B in Italy rules

[Tom Feenstra]

Hello , I am new to this forum, and relearning this game system from many years ago.
RE , Bonaparte in Italy, My question is.
(1) Rule III a. (50) forced march. Does this mean that If you don,t want your force ( non-phasing player ) to get into battle against an adjacent force, you can attempt initiative using the table of course, and maybe break away from the phasing player's force . Giving up a hex or two to avoid battle?

(2)Rule 197 re pitched battle-pursuit override. the attacker gets a loser result and picked pitched,and the defender if he has a pursuit chit can take a retreat, then the phasing attacker may attempt pursuit, but the pursuit fails.
Combat rules state " the losing side always loses at least as many SPs as the wining side regardless of pursuit" But in this case the force that retreated was the winner on the combat table, so it seems that in this case the Attacker takes his loss, but failed to pursue. The force that retreated gets away without loss , but gave up ground. It this correct?

Thanks for the help
Tom Feenstra

[Tom Feenstra]

Hello , nobody out there?

I guess I will figure it out myself.

Tom

[kzucker]

Hi Tom,

You already did.

[daniel]

Kevin or somebody who knows the answer
1/ In Sun of austerlitz game, I am playing allied player. Murat and Soult are gathered in a single hex. I have gather all available forces and Murat is now completely surrounded by 6 allied occupied hexes. In the coming battle, I have a chance to destroy this force. Considering reserve rules I have a question :
If Murat cannot choose pitched but pursuit battle and he looses a round, he cannot retreat. So if I can advance in his hex, he is destroyed? Yes or no.

2/ If french force is destroyed are all present leaders captured or do they check their initiative for escape?
thenks
daniel

[kzucker]

Daniel,

You need to use vedettes and small forces on your flanks to delay and prevent being surrounded like that. This is not how the game is played. Maybe you are playing solitaire; that makes the functioning of hidden forces difficult to implement, but you must do your best to forget which is the real force and which is the vedette.

This situation you described is unique in my experience, so I recommend you start over. Murat is dead.

[daniel]

In fact, my opponent sent a strong force which push my sparse units. During the last turn he falled back, and miss to take Znaim. His whole force with roughly 25000 men is gathered in a lone hex. I take the opportunity, spend a lot of AP and send forces to surround Murat. Now, I fight him with 28.000 men against 23.000.
daniel

[kzucker]

OK.

Considering that the hex is completely surrounded (which has never happened before!) the answer is.

Murat MUST choose pitched battle. If he loses all leaders are captured with no chance of escape.

I hope that helps.

[daniel]

Murat has 2 options :
1/ pitch if he can put enough SP in reserve
2/ pursuit if he want have more strengh available to defend, with the hope that Kutusov cannot gather more strengh. If Kutusov looses all rounds, its OK for french. But if one result is bad for french, they cannot retreat and russian pursuers need only a "1" on pursuit table to pursue one hex to enter in french occupied hex, and destroy the whole force.
This result can perhaps be compared to Ulm maneuver or Baylen, rare but possible
and its the demonstration your system can embrass a new aspect of what really happened
and why this happened : because french was too much concentated without vedettes or covering forces, and because russian spent many AP to achieve complete encirclement

[kzucker]

Daniel,

I am glad you found the right answer. To bring about another Ulm, this time against the French, is very rare.

[daniel]

Kevin
I am sorry to ask you new questions.
I have another technical problem.
An austrian force will be attacked by an adjacent french force commanded by Lannes. Another french force adjacent to Lannes and which can commanded by Lannes, pass an initiative die roll and go with Lannes in order to take part to the battle at the beginning for the first attack.
Question : considering this force is in reserve, can it join as soon as the first attack or must it wait the counter attack?
daniel

[daniel]

again new question for everybody who can help
I have made a synthetic chart of weather effects on exiting an EZOC and pursuing.
left EZOC rain/snow pursuing rain/snow
BII +1 -1
HTTK +1 -1
NAB +1 -1
Struggle +1 (mud and no snow) +1
1809 +1 +1
1807 -1 +1
Campagne rules -1 +1
1792
SOA contradictory - or +

As the game go on, we find different bonus to apply when a force try to left an EZOC or pursue a retreating enemy.
What is the reality. Is it more or less easy to break contact when weather is bad and is it more or less deadly to pursue a retreating force
daniel

[daniel]

another question about forced march. in the old rules, a forced marching force can enter an EZOC if in the same time, it enters in the ZOC of a friendly force which is hiself in EZOC of this enemy force.
in recent rule, it seems a FM force can enter an EZOC if this enemy is in ZOC of a friendly force.
The difference is that FM force has no obligation to come adjacent to the friendly force.
in the past, the goal of this phase was to gather reinforcements on a point, and not to force the enemy to attack more objectves.
daniel

[kzucker]

Hi Daniel,

The best leaders, such as Davout and Lannes*, should be capable of maneuvering according to the later version, but others, such as Ney, are not capable of it and have to arrive adjacent to friendly forces.

*We could say, any leader with an initiative of 4.

I am sorry I didn't notice the other questions until now...

Pursuit should always be more difficult during rain and snow. Exiting an EZOC should be easier. I am sorry for the confusion in these modifiers.

Regarding Lannes's attack on the Austrian force, the additional troops have to wait until the second round.