Napoleonic Wargame using (heavily modified) One Hour Wargame AAR

      The Housemartin showed up a little while ago with a set of rules called One Hour Wargames and some modifications that he had put together to give it a more Napoleonic feel. A decent set of Napoleonic rules being one of the "Holy Grails" of wargaming (lucky dice being one of the others) I was instantly intrigued. We set up a test game and were quite pleased with the results. A few more tests,  and a few more tweaks. and we were even happier with what we had in hand. We are still refining the idea (and I hope to get The Housemartin to authorize a "final version" of the modifications for publication soon) but I'm satisfied enough with the basic mechanics to provide an after action report on one of our games. This scenario can be played with any other Napoleonic rule-set which has the infantry battalion as a basic maneuver unit.



      Please note that under these rules figures are not removed, instead units suffer "hits". After a certain number the unit becomes "tired" a few more and the unit becomes "exhausted" few few further hits and the unit fails morale entirely and runs away. This is expressed as follows; Standard Infantry 8/12/15. Elite troops are given higher morale ratings and troops that are particularly proficient may also gain a "+1" modifier to their die-rolls.

     The scenario is an encounter battle between two forces, each sent to turn the flank of the opposing army. Both sides enjoy limited pre-battle scouting reports (of rather dubious accuracy, it turns out) and must plan their approach-march prior to actually seeing the table, this will dictate the order of appearance for their army so proper planning is crucial.

French Commander

The situation is dire the enemy had anticipated our surprise attack and was prepared. The battle has dragged on all day and our force is being battered. One bright spot has appeared; on our left flank scouts have discovered that the enemy has only some widely dispersed light troops guarding the critical road to the Monora Pass. If you can gain control of that vital pass we can turn the enemy's position and drive them from the area.

To take advantage of this development the CinC has given command of the army's reserve. Three fresh brigades of cavalry, three brigades of fresh troops and all our remaining batteries (two of which is are precious horse artillery batteries). Your mission is to drive off the enemy light troops and secure the road to the Monora Pass.

Your troops are as follows;

Infantry Division

1x battery medium artillery

1^st Brigade    4x battalions standard line infantry

2^nd Brigade    4x battalions standard line infantry

3^rd Brigade     2xbattalions line infantry*

                        2x battalions of light troops*

Cavalry Division

2 x batteries Horse Artillery

1^st Cavalry Brigade    2 x Regiments of standard Horse

2^nd Cavalry Brigade    2 x Regiments of standard Horse

3^rd Light Cavalry Brigade    2x Regiments of Chassuers

Standard French Infantry and guns are Morale Status 8/12/15

Standard French Cavalry are Morale Status 8/12/15

Standard French Light Cavalry are Morale 8/11/16 can “Evade” and take not casualties for it

*these troops are two battalions of Standard Light Troops (+0, 8/12/15, Skirmish and Evade) and two battalions of the elite 57^th Regiment of the Line “Les Terribles” (+1, 10/13/16)

 

the blank table with scouting information 

north is to the left

the French forces

Spanish Commander

The situation is dire the enemy had anticipated our surprise attack and was prepared. The battle has dragged on all day and our army is being battered. One spot of light has appeared on our right flank scouts have discovered that the enemy has only some widely dispersed light troops guarding the critical road to the Monora Pass.

To take advantage of this development the CinC has given command of the army's reserve. Two fresh brigades of cavalry, three brigades of fresh troops and all four remaining batteries (one of which is a precious horse artillery battery). Your mission is to drive off the enemy light troops and secure the road to the Monora Pass.

Your troops are as follows;

Infantry Division

2 x batteries medium artillery

1^st Brigade    4x battalions standard line infantry

2^nd Brigade    4x battalions standard line infantry

3^rd Brigade    3xbattalions line infantry*

                       2x battalions of light troops*

Cavalry Division

1 x battery Horse Artillery

1 x Battery medium artillery

1^st Cavalry Brigade 3 x Regiments of standard Horse

2^nd Cavalry Brigade 3 x Regiments of standard Horse

Standard Spanish Infantry and guns are Morale Status 8/12/15

Spanish Cavalry are Morale Status 8/11/14

*these troops are freshly trained and equipped by the British, their skills are not battle-tested but they have great morale; when first engaged in fighting roll 1d6 per battalion, on a 1-3 they act as standard troops, 4-6 they are -1 foot, regardless their morale is 9/12/16. The light battalions can Evade and Skirmish

the table with scouting information on it 

north is to the right

 

the Spanish forces

The Game

 

turn 1, both sides had cavalry units leading their columns and entered the table to find that the scouting reports were vastly over-inflated, north is to the bottom of the picture

 

by turn 3 the French Light Cavalry brigade had secured the hill that covered the road to the Monora Pass while the Spanish cavalry had boldly dashed down the road to try to stop the French deployment, to a large extent this worked as it made the French fight their way onto the table, behind the cavalry both sides fed infantry brigades into the fray, the Spanish gaining the advantage in securing the town

turn 4, the Spanish cavalry is fading fast but they have held up the French advance long enough for their infantry brigades to move up and secure the town , the French have deployed an infantry brigade in a row of infantry in squares to block the Spanish cavalry  from interfering with the passage of  the remaining French troops onto the table, these French troops marched resolutely toward the Monora Pass, the Spanish foot had run into traffic-control problems in San Fernandino

turn 5, the French have finally cleared their entry-point and sent the Spanish cavalry to the rear in a state of exhaustion, in the village the Spanish volunteers have secured the buildings and are preparing for the oncoming French assault, further north the Spanish have pushed a cavalry brigade forward and the French have countered by adding a dragoon brigade to support the light cavalry and an infantry brigade to cover the northern flank of the town, far to the rear the last of the Spanish foot have arrived (upper left corner of the photo)

 

turn 6, the French are slowly making headway between the woods and San Fernandino but their attacks upon the town have been rudely rebuffed, further north the arrival of the dragoon brigade and infantry support have emboldened the French light cavalry  who have now moved down off the hill to confront the brigade of Spanish horse; this began a series of melees that bloodied both sides cavalry

 

turn7, the French assault on the town continues to go badly but to the south on the road they are  grinding down the Spanish forces, meanwhile north of the village the cavalry fight continues to flow back and forth piling fatigue onto the units involved, far to the rear the last of both sides infantry begin to move into position to engage

 

turn 8, south of the town most of the units involved have become combat-ineffective due to fatigue, the French have given up the fruitless assaults on San Fernandino and have engaged it with musket and cannon fire, north of the town the Spanish cavalry have been punching above their weight but cannot disperse the more numerous French horse, these troops have moved slightly to the north to cover the continued march of the infantry who are trying to gain the road to the Pass

 

turn 9, both sides find that many of their units are badly fatigued and thus are becoming incapable of landing a telling blow, the French continue to extend their left flank in an attempt to secure the road to Monora Pass, the French guns on the hill are keeping the Spanish troops in the town bottled up inside the buildings and both sides have their last reserves hurrying north as fast as they can move

 

turn 9, a closer view of the French turning movement

 

turn 10, with the cavalry nearing morale failure on both sides it had become clear that the French will control the road to the Pass but have little chance of clearing the town, we had been playing for about  two hours at this point and we had hit our time-limit, both sides having accomplished one half of their objectives we decided to call it a draw

     In the post-game discussion over the following days we decided to refine the fatigue system a bit and add a little granularity to fighting in Built Up Areas. With a bit of editing and a few diagrams I hope to cajole The Housemartin into publishing these modifications to the basic rules.