Marching to the Drums

Back to Napoleonics with  new but familiar rules. We had a gathering of the usual suspects in Zak's deluxe game room to play the Battle of Golymin & Pultusk "La Grande Battle" (26 December 1806) generously provided by the C&C webpage for free. So chosen because we played on December 26th, the 210th anniversary of the actual battle. The scenario required the French to attack and capture a hill and towns on the right. The battle on the left was to be a holding action to allow the Russian army to withdraw. Russians got victory points for withdrawing units from the centre. The Russian generals elected not to withdraw as they felt like fighting instead (to their credit). We spent about 90 minutes setting up as both armies were large and we followed the scenario set up that took some effort to get right. The battle itself went quickly with the French pressing toward the objectives and driving the Russians back. The game system requires cards to play in each section of the field (left, centre or right) and both sides quickly used their quota trying to gain advantage. The result was that the objective side of the battle ground to a halt and the centre and left became the focus. The game played quickly and the French pulled off a win through casualties without getting any actual tabletop objectives. A fun game and a good opportunity to get my figures on the board. The rules worked pretty well although the Russians are at a disadvantage because their infantry are only 3 stands compared to the French 4. A good ruleset for playing a really big battle in a small amount of time.