops: 45 French and Allied infantry, 20 cossack figures, 25 Russian infantry, 20 Russian peasants, 1 Russian gun and crew, 10 Russian Hussars, 10 miscellaneous Russian officers, mounted 15 miscellaneous French officers, some mounted 2 French guns with crew, 3 ox carts or other wagons, 20 miscellaneous wounded figures For best results in. the skirmish game singly mounted figures are best, but you can use multiple mounted figures since they will operate as units of three, five or ten. Just mark casualties. THE GAME SITUATION The weather is terrible, you can see only to the edge of the playing area or less. It is foggy and cold. The biting wind changes the fog to snow flurries periodically. There is a wood fine to your left that is D6 inches from the road you are trying to follow and to cover at the same time. The last of the main rear guard disappeared down the road in front of you one hour ago. Due to Marshall Ney's concern for his rear, your detachment has been placed behind the main rear Guard to provide a warning. The last the rear guard's main body departed 20 minutes ago and you are to follow soon. You may organize your force any way you want. You will roll two D6 each turn and you may move all foot figures that number of inches, remember that wounded and walking wounded must subtract two from the roll. Mounted figures may move an extra D6. Pulled vehicles and guns must also subtract one inch of movement and an additional inch for each figure less than the required number of pullers stated above. Figures moving over rough ground or deep snow will lose two inches of movement each portion of the move in such terrain. Because of the bleak nature of the Russian countryside you can place your unit in the formation you desire and move the terrain around them. We will call this scrolling the terrain. For example, if the force rolls two D6 and gets a seven, you would move all of the terrain features seven inches in the opposite direction of the troops. This will change their relative location as if they had moved seven inches. Or if you wish you can move the force through the terrain conventionally. Anytime a player rolls a seven or doubles for movement he must draw a card from the event deck, a standard deck of 52 playing cards with two jokers added. He then compares the card drawn to the event list and sets up the event. You win if you get through the whole deck and still have a force left or your force moves 1,000 inches, which ever comes first. How you lose; you will need to keep track of the morale of your force. You will start with twelve morale points, the basic morale for French Infantry. Some of the events will cause morale losses. These losses will be subtracted from the base morale number as they occur. Other events may add to the base morale. Players should devise a way to keep track of the base morale, I recommend red poker chips for morale losses and blue for morale gains. Needless to say you will not have both on display at the same time and if morale is at the base level their will be no chips on the table. After each tactical action subtract one morale point for each French five man infantry unit lost to morale or combat. If at least one man is left unhurt/wounded in the group, the French lose no points. Add one to the morale if no one group was destroyed or routed and no group lost more than three men killed or wounded. Lose two morale points if the artillery is lost or the commander killed. If you abandon your wounded you will loss one point per three wounded left behind. If at anytime the French base morale falls below 0, the French lose. You will need terrain to simulate the terrain generated by the event deck. This includes a few buildings, an earthwork Woods, and snow covered country side. (we played it on a white sheet). EVENT LIST Clubs 2 Clubs: You encounter a group D10 times two, of French and allicd soldiers standing around a fire. One half of them are sick and wounded. They vow to surrender to Russian regulars. You roll a D6, odd roll they agree to join your force, on an even roll and they offer to protect your wounded. You can leave a D6 roll of walking sick behind without affecting your unit's morale. 3 Clubs: You encounter a fork in the road. Choose a direction. Next time you draw a card roll a D6, even roll you find evidence that you are on the wrong track move back to the fork(two moves will do it). 4 Clubs: You find a cart with six dead men in it on the road. One of your NCO's asks if you can allow him to get it rolling for the wounded. Roll one D6 for the number of turns required to get it moving. Continue to roll each turn as if you were moving to trig. ger possible events. Add one to the morale if it starts moving. Roll one D6 and add two for the number of men it will require to pull it. It will carry two times that number of wounded or sick. 5 Clubs: Two officers ask permission to scout ahead on horse back. 6 Clubs: Four wounded fall out on the side of the road. Deduct one point of morale. You may select any of the wounded you wish. 7 Clubs: Four wounded fall out on the side of the road. Deduct one point of morale. You may select any of the wounded you wish. 8 Clubs: Your lead man finds a frozen officer clutching an Eagle. Roll one D6 for the number of half turns needed to pry it free. Add one to the morale level. 