Had a solo tryout of Lasalle today. Will reserve judgement until I have played more, not the least because I will have got lots of things wrong (most notably I was playing DBM type turns with each player's "bound" making a "turn" rather than each player having a turn - I played twice as long and so with the wrong odds on reserves arriving and armies breaking!).
The game was Conquest Austria defending against Hundred Days French. Army Builder lists with one support (Austrian reserve Cuirassiers, French organic Light Cav). I used 25mm figures, but since they are based on 40mm frontages, I used a 6x4 table.
Game was played in The Valley, with the Austrians using two walls to build a 2-sided fort at one end of their hill and the French putting a wood in the centre of the table. French objective was at the other end of the hill away from the "fort".
Game saw the French run up and over the Austrians - the Austrians had no answer to combined cav/inf attacks. The Austrian army passed their break point and things were looking very grim for them. But the bugles heralded the arrival of the Cuirassiers in the nick of time (although it still left the Austrians above their revised breakpoint). They just managed to find some space to deploy in. The Cuirassiers then contested the objective and stablised the line. And so it ended in a draw.
The French felt hard done by - they broke more than 1/3rd of the Austrains for no loss themselves. But the Austrians were probably in the better position at game end - the French were a mess while the Austrians were in a fairly compact central position.
Questions - I should try looking these up myself, but since Sam appears to be so helpful, why bother?
(1) Can units shoot over hill crests?
(2) Are the game maps to "scale"? In The Valley, it was unclear if the level 2 hill would be in a set up zone. If you can't fire over crests, whether the crest is in or out of the set up zone could be important.
(3) When do you dice for sub-general characteristics? Generating sub commanders is under the Army Builder - it is after forces are created. I could not see it in the set up procedure, but presume it is done by players at some stage in set up (and not in secret at home before the game!).
(4) Can you interpentrate or fall back through officers? You can interpenetrate or fall back through friendly units - but an officer is not a unit. What happens if an officer is in the way.
(5) Is canister like musketry - as long as any part of at least one base of the enemy is in short range, all the guns fire at it with canister - even if most guns are out of short range?
(6) When does the commander use his ability to re-roll one failed recovery attempt per turn - can he wait until all units have tried to recover, then choose any one that failed to re-roll, or must he immediately re-roll for a unit that fails its test before moving on to the next recovery test. I waited till after all tests had been done, but it was a bit hard to remember who had failed.
(7) Really dumb question - but for combat you use ALL the unit's bases - not just those in the front rank like you do for musketry.
(8) When a combat is tied p59 says the defender wins. But does this mean the attacker loses? p59 says "The side that scored fewer hits is the Loser". But in a tie they did not score fewer hits. But if they don't lose it was not clear if they take a DISR or who falls back.
(9) If I am near enemy but do not move, and I take a recovery test, how many dice do I use? I presume it is +1 dice if near enemy and +1 dice if moved - but it sorta reads that the +1 dice for near enemy only happens if I have already added +1 dice for moved.
(10) Probably just confusing myself, but the box for half dice in the QRS refers to p59 - does it mean p57?
(11) If a unit falls back in its reaction phase, can it move normally in its activity phase?
(12) I take it that there are times that a unit is charged but the target priority means it will not fire at a partial target charger but instead at a full target further away?
Hopefully game 2 will generate fewer questions...
Cam