Converting boardgame to figures - Jena

 

Firstly, thank you to those who have recently started following the blog, your visible support is appreciated.

Following on from the last post (link below), having played the Jena - Auerstaedt scenario from the Napoleon at War boardgame, a situation occurring in that game has been lifted from the game to create a DBN figures scenario.

The below photo shows the part of the boardgame map and the included units that caught my interest.

The situation has the French on the attack, their immediate aim is to cause casualties (victory points) and capture the village of Lutzeroda, which stands in their way. It is turn 6 in the game, so the early morning fog has lifted.

The DBN rules (for figures) for napoleonic corps level battles, use armies of roughly 12 bases per side. The situation here was close to that, with three French Divisions worth of troops and also it offered an independent action from everything else occurring on the map, allowing us to easily isolate it.

The next photo (below) shows the initial sketch that I made which set the groundwork for the conversion.

There was an immediate problem. The boardgame does not have any command and control rules that causes divisions to be kept together. So even though the counters are give designations such as the 1st Infantry Brigade of Suchet's Division, the integrity of that division doesn't matter in the game and so the hierarchy of units / formations quickly becomes a bit of a mess during play, as individual units are allowed to do their fancy footwork to get them in positions that the players deems the most useful and a lot of intermixing of units goes on.

So my first attempt at creating an exact order of battle based around two or three unified named divisions failed.

Anyway, not only did this complicate matters, but it stopped being true to the situation that the boardgame had given us, as it got rid of things like the presence of guard units that had got caught up in the mix etc. 

In fact, I needn't have bothered worrying about this as DBN's command structure is from the corps level (army level for bigger games) looking straight down to a collection of individual brigades, which may group together. The thing of actual divisions within that hierarchy doesn't strictly matter in the system, rather units will start the game grouped into blocks, which I suppose in one respect is very similar to what a divisional organisation looks like and is handled abstractly here. The advantage of these blocks are that all units within the block can be activated as one force, with just a single command point and that is very efficient.

The question then became where and how should blocks exist at set-up? I decided to look for locations where two or more units from the same division existed and to then build each block around them. 

So, (a) consider their positions in the boardgame and then (b)  loosely place those units into blocks that match in our minds eye as to where the various divisions might sit.

So ..... next (below), we are able to have a simpler schematic of what is needed by putting the units present into divisional sized blocks. DBN allows a block (group) to comprise of up to 7 units, but it seems that 3 - 4 units is a typical average. 

Now the schematic fits the map without anything being forced. For example in the French centre, the game had two infantry brigades from Gazan's division, so we can take those two units, plus a couple of other nearby units and group them into a block and in design terms, think of them all as being Gazan's Division.  

It turns out that we can visualise our French force as comprising of three divisions, Suchet, Gazan and Desjardins, and so we end up with three 'blocks' of French units at the start.

In the real battle, Suchet and Gazan were is Lannes V Corps, so we may as well have him as the French commander for the sake of giving the commander a name (don't forget, the boardgame does not have command). The Prussians are a bit more fragmented as mentioned below.

And so it is time to start building up a scenario, which of course needs a map. (Below) An area was marked out on watercolour paper and the key terrain features were added in simple form. In essence the Prussian / Saxon forces were broadly on high ground, the boardgame hill is quite irregular and a little convoluted, but we can simplify it here. A contour line was penned in and a slight change to colour was used to show that higher ground. Some watercolour paint was added to give a coloured map. In the photo, the paper is still wet, so it is a little bowed. It does dry flat though.

Finally, I photographed this and ran it through Logoist 6 (Mac) to add units and text and then cropped it to get the final graphic (below), which I think serves well to represent what was going on in the boardgame. 

We have already described the French force. The Prussian force is in two parts. Hohenlohe is the commander. All units to his left are Prussian. One line infantry unit occupies Lutzeroda. All units to the right are Saxon allies. We might think of this total force being organised around two divisions(one Prussian, the other Saxon), though it is divided into more groups, as the Saxons are a little stretched to cover the frontage of the centre / right adequately (see the gaps between units in the original boardgame situation) making initial control a little more awkward (costly in command points).