9 Clubs: You find a broken down ammunition cart. Roll a D6, 1= empty, 2­,3= five rounds of small arms per man, 4= Artillery ammunition 12-lber, 5= 4­lber ammunition D6 times solid shot, 6=rations one loaf of bread per man add 3 to morale level. 10 Clubs: One of your wounded or sick dies. Minus one from morale. J Clubs: You find a dead horse, D6 times number of turns to strip the dead animal, add one to morale. Q Clubs: One of your wounded or sick dies. Roll a D6 for each wounded man until you roll a six, that man just died. K Clubs: Your lead man encounters a Russian barricaded battery facing the opposite way D10 plus 5 inches to your front. The lone guard does not see you. There is firing from the log homes around the battery. Use the surprise method as in Q Spades. Russians will surrender if they do not get three turns to fall out. If they do, get three turns they will either run away or fight. A Clubs: You find six stripped bodies in the road. Minus one on morale. Diamonds 2 Diamonds: You encounter D6 times one OLD GUARD Grenadiers to your flank. Roll D6 odd on the right; even on the left. They ask you to wait for them they are D20 plus 10 inches away. Other card events may occur as you wait for them to move. They have to cross open rough ground. They are armed with muskets and have no ammunition. Add one to the morale of the force if you elect to wait for them. 3 Diamonds: You encounter two female camp followers, they are nearly frozen and report that a large group of women and children were butchered by Russian peasants in the nearby village. They had been offered sanctuary by the village when the main body passed by the day before. After the Rear Guard's main body passed by the Russians turned on the helpless group. Your men beg to be allowed to attack the village. Roll D6: odd, add two points to the morale, even, take one away. 4 Diamonds: You find a wounded officer nearly frozen. He has orders for you but cannot remember what is was. 5 Diamonds: You encounter six naked men hanging from a tree. They are French! Minus one on morale. 6-8 Diamonds: D20+5 Russian peasants have barricaded the road in front of you at a distance of D20 plus 10 inches. They are armed with muskets. 9-Q Diamonds: You encounter courier with orders for you roll on the orders table. K-A Diamonds: You encounter D6 times two Cossacks D10 times two inches to your front, half are dismounted and stripping bodies the rest are mounted and holding the mounts. Hearts 2-5 Hearts: Cossacks!!! to your rear! D20 mounted cossacks; are charging D20 plus five inches to the rear of your last man. 6-9 Hearts: One of your men collapses, dead, roll for each man the first six rolled ends the ordeal for one of your men. 10 Hearts: D6 men run screaming into the woods or gloom, roll for each figure until a one is rolled and then have the correct number follow that lunatic to his death. Minus two on morale. J-Hearts: You encounter DIO sick and wounded Frenchmen unarmed and struggling along at one D6 per rum. Q Hearts: Your rear two men disappear. Minus one on morale. K Hearts: Your lead man disappears. A Hearts: Six of your men sit down together exhausted, roll one D6 until a six is rolled and take that figure and the next five men on foot. Roll a D6, if the roll is even they will get up, if odd they stay down, help them up at the cost of one half for next three movements. leave them and loose two morale points. Spades 2-3 Spades: One of your men shoots himself, Minus one on morale.Roll a D6 for each man in fine until a one is rolled that man kills himself. 4 Spades:You encounter two French guns stuck in the snow with ten frozen men huddled together. Minus one on morale. 5 Spades.You encounter D20 bodies in the snow mixed Russian and French. (minus one on morale, have the Russians cut you off?) 6 Spades:D10 times one Polish soldiers come from D10 plus 10 inches to your right, they beg you to wait for them. Add one to morale if you wait. They are armed but have one round each. 7 Spades: A lone Cossack rides along just out of musket range to your left. He will follow until you roll a six on movement and he disappears or you roll an eight and he and D20 others charge you. Or you roll seven or doubles and he participates in the event. 8 Spades: You encounter D20 Russian peasants stripping bodies D10 plus 5 inches to your front. They do not see you, use the surprise system under the Q Spades. 9 Spades:You hear screams in French to your right out of the gloom, minus 1 on morale. 