I agree with Vic's comments on flanking. the whole idea of this and THE GENERAL EFFECT will be to inject a note of realism with the least amount of rule changing. Tom Devoe's "appendix in issue #7" filled out my ideas quite well. Ah, but now to answer the points he has brought up. 1) On the question of being killed -- in a discussion, Claude mentioned the use of win/loss records (which I am in favor of along with battle reports (to be published in these yellowed sheets when possible)). A) When you are "killed" this goes down on your win/loss record and you can be re-incarnated on the next move as a cmd of OTHER troops in the rear. 2) A commander cannot fire (unless he was in the artillery like you know who). He can melee as light cavalry, since in actuality he represents himself and a number of aides. 3) Capture is a trickier question. consider the sort of things that did happen once a battle got going; Blucher got stomped and the Prussians rolled on; the Emperor appeared here and there and was wounded; Alexander was capture; etc. The point is that not too many people saw these incidents because they were, to say the least, busy. A) If a national leader is leading a force (not a general) and he is captured- then, if the force is in good order or the leader's personal "pets," they will make two attempts to effect a rescue at a +2 to morale and a +1 for fighting ability. this accounts for ferocity. I would allow this for Napoleon, Blucher, Wellington, Alexander, Murat, and Jerome. If a national leader isn't rescued that's the end of the war in the case of Napoleon, Alexander, and the rest of the kings. Jean was asking me questions about the rating of the Guard units of various countries. So I pursued my files and captured the following: All units are rated as equivalents of Old Garde (OG). Middle Garde (MG), or Young Garde (YG), since most guard units were modeled after the French. Even Alexander, after the 1812 incident, remodeled his guard so that it would be exactly like the French. That this example is not unique can be easily seen by a look in the history annals. However, the problem we are concerned wit is the fighting ability of these troops. To save space I will not reprint documentation here, but I'm perfectly willing to provide it upon request. Bavarian Grenadiers (YG) Wurtemberg (all) (YG) Saxons (YG) Italy: Grenadiers (MG) Others (YG) Naples (all)(YG) Prussia (all) (YG) Russia: Heavy Inf. Rgts. (MG) Light Inf. (YG) Westphalia: Grenadiers (MG) Fusilier Garde (MG) Jager-Cargs (YG) Chasseurs (YG) In most cases all cavalry is at best a notch above line. (Some line cavalry is even better, i.e. Zastrow Saxons are as good as French Garde Cavalry, but that is another story). Most countries simply decided to strip off the cream of their grenadier battalions and companies to form their guards. Many of the above units had neither the training or ELAN as a unit that made the French so superior. Indeed, armies such as that of Russia actually hampered the effectiveness of their guards, and Russia had one of the better organizations. the Westphalians, however, get high marks because there is much documentation that Napoleon used them with his Old Garde in the German War. They remained in line and were loyal allies. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 8 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Jean Lochet 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