DBN uses 'groups' as part of its command system. The Prussian army starts with 5 groups. There are a group of 4 units, (being physically adjacent to each other is important in defining a block) on the left flank. A lone unit is in the village and a lone light infantry unit is behind the woods. In front of the woods are 2 blocks, each of two units. 

This fragmented force will be expensive in command points to direct and so on most turns, with limited Prussian command points likely (a D6 minus 1), only the units that most urgently need command (to move) will get it.

Now we need to look at the DBN rules together with the situation in the boardgame and the official orders-of-battle to build this scenario. The following are to be taken into account;

The maths of unit numbers involved means that once an army suffers 4 units destroyed, it loses the game.

The situation on the map involved a French attack, it was a bit pedestrian to get going in the boardgame, but over several turns, the Prussians were pretty much destroyed as a fighting force. To encourage the French to take the battle to the Prussians, we shall say that if they capture the village of Lutzeroda, they instantly win.

The hill slope in the boardgame has a defensive bonus and in DBN units on the higher ground get a bonus in melee, so that all works without further tweaking. Making the hill difficult terrain would be overkill.

In the real battle, the troops under Hohenlohe had some jägers (light skirmishing infantry), so we will give one company of jäger to the Saxons. In DBN, jäger must start attached to a light infantry unit, so they will be placed touching the unit already behind the woods. In terms of points and unit numbers, this brings the armies closer together. In the figures game, this is an addition, bringing something to the party that the boardgame doesn't recognise at its scale.

In the boardgame, the Saxon infantry units have slightly lower strengths. In the DBN army lists for 1806, the Saxons allies count as Militia (just dampens them down a tad with a -1), so that deals with that.

In reality, Prussian / Saxon cavalry were excellent, so under DBN they will have the status of 'Superior', but it only kicks in when fighting against French light cavalry. This is not represented in the boardgame.

All cavalry on the table is classed as light.

In the boardgame, the French have two very powerful units, which belonged to the guard. The foot artillery on their right has strength 10 and the infantry line unit left of centre has a whopping strength 11. Here we will simply describe both of those units as elite to reflect that, which is enough to give them a leg up in the DBN game. 

The DBN army lists require that French 1806 army commanders get a +1 to their command roll (good), while the Prussians get a -1 (bad). By chance this helps represent what was happening in the boardgame as there was a numbers advantage with the French having 56 strength points Vs 37 points for the Prussians, so we can use this command differential to recognise that French advantage by other means.

In DBN, an 1806 Prussian musket armed unit has limited range to reflect the lack of skirmishers. To avoid the French sitting off and just shooting, we can put a time limit of 10 turns on the game (that might need tweaking after a play test) and say that if a winner has not been established by the end of Turn 10 .... The Prussians automatically win! 

This should encourage some French aggression and perhaps have them move early to capture Lutzeroda, but who knows? our Prussians may feel obliged to counter-attack ...... which they did in the boardgame. In DBN, the Prussian infantry get an uplift in close combat .... so the game may default along the lines of the French wanting to fire and the Prussians wanting to close and fight ..... that is if the Prussian command limitations can get them to the right place at the right time!

And so there it is. I have no doubt missed something that a first playing will pick up .... and so a play test comes next.

Today I put together (mostly unpainted) the bases that are needed specifically for this battle to be fought using the Warlord Games Epic figures that I have recently bought. However the needed smaller scale terrain (buildings and trees) which have been ordered, are still on the way to me, so for a first game, I will likely use my 28's and proxy the Austrians for the Prussian force (at least the white uniforms of the Saxon allies will be hinted at :-) ). 

Much of this preparation will be commented upon over at my Commanders site over coming days.

RESOURCES.

I have another bit of webspace called COMMANDERS that is more snippet based than here and gets updated more frequently. LINK

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

Here is a link to the previous post that covers the playing of the boardgame.

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/10/jena-auerstaedt-1806-boardgame.html

Jena - Auerstaedt 1806 (boardgame)

At the moment I am looking at the Jena-Auerstaedt battlefield, with a view to designing some scenarios for the DBN rules (figures). A trawl of the game shelves reveals 4 titles that cover the battle. Today I have pulled down the Napoleon at War Quad, as recently republished in a deluxe version by Decision Games.

