In line with the style Gallifet which is being effected by our cherms on the Avenue Republique (see below) here is a game that shows national charicatures at their best. The French sit with 50,000 men behind a series of redoubts such as those that shattered the Swedes at Poltava. The Allies with about 50,000 led by the Blessed Duke of Cumberland (Hammer of the Scots II: He's Back And This Time He's Building Roads!) then propose to break through the line and defeat the French. What makes them think they can do this; are these the gutless and effete Frenchies of history - er well no they are not, these are pretty good Froggies with some bad-tempered Micks of the Irish brigade. [Suspiciously the one poor "French" brigade faces our British cherms, there will be a steward's inquiry about this]. Oh well, never mind ...... I know, the Allies are elite formations who will easily eject even these brave fellows, yes? Er, well no actually, the Dutch (who refused to move in the real battle) are just as good as the French, but the British are genuinely bone-headed and their morale of 3 (versus French 2 and Paddy 3) may just do the trick. So (if I may summarise) despite having no advantage in numbers the Allies propose to push through a line of guns and redoubts which will disorganise their forces and inflict considerable losses? Yes, yes, you seem to have that correct. So (if I may continue) once they have broken through the line the Marshal-Count of Saxony will fall upon them with his reserve and slaughter them hip and thigh from Dan to Beer-Sheba? Yes, yes that would appear to be the case. So the only hope is that British bravery will defeat numbers, guns, fortifications and bravery... hang on, let me guess, there is the opportunity to flank the French and drive them to the Devil? Well no actually the Marshal-Count has hung his flanks securely on the Escaut River and some thick woods, and by the time you force them the French reserves will be up. I see! It is magnificent but it is not war! Indeed my little cauliflowers nature hath not adorned this battle with much opportunity for vigorous and skilled gaming. The British bull up the middle like they play in the Central Division of the AFC, the French take losses and then depend on the counter attack by the Maison du Roi and the Corps of Monsieur de Chabannes (with the Wild Geese playing Strong Safety) to roll the boys in red back out. It is (of course) a French victory and one can understand French pride, furthermore as the first time (?) since Poitiers that the French King and his heir were on the same field once can understand the concern. Hard Fighting The game gives you hard fighting and little in the way of coup d'oeuil unless you count that of the Marshal-Count who devised the position. However, all is not lost because it does two other things: it gives us the panoply and atmosphere of war in that era (see "Charles licks his lips over counters" section below); and, it has some very interesting things to say about linear battles which are simply but quite effectively simulated. On the down side I believe it returns to the tedious style of ODM computer-looping (Odds, Disorganisations and Modifiers for the innocent) but this style is well-known and this is an advantage. As ever in what follows please remember my French is imperfect and I may have made a mess of reading the rules - they should publish them in English the bounders - I do not write rules in a foreign language do I? No, well neither should they. Let's start with the map - it is the old Vae Victis "many shades of green with little trees" style and both clear and pleasant. Didier Bourgeois is hereby granted the abbacy of St Foppington-sur-Marne and title of Drawer of Small Trees in Ordinary. The counters show a single figure in the correct uniform for one of the units in the "counter". The artist continues to refuse to produce one or two ghastly little sprites such as failed to adorn A Famous Victory but instead provides a wide range of types. The French have splendid Swiss and French guards; Irish and Swiss in red; French ligne in white with different facings; the Arquebusiers de Grassin in their comic-opera uniform; the Musketeers, Carabiniers and Grenadiers a cheval in full fig; all the French cavalry in reds, whites, greys and blues; and three very splendid dismounted Dragons. The British are in plucky red with two units of brave highland men, and the cavalry includes fine Scots units commanded by one of the noble Campbell clan whose chief has recently given the Lie to the appalling myth that surrounds Culloden. There is Austrian cavalry, Hanoverian foot, Dutch in white, red, and blue (including Swiss formations) and some rag-tag Dutch cavalry. It would be fair to say that the detail is impeccable for les Francais and less good for the Allies - but then they lost and as the magazine's title implies - woe to the vanquished. The nationality is imperceptibly recorded by back-ground colour and the units loyalties by different coloured symbols which are as effective as the Poulter colour bars but much less intrusive. Absolutely excellent gentlemen, Monsieur Monnier - name your men, they shall have captaincies in my Guard. (Sadly the credits repose in the bottom of my waste-paper bin having cut the counters). Technical Interlude [And now a short technical interlude from Uncle Chuck in the PA Technical Department. Assembling paste-and-cut game kits is simple but it does require some thought to save time. First gum the front sheet to the card - I recommend mounting board, but you may find it too thick. I recommend Evostik so be careful to lay it on thinly and use the spreader. Clear the surface of extraneous glue before bringing your sheet near the card. Place outside in a well-ventilated space and vacate the room in which