Earlier I mentioned getting started unexpectedly on a project and I had the expectation that I would be able to report on some battles by now, but things never seem to work out the way I expect. In place of a report of a battle with my new armies for the southern campaigns of the American Revolution using rules based on the "new" Featherstone system, I have instead a report of a battle using my veteran Napoleonic Peninsular forces and a set of rules based on a battle report in a none too recent issue of the PW Review. My friend Francis Lynch and I had refought Rolica and Vimiero experimenting with different sets of rules. I have never quite been able to bring myself to bother with Corruna (which doesn't interest me in the slightest-- sorry) and Oporto seems to me better an operational game that a table top affair, so we moved on to Talavera, a battle that I had often thought about doing, but never gotten to. One of the drawbacks about using e-mail to send these things to Hal (assuming that it works at all) is that there is no way to send graphics--"Apple Works" graphics just don't translate out in attachments. So my (not very good) map of Talavera is of no use. That doesn't really matter since maps of Talavera are not hard to come by and a verbal description can give an adequate idea of the terrain. The long axis of the table was basically north to south with the defending Anglo-Spanish army defending the west edge and the French army attacking from the east. The south edge of the map was the Tagus River. The Spanish army was largely employed in garrisoning the town and the fortified outworks. There was a large Anglo-Spanish battery north of the town then the rid,,e with most of the British infantry then a valley with some cavalry then the northernmost rid,,e with a small infantry force and some artillery. Most of the front of the position was covered by the minor obstacle of the Portina stream. The French army was of comparable size albeit with somewhat more cavalry. What enabled them to assume the initiative was the poor quality of the Spanish army which allowed them largely to ignore the fairly immobile Spanish and concentrate on the British (those familiar with the historical action can see that I was content to allow both sides adhere to historical deployments and operations). I allowed Francis to choose sides (as only seems fitting if am I to play the gracious host) and he chose the French (the trouble I always face with being Wellington is fear of besmirching his reputation by doing something he never did--losing), The battle went convincingly enough with the Spanish infantry being functioning as spectators while the British and French fought a ding dong battle for the ridges to the north of the city and I had some gut wrenching moments but managed to hang on in spite of heavy casualties. All to the good, but Francis and I both felt that there was something not satisfactory about the system. We finally decided that the problem was that people are different and the percentage type system that Wally Simon prefers was simply not to our taste. To resolve each combat we had to go through a fairly simple set of modifiers to determine what the percentage of success would be--typical enough. But we were both accustomed to a procedure that started with first determining whether a hit was scored and only then checking modifiers and results. We didn't have to think first but only when it was necessary. We found that when we had to go through (perhaps unnecessary) mathematical calculations first and then toss once it felt as if it were just a matter of "a hit" or "no result" and we might as well just have tossed a coin (not true--but that is how it felt). Back to the drawing board. BLACK POWDER AND COLD STEEL (adapted from Wally Simon by Aelred Glidden) UNITS: Infantry units: Elite infantry have 8 figures, Regular infantry 6 figures, Militia infantry 5 figures, Artillery crew & cavalry units are 4, 3, or 2 figures. MOVEMENT: alternates, but a unit may (depending on its reaction toss) act during the opponent's turn. Normally during a turn a unit may: 1. hold position and rally (to recover lost figures from the rally zone--a unit may not build beyond its initial strength), or 2. fire (15" for musketry or canister, 30" for artillery ball), or 3. move (0" for unlimbered artillery, 6" for infantry in line, 12" for infantry in column or limbered artillery or cavalry in line, 18" for cavalry in column)--also NOTE that units that attempt to traverse rough terrain must pass a 70% toss (1-70% is move without penalty, 71 -100% is no movement). 4. attempt to change facing or formation (succeed on 1-70%) RALLY TABLE: Infantry 100% 1/2 Cavalry/Artillery 8 90 45 4 7 85 42 5 6 80 40 3 5 75 37 5 4 70 35 2 3 65 32 5 2 60 30 1 1 55 27.5 COMBAT ranges are 1. melee contact 2. musketry (or artillery canister): 15" 3. artillery ball 30" Total the combat factors directed at the target as below: COMBAT values are: -5 per saber or artillery crew with canister -3 per bayonet -2 per musket or artillery crew with ball -1 per artillery crew in melee IF the attacker is in column only the front figure counts (note column is only 1 figure across) IF target behind cover halve the total combat value The target subtracts the total from its Reaction/Rally Level & tosses: Reaction Rally 100% Fall Back 12" in column, send I figure to Rally Zone Lose figure from rally zone Reaction/Rally Level Stand, if in column send 1 figure to Rally Zone No figures rally 1/2 Reaction/Rally Level May change formation OR 1 figure rallies (if already in line or unlimbered) return fire OR move 6" Reaction/Rally Level: Infantry - (5 x number of figures in unit) + 50 = Reaction/Rally Level Cavalry & Artillery = (10 x number of figures in unit) + 50 = Reaction/Rally Level Back to MWAN #110 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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