As a game, I thought it would better help me to understand the flow / tempo of the battle from a top down perspective.

The battles of Jena and Auerstaedt were fought on the same day, just a few miles apart as separate actions between Napoleon’s French and the Prussians (with some Saxon allies) and so it is that our game board (below) is divided into two areas of action (Jena on left, Auerstaedt on the right).

Between the two maps you can see a pair of ‘Transition’ tracks. These allow the French (only) to move between one battlefield and the other, although that does take a few turns.

With some confusion as to French positions, the Prussians had divided their own army into two parts. Five divisions were to cross the Saale River (this force is on the Auerstaedt map), while a smaller force of 48,000 men under the command of Prince Hohenlohe was left at Jena as a rearguard to that movement.

At the start of play we get two options. Fours days earlier, Prussian and Saxon forces (8,000 men) were routed at Saalfeld. Had Prince Louis been more cautious, that force would instead have been available to Prussians on the 14th and Saxon morale would have been better. The option is to include those routed units in the game.

The second option allows the Prussian player to decide against splitting the army, resulting in the Auerstaedt map not being used.

For this playing, I have ignored both options, so as to go with a more historical based game.

Turns 1 - 3 are night turns, units move normally but cannot move adjacent to an enemy unit. The combat part of the sequence of play is ignored. The effect is that the Prussians are able to take up positions that largely contain the French on the Jena map.

Turns 4 - 5 are Fog turns, unit movement rates are halved and rounded down. Since the Prussian infantry and artillery standard rates are three movements points, they get reduced to 1 MP and this hurts them. At Jena 2/Tau (Prussian) are surrounded and destroyed. At Auerstaedt, just one division of French enter the map and hold Hassen-Hausen. A Prussian juggernaut approaches, but they are of course plodding at just 1 MP per turn!

Photo below - it is turn 6, at Auerstaedt the French division ( Gudin of Davout’s III Corps) is still alone, but Friant’s Division is about to enter play … just in time. The situation at Auerstaedt is quite delicate / nuanced as both side have low demoralisation levels, so some caution is needed by both sides.

Below - The Prussians put their initial attack in against Hassen-Hausen. They have been forced to act quickly, before they can get their artillery into support positions, in order to strike before Friant engages. The attack fails.

Photo Below - it is still turn 6, across at Jena the French are ready to push westwards towards Lutzeroda. There is a situation here that has the potential to be lifted and used at a future point in a figures game. With units representing brigades, this is a good fit and size for a basic DBN figures game. I have marked the units with a black rectangle to set the scene for a future game (watch this space).

Turn 7 - Decisive moments, the Prussian / Saxon forces at Jena are badly mauled, they take enough losses to become ‘Demoralised’. This is serious, it allows the French to start exiting the map for VP’s and in all future combats, the Prussian / Saxons will fight at a disadvantage of a 1 column shift against their favour.

Over at Auerstaedt, Morand’s Divison have arrived to support Gudin and Friant, this dampens down Prussian enthusiasm for aggression, the forces are now broadly equalised and the French are still anchored on  Hassen-Hausen.

Turn 8 - at Auerstaedt, Gudin gets trapped and loses one brigade, it is only luck that saves the other brigade!

Turn 9 - At Jena, the Prussians continue to suffer heavy losses, a tipping point has been reached and they are getting overwhelmed …. However the French have also lost units to two Exchange results.

Turn 10 - At Jena, French reinforcements continue to arrive, the Prussians face utter destruction. At Auerstaedt both sides have had an opportunity to turn the battle and failed, the stalemate continues around Hassen-Hausen.

Turn 11 - Photo below showing Auerstaedt. Here the French have had the worst if it and have now gone ‘Demoralised’.

     

Turn 12 (last turn) - The French have total dominance at Jena, but they only manage to exit 46 strength points from the map - not enough for the 125 needed for the victory points. At Auerstaedt, the Prussian take Hassen-Hausen. With the French over here demoralised, they are now on the back foot.