10 Spades: Russian peasants(D20) and regulars(D10) mixed attack from the flank, D6 roll even left and odd right. The peasants are armed with a mix half muskets and half farm implements. They will attack until one half are killed or routed and then all will run. J Spades: You encounter a broken down wagon filled with frozen men. minus one on morale. Q Spades: D10 times two Russian hussars encountered to your D10 plus five inches to your front. They don't see you, they are looking at a pile of dead in the road. Each side rolls a D6 if the French roll is higher you can move before the Hussars see you, tie or even both groups may move. If the French do not move they may fire first. K Spades: The wheel falls off you four pounder gun when it hit a piece of ice in the path. A D6 roll of 5 or 6 will fix it. You may move around it. Other events may occur while you work on this one. A Spades: You encounter D10 plus 5 Russian peasants stripping bodies D10 plus 5 inches to your front. They don't see you use the method used with the Q Spades to resolve the surprise. Jokers: You find the bodies of 30 plus Russian peasants who have been executed. Add one to morale.Discard all cards once drawn, if you make it through all 54 you win. SPECIAL EVENTS TABLES: Certain events will require you to roll for orders, searches, and fights. These tables will be used. ORDERS TABLE Roll one D6 and execute the orders as required. Die Roll orders 1. Keep up you are falling behind! You may not stop for two turns unless attacked. 2. Hold your place until you roll a five to eight with two D6, you may move your units within the formation but may not move further down the road. 3. Detach three men to village to the north to investigate reports of slaughter of wounded. You may select any figures of your unit but no more than one may be wounded. They will move off the right of your line of march, remove them from play when they are 20 inches away. If enemy action occurs during their movement they may return to the unit. 4. Execute all prisoners, roll a D6 if you obey the orders, a roll of 1-3 add one to morale, a roll of 4-6 subtract two from morale. 5. Ensure good treatment of all prisoners. If the prisoners were executed subtract one more from morale. 6. Use your discretion but maintain contact. Search, Salvage, and Savage Table In the event that you have the option to search items on the road you may select one group of troops to search and assign one officer to oversee it. Subtract one from the die roll if no officer is included in the search. D20 Roll Event No. of Turns 1-4 Nothing D6-2 5 A small amount of food. Plus 1 on morale 1 6 One musket and twenty rounds 2 7 Twenty rounds of ammunition 2 8 Marked map in Russian 1 9 Bottle of Vodka. Plus 1 on morale. 2 10 Five rounds of small arms 1 11 Fodder for animals 1 12 40,000 Franks in coin, subtract 1 inch from movement if you elect to carry it out.* 2 13 1/2 Bottle of Vodka.* 2 14 100 rounds of musket ammunition, plus 1 morale 2 15 A small cash of food.* 1 16 A small cash of fire wood kindling 1 17 Signs of Cannibalism, minus 2 on morale 1 18 roll again, nothing found yet. 1 19 A tea Kettle for soup latter, add one. 1 20 A pair of muskets, roll again. 1 **SEARCH FRENZY- roll again subtract 10 from the roll. * A Fight erupts between the searchers of the prize, roll a D6 and look below on the fight table. FIGHT TABLE In the event that a fight breaks out, roll on the table below. AH units will move to the site of the fight each rum until it stops Die Roll Event 1 Fight stopped... Add one to morale. 2 Fight expands add two men to each side and roll again adding two to the die roll. 3 One man killed, stop fight and minus one on morale. 4 One man killed and one wounded, fight stops, minus one on morale. Goods lost. 5 Two men killed, goods lost, minus one on morale. 6 Fight stops, troops make up and give food to sick, plus two on morale. COMBAT RULES If combat or firing occurs during the game as a result of card events or situations players will move and fight their troops. Troop actions are done by a give and take method. Player 'A' moves five men or two/three horseman or a commander, player 'B' fires or loads five men or moves two/three horseman or a commander. Each group of five men moves once and fires/loads once per turn, units not electing to fire or load may conduct an extra one half move instead. A unit may elect to load rather than move. Each one horseman may move twice per turn. Each officer may move three times per turn. Each group completes its actions before the next group begins its actions. Mark units that have moved or fired. Tactical Sequence: 1. Player A moves or fires a unit. 2. Player B moves or fires a unit. 3. Player A and B conduct all close actions. 4. Repeat 1,2, and 3 until all units have moved and fired the number of times required. A player may pass a unit when his turn comes to move or fire but that counts as that unit's move. For record keeping case, I recommend that at the start of each turn place poker chips or pennies or other markers next to each unit in a number equal to the number of moves it is allowed in the turn. As that unit moves or fires remove a chip. When all chips have been removed start the next turn by placing new chips down. MOVEMENT Foot figures move one D6 plus two inches. Mounted move one D6 plus 4 inches per Phase. Officers move as foot or mounted. Artillery and carts move one D6, minus one inch for each puller short of the required number. Figures must be organized into units in the following manner UNITS French foot five figures Russian Foot five figures French cavalry one figure Russian cavalry two figures Artillerygun and four to eight figures Russian peasants ten figures Cossacks two figures MUSKETRY Each group selects a target and fires at it. Measure die distance to the target and check the range table to see the chance