"Where are we, Francois?", the recruit asks of his veteran friend. "Near a bridge somewhere in Russia which the Major is ordered to control. That is all I know and that is more than you need to know", responded the much older and worn French cavalryman.
This could only be the exchange between the miniatures, as I dragged them out of the box, about the rather simple scenario I came up with placing the terrain randomly upon the green mats. As we would have WillB's Russians ( Perry metals ) and JimF's newly painted French (Essex metals) along with my French (Perry) plastics, the small wooden bridge was called the objective for the game. Honestly it was only going to be a playtest of sorts for our "Hussar Rampant" rules; these really just a minor version from the popular 'Lion Rampant' medieval rules.
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| WillB's Russians on the left, JimF's dragoons near the bridge, and my French lights centre top |
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| Will pushing his Russian cuirassiers into position while Jim's dragoons cross the stream. |
Now this version has had many editions as I struggled to give them a more horse and musket formal feel to them and thus, they got more complicated. My final version got so complicated that I believed them somewhat unplayable! However, the new 'Rampanty' rules of "Rebels and Patriots" has a new and brilliantly simple incorporation of random charge movement with the activation which, in a head-slap moment, solved many of the issues which I struggled with. Essentially, as you make your charge activation, the two-dice total you rolled also indicates the total inches you can move in that charge. The higher the dice total the further your unit can move. It can also come to pass that your unit, while able to charge, was slow off the mark and could come up short to actually contacting the enemy. Oops. Such is friction of war. This randomized movement also works very well for evades; so now units further away probably have a greater chance to get away but the chargers may still catch them. Now incorporated seamlessly in the rules, any complicated ordering sequence is unnecessary.
With that rule in place we were joined by DennisC taking one of Will's commands and off we went charging about. Jim had to cross a small stream, worried about my "Death in Rough Terrain!!" rule......he passed the rolls without issue!. The armoured cuirassiers are tough buggers, units die quickly but usually stick around for awhile, and counter-charges are important...are some of the things we learnt.
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| My depleted Chasseurs, having failed their charge activation, hold up the larger number of Hussars behind them |
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| The white clad Russian cuirassiers charge in. The French fail to make a mark on them..... |
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| ...so the cuirassiers could meet my hussars, and attached commander, next turn. |
But while we maintained formations, the movement was point-to-point without the care of wheeling or changes of facing. Not what we might consider for the "formal formations and tactics of the day" but it was simple, and lessened any complications to the moves. The rules seemed to work and all the players had fun without issues.
