Finally got to play a solo test game to get a bit of a handle on some of the rules while people are away enjoying their holidays.
The game was on a 8x4 foot table and have decided already that the table needs some more depth as a retreat or rout will send you off the table with out a chance to recover, and with a bit of luck on the first turn, you can pin half the other sides army towards their baseline/start lines causing the above to happen with a couple exploitation moves.
The forces used were the French and Russian divisions from the rule book example forces and upon setup went ooo the French are in for a torrid time ... which they were but managed to claw back a victory when a rout cascade rippled through the recruits.
Upon reading the rules afterwards managed to answer a couple of questions i had and found out a few things that i did wrong, including exploitation which is by the brigade, not individual units.
On to some questions,
a. Line of sight, do your own troops block LoS?
b. If a unit retreats off the board, would it cause a resolve test since its not coming back? Im guessing no.
c. Defend orders, When on advance orders you switch to defend when you get within charge reach, Defend says you can only move if you are within the 9" distance from the area. Can units of that brigade that were following the lead units but are outside of the 9" move as a single unit move since under Defend orders it appears to say no movement unless within 9".
d. It appears that, unless I missed something, no one cares if cavalry routs when it comes to resolve tests?
e. In a melee, what happens if theres a draw and both sides drop below 50% at the same time? Both sides roll resolve or just the loser? I'm guessing both roll and potentially both rout at same time.
I spent a bit of time scratching the head abit over how much movement a formation change takes up until I worked out it takes it all with a single unit form move.
f. Snap fire, it says if you had previously fire this game turn, as in you fired in player 1 go, the player 2 charged you, and you stood and fired again is a snap shot.
But it seems if you were player 2 you gain an advantage as in the above case, player 2 fired in firing phase and then player 1 attacked next turn he gets to fire at full instead of a Snap fire as he hasn't fired this new game turn? Hmmm does that makes sense to what I'm trying to get at?
All in all an interesting game that wasn't over til its over so to speak, one of the more notable actions was the heroic deeds of a unit of Russian recruits that survived seeing a much more experienced unit run away from beside it, when a French unit said BOO (declared a charge on it) and then switched into line from att column to cover the gap and saw the Frenchie retreat, was then promptly charged by a unit of Chasseurs and never had time to form a square, shot doing 1 casualty which the Chasseurs shrugged off, little did they know heheh, they fought 3 rounds of combat before the cavalry hit 50% and then failed their resolve and routed 40" off the table. Sadly for the Russians thou, the entire other end of the line dissapeared in a snowballing rout fest through a series of disordered/wavering and/or recruit units and a whole brigade ran along with a unit of the next brigade. That left a battery of guns pointing the wrong way and a battalion of infantry to try stop the bulk of the French.
I guess one thought that came to me while working through that Cav vs Inf fight was it appears that Inf has a good chance vs Cav if they aren't in square, unless i'm missing some negatives.
Ive seen enough of the rules to go yes, these need to be played some more so thats a good thing
Oh and is there anywhere I can get another quick reference sheet to either print out or buy?
cheers