you pasted. I find other glues less effective than Evostik and I detest these spray glues - very dangerous in my view. Now carefully cut the blocks for mounting the back of the counters. I recommend a proper Swan-Morton scalpel as it permits pressure to be translated accurately. Remember that wobbles here will put out the line match on the counters. Now comes the difficult bit. If you use double-sided tape as recommended you will have excellent bonding and retain full use of your septum BUT put it a nanometre out and you are literally stuck. I still recommend glue and this stage but keep wiping the damn stuff and work the sheet around before final pressure. Cutting out with a scalpel is very clean but often rips the card on the other side, so I use strong scissors, even though this can push the edges of the counters down (rather like a die cutter). Most sets will take about 30 to 60 minutes to assemble not counting drying time. Well worth the time] Fontenoy 1745 builds on the work Richard Berg has been pioneering on lines, their uses and abuses. The linear qualities of the period are dealt with in combat and in command. An infantry unit facing a vertex has two front, two flank and two rear hexes. An attack on his flank will give a column shift, on his rear a two-column shift and you use the worst modifier (which is entirely correct). Since an infantry unit can only attack out of its front it will be unlikely to encounter many infantry units that can attack its flank without exposing their own. Sadly for infantry commanders there are two types of units that can. One is cavalry which has four front hexes and is thus perfectly capable of rolling up a line handsomely, and with a column shift for charging will look pretty fierce. (The British at Minden might not have been so amused if the French were on their flanks, but one takes one's enemies where one finds them). The second bete noire is other infantry in redoubts which have all round frontages. Infantry units penetrating a line are thus at risk of being hit in the flanks and driven back. The difficulties of forcing such a line are exquisitely simulated. The command effect of lines is two-fold. As we shall see the operations phase involves each side activating "line commands" so that one simply cannot mix the units from one line with another (save at the join of two lines). Why not, because they never move together and quite right too. If I wish to move supports up to the first line I must first remove my current first line. Secondly, leaders have comparatively short command spans but these can be elongated down a "line". What is a line? For infantry it is units in each other's flank hexes - brilliantly simple and very effective, as things break down in combat and the command reduces in effectiveness. Cavalry have a much easier definition which is possibly too easy but I am open to persuasion. The sequence is Check Command; French Artillery Fire; Five Operations Phases; Final French Artillery Fire; Rally. The Allied "commands" are the Dutch Infantry, the Dutch Cavalry, The British Infantry, British Cavalry and the Austrian Cavalry. The French have their two front Lines, right and left (effectively split in the middle at Fontenoy and trailed back into an arrow shape), the Maison du Roi, the second line and the cavalry reserve. If I have the system right the biggest scorer each Phase picks who goes first and you cannot pass, so that each phase you use a command even if it does nothing. Combat is very clunky indeed if not quite as bad as some American games. You check numbers and modifiers, calculate odds and inflict losses in terms of casualties (one to three steps per counter), disorganisation and retreats. Two disorganisation is a rout (although you may take a loss instead if the dice permits). Disorganisations appear to come off if not adjacent. As often is the case with such systems a "line" will have units going back, going forward and standing still in a way which I wonder about. Units frequently spend many hours cheek-by-jowl firing away rather than attacking, falling back and riposting. I do not believe this feels correct - but will have to read more before I go nap on that view. I would prefer a more narrative combat system than this constant computer-looping but at least Fontenoy 1745 keeps itself simpler than many games. [What do I mean here, well most attacks described in the books come to a series of closing manoeuvres, combat resolution and separation, these can be simulated by the traditional methods but it might be better to start from first principles and simulate them in exactly that fashion. So the issue is, usually, where two units close within 20 minutes, one will have "unclosed", whether he takes Disorganised markers on or off fifty times is of no interest to me - who won and who did not is, however, of great interest.] One of the problems that may have contributed to this is that the scale was such that everything felt very close together - something I got from the Austerlitz 1805 game, hardly the empty battlefield of which the Prince de Ligne spoke (see Duffy). However, if there was a battle of masses standing next to each other for many hours it was Fontenoy. To conclude, a splendid looking game on a less-than-exciting topic than maximises its potential. This potential is not great though, and I doubt we will see many repeat playings. The simulation of the realities of combat is not high but it is hobby standard, and the rules have subtle touches that achieve much of what others have strained to cover. A feast for the eyes, and an encouragement to do better. All for a few pounds, no wonder these games are popular. Back to Perfidious Albion #92 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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