La Bataille D'Auerstaedt

Game Review

by Dale L. Kemper


Designed by Monte D. Mattson Prince de Ponte-Corvo, Dennis A. Spors, and Maitre de la Palais
Clash of Arms Games PO. Box 668, King of Prussia, PA 19406
Released: October, 1984
Price: $22.00
Complexity: Intermediate to Experienced
Solitaire Suitability: Low
****

La Bataille D'Auerstaedt is the first new game based on the Marshal Enterprises system of tactics. Napoleonic warfare to come out in quite some time. This system could be considered the father of such excellent designs as Terrible Swift Sword and Wellington's Victory from the late Simulations Publications Inc. The scale (one strength point per 100 men or 1-3 artillery pieces) offers itself to the thought that this game system allows you to play miniatures using cardboard counters instead of expensive figures.

Auerstaedt comes with a plain but functional map sheet, beautiful if sometimes confusing multi-color playing pieces, and a set of two rule books (Standard Rules for the system and exclusive rules for this battle alone) that are sometimes hard to understand. The rule books bring out a possible flaw in most games in this series; namely the designer's complete bias towards the French side. The rule book has examples such as the turn sequence chart headed with "French Turn," then "Enemies of Napoleon" and such quotes as "The French, along with their allies, will always move first-as was their custom..." show a definite and not always accurate partiality. This bias sometimes harms the play balance of the game, as it did in Wagram, another title in this series. It is quite a surprise, then, to find that in Auerstaedt, the roles are completely reversed. The pressure is definitely on the outnumbered French and it is quite a challenging and difficult task to simply survive against the hordes of Prussians in the early turns, let alone carry out an offensive. Auerstaedt is a subtle game.

The French player must bide his time, building up his reinforcements until he is finally strong enough to wrestle the initiative from the Prussians (sometime around Game Turn 10). If he attacks prematurely he will almost certainly be swamped by the number of enemy units pouring on the board, especially their cavalry, which the French can never hope to match here. Of course, this caution must be balanced with a bit of 61an as the Victory Conditions demand the capture of the large town of Hassenhausen located on the middle of the map board as the minimum degree of French Victory

Auerstaedt succeeds in balancing skill and luck to form a challenging game of tactical Napoleonic warfare. Mistakes are kinder to the Prussian side but one or two blunders by the French can spell doom for them. This makes the game very interesting, with players wanting to go back to it again and again to try just one more strategy that might make the French III corps' job a little easier.

As a historical representation of the actual battle, Auerstaedt hits the mark quite closely, with perhaps the Prussians being slightly more powerful than they actually were. It must be remembered that Marshal Davout was not expecting to face the bulk of Zhe Prussian Army with his single corps. That he did so well historically reflects on his opponents poorly Of course, no gamer will make mistakes such as the Prussians did, thereby making the French player's job more difficult.

Overall, Auerstaedt is an enjoyable game if you are into the tactical detail and maneuver of Napoleonic combat. The game system takes some study to grasp and could be simplified some ways for ease of play (especially the formations rules: line formations face the hex corners, columns face the hexsides. just try keeping that clear when you have 1,000 counters on the board like in Wagram), but it is basically sound. There is talk that Clash of Arms Games will be reissuing some of the out-of-print titles in this series, like Talavera and they hope to release new titles also, like Eylau and Albuera. I'm looking forward to them.

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© Copyright 1986 by Dana Lombardy.
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