Thinking aloud - AI

Using Google’s Gemini AI, I asked it to build a scenario for a Napoleonic French attack on a farmhouse defended by Austrians.

Within a few moments, it had given me full scenario instructions and an order-of-battle. The AI then asked me if I wanted a map. Well, yes please (see above photo).

I was initially pretty much amazed at what came back. The last time I asked AI for a table top map, it produced a bizarre schematic thing, with a hedge feature that couldn’t possible exist, well certainly not on a wargame table - but, this ‘map’ just looks like someones real tabletop …. is it, or are we seeing those inevitable ongoing improvements in AI?

If a blogger posted this photo as part of their latest AAR, it would certainly garner a lot of praise for being a lovely table.

Accepting that AI doesn’t create in the way that we see creative ability, rather it draws on several sources, does a mash-up then churns out a summary of that data. Also accepting that whatever we think about AI, it cannot be judged as a thing standing still of ‘March 2026’, it is continually being developed, getting increasingly effective and it would be fair to say, that if I was to be writing this in 3 - 5 years time, the AI environment and this post content would likely be quite different.

So, what of this map and scenario? If you look into the image, you will notice in the background a  grey carpet, wood skirting, pastel coloured plaster walls, a door frame and part of a door. The setting is clearly something that we would feel comfortable with as being home - it looks real rather than the usual AI rendered image - is it real or has AI presentation capability moved up a notch?

Then look in the lower left quadrant of the table. The road looks like it is sitting on a part of the table that has something (like tea towels) under the game cloth to represent a low hill - yet the scenario instructions do not describe high ground anywhere. 

The hedge at the foot of that hill is off-set and sits awkwardly, just like it would if we were laying a rigid hedge strip down on a hill on our own tables, making the whole thing look rather real (click on image).

There isn’t any artistic smoothing effects on things like the edge of the orchard, it looks very much like a plonk down terrain feature, same with the bases of the units, yet the AI appears to have gone for smoothing effects on the road and river, where there are no obvious joins and it has artistically given us small arms fire from the farm windows.

It has also given us an awkward looking flag. Awkward because it looks painted onto a photo and also because it has the colours of the modern Austrian flag. The period state flag would have been black and yellow.

Another thing, which would be very clever, no matter which way you consider it, is the inclusion of the right units in the right place, with the right orientation and properly named, according fully with the Scenario instructions, which I was given before the map was generated.

To the left of the table are some bits of standard gaming paraphernalia such as ruler (which looks a bit strange) and dice, but we also have the round tokens that look to be representing the French colours, a bespoke and thoughtful addition, although that whole setting looks a bit contrived ….. or at least tidier than my table edge! 

Compared to AI stuff I have generated in the recent past, on first impression this looks as good as an actual table / game and I can’t make up my mind how much is self generated by the AI, so that the line between creation and copying is a blurry one.

So, as the Walrus says in the Poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ by Lewis Carroll - “The time has come to talk of many things”.

Is this a step-up in AI capability? Does the AI now have so many data points that it can now create in a way that we create from our own previous experiences? (Note at this point, I separate out this function from the ability to ‘invent’). If I created that table, it wouldn’t be because I am a brilliant innovator, it would be because that is a typical farmhouse based battlefield that I have seen numerous times in magazines, wargame shows and on battle descriptions. 

So is the AI simply operating at that level. i.e. is it actually as thoughtful as I am (and more!) with regard to such things or is it still purely reliant on copying. I ask that as an honest and open question because I actually don’t know what the true capability of AI currently is. 

I don’t want to run around like a headless chicken, amplifying scaremongering, I would actually like to know,

Is the table a technically superb bit of construction in our 2026 eyes or is it just a very close lift from someone’s actual table? - if you recognise features here that are very close to your own work, it would be lovely to have you comment here with your thoughts.

Certainly the individual terrain products of some manufacturers should be recognisable, as indeed might the figures!

Other things of note. 

Quite a few wargames associate an orchard next to a farmhouse, had it been a walled orchard, I might have thought it to be Hougoumont (Waterloo) inspired. 

Each side has thoughtfully been given skirmishing Voltigeurs (French) and Grenzers (Austrian) for firing from windows and the orchard etc. 