for a hit. Then roll the number of D6 required and apply die result to die target Fire Table Range to target in inches # D6 result to hit Musket (five men) 1-6 inches 4,5,6 6-10 inches 5,6 10-15 inches 5,6 15-20 inches 6 Carbine (five men) 1-4 inches 3,4,5,6 4-8 inches 4,5,6 8-15 inches 5,6 Subtract one from the D6 roll for each man short of five firing. A roll of six is always one hit. Single soldiers and officers roll one D6 and hit as follows­ 1-6 inches 4,5,6 6-20 inches 6 Pistols hit on one D6 with a roll of 5,6 at any range below 6 inches and a roll of 6 at 6-12 inches. Fire can be issued as pass through fire if the target moved through die field of fire of the firing unit during its move. But this fire must be taken immediately and counts as die other players move/fire that phase. Figures hit by fire or in hand to hand roll on the hit table below. HIT TABLE Roll a D6 1 No effect 2-3 Wounded 4 Dying, roll D6 for turns left. 5-6 Killed Mounted targets roll a D6- a roll of I or 2 and the rider is hit and rolls on the Hit Table. 3-5 and the horse is wounded. A roll of 6 and the horse is killed. If the horse is killed the rider will fall off and could be hurt, roll a second D6- a roll of 1-2 the rider rolls on the hit table, 3-6 he is stunned and can not move until next cum. He will count as wounded for the turn knocked down only, in a hand to hand action. A horse wounded three times is killed on the third hit. Wounded horses roll for horse panic: a roll of 1-3 the horse will charge away from the shooter full speed (3xD6) two turns; a roll of 4-6 it will behave normally. Charges to contact result in hand to hand combat. Charges take effect immediately and are treated as part of movement. Any unit that has an enemy unit move to within two inches of it must make a morale check. If it fails it will rout away, the rout movement counts as its move for the phase. If it fails and has no movement chips left, it must roll on the Panic Table. If it passes morale and has loaded muskets and has a movement phase left it may fire at the charger's prior to hand to hand. HAND TO HAND COMBAT Figures that move into hand to hand combat make base contact and each rolls a D6 and adds all modifiers. The high roll wins and the loser checks the result by looking at the difference on the hit result table. For example, if the difference was two then the loser is wounded. Hand to Hand Modifiers Charging +2 Bayonet armed +1 Sword armed +1 Wounded -3 Officer +1 Elite +1 Mounted +2 Second combat in turn -2 Unarmed -1 After the hand-to-hand combat each side must check morale taking into consideration all casualties generated in die hand-to-hand. Artillery Fire Weapon Zone Canister width To Hit 4pdr 8 pdr 1-4" 1" 2" 1-5 4-8" 2" 4" 1-5 8-12" 4" 8" 14 12-16" 8" 12" 1-3 16-20 10" 12" 1-2 20-24" 10" 14" 1 24-30" 12" 16" 1 1-66" Ball 1-2 If unit is hit, check morale. Reloading the gun takes two move phases and one fire/load phase. Add one phase for each man short of four operating the gun. Each man marked X checks for hit. MORALE Each unit has a base morale of 12 for French five man units and 8 for Russian regulars, 7 for two mounted cossacks and 6 for ten peasants. Units taking hits roll a D10 and must roll below morale number to pass. Subtract morale from the base morale for each hit on the unit, one for every figure killed and one for every two wounded. If an officer is attached to the unit add three to morale. Elite units add two to morale value. Units that fail morale must roll two dice and move that number of inches to the rear away from the enemy. They will do so until there is another group of friendly troops between them and the hostile force or an officer makes contact with one of their bases. Wounded may only move one D6. Units moving in rout status may not fire or load. Players may attempt to avoid panic by rolling on the panic table below rather than running the unit to shelter. PANIC TABLE Roll a D6: D6 result 1 Unit steady 2 Unit moves one D6 to rear and steady 3-4 Unit moves in normal rout 5-6 Unit panics and flees abandoning all weapons, wounded and fighting any officer that attempts to stop it. It moves 3D6 as above. Morale losses or additions specified above in the events are deducted from or added to all units in the French formation. If the Rear Guard morale is minus three then the base morale for French units is now nine. After combat the French player may elect to create new five man groups from the survivors. This is done by moving the men together during the normal strategic move. If during this process a card must be drawn, draw it and complete the required actions. Continue to play until all cards are drawn or the French have moved 1000 inches. You can elect to play that long if you wish, but our experience in Augusta suggests that player exhaustion sets in before the game ends. This is a campaign system besigned to create small unit actions, in an afternoon we have played fifteen strategic turns, moving about 115 inches and fought four or five small actions and had a couple of other events occur. Each play is unique and each has been interesting. Feel free to modify the rules as you prefer. Bonne Chance! 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