Victory Points;

Prussians lose 73 points of strength, the French lose 48 = no VPs

Prussians Demoralised at Jena = 1 French VP

French Demoralised at Auerstaedt = 2 Prussian VP

The French didn’t get 125 strength points off the Jena map and the Prussians didn’t keep their losses below 48 so neither of those two things give VP’s

So 2 Prussian VP’s to 1 French VP = the Prussians win a Marginal Victory.

Conclusions;

That was an enjoyable, fast paced game. The system is quite simple, more game than simulation, but it does its job in being fun, telling a story and being accessible enough to actually get to the table!

The number of requirements by both sides keeps the game varied and a good competition between both sides. 

I would like to play the scenario again as I now have a better idea of what is required from both sides.

The three concepts that I would like to test explore are; How can the French get 125 strength points off the Jena map in the scenario time available. How likely is it that the French will use the transit track to get from one battlefield to the other. How do the Austrians at Jena engage in a rearguard without getting destroyed as zones of control are sticky.

It was nice to see a situation naturally occurring on the Jena map that can be taken to the figures table. I will at least investigate the order of battle it threw up and draw up a suitable map. 

Resources;

I have another bit of web space over at COMMANDERS that is a bit more snippet base than here - LINK

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

I recently played Marengo from this same package and did a loooong blog write-up - LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/05/marengo-june-1800-napoleon-at-war.html

All things Jena Auerstaedt

Starting out with the Epic scale for DBN armies, I have something of a blank canvas. My Napoleonic 28’s are French / Austrian, so I wanted to take the opportunity to field something different and the Prussians are where my gaze has fallen. So the Epic project will see a pairing of newly formed French / Prussian Pocket Armies.

Rather than just going with some generic forces to fight some generic actions (which is fine), selecting a theatre / battle might just impart some extra flavour on the play and so my shelves were scanned for inspiration. 

‘Boom’ as the cool generation are saying! Jena - Auerstaedt 1806.

I have a rather beautiful book on the subject, Jena Auerstaedt - The Triumph of the Eagle, from the pen of E.G. Hourtoulle and published by Historie & Collections. 

A 120 page hardback, it is chock full of illustration, including lovely full colour uniform plates and nice clear maps of the actions, while also supported by a very readable text on the battle and good orders of battle and organisation notes - it is a dream book for the wargamer!

Alone, that would be enough for me, but my beady eye noticed that I also have four boardgames on the Jena Auerstaedt subject;

The Coming Storm by Kevin Zucker from Operation Support Studies.

Trois Batailles en Allemagne by Didier Rouy from Pratzen Editions and Legion Games.

Jena - Auerstaedt, one of the old Napoleon at War Quads (SPI), recently republished by Decision Games.

Deux Années de Gloire, of the Jours de Gloire series, published by Vae Victis

If nothing else, this offers a ton of play opportunity and will allow me to really get a detailed appreciation of the battle(s) and also, there will be that thing of some situations created in the boardgame playings, being suitable for transfer to the figure table, where they might generate some interesting set-ups for the DBN armies.

Despite all of this marvellous detail in front of me, of late, I have enjoyed prioritising theme and flavour on the figures table above exact replication of history and so I will be using the Jena - Auerstaedt arena to that end.

Having a quick look at the characteristics given in DBN of my two 1806 armies, The Prussians get a -1 to their command point allowance, their musketry range is reduced to reflect their lack of skirmishing capability, they get a bonus in close combat and cannot use column for assault.

The French get a +1 to their command point allowance and an additional bonus when using column attack.

These differences might bring some additional interest to the table.

Anyway, this all seems fertile ground for a lot of near future napoleonic gaming on my table.

Resources;

I have other web space at the COMMANDERS site, where more on this will be written about over the coming weeks. LINK.

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

Marengo June 1800 (Napoleon at War)

Marengo is one of the four battles in the recently released deluxe boardgame version of ‘Napoleon at War’ by Decision Games.

The original Napoleon at War ‘quad’ was published in 1975 by SPI. It presented the battles of Marengo, Jena-Auerstadt, Wagram and Leipzig. Each with their own map and having less than 100 game counters. 

A seven page rule book services all four battles, with each battle then having some historically based special rules. This is  driven by a system that is at the very low end of complexity.

Marengo is the smallest affair of the four battles and also described as the simplest and so becomes a good place for us to start. 

