Richard Lawrence

[kzucker]

> Hello Kevin, I played many a good game of Napoleon's Last battles
>from SPI, unfortunately I no longer own it. I have been wargaming for
>nearly 40 years and my passion has always been Napoleonics. I still have
>Struggle of the Nations and Napoleon at Bay published by AH, but have not
>played them for quite some time. For most of these years I have played
>games with figures using many rule sets and eventually found Empire III
>which we used (and developed) for over 10 years. The group of players
>broke up for a variety of reasons and we drifted into other periods
>through boardgames and some figure games. The Four Lost Battles
>interested me greatly as 1813 is one of my favourite years and is a great
>leveller for the Napoleonic period followed closely by 1809. I am still
>on a huge learning curve with both these games and have pre-ordered
>Napoleon at the Crossroads (more later). One question I have for the
>above games (and probably others by CoA) is that cavalry (and
>cossacks) may retreat before combat unless there is cavalry of equivalent
>or greater strength in the attackers hex. This sounds OK to start with
>but what I would query is that other units with the attacking force are
>able to attack at full strength and potentially eliminate the defending
>cavalry which, in my humble opinion, did not happen in the vast majority
>situations. Exposed cavalry usually always managed to get away somehow
>without significant loss! I appreciate that there will be exceptions to
>this situation. I am very interested in your thoughts on this question.
> NaC I am on the pre-order list and it says to contact 'you' as there
>is no payment date. I have tried this on 2 occasions through an e:mail
>and I get ro reply/response. I paid through PayPal by VISA and I have
>already paid this on my last visa bill. Anyway, I hope to hear from you
>soon - fantastic games (challenges)! Regards, Richard Lawrence

Richard,
My emails to you keep getting returned. I hope you will see this.

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
(reason: 550 RCPT TO:<lawrence.family5@tiscali.co.uk> User unknown)

You are all set and the file we have (the latest one) shows you have paid
in full for NaC with a payment dated 6/19/06.

I think I wrote to you about this earlier, maybe it didn't get through...

Anyway, no worries.

Regarding your other question, about cavalry retreat before combat, this
situation hasn't been a big problem, but it is one of those little areas
that could turn into a whole page of rules. As a designer you have to
decide whether the weight of the extra rules is worth the effort of both of
development and the extra reading required by the players.

Your observation is, however, correct.

Do you have a recommended fix? One that takes away rules instead of adding them would be preferable.

Perhaps we should get rid of the caveat about not retreating before an equal amount of enemy cavalry.

[Jason Roach]

I thought that the retreat before combat for cav was based on speed, (heavy vs. light) and not size.

Also, the elim for those cav units was more org-based and scatter.



-Jason

[kzucker]

Hi Jason,

You are right about that. I guess that moots the above question and proposed "fix."

[Richard]

Hi Kevin and Jason

I have read the response and your reply. I am very interested in your thoughts and examples of what Jason is describing. I have put together a few thoughts and some possible options. The word fix is strong I don't think 'it' is broken, I am just looking at what I think is generally a more historical outcome. Anyway read on and my thinking may become clearer.

My question is whether the rule (16.2 Cavalry Retreat Before Combat - RBC) reflects history and does this rule disadvantage cavalry who cannot retreat because the enemy has equal or more cavalry strength points than the unit wishing to RTB.

An example of this is a 2 strength cavalry unit is pinned in place by an enemy 2 strength cavalry unit stacked with 8 infantry/artillery strength points and the ‘pinned’ cavalry facing a 5:1 attack mainly from troops it could avoid or a 1:5 attack of its own because it must attack.

Currently if the above case holds true, any infantry or artillery as well as the cavalry take part in the combat against the cavalry that are ‘pinned’ in place and have to face an attack from units they would normally avoid with relative ease or have to attack them because they simply ‘have to’.

This does not reflect my experience of reading history or my experience on a wargames table. Napoleonic infantry rarely attack cavalry with success. Cavalry are usually able to manouvre away from infantry when they have no wish to start a combat. Cavalry do not appear to ‘pin’ other cavalry in place so they can be attacked by infantry or artillery.

I have not differentiated between cavalry types because I believe it does not matter significantly and the difference in speed is more for campaign and not battle, and it also keeps any suggested options simple.

This would also avoid the combined arms bonus against cavalry defending alone (if they choose to retreat) as I am not convinced this bonus should be used in this situation especially in open terrain.

Options:

1. All cavalry may retreat before combat. (Note last para. 16.2)

2. All cavalry may retreat before combat unless the attacker (voluntarily) wishes a cavalry only battle that takes place only with each side’s cavalry use CRT as normal and Shock CT as appropriate.

3. All cavalry may retreat before combat unless the attacker (voluntarily) wishes a cavalry only battle that takes place only with each side’s cavalry use CRT as normal and Shock CT as appropriate. EZOC’s of vedettes and vedette units may be ignored for retreat purposes (This represents the very loose formation avoiding combat with formed units and allowing them to pass.)

4. All cavalry may retreat before combat unless the attacker (voluntarily) wishes a cavalry only battle that takes place only with each side’s cavalry use CRT as normal and Shock CT as appropriate. EZOC’s of vedettes may be ignored for retreat purposes (This represents the very loose and fluid vedette formation avoiding combat with formed units and allowing them to pass.) Vedette units may desire combat therefore the retreating cavalry enter the same hex and combat takes place as normal.

I look forward to your comments or other solutions. Apologies for the length of this post.

Regards

Richard.