The Wizard of Osma - General d'Armee AAR

As I was back in New Jersey over the past weekend, I met up with Ted, Chip, and Steve for some classic Saturday night gaming.

The guys have been focusing on General d'Armee V2 for the past couple months. I was happy to hear this, since I had purchased the rules but not had a chance to play them yet. 

We were refighting Osma (during 1813 in the Peninsular War), with four British and one Portuguese brigades clashing against three French brigades. The game would last 10 turns, with both sides trying to break the other. 

Chip and Steve commanded the British and Portuguese, while Ted and I commanded the French.

The British were deployed a fair distance from the town (which gave them a tactical advantage if they managed to take control of it, giving a negative initiative modifier to the French), with the Portuguese anchoring their right flank.

The French defenders seemed somewhat anemic on the ground, with a decent gap between the two brigades and my own left flank wide open.

Ted put his veteran troops into skirmish lines to try, giving him a wider front against Steve's advancing battalions.

Meanwhile, my troops were backpedaling as fast as possible while also trying to shift to the left. Apparently garrison fire is much more effective in this version and I was hoping to get a clear line of fire for the battalion in the town.

Chip's British brigade was hot on my heels, but the Portuguese seemed less enthused about the whole affair, lagging far behind.

I realized that I wasn't going to get a chance to shift my battalions like I wanted and instead elected to stand and fight.

Of course, that would have been easier had Chip's counter-battery fire not forced my artillery battery (and the only artillery battery on the French side) into retreating behind the town.

Ted and Steven continued to skirmish, with Steven slowly forcing Ted back.

With some forceful language, Chip harangued the Portuguese into finally moving forward. Once in position, he was able to use one of the new C-in-C commands; Flank Manoeuvre! This allowed Chip to bring in another infantry brigade, threatening to overwhelm the French flank.

Luckily, I was able to bring on and double-time a third brigade of Nassau troops (low quality recruits, but hopefully enough bodies to throw into the British lines!) to cover my flank.

My dice were pretty good that night, and Chip's British brigade was forced back after losing a battalion. I also lost a battalion, but was able to keep my brigade from faltering by using a C-in-C command.

Steve's advance had brought him into range of my recovered guns, allowing me to rout one of his battalions. Ted's troops had formed a solid wall and were exchanging fire with the British.

We reached the end of 10 turns with two badly mauled British brigades. The French had taken casualties as well, but came out of the fight better off and were still in control of the town. This gave them an non-historic victory.

Apparently it's quite a tough scenario for the British to win. While they have the numbers, the British have a good distance to cover. Even a single British brigade becoming hesitant during the advance (especially a flank brigade that restricts the placement of another flanking brigade!) helps the French.

I appreciated Ted, Chip, and Steve helping me learn the new version of the rules. My first impression is that I like them! Fire combat (skirmish, volley, and artillery) seems much deadlier. Modifiers for fire combat have been drastically reduced; instead of needing to balance negative and positive modifiers on both hands, negative modifiers just reduced the effectiveness of your fire chart and positive modifiers give you extra casualty dice (which have been standardized across the board to 4+ effectiveness). 

I also really like the C-in-C Commands and Ammo Caissons. An issue of the previous version was the feeling of never having enough ADCs to do anything but make sure your brigades wouldn't go hesitant. With Ammo Caissons able to affect your artillery and C-in-C Command giving you that pivotal extra boost, the lack of ADCs at critical moments can be circumvented.

I think this has reinvigorated my interest in my Napoleonics project, which was sorely needed. And I always appreciate gaming with Ted, Chip, and Steve.