Late French Rev War - R2E factors

[18th Century Guy]

My group here (ok, all 2 of us) is starting to build units for gaming the French Rev War in Italy from 1796 onwards. What thoughts do people have for how the different combat factors should be used for this part of the war? I've read what Barry has in R2E for the Rev War but most of that seems to be for the early period. Has anyone else done this and if so did you change any of the combat/morale/etc. factors?

Just as a side note we plan on having Suvorov's Russians, Poles, Prussians, Brits, and anyone else we can find! 1799 Holland and Zurich look really interesting.

[custosarmorum]

What miniatures are you planning for the Prussians and, especially, the Brits? I could be convinced to jump into this period...

Mike

[barr7430]

I am happy to consider an 'official' list of modifiers if any of you chaps want to have a go at that. We would then perhaps to an official pdf QRS with the differences and credit it....

Over to you

[Rob Herrick]

Similarly, how should one treat the Prussians and Saxons in 1806?

I assume the 1805 Austrians and Russians are treated as normal, except no non-LI with skirmishers, and no columnar formations?

[barr7430]

If significant modifications are created and playtested Clarence and I will be happy to create a pdf which incorporates new angles into R2E.

A play test circle willing to take on the task would certainly be openly supported by us

[18th Century Guy]

For the Prussian figures they are from Foundry. Not sure if you can still get them or if they'll come back out soon but maybe if you ask they will provide.

Bill Amick and I are discussing what, if any, factor changes need to be in place for the late Revolutionary period. We'll let you know what we come up with but our current feelings on the matter is that we won't find much to change. However we'll keep at it through reading and playtesting.

Greg

[Rob Herrick]

How do you plan to handle the regimental guns?

[BP]

At the last weekender my Italian brigade had a battalion gun attached. It was a single 4pdr with 3 crew. Treated just like a single gun battery with unlimited ammo and no need to refit, with no artillery park behind it.

Only moved at man handling speeds though, so was great on the defense like we were. Gives a good boost to firepower. Possibly too good that way.

Unsure whether a single battalion gun should get 3 shooting dice and cause resolve checks in the same manner as a battery. Possibly 2 dice with resolve checks or 3 dice no resolve check or even 2 dice no resolve checks. As various comments through the weekend along the lines of 'screw the battery just give me lots of 4pdrs' were heard I also think they should dice for rounds too, to prevent indiscriminate long range sniping. In this way they are a handy boost to firepower for infantry formations but not some super weapon. It did chase a couple of Cossack/Tossack regiments off the board by causing them to fall back off board when beyond musket range of my rapidly forming squares(this happens when cavalry brigades miraculously appear between your brigade and the other brigade in your division

Strangely the French players weren't saying anything

Bill

[barr7430]

Some small and completely accidentaly misinterpretations of the use of battalion guns in Bill's post. More to do with sloppy housekeeping by me as umpire than any player error. See below:

1. This type of gun was not originally written into the rules and appeared under 'house rules' in the Shevardino Weekender over a year ago as all French Brigades (de facto 5-6 battalion regiments) had battalion guns attached. Many were captured Austrian pieces from the earlier campaigns.

2. The guns are covered under range etc as 3-4 pdrs. As the diameter of a 3pdr ball and a 6pdr ball are negligible in difference, the 3 dice system per should not be seen as unfairly advantageous.

3. The 'legend' of the battalion guns has built through other inadvertent errors. They should have 2 crew not 3. They should have an ammunition limitation. If I overlooked that reminder then my fault. They do not have the impedimenta of a battery and are only manhandled.

In defence the of course are very useful and as Bill says. give a nice punch to defensive firepower. In attack however, they will find it impossible to keep up with full speed columns or even lines as their movement rate of 4" is one third of an attack column move. Unless the columns slow down and thus loose momentum, the guns will be quickly left behind and be vulnerable to attack or useless.

Hope this somewhat restores some balance to the perceptions of this wunderwaffen.

[BP]

Ahh thanks for the clarifications Barry.

So they do have ammo and only 2 crew?

Means if they take a casualty they cant fire? Would you need to remove an infantry combat group, spending 1MP and then suffer the -1 dice if you wanted to re-crew it?

Bill.

[barr7430]

Let them fire every second turn with 1 crew and no movement. I think as part of the battalion/regiment/brigade. Resolve checks would be ignored.

[Gerryjd]

This should keep a certain Mr Wallace a little bit happier methinks!!!

Cheers

Gerry

[obriendavid]

They have appeared to be very effective in all of the games they appeared in so perhaps another idea might be to limit their maximum firing range to cannister range because I did notice a few time they were quite happy to shoot at anything even extreme range just to cause a morale test.
Cheers
Dave

[barr7430]

This may be limited by an alternative 'mechanism' Dave. Artillery batteries throw 3 x D6 for ammo. Battalion guns could alternatively through 1 or 2 D6 which I think would manage down their effectiveness but still provide a reason to both paint and field them.

What do you think?

[BP]

A summary?

3-4 pdr
2 crew
manhandled only
No need to refit
2d6 rounds
lose of 1 crew - fire every other turn, cant move. Infantry can recrew same as any other gun with appropriate expenditure of MP.

Bill