"For me BiI is a masterpiece of Wargaming history, I will say that in VV. ...
I remember also my wonderful wargaming week-end with Marc Brandsma, playing
"Struggle of Nations" in his parents house in Coubert (near Mormant, on the
Nap at Bay map...). We were 21 or 22... You have given us a lot of pleasure
when we were young Marie Louises!"
We played three games of the Castiglione scenario of Bonaparte in Italy on the weekend of June 24th (the third game took just 3 hours). Some notes follow ...
Exclusive Rules, [57.] Siege You must first attack the besieging force before moving into or out of Mantova or Cittadella; you cannot do an end-run around the besieging force. For this purpose the two besieging forces north and south of the lake are considered separately. For example, if the southern besieging force is removed while the northern force remains in place, the latter must still be attacked before a force can move into or out of either citadel hex by the northern approaches (even though in this case the trooops inside the fortress are no longer 'besieged' from an overall perspective).
Standard Rules, [197.] Pitched Battle In a "pursuit override," the winning side takes its loss as a retreat and the loser may attempt to pursue. Standard Rules, [197.] Pitched Battle A Force in a Fortified Town, or a besieging force in combat with a force in the citadel, does not have to counterattack or re-attack.
Austrian Player's note: Detach a few major generals (and vedettes) to guard important points on your line of communication that can be reached by French forces.
The following question appeared as post 41 in the series folder at Consimworld.
Q) I just re-opened Struggle of Nations 1807, NaB, Emp Returns ,etc... And I realised the combat tables are ± the same as BiI . The problem is that the size of the units is much smaller in BiI. For exemple: If you have 50,000 men vs 50,000 men , the odds are 1/1 on the combat table, and when you have 5,000 vs 5,000 is it also 1/1 . You roll a "3" in both battles you get the same 2,000 men lost result . Imagine, as an extreme case, 150,000 vs 150,000 compared to 2,000 vs 2,000. Always the same 2,000 losses for both battles.
A) The stacking limit is 48,000 men in a hex, and that will almost never happen.
If you have a Pitched battle, which is very common in Struggle of Nations, then you would have several rounds of combat, and therefore many more losses, because you consult the CRT *twice* for lossses in each round (attack and counter- attack).
In Bonaparte in Italy, *most* of the battles will be pursuit battles, which means just one die roll on the CRT.
A battle between 5,000 or 10,000 men is just as likely in Struggle of Nations as it is in Bonaparte in Italy. The combat results table was designed to provide a *range* of results that would allow historical results in any situation.
Q) Attrition is done with proportional tables for a good reason. 2000 men marching will lose far less men than 20,000. This is logical. Why not do the same proportionnal tables for combat?
A) Losses are not always proportional to the number of men present. In fact, as the number of men present goes up, the proportion of men actually engaged in combat goes down. You can confirm this for yourself.
The attrition table is not truly proportional either; it is based on an algorhythm. The more men you have in a force, the higher your proportional attrition rate.
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