Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I am about to engage on a series of the battles of the Polish/Prussian winter campaign 1806/07 with Rich White. I haven't played BG a lot, especially not NIR, and I have never tried the "New Settings". I searched for old threads on the board where their merits or disadvantages were discussed but couldn't find any. Are these mods popular, and does anyone have an opinion on their historicity/accuracy/playability etc.? Just trying to make up my mind whether I (we) want to use them in our series. [:)]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

New Settings makes a game more historically accurate. Revised OOB including lower unit qualities and PDT which has amongst other things a range of artillery types not the standard 4 of Bg. NSP Borodino is a big improvement, Russian artillery has significantly less ammo so can't blast away all day at anything that moves. And Russians have a golden morale of only 2 so may rout after sustained assault. Idea is to make the battles less of a bloodbath by increasing the importance of fatigue and command/control. Haven't tried Eylau but it must be an improvement over the OOB where nearly every French unit is Q6 and above.
One or two minor criticisms. French horsey artillery seems unable to hit anything. Cavalry movement may be a bit too fast at 15mp - at Borodino the French horses couldn't keep that pace up for long.

Original Golymin game as I recall was a French walkover.

Rich White, Nik Buttler and John Corbin have all played me using that mod. Not sure how many other folks use it.

Generalissimo
Opolchenie Korpus
Russian Army

Dierk,

I have played both Borodino and Eylau twice with these mods and was very impressed with them. I can't remember enough of the changes to summarize here but was convinced of their worth after reading all the documentation that came with them.

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/Napoleonic/nap.htm"]Lieutenant Colonel Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/anglo_allied_army_stats/Anglo_Allied_Army_Cavalry_Corps.htm"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps[/url] ~
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/dragoons.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
</center>

Dierk

Andy makes a good case for the NSP mods... I recall playing NIR inn my early days and watching who;e battaliions of russian infantry just march up and take point blank arty and not even flinch.

I also agree with Andy in that the French horse is a bit weak.

the NSP web site is well organized and layed out...

I won't play NIR without NSP




Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President

Dierk

For me the New Settings were a huge improvement to the games. To sum up the principal changes:-

1 Reduced artillery ammunition, (typically 12 rounds / battery per full day of battle) - rationale, stopped players expending ammunition on long range shots.

2 Reduced / better justified unit quality.

3 Reduced golden morale, some scenarios down to +2, some down to +1, even the Russians run - sometimes.

4 Increased artillery movement. Enables disordered cavalry to withdraw a little further and outpace the infantry which, generally, they could, especially over short distances, on the battlefield.

5 Modified fire table, (not sure if this was in all the mods). First line of fire table could only hit for fatigue (no casualties). This was aimed at reducing the effect of skirmishers. Thise 25 man skirmishers could now only hit for fatigue, so stacks of 8 x 25 man skirmish companies could only hit cavalry for 1 fatigue point / phase rather than 25 casualties + fatigue and a separate fatigue point.

That is them in a nutshell.

It is also advisable to play the games with at least one, if not both, of the morale boosting optional rules turned off [Rout Limiting and / or Flank Morale modifier]. This makes it a totally different game, where units will rout, and (with rout limiting off), take others with them or at least disorder all adjacent units. So you wind up wanting no adjacent units - great, every second unit, moves back to form your second line, as strong as the first.

You spend the game manoeuvering to get enfilade fire against your opponent's lines, while protecting your own from him, trying to find a flank to charge. Once the routing starts the game can finish quickly but there is the potential for much more manouevre in the game if played right.

Just as history teaches us, the day will be carried by he who has the fresh reserves when his opponent has none.

It takes a bit of adjustment, but expect much, much lower casualty figures, and cut back on the melee - until your opponent starts routing significantly - because melee disorders and fatigues your units which will be susceptible to a massive rout when your opponent uses his second line to counter attack.

A lot of fun to be had with these. I have all the original notes on a disc somewhere and, if I find them will post or email them

Enjoy

Mark

Many thanks, Gentlemen. Convincing.

Mark--I never play with Rout Limiting. I do like flank morale though because it encourages one to place units historically and "sandwich" lower quality units between higher quality ones. [:)]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>

Dierk

Rout limiting is a good one to turn off, although, leaving a hex gap between the units avoids its effect. This is how I tend to deploy irrespective of optional rules, so that cavalry can move between gaps in the battalions and artillery can fire through the gaps from behind. Not historical, but place the artillery in, or in front of the first line and your opponent figures it's all his christmases and birthdays come at once [:)]

The trouble with sandwiching the low quality battalions, they will still eventually rout, and that will disorder both of the neighbouring high quality battalions, not a price I want to pay - so I go for the hex gap and use the continuous line of ZoC's to stop teh enemy advance.

That way I can maintain the same frontage with half the strength, either have a good reserve available along the line or take a brigade, division or corps out to act as a deciding factor at the point of my choosing.

I'll see if I can't find that document with the NS rationale - I know I have it somewhere, it's quite good

Mark

OK, Gentlemen. I have downloaded and installed the files from the New Settings site at

http://medlem.spray.se/matchmaker1789/N ... /links.htm

However. There seems to be one problem. The document provided in the download describes several alternate scenarios for each of the three battles, Golymin, Pultusk and Eylau, including a historical variant. But the zip archive with the scenario has only one or two scenarios each, only the unleashed version for Golymin and Pultusk, and only one second day scenario, no first day one, for Eylau.

Does anyone have the complete set of scenarios and can send them to me?

Geez, why is this all so complicated ... [|)]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Tirailleurs de la Jeune Garde
</center>