Hi All
Well we had sort of a game last night. We played a few turns of a brigade of infantry and one of cavalry on each side. We played through a few turns until things started to get complicated and we stopped so I could go back and re-read the rules. This is my usual method of learning a new set of rules. Read a few times, throw down some figures and get a feel of the broad strokes of the game, re-read and play again. We are going to have another game next Wednesday.
Well as I thought after my first read, there is a lot there to like. I love the brigade orders, the Movement points, and the ability of the not acting player to react. The shooting combat works well and is easy; found myself looking for more modifiers but that is just me being -. The charges we really did not get into as I had really not read those sections in any detail.
The refit rule well really did not get there but already know how I am going to “refit” that. Essentially it seems Barry’s intention is to limit the ability to fire continuously at any and everything in sight. Which I completely agree with. I am going to take one of the mechanics from my rules and use that here. Essentially the idea is to put a line of smoke each time the artillery fires. You fire normally four times, after that you have to roll on the Stand and fire Table to determine the effect of the fire, of course it can never get better than the range that the guns are at. So if you roll canister fire that would only apply if the enemy was in normal range canister range. With a -1 to the die roll for each additional row of smoke after the first four. If the roll is modified to 0 then no fire is allowed. If at any time you have accumulated smoke you can stop fire for one turn and remove two rows of smoke. So know you can keep firing but you need to be aware that at certain point your fire will become useless, which you don’t want as the enemy closes on you. On top of limited ammunition I think this will work. This is for me is a cleaner method of controlling the player’s tendencies to fire all day long.
The next thing is, we where using 15mm figures and the conversion to cm just gets weird. It seems that the rules where designed with 25-28mm in mind and the other scales where kind of tacked on. Not sure but I think I will make a new scale, based on actual distances. So to determine 100 meters on the table I will go by my rule of thumb that 480 men in three ranks are just about 100 meters in line. So 24 of our figures in double rank will make 100 meters. From there will convert all the distances on the cheat sheet to the equivalent distance.
This brings me to the cheat sheet. No problem with the size, my rules have a chart book! So a piddling 6 sheet is not big deal for me, however, the lay out is. I found my self flipping back and forth and it seems that they will quickly fall apart. What I am going to do is create my own cheat sheet and model it on the way I did my own. That is each page will have all the charts and tables you need for that phase in a book form. So as you turn the pages you will be moving through the turn sequence. I will also put all the distances in for 15mm figures and the ground scale that I determine based on our basing but the distances based on the 28mm scale in the rules. If Barry is ok with that I will send him a pdf so he can post it on the board if he wants.
So even though I have some creative criticism, the rules really work well and I think they will be a hit with the club. We use two sets at the moment my own From Valmy to Waterloo and the clubs Tricolor a home grown set, both are geared for a higher level of combat, so I think Republic to Empire will be a great set for those smaller battles where we want to throw out skirmishers and be worried about what kind of column we are in.
Again great job Barry, I think that Republic to Empire is probably the best set of rules to come out in years.
William
