Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Just wanted to thank everyone.

I'm currently playing with two wonderful gentlemen.

At the end of the day, these games are about trial and error.

The more you play, the more you learn!

th

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Sous-Lieutenant Tony Hernandez

1ère Compagnie du 7ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 5ème Corps d'Armée

Glad to see that you are getting some hands on experience.

It will all fall into place sooner or later.

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Général Gregor Morgan
Duc de Montebello et Comte de Gironde
Chef d'État-Major de la Grande Armée
Commandant du 1er Corps d'Armée

Hi Tony,

I've been trying to think about what advice I could give a new player. The problem is, every situation is different, and there's too many to cover.

We all have a concept that one "big charge" will win, or lose, the day, but that's not true. These games are a marathon, not a sprint. You win be inflicting more casualties, across more turns, than the other guy.

Think Waterloo. The French attacked Hougomont, d'Erlon attacked, the Heavy Brigade charged, the French cavalry did their charges, and lots of other stuff happened. Finally, the Old Guard was driven back and French morale collapsed.

None of those things, by themselves, decided the battle. It was an 8-10 hour slog with 24k-27k casualties on both sides.

My advice then is as follows.

1 - Knowledge is power. Find out, in as much detail as possible, where the enemy is. Use your worst quality cavalry (light cavalry preferably, Cossacks if you're Russian) to scout the enemy. Don't have enough cavalry, or need to scout through woods, use skirmishers.

Note - It's generally considered to be poor form to use officers as scouts, ie deliberately moving them out of command range with the sole intention of spotting the enemy.

2 - Hit 'em where they ain't. Concentration of force is key. Find the enemy weak spots, and concentrate as much force as possible to overwhelm them. Never attack one unit with one unit when you have two available.

Numbers are an obvious way to determine a weak spot, but so is morale. Get to know which enemy units are likely to have the lowest morale. Most of us can recognise guard units when we see them, but try to learn which enemy units have lower morale as well. For example, the Prussian Landwher have a distinctive uniform.

Shoot at the unit with the lowest morale, at the unit that is already disordered, or into the units flank. All of these things make it more likely a unit will rout, and potentially cause neighbouring units to rout, or at least disorder as well.

The rest just comes with experience. Be patient, take your time. Like a good chess player, think about what you and the enemy might do in future turns, before you think about this turn.

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Général de Brigade Dean Webster
1ère Brigade
1ère Division
4ème Corps d'Armée
La Grande Armée

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"I have a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel"
Blackadder

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Sous-Lieutenant Tony Hernandez

1ère Compagnie du 7ème Régiment d'Artillerie à Pied
Artillerie Divisionnaire, 1ère Division, 5ème Corps d'Armée

Also understand all the optional rules. Everyone has their favourites. If possible stick to the same set or it leads to confusion in my experience. With No Detached Melee on you'll need to keep a tight grip of your units so highlighting the various formations helps.

And work on the basis that if you lose, it is not because you suck. The other guy must have been cheating or at least very lucky. Or you were off colour with a migraine, haemorrhoids or the wine was stronger than you thought.