The original games had single sided counters with their backs blank. Here the counter rears are used to show which hex the unit sets up in, which battle the counter belongs to and whether the unit enters as a reinforcement. This is a great help in setting up the game and faster than using the supplied rosters.

Above - Here is our Marengo map with units in their starting positions. The Austrians (yellow) can be thought of as having just advanced onto the board, passing through Alessandria and advancing across constricted terrain with the intention of capturing the villages where the two dice are shown and going on to destroy the French Army. 

The villages of Pietrabona (white die) and Marengo (red die) are victory locations. The very pale blue waterway is impassable river (except at bridges) the darker blue is the Fontanone Stream. It is crossable along its length, but being a sort of steep sided ditch, it is defensible to the defender and expensive to cross in terms of movement points.

The ditch offers a good defensive line and the Austrians will need to get across this if they are going to contest Marengo beyond it.

Historically the outnumbered French did a good job at holding on, but eventually they were pushed out of Marengo, falling  back onto that high ground in the middle of the map with the Austrians in Pursuit. At this point the Austrians were pretty sure that they had won a victory …. But! A significant French counter-attack then pushed the Austrians all the way back to their starting positions. Napoleon is popularly quoted as saying “I lost the Battle of Marengo at 5 O’ Clock and won it back at 7”. This may not have fallen from Napoleon’s lips, but it nicely summarises the day.

Important stuff - The system scale is 400 - 800 metres to the hex. The Marengo map says it is using 400 metres to the hex. Units represent brigades and demi-brigades (though in Leipzig units are divisions with their artillery absorbed into the divisional counter). Zones of Control are what are commonly termed ‘sticky’, so that once units engage, they will only disengage following a combat result. This greatly matters because combat between adjacent units is mandatory, so units that get locked together with opponents are forced to fight.

There is some scripting going on in the game. On turn 1, the French can’t move more than half their movement allowance and cannot enter an Austrian Zone of Control. From turn 9 onwards the French can announce their main counter-attack. For three consecutive turns, all French attacks will be enhanced to double strength (defence remains normal).

The victory conditions look at the proximity of friendly units to the villages of Pietrabona and Marengo, together with casualty rates. To win, the French need only control Marengo and the area around it, while the Austrians need to control both villages.

This is a 14 turn game and the general rules say that a game turn represents between 1 - 2 hours, so since the numbered game track does not include the time, I am going to assume, for the sake of narrative, that in the Marengo battle, 1 turn is 1 hour and that this is a full days fighting (which it was).

Playing the game.

I was not to know it yet, but success for the Austrians in the early turns is essential for them. On Turn 1 (shall we call it 8 AM)  the lead Austrian units make contact with the French, just outside Pietrabona, but they are repulsed!

Turn 2 (9 AM) - The next set of Austrian attacks are also repulsed. The French stay on the defence and simply choose  to develop their line, while some reinforcements move across the hill to occupy Castel Ceriolo village on the western slopes.

Turn 3 (10 AM) - The initial Austrian failures means that they are becoming rather bottled up against a firm defence and they do not have the space to adequately deploy against the French in a decisive way.

[Historical notes - The French did a good job at holding the Austrians back, but by 10 AM the Austrians had taken Pietrabona and were attacking across the Fontanone Stream].

Turn 4 (11 AM) - Above - The French still hold a firm line, but the Austrians have given themselves a little more room to breathe. That Austrian strength 7 counter (Latterman’s Brigade) is making space, but is now very vulnerable to counter-attack!

Turn 5 (12 noon) How is it possible to roll so many sixes! (Bad).

Turns 6 - 8 (1 - 3 PM) The Austrians finally take Pietrabona! The French re-take it. The Austrians capture it again ….. and the French retake it!

[Historical notes - by now, the French are over the Fontanone and they have taken Marengo].

Turn 9 (4 PM) - Unsupported Weidenfeld’s Brigade has by-passed Pietrabona and taken Stortingliona a little further south. This is stretching the French line. from this turn onwards the French can announced their 3 turn counter-attack, but at the moment, they don’t have enough troops in the right places to make it worthwhile, so it is delayed. ABOVE photo - Never-the-less their attacks are going well and things are turning in their favour. In the north Murat has just arrived with his cavalry and he is pressing the Austrian left.