There is an interesting tip in this regard offered by the Scenario instructions, just before it asked me whether I wanted a map, which I have copied below (click on it for a crisp view);

The inclusion of French Hussars at squadron level for an attack on a farmhouse might seem odd, but the Austrians get a reinforcement battalion (Landwehr), so they do have something outside the farm complex to engage or threaten.

When I called up the scenario, I was thinking of a Black Powder type game, but didn’t state that and what we have is a scenario that looks like it would benefit from a more skirmish level set of rules. 

Also, I wonder whether the French are strong enough for the task of taking the farmhouse, so it will be interesting to actually play this out and see if the AI has considered game balance. 

There is a rule that gives some opportunity for the French guns to cause a breach in the farm’s wall, so perhaps it has. 

Perhaps it wants or expects the French to use their Voltigeurs and artillery first and then assault with the infantry, which of course makes sense ….. and that might make the AI a better general than me :-) The scenario gives 10 turns, so there is time for this sort of preparation.

Anyway, there we are. What do you think? I feel rather compelled to set the game up and play it out just to see whether this is a ‘good’ scenario. If I do that, I will post some comments as a part II to this post.

This is not an anti or pro AI post, it is a ‘moment in time’ article that considers how developing technology is impacting on our hobby at its most basic level.

EDIT - just as an exercise, I wanted to retest the AI to see whether the above map was a new presentation style. I gave a more generic request this time of a French Force attacking an Austrian force, but specified Black Powder II rules and this is the map that it gave me I have no idea why the presentation styles are so different, perhaps because one is at the more skirmish level and the other isn’t. Regardless, as a construction, the second map is also clever (and rather attractive) when considered in association with the scenario instructions.

Resources.

I have another bit of webspace called COMMANDERS that is a bit more snippet based than here. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html

Blue & Gray Deluxe Boardgame

This game hit UK shores (Second Chance Games) last year and while I fancied a low complexity series of ACW games, I felt that this was perhaps a bit too simple and that the lack of command and control would allow units to be continually doing fancy footwork and moving outside of their Corps area of operations to get those perfect attack odds etc.

Anyway, particularly of recent time, I have to come feel that the collection would benefit from some short, easy play games that would particularly fit our face to face gaming sessions, which perhaps too often, are bringing new purchases to the table which don’t fit our available time slot and are not ‘well enough known’ through previous plays to get that slick, enjoyable game going, where you know what you need to do and the game has already previously jumped the hurdle of being initially explored and liked by both players.

So I took another look at the new Blue & Gray (Deluxe Edition) from Decision Games - could this be a useful title to have on our face-to-face shelf?

The game itself is beautifully presented (the clue being in the Deluxe Edition). It is a collection of eight battles that the hobby first saw in 1975. They were published as two quad games, Blue & Gray vol I (Antietam, Cemetery Hill, Chickamauga, Shiloh), later followed by Blue & Gray vol II (The Battle of the Wilderness, Chattanooga, Fredericksburg, Hooker & Lee - which covers Chancellorsville).

The Deluxe edition presents the original rules in the first eight pages of the new rulebook and the games can be played fully from them, providing an old school or nostalgic sentiment for those of us who were pushing cardboard counters around in the lates 70’s!

In addition, there are numerous other rules that the players(s) can add as they see fit. These come in two flavours, Optional Rules that were added over time to later editions of the game and Variant Rules, which are rule proposals appearing in both the Moves and the Strategy & Tactics Magazines, submitted by the fan base. New counters are included to be used with additional rules. The normal unit counters are simply laid out, with the combat value printed large (thank you).

Collectively, the extra rules allow the gamer to take this game to a play level more of their own choosing. So looking at some of these bolt on rules, you get command range that encourages players to keep their respective corps together, cavalry rules and a ‘Shattered’ rule. The latter is particularly interesting as it was added to deal with the fact that the original Combat Result Table allowed a side to put in low odd attacks to tie the other side down, with the worst result being a rebuff, attacking was a fairly safe bet!

The variant has a new 2D6 CRT that now includes the combat results of Defender / Attacker shattered, which effectively reflects the unit taking so many casualties that their combat factors are halved for the rest of the game. In a game that has mandatory attacks against units in their Zone of Control, I imagine that will bring much more nuance to decision making.

