Over Christmas I had the opportunity to play test one Mark Smith's Napoleonic battles - in this case Borodino, 7 September 1812. We first fought this in 2018, at the OWS club.
For this playtest Mark had changed the orientation of the map so that instead of a deep battlefield, we had a wide battlefield. This made flanks less secure and opened up the possibility of flanking manoeuvres.
We got to halfway through move 7 (the French go first, so French move 7, Russians move 6) before we ran out of time (not helped by my being ill for part of the time). We also had to fit in shopping trips, etc, which is why we played over 3 days. This is a really huge battle and would probably be better played by two teams of three or two, but with just two players per side, it is very do-able!
My thanks go to Mark for putting the game on, writing the scenario and providing the troops!
Here are some pics of the game. All taken mid-game, so there's some paraphernalia lying around.
Early stages:
Russian right - white squares show that these forces cannot move until turns 3 or 4.
A great example of how BBB can really take on those extra large conflicts. ELC doesn't really stand out as a name.
ReplyDeleteThanks! BBB does cover what we do!
DeleteNice report, Colin. Having now played the rejigged scenario myself - https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2023/01/borodino-majestic.html - I can confirm it opens the flanks up for manoeuvre but also still has a real sense of the depth of the Russian position. Good to see the Raevsky redoubt can be taken! We managed to finish the game in four hours' play, as we were unimpeded by shopping, though I did have to buy some batteries on the way home. Luckily the table was covered with mnemonics to remind me (foot, horse, heavy, grand ...).
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