[Historical Note - French Consular Guard are destroyed and the Austrians pursue the French towards the higher ground].

Turn 10 (5 PM) the French clear the Austrian threat at Storingliona by destroying Weidenfeld’s Brigade and so now have the spare capacity to launch their three turn counter-attack. They will be doubled in strength on the attack.

Turns 11 & 12 (6 PM - 8 PM) - The French slowly push the Austrians back towards their starting positions, but their extra efforts has seen them suffer heavy casualties and they leave the way open for the Austrians to once again strike at and capture Pietrabona!

[Historical note - at 6 PM the French counter-attacked].

Turn 13 (9 PM) - the fighting is starting to die down, with both sides concentrating their efforts around Pietrabona.

Turn 14 (10 PM) The French ‘mop up’ in the north. At  Pietrabona they put in a 2:1 attack against the village which has a 66% chance of ejecting the Austrians ….. but fail. The game ends with the Austrians controlling Pietrabona, but getting no where near Marengo!

Above - final positions.

Victory - Neither side eliminated the number of enemy strength points needed to raise them a victory, so it just goes by holding  objective conditions. The French only need to hold the area around Marengo with at least 10 strength points, which they did, while Austrians need to hold both of the Pietrabona AND Marengo village hexes, which they didn’t! So the game declares a French victory, which seems about right as the French certainly had the better game.

Conclusion

The game was enjoyable to play and kept both sides continuously engaged throughout. Those early persistent Austrian failures seem to have pretty much cost them the game. They were generally attacks that had a 50 / 50 chance of pushing the French back and giving themselves room to expand, but the dice were cruel and so on another day, perhaps an Austrian success might show its hand. However today, with so many sixes rolled early on, it was not good for the Austrians and after that, they just couldn’t hope to keep up with the historical timetable.

Containing the Austrians meant that the fight was pretty much kept to the upper left quarter of the map. The terrain here is fairly restricted and troublesome if trying to move or attack into. 

An interesting dynamic is that Austrian infantry generally have a movement allowance of 3 (French generally 4), this starts to matter in the dense terrain as a bad terrain hex costs 2 movement points to move through, so the Austrians are disadvantaged in terms of manoeuvre, often moving at just 1 hex at a time - they need to break out into the open ground.

Early on the French took a decision to defend ‘forwards’ around Peitrabona rather than sitting back behind the defensible Fontanone Stream and I think that worked well for them as it left the Austrians with little space to manoeuvre amongst that constricted terrain and it kept them away from the Fontanone.

Because the system is simple, I had decided to play with the one page of optional rules, but I missed the artillery rule that states that if they move their full movement rate, then they are marked with a ‘limbered’ counter as a reminder that they cannot fire that turn. This of course adds more grief to the Austrian side, as they need to work hard to bring up their guns to support those early attacks.

Even though the Austrians today were banging their head against a brick wall, (we might well call it Peitabona’s Wall!) it was still fun to play them and it gave a good game, but I would like to see a game that opened things up to be a bit closer to the historical narrative, simply because I want to see that range of results demonstrated and to know that the historical is possible. I would happily play the scenario again.

It is the case that the game is putting playability above simulation and so you may not find the Marengo that ‘you’ are looking for here. If you think of it as a themed game in which a correct order of battle and terrain are largely informing play and that some things happen that are typically guarded against in more sophisticated designs such as cavalry not being able to attack villages / towns or artillery being restricted when moving in some types of terrain etc.

The engine is so solid that if these things mattered too much, you could easily introduced them as house rules, but overall one has to balance these things against getting a game that is highly playable.

EDIT - I have just played a second game and though I got another French victory, it played differently.

The Austrians were able to fight their way into Marengo, but with tremendous losses and so when the French counter-attack came, it overpowered the reduced Austrian army and pushed them back across the Fontanone - though they kept hold of Peitrabona.

