Well ajbartman and I got our first game in last Friday evening. After spending 2.5 hours in traffic trying to get to Treefort (www.treefortgames.com), we finally got going at 8:30pm. We deployed the forces as per the first scenario in the rulebook.
My respected opponent deployed his Austrians and I took the French. Both sides were not yet painted (hence no pics) but the table was covered and represented well with other national forces (I had French infantry, Prussian infantry, Austrian cannon crew, with Austrian cav playing as the French!)
Because I was so late in arriving (and this being our first game) we decided to forgo any terrain and just plop down and go straight in. I deployed in a single row with all my infantry in attack column intersperced with the artillery batteries. My single cav was deployed on my own right flank. He deployed his big infantry units in the center with his own 2 cav units on his own right with his artillery on his left.
We both closed on the early turns. Lesson learned: artillery can shoot further than expected so moving my guns early meant I lost a turn of shooting. I had 2 batteries to his 1 so I needed to use that to my advantage and I did not. Lesson remembered.
My own cav went for his lone battery. I couldnt reach his infantry so the artillery would have to do. I expected to take some losses and I took a disruption or two before I got stuck in. His infantry was not close enough to shelter his gunners in and in a round of combat I sent them off. But now I was down to 3 hits so basically combat ineffective until I recovered. I veered right to return to my lines.
While that was going on his cav bored into my left flank. I formed squard with one infantry unit but was seeing what would happen if I didnt with the other and try to outshoot the cav coming in with a battery's help. Lesson learned: Unless you have a lot, lot, lot of firepower going into a target, you will not blow them away in one turn. His cav unit took a disrupt or two them promptly saw off my infantry not in square. His momentum move took him out of command and into my rear area. Lesson remembered.
With a nice hole in my line, I decided to just make my infantry get to grips with his big battalions before that cav unit munched on my rear end.
Lesson learned: You cannot charge out of command. So while his cav unit was in my rear areas, you cannot charge a unit out of command. So he was there being a pain, but not as much as in other rules sets. He was having to maneuver back into command to remove his disrupts and charge other targets. My square kept him from removing too many disrupts.
My line units dutifully moved to engage his big Austrian battalions. Shooting erupted up and down the line and my superiority in skirmishers began to slightly tell. On his three units he had 3-4 disruptions each. In return I had 1-2 disruptions. He took the only recourse he had and charged.
The melees in this game are periods. You win or you lose, period. While there might be a slight grind to it if you are even up, it is very slight. Not rolling any 5+ and you will be picked up, period. In our case his superior commander allowed him to roll 4+ in melee in one fight. That picked up one of my units. Next melees in other turns went that way as well. So in the span on several melee turns, all my infantry were routed except that one in square and one brave 10th Line battalion in the middle, shortly to get pressed into mush by 2 of his looming battalions. Period.
Lesson learned: Melee is deadly. Treat it as such. If you dont want to take the risk of immediate removal, dont melee. Fall back if you think your enemy wants to melee.
With my infantry gone, and it being turn 18 we rolled for army morale, then end of game. I rolled a 17 on 5 dice so my morale broke and game over. For grins we rolled the end of game roll and it would have continued to his turn. Which would have meant the 10th would have gone down and I would have had 1 infantry and 1 battery left on the table. So it ended realistically when it should have.
From start to end, with intersperced rule checks, and helping our sons doing Flames of War on an adjacent table, we were done by 11pm. Basically 2.5 hours for a game that is about half size of normal. But we both figured that we would be able to get a full game done in about 3 hours now we know the rules.
He and I did the post battle wind down and both loved it. I havent played Naps in a long time because most of those guys (and I guess all of us now!) are anal-retentive types and get caught up in the uniforms and minutia. Lasalle lets you fight the battle. Which is why I game. Lasalle lets you finish in one session. Which is good for more than one game. Lasalle is easy and fun enough to be taught to others. Which is why we all game...comradeship.
I will now continue to work on my Empire French. Got a ways to go, but another reason Lasalle should do well is that I can paint what I want within the constraits of the army list I am working with. So we dont have to paint just for the OOB of Eylau, Borodino, Spain, or Waterloo. We can paint our favorite units, work them into a favorite list, and the other guy gets to do the same and we can go at it!
Well done.
And I am looking forward to getting my Dad back into Naps. We started with 25mm way back in 1980. He doesnt want to paint 15mm but I will convince him..<GRIN>
And my sons need to play Naps as well. They do 40k, FOW, D&D, everything else, but no Naps. That will change.
And we actually had 2-3 people walk up and was interested. I will convince them as well.
And at the TreeFort, there are a lot of old veteran historical gamers that probably have Naps on the shelf that we will convince to play.
I see good things in the future...
Yours,
Jay Haygood