Sunday, June 10, 2012

Command Cards and Commander Labels

    With our Borodino game next month planned to have more than 3,000 figures, 14 players, and even a few more Corps than that per side, keeping track of the various command groups and their units and officers on the tabletop becomes a significant issue. Rather than use the variable troop ratings which are standard practice with Field of Battle, we generally use standard ratings for all the troops in or Convention games. This keeps things simple for the players an umpires, and with the variety of troop types on the table, the spread of various Defense and Combat die types becomes fairly broad anyway.

    That still doesn't help the players keep their forces straight, so for really big battles like Borodino, we're using "Command Cards", which list each Commander with his Leadership rating, and all the troops in his command (usually a Division of 2-10 units; each player will have several commands to run, usually comprising roughly a Corps), with their ratings. A separate card lists the Corps Commander, if any plus any attached troops (usually the Corps Reserve Artillery), and the total Morale Points his command can lose before having to roll for Corps Morale on the dreaded "Army Morale Check" card.

    In addition, each card is color coded to show the Corps and Division, plus aid in identifying the various commanders on the table top. The bottom of each card is the color assigned to that corps, and each Division has its own color on the top. Corps Commanders have the Corps color on the top and bottom of their card. Each Command figure on the table top has their own label, carried on a plastic base in the Corps color. The label has the Commanders name and Leadership rating on the top, and the name of his command on the bottom. In addition, there are two colored boxes on the right side of the label - the upper one on the Division's color, the bottom in the Corps color.

    That sounds more than a bit confusing, I'm sure, so let's do an example, using the French I Corps, under Marshal Davout. First are the Command Cads, starting with Davout himself, and followed by his Divisional Commanders:


I CORPS
Marechal d’Empire Davout
Leadership: D12+1
Command Radius: 26”

Morale Points: 35

1 12# Battery DD: D6 CD: D12+1



2nd Division
GD Friant
Leadership: D12+1
Command Radius: 26”

2 Legere DD: D8 CD: D12
5 Line DD: D6 CD: D10
1 Joseph Napoleon DD: D6 CD: D8

1 6# Foot Btry DD: D6 CD: D12
I Corps


4th Division

GD Dessaix
Leadership: D12+1
Command Radius: 26”

6 Line DD: D6 CD: D10
1 Horse Battery DD: D8 CD: D12+1
I Corps


5th Division

GD Compans
Leadership: D12
Command Radius: 24”
9 Line DD: D6 CD: D10
1 Horse Battery DD: D8 CD: D12+1

I Corps


I Corps Cavalry

GD Girardin
Leadership: D10
Command Radius: 20”

2 French Chasseurs DD: D6 CD: D10

I Corps


Next are the Command Labels, n the same order:

Marechal Davout
D12+1
I Corps
26”


GD Friant
D12+1
2nd Inf. Division
26”


GD Dessiax
D12+1
4th Inf. Division
26”


GD Compans
D12
5th Inf. Division
24”


GD Giardin
D10
Lt Cav/I Corps
20”





Next is a shot of all the Command cards for the Russian army laid out on my table, and organized in columns by Corps.  Kutosov is at the very top as Army Commander, whilst Bagration and Barclay are in the second row, as wing commanders (and also functioning as Leaders for the Artillery Reserve of each wing):


Next is the same with the Command labels added to the mix:


And here is the same, now with the colored plastic bases that will hold the labels, color coded by Corps:


Here are some actual commands, with the Command Labels added to the table:


And a few more troops with their leaders and Command Labels:


This is shot from the opposing side; I'm trying to decide if coloring the backs of the labels dark green for the Russians, and maybe dark blue for the French would help camouflage them better on the table:


Another shot from the enemy's view. Any thoughts about this?

Good weekend painting so far... everything remains on track for July!

Peter

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks great Peter. As to coloring the back of the cards, maybe make all of them green to sort of blend in with the gaming cloths?
    Something I just remembered is that the Russian Guard Jager's need to be an independent command and not part of the Guard. I hope that doesn't create too much extra work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll have to try some green on the backs of the Russian Commander labels and see how that looks.

    The Russians have a number of Commands not really assigned to a Corps; we probably need to sit down and decide how to handle them at some point in the next month!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter....just remember you do not have the time on the ride down to Fredericksburg to color the backs of the cards.....you are driving! ;-)

    ReplyDelete