Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Among the various house rules mentioned, I don't remember seeing any that seek to portray the difference in approach between armies that sought to fight in line e.g. early Austrians, Prussians and Russians, those that made more use of columns e.g. early and 1812-14 French, late Austrians, Russians and Prussians and the French in their heyday, who were much more flexible (impulse).

Does anyone try to incorporate any of this "flavour" into their games? If so, how?

I find that line formation is favorable for the defense mainly but sometimes I will jump into line formation with the French or Allies on the attack to get more firepower on the enemy.

I have seen Allied players use lines for the 1806 Prussians to good effect. Even if the cavalry hits them with the charge bonus they remain facing the enemy and can still deliver a fair return shot before melee (the second one).

Not sure about the Russians of the earlier period. Columns seem to be preferred unless the battalion is over 500 men. Those Guard battalions in line formation can put out decent fire power.

The Austrians of 1805 have smaller battalions than in 1809 so they are often better suited to columns. However, putting them in line works too. Their morale sometimes is shaky (D) for the Galician regiments. Not sure if Line formation works best for them but at least they can put out some firepower.

As to trying to stick to a national guideline I would say that the French would also deploy into lines once they reached the enemy lines. Its not like they always fought in column.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)