Eagles at Quatre Bras...In Austria?

Not much time for gaming this weekend but I did manage to retire to the gaming bunker after the women and children went to sleep for the night last night for a quick, introductory game of Norm Smith's "Eagles at Quatre Bras."  [link]

If you've been following my blog of late, I've become enamored with Hex gaming using miniatures on the tabletop and Norm Smith's outstanding "Tigers at Minsk" really scratched the itch for me for WWII gaming so I thought I'd try and peer into the vast black hole of Napoleonic grand-tactical wargaming with hexes.

Last night i threw some forces on the table reminiscent of the 1809 campaign.  An small Austrian Division is blocking a road.  The French need to open the road.  Austrians have 2 "regiments" and an artillery battery along with their commanding general who has been given modest forces in an attempt to slow down the French steamroller. 

The French have a brigade of elites, along with 3 infantry brigades, a light cavalry brigade, a battery of artillery and 2 officer stands.

The battle opens at the 11:00 hour and the French advance!

French Artillery opens up a cannonade on the Austrians while their infantry boldly advance across the fields.

 The sequence of play is interesting and takes some getting used to but in reading Norm's notes, it becomes obvious "why" certain things happen at prescribed times.  Gamers who appreciate the author's intent for various rules will appreciate Norm's style as he gives superb explanations for his rationale.

The game turns open with the active player attempting to lose disorder/blown, and change formation with a command roll on a D10.  Better troops have a better chance of passing.  Worse troops, less chance.  In this game, all troops were regulars with a value of "7" to beat or less on the command roll.  Officers give you a -1 to the die roll to help out.

The infantry cannot assault this turn as they advanced in the regular movement phase in line! 

 While "grand tactical" the reader will appreciate the subtleties of the rules.  Units are pushed back routinely from disorder and fire but they come back almost as quickly as they left which really adds to the excitement.  For a game like Volley & Bayonet, Blucher, or Et Sans Resultat (All excellent games in their own right) where a few hours' worth of action occurs with the throw of a dice, EAQB gives you a taste of the frustrations, heartache, and joy of a commander on the Napoleonic battlefield as your units are not static.

My unfamiliarity with the rules enables some rash decision and my converged grenadiers advance right up to the muzzle of the Austrians but since they moved in line, cannot attack (had they passed their command roll in the beginning of the turn, they'd have been able to move into columns and assault in their own phase!).  The opening of the Austrian turn sees muskets leveled (or lowered?) and a deadly volley unleased at the Grenadiers, who take a "heavy casualty" and retreat 2 hexes, disordered.

My elites on the left fail their command roll again and are disordered as well as beginning to accumulate heavy casualty markers now.  You do not want to roll high on that D10!

 With the sequence of play the way it is, it's now clear to me that prior planning is necessary before launching an assault.  You have to time your advance, and ensure there are multiple units advancing as well, as enemy fire may well drive a lone brigade off easily enough.

11:28am - I love the timed turns using cards to advance the clock!  Like Tigers at Minsk, the clock really adds an element of realism to the game.

 The Austrians are holding pretty well and the casualty rates are not really excessive.  You need at least 2 hits when attacking to cause a "heavy casualty" result and those aren't quite as common.  I try to mix things up and do the exact thing I chide Dave against - move my Cavalry up as a battering ram against fresh troops!

Thundering hooves and sabers raised - but is it enough to dislodge the white coats?

The Austrians successfully form square and my cavalry passes their command test but bounces back "blown" and "disordered"

 I had a few questions at this point - I also had an infantry unit adjacent to the Austrian square (mass?) formation.  In their assault, they managed to score 1 hit against the Austrian square.  Does the square have to withdraw 1 hex disordered?  (that's the result from the hit table when 1 hit is scored.)
I played the square withdrawing, disordered, 1 hex and still remaining in square formation.  I couldnt find where the rules addressed this situation (that doesn't mean they dont.  It's been a long, tiring week).

12:06pm and the Austrians are stubbornly holding on.  My elites will be fully reconstituted and "rallied" at 12:28pm so they're not ready yet.  that green D10 rolled 9 4 turns in a row so I got rid of it....