When reading reviews on the games, there are obviously going to be those battles that gamers feel are the better ones and ‘the one’ that they feel is the weakest. It is interesting to note that the original Cemetery Hill game had divisional strength counters for the Union and Brigade level for the Confederates, resulting in a bit of a miss-match, but a variant has been added that gives additional counters to break the Union order of Battle down into a more equitable foe in terms of unit scale.

Regardless, I shall simply work my way through these battles and decide for myself which ones will see the most play. Playing time is estimated at 1 - 2 hours, hex scale is 400 yards, game turns represent 75 - 120 minutes, complexity is described as Very Low, while solitaire suitability is described as High (i.e. a player can play both sides without system obstruction). 

   

All the maps in this edition are mounted onto board and the overall presentation is very nice. Decision Games are bringing out a few similar quads which fall into ‘a blast from the past’ category, which I for one am pleased about, but I am a little wary of their development control as the recent ‘Battles of the Ardennes Deluxe’ game, high on my interest list, seems to have some issues that might leave a person buying and paying into the ‘Deluxe’ aspect, being a little disappointed. Apparently, Decision Games are to print a correction counter sheet for the Ardennes game, though the rulebook will rely just on some errata sheets that the gamer prints off. 

In truth, last year I had both the Ardennes game and B&G games on pre-order with my UK store, but once I started hearing complaints about the Ardennes game, which was published first, I promptly cancelled both pre-orders.

However, Blue & Gray Deluxe appears free of these sort of concerns and it ticks all of the right boxes to give a deluxe feel, so it enters the collection.

The game is on the expensive side and I have approached that from the point of view that the expense is divided by eight different battles that should see repeated play …. I hope I am right!  

I will post again once I have a battle or two under my belt. I’m sure a big take-away for me will be having eight battles governed by just one set of easy play rules and that increasingly I want to play a game without a heavy rulebook behind it.

As for the Ardennes game, I hope at some point, once the errata counters are printed, I may feel the same about getting that game, but that is for another day.

RESOURCES.

I run another bit of web space that is more snippet based than here, called COMMANDERS, if interested, here is the link.

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html

Attacking Kis-Megyer Farm - 3 PM - 1809 campaign

3 PM. The weather is fair and visibility is 114”

Austrian Headquarters - Klenau’s headquarters remains at the farm and he is now in the frontline. To defend the farm he only has a worn battalion from IR 14, a fresh landwehr battalion and a relatively fresh gun battery. They are faced by overwhelming numbers and it is a tough decision whether to retire now and concede, or whether to hold out and just hope that Schwarzenberg arrives in time to save the situation. If the farm is abandoned, the rearguard will have failed and so reluctantly, Klenau tells his local commanders that they will fight on as help is close-by.

[note - A campaign turn is equal to 7 game turns on the table, so Klenau is gambling that his small force will be able to survive that long and that in the next campaign turn, Schwarzenberg will arrive as a reinforcement with his cavalry division - I must say, I am equally in two minds about what is best to do, but if I were to jump off the fence, I would have to agree with Klenau].

Orders - None

Above - This is what Masséna can see. (1) the farm is lightly defended. (2) Schwarzenberg’s 2nd Cavalry are approaching to reinforce the farm. (3) Messéna needs to control the road to Theya. (The original map Graphic copyright of Henry Hyde)

French Headquarters - Messéna has moved up onto the high ground at the church and can see the predicament that the Austrians face. His force is now galvanising as elements of 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions, plus Lasalle’s cavalry converge on the battlefield. Understanding that Schwarzenberg is close to assisting Klenau, there is an urgency in getting on with the attack before the Austrians can be reinforced. 

While his massed ranks look impressive, the troops are worn as casualties and the breakdown of cohesion are being felt, with some battalions already considered ‘unsteady’.

Orders - attack the farm at once and secure the road to Thaya

Kis-Megyer Farm - As the French columns advance (above), the opening Austrian fire is not particularly effective. The French assault the walled pond, pushing the Austrians back into the farm, but on the flanks, the Landwehr and artillery give a fairly good account of themselves and those French units that were unsteady now falter.

