I find it remarkably hard to win against the Russians. Don't laugh! Remember, I know both sides of most HPS games. I think I have a reasonable chance to win as the French *or* the Austrians at Eckmuhl or Wagram, as the French *or* the Coalition at Waterloo. But NRC I never found very difficult playing Russian. Now I am finding it nearly impossible as the French. The Russians, especially their infantry, are always there in huge numbers, they stand their ground, they never seem to rout, they even attack and carry everything before them.
I do not pretend to an expert on the 1812 campaign and will yield to everyone who is. But I find this remarkable performance hard to reconcile with what I've read on the war. Sure, we've all heard of how the Russian peasant, embued with quasi-religious patriotism and helped by the black virgin of Smolensk (or so), let himself be killed in his masses rather than give ground. But the actual performance in battle--the few battles that were--does not really sound like there were any remarkable soldierly qualities in the Russian army of 1812. At Borodino they barely managed to hold their own against an enemy who was about their own number, badly fed and badly horsed, and employed no more cunning stratagems than a series of frontal assaults. If Nappy would have had superior numbers, a good mounted arm and operated against their flank and rea I would be impressed by the Russian performance, but so? A defender in improved positions should be quite able to hold himself against an attacker not markedly superior in numbers.
At Maloyaroslavets, the whole Russian army barely managed to contain a single Italian corps that was attacking uphill over a bridge through a burning village. Odds: ca. 4 to 1, yet they very nearly lost. At Krasnoe, half a Russian army ran before the Young Guard. At the Berezina, a charge by 2000 cuirassiers very nearly routed a Russian army which hadn't particularly distinguished itself by being held in check for a day by what figured as two corps d'armée but was closer to being two undersized brigades. And so on during the retreat ... whenever Ney (usually) lashed back with a couple of hundred starved and half-frozen scarecrows, vastly superior Russian numbers just dispersed. In fact, looking at the map and the numbers disparity, is it even believable that a single man of the Grande Armée made it out of Russia?
So, no slight intended to the Russian officers in this club, let alone the real Russians. But it appears to me that the sort of resistance offered by the Russian soldiers in practically every battle of NRC I have fought is hardly likely to produce anywhere near the historical outcome of any of the battles of the historical 1812 campaign, against a reasonable competent opponent. Are they overrated?
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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 Grenadiers de la Moyenne Garde
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) accounts I believe the trooth is somewhere in between. And in between means russian forces were at least as stable, willing and able to fight as any other.
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