 Some more questions about disorder - what "bad" things does disorder do?  Am I still allowed to advance while disordered?  I know I have to pass a command test to lose disorder, and I know I cannot change formation when disordered, but besides that what negative things does it bestow on me?  I couldn't figure that out because from reading the rules it appears as if I can still attack an adjacent unit while disordered.

What I love about EAQB - I finally got to attack a square on the tabletop with infantry!!  Usually my games are either too high level to manage this, or the infantry fight is over before the cavalry is sent in.  Here are my lights trying to break their Austrian foe's square (mass?) formation.

 The Austrians get a chance to compose their line and, even though pushed back slightly, they are able to present a wall to the French.

2 Austrian "Regiments" facing the French.

Something else interesting happened - my Austrian artillery goes out of ammo (rolled a "1" on their firing which forces the out of ammo test, then they rolled another "1").  Then they're assaulted on the ground by a French column!  What happens to them now?  

Anyways I played the French assault out and they scored 1 hit against the Battery, which pushed the battery back, disordered.  I know there are rules about running the battery down for cavalry, but what about an infantry assault, and how does the "Out of Ammo" affect the battery's combat?

Note the stacked cannonballs for "Out of Ammo" for the Austrian guns.  The French start to learn the value of their assault columns as well!

not sure if this was played out correctly but the battery was disordered and pushed back 1 hex.

 Another question about disorder if Norm happens to read this - if the attacker rolls a "1" he takes 1 hit himself, which causes "disorder retreat 1 hex" so if the defender is pushed back, but the attacker has 1 hit, do they BOTH retreat?  I did not play it that way.  I advanced the attacker into the vacated hex, but kept his disorder marker.

An Austrian regiment is pushed back to the table edge and the battle is reaching its conclusion!

12:26!  Almost time for the Grenadiers to be put back into action!  (note the 28 on the dice behind the grenadiers)  The battle is almost over now as one of the Austrian regiments retreats to the table's edge with 3 heavy casualties

I desperately want to attempt to set up a "Flank Attack" but the proximity rules don't allow yet!  The flank attack allows the attacker 2 extra dice but there has to be a 1 hex separation between attackers, with no additional adjacent defenders.

Red Dice are "heavy casualties" and the yellow beads are disorder markers.

The final French assault masses and the Austrians are pushed off the table by another French assault column.  The Austrians call it quits!  

 Although I didn't use them, there are rules in EAQB for calling the game but I didn't have enough units on the table to use them.  (tied to heavy casualties received).

Final dispositions

Thoughts:
A very satisfying game that has the right amount of period feel to it.  There are some concepts you have to wrap your head about early on, but ultimately, Eagles at Quatre Bras is a simple, fun, and very challenging game.  Even though you're in command, things happen that are out of your control, and you have to plan to mitigate the bad things that can happen when your plan doesn't come off as expected.

I like how assaults/combat are handled with units conducting their "combats" while adjacent and artillery and rifle armed skirmishers being the only units that have ranged fire.

I also like how there are technically no facings to fiddle with, however you can pull off a flank attack on an enemy if you set it up correctly.  The methodology for cavalry charges and assaults is simply brilliant in my opinion.  Cheers to Norm for developing a novel set of Napoleonic rules that captures the spirit of the era and the challenges that the commanders faced.  Here's my list of things that I really enjoyed about the game:

Time clock.  I love that the turns are anywhere from 8 to 60 minutes long, and probably closer to 25 minutes.  I also love that some unit statuses (artillery resupply and some unit rallying) are tied to the game clock, which makes it relevant to the commanders and not just a novelty.

Usefulness of Formations.  Players are rewarded for using their formations correctly.

Simplicity of combat.  The D6 methodology, which is very similar to Tigers at Minsk, is lovely and refreshingly simple.  Also the hit against the attacker for rolling a 1 is nice.  Makes the game much more suitable for solitaire gamers like me.

Narrative.  The ebb and flow of the combats, with units routinely being pushed back and "heavy casualties" being somewhat rare, really makes for a tense and exciting game that produces a narrative like a battle report would read.

once again, my hat's off to Norm.  Please make a Seven Years War supplement!