For a short time, it becomes almost believable that Klenau will be able to hold out long enough for his reinforcement to arrive, but then the battalion holding the farm break and flee, while at the same time 8th Hussars make a reckless frontal charge at the Austrian gun battery.

The guns fail to stop the charge and the results are devastating. The gunners take 4 hits (a lot for these rules in one go) and their resulting flight turns into a rout.

The relatively fresh Austrian Landwehr are now isolated, with French cavalry freely roaming the area, so they retire in an orderly fashion towards the Schwarzenberg reinforcement.

The French have secured the farm, importantly, it is the last defensive obstacle that the Austrians could have used to give an effective rearguard. The cavalry move on ahead and secure the Thaya Road.

The reinforcement - Schwarzenberg has been making best speed with his cavalry division and he is confident that he will be at the farm in battle order by 4 PM. However, in making best speed, his attached infantry (a lone line infantry battalion from IR 36 and a Landwehr battalion) are lagging behind and they will not reach the farm before 5 PM.

Summary - Messéna has decided to attack the farm at once, before the Austrians can be reinforced and he successfully captures it and controls the road leading north, with the defenders fleeing.

Decisions, Decisions!

4 PM. The weather is fair and visibility is 90” (still easily a full 6’ table length is visible).

Overview and conclusion - The last couple of hours have been a race to ensure the control of Kis-Megyer Farm and the road to Thaya - a race that that the French have won …… just!

Schwarzenberg’s cavalry could now attack, but without their infantry they would meet overwhelming numbers and they would not physically be able to take and hold the farm. To wait for the infantry to catch up would give the French an additional hour to fortify their position and strengthen their control of the road.

Even then, it is not particularly likely that the Austrian attack would be strong enough to wrest control from the French.

Had the Austrian infantry been with Schwarzenberg in time for an attack this hour (4 PM), I would likely have diced for that eventuality, with a slight weighting of the dice towards attack to reflect the aggressive nature of the cavalry commander. 

However as it stands the odds for an Austrian success are not good and I feel that self preservation of his force would now be upper-most in Schwarzenberg’s mind. With that said, the campaign will conclude.

Schwarzenberg cannot use the Thaya road itself to escape, as it is French controlled, so he will start to move north, cross-country making best speed. If the French were in a better state than they are now, there would be a very active pursuit and most of the Austrian rearguard would be ‘mopped’ up, with a high level of surrender likely.

But as it is, the French Corps is in no fit state to pursue and so that leads us to the question of victory and to the success or otherwise of Klenau’s rearguard action.

Casualties - The French suffered 1500 losses. The Austrians 950. There is a very clear disparity in the favour of the Austrians.

Time - The Austrian objective for the rearguard was to delay the French pursuit by a day, to allow the bulk of the Austrian army to escape. However, by 4 PM they have lost the field and their cohesion. On the face of it, this would appear to be in favour of the French, but due to losses in men and cohesion, the French were in no state to pursue, so they cannot take advantage of their victory on the battlefield.

Tactical Decisions (Austrian) - Short of troops from the outset, Klenau probably made a good stab at defending all three river crossings, but he should have ordered Schwarzenberg’s 2nd Cavalry Division to leave the slopes and fall back on the ford, earlier than he did. Also posting Infantry Regiment 36 to the slopes to support the cavalry was misjudged and that unit would have been better kept as a reserve immediately behind the village. Klenau’s biggest headache was having fixed his deployment and being without a reserve, he was hostage to whatever the French either chose to do or were successful at doing.

Tactical Decisions (French) - throughout the day, Masséna found it easier to get orders to the troops that needed them, by being where he needed to be at the time and using high ground to his advantage. His most serious error was in rushing at everything and relying heavily on the infantry columns for doing that and as a result his formations suffered grievous losses as they engaged determined Austrians, which left his forces increasingly brittle and subject to routing. His advantage in artillery was never really exploited, as there was insufficient artillery preparation or support for the major attacks.

