Playing an AI game (Napoleonic)

A couple of posts ago, I described an AI attempt at creating a Napoleonic wargame scenario (link at foot of this post)

Today I put it on the table to see whether it had been able to pull together enough to give a good scenario that showed at least some sense of balance.

Now before we start, I shall say that I had my doubts - so let’s see how it holds up!

The instruction to the AI was to create a Napoleonic French attack against an Austrian held farmhouse. It called the generated scenario ‘The Kaiser’s Kitchen Garden - 1809. It game me general instructions, an order of battle and what it called a map, but which looked like a photo reconstruction of a gaming table.

Briefly, this is what I was given;

The above is a map, it is very pretty, though has some problems like two edges being described as North!

It describes the terrain as Stream (difficult), farmhouse (Heavy Cover) and orchard (light cover).

It set objectives as being for the French to clear out the farmhouse and for the Austrians to hold on to it. The game would last for 10 turns. On turn 6, the Austrians would receive a reinforcement.

Orders-of-Battle

French - 2 x reliable line infantry, 1 x Voltigeur Company, a 6 pdr artillery section and a squadron of Hussars.

Austrian - 1 x Average German fusilier battalion (in the farmhouse) 1 x Elite Grenzer company with the trait of good shot (in the farmhouse), 1 x low quality Landwehr battalion arriving on Turn 6 from the east as a reinforcement.

To make this work with my own rules, I split the farmhouse into two Built Up Areas. The courtyard occupied by the fusiliers is one BUA and the buildings, occupied by Grenzer riflemen, being the other.

Special Rules;

Whenever artillery fire rolls a ‘6’, it creates a breach in the walls of the farmhouse.

Stubborn Austrians - once per game, an Austrian unit in the farmhouse can re-take a failed morale test.

I am using 28mm figures on a 4’ x 3½’ table with my Eagles at Quatre Bras rules. I do not have painted Grenzer skirmishers or Voltigeurs, so a few unpainted models grace the table …. I won’t tell if you don’t! 

Anyway off we go (this will be brief).

Turn 1 - The French line battalions enter the table in front of the farmhouse, but stay out of musket / rifle range. The Voltigeurs make a dash for the cover of the orchard. On the right, the artillery battery arrives with a Hussar escort.

The Grenzers fire at the Voltigeurs from the farmhouse windows and inflict the first casualties of the game.

Turn 2 - The French artillery deploys, facing the side of the farmhouse. The Voltigeurs (now in the orchard) and Grenzers plug away at each other.

Turns 3 - 5, nothing significant enough to comment on ….. other than the French battery commander is not having a good day!

Turn 6 - being halfway through the scenario, the French guns have not done anything of note and the French now feel compelled to get the infantry assault underway. They advance in line towards the farm.

The Austrian Landwehr arrives and reaches the bridge over the stream.

Turn 7 - The French guns switch target and direct their fire at the Landwehr, they must have suddenly woken up! because their fire is deadly, inflicting 3 hits (and rolling two sixes, which would have breached the farmhouse walls if that had been the target!). The Landwehr fall back and the French Hussars move up to discourage them further.

The right hand side French battalion, still disordered (maroon marker below) from moving through the hedge, goes into assault column, while the other, still in line, puts down fire.

Turn 8 - A random Event allows the French to inflict ‘confused orders’ on the Landwehr and they are moved back onto the bridge.

The French guns re-direct their fire back towards the farmhouse, hoping to breach the walls.

The French assault column attacks the farmhouse, but they fail their attack test, so they still attack, but it is classed as a ‘half hearted’ attack (lose 3 dice). Even so, they do enough to push the line infantry out, but the Austrians implement the AI special rule that gives the occupiers of the farmhouse a bonus morale check, they take it and pass …. So they stay!

Turn 9 - The French column halts to catch its breathe (in my rules nothing can charge on consecutive turns - things with lungs need a rest!). The Grenzers, still firing from windows, inflict another hit on the Voltiguers, forcing them to retire out of the orchard ….. there is not enough time left for them to return and make any difference.

Turn 10 - French artillery and a line infantry unit both fire into the farmhouse. The Austrian infantry battalion now has 5 hits and they fail their morale test and run out through the rear of the farmhouse. With the main resistance gone, the French column assaults the farmhouse and in the last attack of the game, they inflict 3 hits on the Grenzers, which is enough to see them waver and abandon the complex ………. The last die roll (once again!) has given us a result - it is a French win.

At the start of this post, I said that I didn’t have much hope for this being a good scenario ….. turns out it was very good and very entertaining and I was never quite sure which side would win, suggesting good game balance.

However, once you start rolling dice in a wargame, it becomes dynamic and can go off in all sorts of directions - what if the French artillery had managed to breach the walls, particularly much earlier on in the game. That would have almost certainly brought an earlier French assault and once taken, I imagine the farmhouse would be quite difficult to re-take with the forces that the Austrians have to hand, though the effort to do so might make for good play and narrative. 

So just because this game was tight all the way through and it went down to the wire, doesn’t mean it will do that every time, but doesn’t that apply to everything we play?

Of course above anything else, it reminds us, if a reminder was ever needed, that small games with just a few units can be very entertaining.

The AI gave some helpful rules that made a difference, such as the one off bonus morale test that the Austrians in the farmhouse were able to take, plus a couple of bits that we didn’t get into the game, one being artillery breaching the walls and the other being a possible interaction between the hussars and the landwehr.

I enjoyed this enough to run it again with another set of rules, perhaps a set a bit more geared towards the low unit count.

 

Resources

The blog that examined where AI is up to today in the wargame world - LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/03/thinking-aloud-ai.html

I have a separate bit of webspace (COMMANDERS) that is more snippet based than here. LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com

The AI software that I used was Google’s Gemini - I just asked for a scenario for Napoleonic French attacking a Farmhouse occupied by Austrians.