28mm Napoleonic - Republic to Empire

British Cavalry Approach the Field

Today at the local club we put on a game of 28mm Nepoleonics using the Republic to Empire rules. R2E are our most used ruleset along with General De Brigade. I particularly like them because they're fast moving, and give a realistic element of uncertainty to each turn. Those familiar with them will know that it works on points allocation from rolling a number of average dice, with the number and quality of troops and commanders determining the outcome. 

The forces arrayed today were French against British and Prussians. The Prussian units were defending a ridge on their left, whilst the British were rushing up the centre and right in order to prevent the French from outflanking or destroying the position. Myself and Simon using the French pushed our artillery forwards and then moved the infantry up in columns of attack (with a view to using the limited space without having to rearrange our formations). This started well, especially when a heavy thunderstorm intruded on the scene and the infantry couldn't use their muskets for two turns - cue several mad charges by the French using cold steel to drive the Prussians from the ridge! It also opened up enough gaps in our middle to throw our deadly Polish Lancers at the newly arrived British. So...the moment arrives and as the Lancers bash into them, and I roll probably the worst dice of the day. What should have been fleeing British redcoats instead resulted in my Lancers losing half their number in nasty hand-to-hand and legging it. Luckily we had a couple of units of infantry that were up for the job, and despite the stormy weather clearing, gunpowder drying out and the British redcoats taking out TWO Brigade commanders with lucky fire it was a case of taking our revenge. It was about this time that morale tests started taking their toll on the allied forces. The Prussians had thrown in the towel and the Brits started to worry about the French Tricolours flowing over the hill where they'd once stood.

In conclusion it was a fun game, with lots of tense moments. The one thing I did notice today most of all, was that setting up the larger 28mm games takes huge effort. Transporting this amount of figures to the Club isn't something I would like to do every week.

The Gruffalo sees All