In thinking about Field of Battle (3rd edition), and Battle Command, I wanted to try a variant using the concepts of impetus and deck composition based upon Battle Command, but using a hand of cards concept based upon the optional rules in classic Piquet, and also a "Wild Card" in place of the options in Battle Command.
Initiative as in Battle Command - C-in-C's roll their LD, High roll chooses to go first or second, won even = 2 initiative, won odd = 1 initiative, tie = end turn, reshuffle.
Sequence Decks (one of each):
Infantry Fire
Artillery Fire
Move
Melee
Leadership
Brilliant Commander
Lull
Tactical Advantage
Army Morale - no initiative cost to draw or ply IF there are no units in that army that are routed, destroyed or have involuntarily retreated off the table.
[Any Special Card(s)] - no imitative cost to draw or play
When a card is turned, it MUST be played immediately if it is not one of the bold faced "action cards".
Tactical Advantage (new definition) is played immediately for 1 Impetus cost, but it can still be held and used at any time until the end of the turn, at no additional impetus cost; it does NOT count against the hand limit.
Other non-action cards must be acted upon when played (Lull, Army Morale, any Special Cards).
The Hand of Cards:
According to the C-in-C's rating, they may hold a number of cards in their hand for later action:
Abysmal - none
Poor - 1 card
Average or Skilled - 2 cards
Exceptional - 3 cards
Playing cards and using the Hand
For each initiative point, a card may be played from the player's hand, or a card mat be drawn. If a card is played from the hand, that uses up 1 impetus.
When an action card is drawn, it is shown to all players; the C-in-C can then decide to either play it, or take it into their hand of cards, up to the limit for the C-in C's rating; this could include swapping the drawn card for one from the hand, which would then use up 1 impetus. .
No more cards can be played or drawn than the number of impetus won (aside from cards that have no cost to turn/play).
Lull card: should the enemy seize the initiative, then they will have the same options as a normal won 1 initiative above.
New Card definitions
Tactical Advantage: This now allows a REROLL of any ONE die roll (by either side), EXCEPT an Army Morale check.
Brilliant Commander: This is a WILD card and allows each Command group to individually use it as any of the other 5 possible actions that they choose!
Move: Routers MUST move when this card is turned, even if it is taken into the players hand; in that case, the routers must move again when the card is actually played and acted upon.
To try this out, I set up a test game using my Danish and Swedish Napoleonic armies. I chose them as they hadn't seen action in quite a while, where my Austrians and Rhine Confederation troops have seen a lot of action ion 2024. Many of my French, Russian, and Prussian troops have already been organized in to commands for the big Spring 1813 Campaign -n - a day event in a little over 2 weeks. 2024.
To keep things simple for the test, all leader will be rated LD 10 on both sides.
Denmark
1st Brigade
1 Jager DD 6 CD 12
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
2nd Brigade
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
1 6# Foot Battery DD 6 CD 12
3rd Brigade
1 Jager DD6 CD 12
2 Line DD 6 Cd 10
4th Brigade
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
1 6# Foot Battery DD 6 CD 12
1st Cavalry Brigade
Light Dragoons DD 6 CD 10
Hussars DD 8 CD 10
2nd Cavalry Brigade
Dragoons DD 6 CD 12
Bosniaks (2 UI)DD6 CD 10
6# Horse Battery DD6 CD 12
Reserve Brigade
King's Livjager's DD 8 CD 12
Livgard til Fods DD 8 CD 12
Danish Liv Regiment DD 8 CD 12
Livgard til Hast CD 8 DD 12
12# Foot Battery DD 6 CD 12+1
Sweden
1st Brigade
1 Jager DD6 CD 12
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
2nd Brigade
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
1 6# Foot Battery DD 6 CD 12
3rd Brigade
1 Jager DD 6 CD 12
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
4th Brigade
2 Line DD 6 CD 10
1 6# Foot Battery DD6 CD 12
1st Cavalry Brigade
Light Dragoons DD 6 CD 10
Hussars DD 8 CD 10
2nd Cavalry Brigade
Dragoons DD 6 CD 12
Light Dragoons (2 UI) DD6 CD 10
6# Horse Battery DD6 CD 12
Reserve Brigade
Russian Guard Jagers DD 8 CD 12
Andrea Livgard DD 8 CD 12
Life grenadiers DD 8 CD 12
Cuirassiers DD 8 CD 12
12# Foot Battery DD 6 CD 12+1
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, with the adjusted card deck. What make are your Swedes and Danes Peter? They look like Minifigs from a distance. Very smart.
ReplyDeleteThey are all most definitely Minifigs, Lawrence!
