The next refight of Marengo, using From Valmy to Waterloo, followed somewhat the same course as the Age of Bonaparte , although there were a couple of noticeable differences. The From Valmy to Waterloo description will not be as comprehensive, rather I will attempt to follow the general course of the game and highlight some of the tactical aspects. 10AM. The orders for both sides were almost the same ones as used in the Age of Bonaparte game. The only difference is that the Austrian player decided not to move Kain around to his right flank, rather to follow the historical path and have him follow Hadik's Division. Gardanne deployed two battalions of the 44th demi brigade in open order and moved them right up to the banks of the Fontanova. Faced with fire from the open order troops Hadik decided not to wait for the artillery to drive the French back, instead he to push his troops across the river. In the rules, an open order French battalion will eventually wear down a formed battalion. This takes quite some time but it is effective. However, the open order troops are not able to hold ground and were pushed back towards the three battalions of the 101st demi brigade who were deployed in line with the divisional battery on their left flank. Hadik, in true Austrian fashion sent the Hungarians of the Jellacic and Archduke Franz Anton regiments against the French to soften them up. They were halted and forced to deploy. Since they did attack at deployment distance, they were able to deploy into line (this is a formation where each column has enough room to its sides to allow it to form line without disordering friendly units to its flanks). By the time they had deployed, the Hungarians battalions were beginning to waver with all of the battalions having suffered close to 50% casualties. The 101st charged the Hungarians, they did this in line as there is no time to waste in forming into column. The Hungarians routed. The M. Wallis regiment had formed into line behind them. When a unit routs it must move back 100 meters and any friendly units that it encounters in that distance will be disordered. Once the unit has moved back 100 meters it has more leeway to stream back through gaps. The Austrian gamer, being an experienced Valmy gamer, not only had his M. Wallis' regiment far enough back to prevent disorder, but also had provided gaps for the Hungarians to rout through. The 101st having incurred some casualties and disorder, is in its turn charged by the fresh Austrians. The Austrian charge did not break the French but it did force them to fall back. In the next turn the Austrians charged again, causing a complete disorder of the French and forcing the 101st to retreat. While this combat was ongoing Gardanne had reformed the 44th and was prepared to counter attack the victorious M. Wallis regiment. This pattern continued with a fresh unit attacking a disordered unit until Hadik was pushed back over the Fontanova. However, the French had suffered heavily and once Kain had moved through Hadik's worn down troops Gardanne was again attacked with fresh troops. Gardannes lost two units which routed, forcing his brigade to take a formation morale check. His brigade then routed. Chambarlhac's brigades all rolled bad with the exception of Herbin's brigade which was in Marengo. The result indicated a shaken state for Rivaud's brigade which meant he could not advance during the next turn. This was a serious problem for the French, as the Austrians could now move over the Fontanova with impunity. As you can see from Gardannes combat, Valmy has a much more tactical feel and allows the gamer to "play" with his battalions. However, he does not have an entirely free hand in the use of these units. The Divisional orders provide a framework in which the battalions must operate. While Gardanne was attacked, O'Reilly moved his troops over the Fontanova. Kellerman had deployed his cavalry in two lines and immediately charged, not wanting the Austrians to get a foot hold on the south bank of the river. The Nauendorff and 5th Austrian hussars counter attacked. They were also formed into two lines. The French bowled over the first line, aided by the fact that the Hussars received disorders that they were unable to reform while crossing the river. The second line of Hussars fared somewhat better, although they were forced to retreat. The whole brigade was sent packing over the river. Kellerman's Cavalry and Dragoons took some casualties due to combat and also from the pesky fire of the 3pdr. Austrian batteries. Cavalry picks up casualties in melee and is not just an indictor of dead and wounded but also a loss of effectiveness due to combat. Cavalry in Valmy are much more susceptible to the effects of casualties than infantry. The Fight for Marengo In From Valmy to Waterloo, towns are made up of a number of zones, and sometimes a battle has to be fought for each of the zones. Marengo was divided into four zones. Victor placed the three battalions of the 24th Legere demi brigade into the town. Since there are four zones and only three battalions Victor deployed the brigade so that two of the battalions were in the zone facing the bridge and one battalion in the zone to the north of it facing the Austrians. The concept of town fighting in Valmy is that the gamer has very little if any control of events once combat is joined. His only real decision is how many battalions he is willing to employ to defend or attack the town. Once the battalions are engaged they are either repulsing the enemy or running away. In effect it becomes a black hole, which is what the Austrian gamer quickly became aware of. He launched three grenadier battalions against one zone and two at the zone containing the single French battalion. The two French battalions repulsed the three Grenadiers battalions. However, the other Austrian attack managed to get a foot hold in the town. The Austrian sent the next brigade to reinforce the zone in which they had managed to penetrate. He also attacked the zone which had the French two battalions. With the addition of two more Austrian grenadier battalions, the 