Above - Marengo is in the hex under the blue die. The top end of the map generated a lot of tense play. The French pushed into that wing but suddenly found themselves facing potentially surround attacks. The Austrian attack that really mattered could only fail on a ‘6’ ….. so of course that is what they rolled! Within a turn or two, the tables had turned and the French destroyed the Austrian left, capturing the bridge leading to Alessandria. Strategically this would have cut the Austrian retreat route and so our French victory today is all the more total for that ….. but my point is, had the Austrians won that elusive attack, it would have turned the tables on the French and so I still have hope that the Austrians can win in this game! 

Historically, the Austrians contested Marengo and then had enough steam to pursue the French back to the higher ground and after a couple of games, I am not seeing that, though the designer notes give the impression that it is a potential outcome, but they also suggest that the French should not be drawn into playing a ‘forward’ defence, while my limited play experience leaves me feeling that they should. 

I am playing face to face on Friday evening, so there is another opportunity to explore all of this.

Further EDIT - The face to face has been played and another French victory, again the Austrians suffered high losses and didn’t get across the Fontanone Stream and consequently did not reach Marengo. 

We both felt that either the French 3 turn counter-attack at double attacking strength felt misplaced OR that the Austrian can’t really match the historical timetable in the morning by getting to Marengo by 10 AM (around turns 3-4) ….. or even at all, if the French defend forwards and keep the Austrians contained. 

For now, I will park it and move onto the other scenarios, just so the entire package can be explored, but I would like to come back to Marengo. Once again the rules stayed in the box (good), it met our short play goal (good), we enjoyed the play (good) …. but, a Marengo without a Marengo, that’s not so good. I will start to read through CSW and BGG for posts on the original print and see if I can pick up any tips there.

Final Edit - I have played the scenario a fourth time, but made an adjustment to the rules. For the French, their turn 1 movement restrictions are now also imposed on turn 2. For the Austrians, on their first two turns, they have their attack (only) strength doubled. This is not as drastic as it sounds as they Austrians have few attack opportunities on the first few turns and it just helps ensure that DR happens more than AR.

Both tweaks are already present in the scenario, so it is not introducing something too new, rather it is just expanding the designers thoughts of 50 years ago.

Together, the tweaks serve to ensure that during the morning, the French are encouraged to develop their defences on ‘their’ side of the Fontenone Stream, giving the Austrians a timely jump off point to assault Marengo, while still ensuring that there is plenty of fight and contest going on before Marengo falls.

My game did give me that, but the French hung on and took heavy casualties. In this system, once one side ‘thins’ the other side has more opportunity to overwhelm, break through or turn flanks and start to cut the enemy retreat and this is what happened here.

In the end the French were desperate for their reinforcements just to hold the line, rather than going on the counter-attack and re-taking Marengo. So we end with a very clear Austrian victory.

The scenario was more fun to play than the previous ones of a ‘contained’ Austrian force, but it would need to be played a few more times to make sure that there is also the chance of a French victory. The teaks may have given us the right opening and a good contest for Marengo, but if they fail to show the French counter-attack in all of its glory, then we still have a problem.

For the next play, I may remove Austrian double strength attacks for turns 1 & 2 and just stick with the French movement restrictions for turns 1 & 2 and see how that goes. Regardless, four enjoyable games of Marengo in just a couple of weeks without the rulebook being used is its own minor victory.  

Complexity - The box rear scores this 1 out of 5 (Minimal Complexity) and it is absolutely right. I looked at the rules once during play! The rules are very close to the Blue & Gray rules. This is reinforced when I set up and played the second and third game without using the rule book at all.

Size - The maps are bigger than the originals due to bigger hexes being employed, but still only come in at 22” x 25½”, so the map and a play aid card don’t take up much room. The hexes are at a comfortable size. This is a quick play game, so the family dining table can be hijacked without disturbing meals etc.

 

Solitaire - This is a two player game, that plays fine solo. I played this game (and the second game) solo and had no trouble what-so-ever.

Time - The box describes these games as playable in 1 - 2 hours. One might assume that with Marengo being the easiest of the four battles, that it would be coming in nearer the 1 hour mark, but both my games came in at a tad over 2 hours each, while the third came in at 1 hour 45 mins of actual play, but we ended that game 4 turns early because the Austrian situation was untenable.

Resource Section.

My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’  showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.

https://commanders.simdif.com