DeleteOoooo, battle of the titans! Great to see both of these armies out on the table. Good to see tinkering with the rules as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe. They were happy to "stretch their legs". We will see how it works out!
DeleteA great looking table, Peter. Look forward to your report on the forthcoming action....!
ReplyDeleteThanks; I am almost finished with turn 2, and both sides were at zero AMP at one point!
DeleteWhat an interesting idea. Looking forward to reading how it goes.
ReplyDeleteThanks; "film at eleven"...
DeleteGreat table and nice to see some great Minifigs on show, looking froward to seeing how it plays out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Donnie.
DeleteInteresting deck variant (echoes of Die Fighting as well) look forward to hearing how this plays out
ReplyDeleteThe Battle Command deck is a bit like the Die Fighting deck, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteSmall and constantly recycling very much same vibe
DeleteExactly, that's where the similarity lies. DF was a really interesting concept that never quite became a good game. I think it could have been, had Bob developed scenarios for it.
DeleteI like the set up alot! Although how in the world did you get into doing Napoleonic era Danes and Swedes?
ReplyDeleteWell, who else do you know who has them? :-)
DeleteMy great grandfather was Danish; his original last name was Andreassen. When his family emigrated from Denmark (after he served in the Danish army in the first Schleswig - Holstein war, after which he foresaw a lot more war in Europe, and wanted his family out of the way of any of that), he kept the last name but forebade anyone to speak Danish any longer. "We Americans now, and we speak English!" He had 6 kids, half born in Denmark with Danish first names (Anton, Einer, Christian, etc), and the other half with English names (Henry, Harry - my grandfather, etc.). When the family moved from Minnesota, where everyone understood Scandinavian names, but too damned cold in the winter!) to Virginia, where no one understood Scandinavian names, everyone called him Mr. Anderson. So he said, "By God, if they are going to call me Anderson, I'll *be* Anderson", and changed his name... not even to the Danish version, which would have been Andersen. Ironically, most his US born sons fought in WW1... as Americans; Harry was a Sergeant in the US Marines. As a result of all this, I really had essentially no Danish heritage passed down to me whatsoever.; just a small glass of Peter Heering (a Danish cherry liqueur) after Thanksgiving dinner every year!
So naturally when I became interested (obsessed with?) in the Napoleonic Wars in my middle and HS years, I discovered that there was a lot more to Denmark's (very reluctant) involvement in the Napoleonic Wars than is generally appreciated. I wrote an article for the old NEWA Courier, based upon hard to get information, on the organization, uniforms, flags, and combats of the Danish army. The Courier went out of print before it was published, and was passed on to the short lived, full color large format magazine, Little Wars, where it was published (without contacting me at all). They had a professional illustrator do full color uniform and flag illustrations, which were pretty decent, but the editor made some real howler mistakes transcribing the article from my typewritten submission (remember typewriters?). They called the Jutland regiment "Ireland", and the Fynen regiment (Funen in English), "Finland"!
Anyway, here on the blog, if you click on the "Denmark" label, there is a whole series of posts about Denmark in the Napoleonic Wars. Until the recent Helion books on this topic (which are excellent), I dare say this series was the best information on the topic available in one place in English!
Joe's ancestry is half Swedish, so I did the Swedes as well and folks are a little more familiar with Sweden's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars because of Marshal Bernadotte, who of course became crown prince, and later King of Sweden as Carl-Johan. The Swedes fought a tough war with the Russians in 1808 after the treaty of Tilsit (Napoleon agreeing to Alexander's conquest of Sweden was part of the agreement), the Russo-Swedish war, which resulted in the loss of Finland to Russia. The Danes were planned to fight (on the French/Russian side), but never actually did so in a substantive way.
The Norwegians (Denmark was a dual monarchy at the time, with the King of Denmark also being King of Norway), fought the Swedes in 1808, though, and again in 1814, opposing the Swedish takeover of the country (which was the price for Sweden joining the coalition in 1813). I have a great little series of posts on the Norwegians, including their ski troops! Both countries have similar and quite interesting and colorful uniforms and flags. The future Duke of Wellington was also involved in the shameful bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807 (Kobenhaven in Danish), and the seizure of the Danish fleet, which is how Denmark wound up allied with Napoleon, and was indeed his last ally in 1814.
Thus Scandinavia saw the greatest shifts in territories as results of the Napoleonic Wars, despite their limited involvement in same! It also helps to further explain Swedish and Finnish distrust of Russia in the face of their current war with Ukraine!
An interesting reply. Thank you for the effort and time to share like that. Two thumbs up!
DeleteMy pleasure! :-)
Delete