3rd battalion of the 24th Leger demi brigade is pushed back into the zone behind it. Chambarlhac counter attacked with the two battalions of the 43rd demi brigade. Due to the disorder of the Austrians. This fresh French attack threw the grenadiers back one zone. Now the situation is that the French control three zones while the Austrians control one. The dilemma for the French gamer is now wether or not he should push more troops into Marengo. This could be risky because Gardanne brigade is about shot. He decided not to throw more troops into the town fight and actually pulled one battalion of the 43rd, which was not engaged, out of the zone. After reforming that battalion, it moved back to cover Gardanne. The Austrian with more troops to throw into the town does so. The French are finally routed out of the town. At the same time that Marengo was captured Rivaud's Brigade was finally routed. Kellerman charged to cover the rout and stopped the Austrians for a couple of turns. While Victor's men were fighting around Marengo, Lannes stopped Frimont's advanced guard from crossing north of Marengo. Pilati's brigade made one attempt to cross by the same ford. He could only send one squadron at a time over the river. The first squadron was charged by Champeaux's brigade of Dragoons and thrown back over the river. As Ott's column advanced towards Castel Ceriolo, Lannes sent Gency's brigade into the town before the Austrians could get to the town. Ott decided to only screen the French troops in Castel Ceriolo and marched with the bulk of his force towards Lannes exposed flank. Gency's troops could not attack as they were out of command and control distance of Watrin. Troops that out of command and control distance of their divisional commander may not advance closer than 800 meters of the enemy, they may, however, face a threat, change formation, fire etc. The command and control distance varies from officer to officer and is based on his ability and the also the staff capability of his army. The French gamer then falls back along the road to Sale, in hopes that the light cavalry of Rivaud's (not the same Rivaud as in Victors corps) will arrive, and support his cut off brigade. As Marengo fell and Chambarlhac's brigades routed, Lannes two regiments are hopelessly out numbered and he issued a withdrawal order. Soon after he withdraws, Monnier appeared on the table and began to form into line in order to stop the on coming Austrian Juggernaut. The Austrian gamer had recalled Pilati's brigade and got them over the bridge after Marengo fell. This body of cavalry now charged Kellerman and routed him back. The Austrian Dragoons of Pilati were faced with the Consular Guard in square and decided not to charge, but rather to wait for the guns to come up. Every Austrian formation having fulfilled their orders stopped and formed a defense line. As the Austrian guns began to move up the French gamer issued a fighting withdrawal order to Monnier and the Guard. At this point both players decided that it was an Austrian victory. The Austrian victory was not as overwhelming as displayed in the Age of Bonaparte , due to the fact that Lannes had managed to pull most of his troops back with only a few casualties and even get Gency's brigade back into command and control. Both games played very close to the historical battle and both battles ended just after noon, which is historically when the French fell/routed back towards St Giulanio. The interesting point for me was the perspective of the gamers in each battle. In Age of Bonaparte the gamers were desperate to get their brigades into combat and although not many orders where issued, those that were turned out to be crucial. In From Valmy to Waterloo the experienced gamers committed their troops by brigades so there was little difference on this level. However, the tactical nuances is where the battle was fought. Age of Bonaparte took about three and half hours to play and From Valmy to Waterloo took about six hours. This was a good size battle for From Valmy to Waterloo but on the smaller end for Age of Bonaparte . The idea behind the series of rules is to give the gamer a choice in the scale of the game without loosing what I consider to be the key aspects of Napoleonic warfare; the way command and control functioned and the attritional nature of most battles of the period. Even though both rules cover the same period they are designed to complement each other. Age of Bonaparte is intended for big battles on the average gaming table. The focus is on command and control and the combat of brigades is handled in a simple fashion. The brigade in Age of Bonaparte is difficult to maneuver and is viewed by the gamer playing the role of Corps and Divisional commander as an entity that occupies a fixed amount of space and has a certain amount of combat power. However, I have still managed to capture the feel of the brigade and the fact that it was made up of battalions. With the basing system I have alleviated the need to re-base and so both games can be played with whichever basing system you have. From Valmy to Waterloo has the same command and control system. However, the tactical combat is substantially more detailed than that of Age of Bonaparte . Even though there is an immense amount of historical detail in the rules, they are still relatively easy to play due to the cheat sheet book. The fundamental principle in Valmy is to allow the gamer to do what he wants with his units, but the rules give the greatest advantage to historical tactics. The gamer quickly learns the tactical nuances of the period while playing the rules. This is a unique approach and focuses the gamer on the historical tactics that are suitable for the army he is using. For all of you going to attend Historicon I will be running Marengo both with Age of Bonaparte and also with From Valmy to Waterloo. More Marengo Historical Narrative Marengo Order of Battle Wargame Comparison Introduction Age of Bonaparte From Valmy to Waterloo Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #79 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com