Monday, April 20, 2015

Quatre Bras - Part Two - The Allies




The Prince of Orange
- he seems to be waving his hat in every picture I see of him. 

I've spent most of the week hitting the books and getting better acquianted with the finer points of Landlord & Tenant law, which is about as riveting as it sounds.  In between times, I've had a chance to muck about with this Quatre Bras scenario.  The map is drafted and I've done a draft order of battle for both sides. The following order of battle was put together at a scale of one unit per infantry battalion, cavalry regiment or artillery battery. With 59 units of the table, this is wildly too much, but I'm not sure if I'm thinking about this clearly.

The Allies will start with about a fifth of those troops deployed, while the French will have about forty odd units on the table from the start. I also don't expect all the Allied troops to make it onto the table.

The more I think about it, the more I think that this might actually work.  In CCN large armies are great, but they are hard to co-ordinate. The way I see the game developing as a race to seize the crossroads of Quatre Bras, with the Allies trying to hold the town while the French struggle to bring their superior numbers before the redcoats arrive. The other problem for the Allies is that the only a third of their force is made up of redcoats. CCN does not rate the Dutch-Belgians particularly highly, though in this situation they will be defending and will have the benefit of picking their ground which should balance the books slightly.

At present I'm leaning towards the following idea -

The French must either inflict thirteen casualties AND hold Quatre Bras or inflict eighteen casualties.

The Allies must inflict thirteen casualties AND hold Quatre Bras or inflict eighteen casualties.

The action deck has 118 cards (discard both Grande Maneuvre cards), the day ends when the deck runs out and it is not reshuffled.

Now to work out if the reinforcements turn up on a strict timetable or leave some element of wiggle room?

Allied Order of Battle

CnC - Wellington
Prince of Orange


2nd Dutch-Belgian Division - Perponcher - 11
1 Dutch Light Infantry
3 Dutch Militia
1 Horse Artillery


5 Nassau Line Infantry
1 DB Foot Artillery


1st British Division - Cooke - 8


6 Guard Grenadiers


2 Foot Artillery


3rd British Divisinon - Alten - 12


4 British Line


5 Hanoverian Line
1 Hanoverian Light


2 Foot Artillery


Reserve Corps


5th Division - Picton - 14


3 British Line
1 Rifles


4 British Line


4 Hanoverian Militia


2 Foot Artillery


Brunswick Contingent - Brunswick - 11


1 Rifles
3 Light Infantry


3 Line
1 Foot Artillery
1 Horse Artillery


1 Light Cavalry
1 Lancer


2nd Dutch Belgian Cavalry Brigade  - Merlen - 3
2 Light Cavalry

1 Horse Artillery

5 comments:

  1. Two years ago, I participated in a large game of "The Battle of Five Armies" using Battle Lore or CCA (I'm not sure which but there was no magic). There were tons of units on the field of battle. There were three commands per side. Each command was oversized at perhaps 25 units a piece. The system broke down somewhat because there was never enough cards to move units into position. So the best units went forward while the rest of the army milled about in the rear. The game was still fun but that was the one flaw of the oversized game of CandC. Just something to look out for.

    One minor quibble with your OOB. I don't believe the Brunswicker light infantry (Avant Garde I presume) should have rifles. I do believe the Hanoverian light infantry should have rifles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're absolutely right. I find that CC games tend to work best when the players have between 10-14 units in play. Otherwise you need to add some kind of reserve movement mechanic (much like On the Move in Breakthrough games).

      I'm not sure this is going to be an issue as I don't expect those units to be on the table for very long, but we shall see.

      I'll check the point regarding the Rifles.

      Delete
    2. I went back to the Mont Ste Jean uniform site (wonderful uniform guide site if you have not visited it) and found the following: 1) Hannover Jager detachment all have rifles. 2) KGL Light infantry have rifles with the flank companies 3) Brunswicker Jager Companies (2) of the Advant Garde have rifles. The other 2 companies of light infantry have muskets. So I stand corrected. From here. http://centjours.mont-saint-jean.com/unites.php

      Delete
  2. Sorry, just catching up on this and your last post.
    First, my bet to Mrs. K and trusting that she is mended and home by now.
    Second, it looks most promising. I had a quick dekko at the CCN website and gather that if one wants to play with their kit, then you would need at least two basic sets (two boards and two sets of cards)? I can see the advantage of converting to table top and miniatures as you do.
    Secondly, how are DB troops different from British ones? I'n not aware of a Hundred Days expansion for CCN so perhaps this is treated online somewhere? Lord knows I'm still getting up to speed on CCN Austrians.
    Best, MP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. Kinch is home and on the mend, which is excellent.

      You're exactly right about the needing two sets. Before we had figures, we generally put two sets together and played the wonderful game sorting out whose blocks were whose at the end.

      DB troops are rated as Portuguese, but line infantry retreat two hexes on a flag. This special rule is in the Waterloo scenario in the basic box.

      Delete