While his infantry suffered heavily, Lasalle’s cavalry performed superbly from their action at the lower ford to securing the area at the farm and ensuring the road to Thaya was controlled. His decision to push against all three river crossings did stretch the Austrians, but one wonders whether the attacks amongst the vineyards below the village and against the lower bridge were necessary, as a successful attack against the village would surely have unhinged the Austrian defence in those places and allowed the French to cross the bridge at the village in greater numbers earlier. As it was, once he captured the lower bridge, Leguay’s Brigade from Molitor’s 3rd  Division was effectively out of the fight for the rest of the day as it would take them too long to reach the church / farm.

Fortunes of war - At the lower bridge, Froon (Austrian) was routed and so later, the Austrians defending  at the church / farm were denied those troops. There was a fairly generous chance (33% twice) that they might return to the campaign and reinforce the church or farm, but the dice said no!

The village fell to the French rather faster than anticipated (by me!). That second assault took the place by storm! (Lucky / unlucky dice). It then became suddenly obvious, just how weak the Austrian centre was and that the other Austrian troops were now in the wrong place (on the slopes).

The random activation system in the Campaign Movement Phase was particularly important in the 1 PM turn when it gave the Austrian the first activation and they promptly moved their artillery up to the church, before Lasalle’s cavalry could pin it down. That one act meant that the fight at the church was not over in a single hour, but rather (just) ran over into a second hour and gave Klenau at Kis-Megyer Farm an increased …. but ultimately false sense of hope. 

The charge by 8th Hussars against the Austrian artillery at the farm, was bold, reckless, ill-advised and amazingly successful. Had the artillery repelled the hussars (perhaps with equally heavy loss!), then there was the prospect that the artillery could have kept the French back long enough for Schwarzenberg to arrive and join a determined defence.  

So who won! - Judging from all that is said above, both sides might claim they won! The whole point of the campaign was for Klenau’s VI Corps to act as a rearguard and prevent the French from a pursuit of the main Austrian army. Klenau might say that in effect that was done - Messéna was left in no fit state to pursue and had suffered very heavy casualties ….. but to get to this point, Klenau had pretty much lost VI Corps and surely that is not the sort of thing that will get him any medals! 

A narrow view takes me towards a draw, but you just have to jump off the fence sometimes and I think we shall say that Messéna unhinged the Austrian defence and practically destroyed VI Corps, giving him the edge in any claims of winning :-)

Campaign system - The campaign as presented in Henry Hyde’s book, worked out really well. The dynamic of three crossings divided our small area into three distinct area for action and each was telling a story that contributed to the whole. I modified the stated movement rates to make things a bit easier and brought orders and order delay to bring a discipline of movement.

The idea of using ordinary playing cards to manage the order of activation during the Campaign Moves Phase, comes from the book, as does the weather determination - which came very close to light rain (and then heavy rain), but the die rolls kept it at ‘fair weather’ throughout.

Thumbs up for the campaign, I will definitely be doing this again.

Rules - Well, I used my own. I am very familiar with them and they mostly work. One thing that I like is that hits are accrued and the more hits, the less capable the unit becomes and more susceptible to routing. This worked well for the campaign as it shows formations tiring and losing cohesion. The one area that always seemed okay in a throw down game, but I think came to plague this campaign (or the French anyway) is that in close combat, the target unit takes a test, if they pass, they make a defensive fire at short range …. which is 4 dice. What was repeatedly happening was that French columns were getting hammered and thrown back, taking those high casualties that we see in the final analysis.

Now maybe this is fair as the French did not support the attacks with artillery or pre-charge fire, or spend more time in line firing, but never-the-less, it just sucked the colour out of the French day! So something to think about there …. Perhaps I should run a couple of the actions again, but with a commercial set of rules and see if the French casualty rate gets a more gentle handling while still using columns.

Finally - thank you Henry Hyde, your booklet has given me a few weeks of pleasure at and away from the gaming table. For something that I cobbled together and ran as a solo affair, it gave a really tight game. I was still unsure in the 3 PM turn whether to allow Schwarzenberg to counter-attack and had he had his infantry with him, I think I would have gone with that, such was the closeness in my mind of outcome - and that says much about a good playing experience to me.

Thanks to all those who have followed this over a number of posts - you have earned your Field Marshal’s Baton!

Resources;

The previous post covering the 1 PM turn. LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/fighting-at-church-pursuit-of-vi-corps.html

My COMMANDERS site, which is another bit of webspace I use for snippet based stuff. LINK 

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html