Better late than never – happy new year! Despite my resolution to update this blog more regularly, I’ve failed already and can hardly believe that its nearly the end of January.
I played the first game of the year at the club and it brought back memories of games in the dingy basement of Fun and Games in Woking nearly ten years ago. In those days it was Napoleonics, usually 1812 French vs Russians, using Eaglebearer with little 12 man columns zipping around the table. This time, it was Revolutionary period game of French vs Austrians in 1792 and a refight of Quaregnon using Iron Duke, the Computer Strategies of Australia Computerised rules.
The Revolutionary Wars is a period that really interests me, and one that I think is sadly neglected by Napoleonic players in favour of the 1812+ period when the French have started to lose their abilities and the British are on the rise.
Not that the French in 1792 are much good, as demonstrated by our rather poor showing and the loss of a lot of our troops as we failed to throw the Austrians out the town they occupied.
The rules seemed to work pretty well and have the advantage, like all computerised rules, of hiding the true picture of your troops condition from your view. They also handle things such as the slow unlimbering of large batteries (the Austrian 12-pounders took 3 turns) which is difficult to track in a normal game.
There is a 1792 campaign in the offing at the club, as soon as our current Napoleonic Campaign has finished. Not that, as the Saxons I am doing that well in that campaign either and I think the rules will work well.
I must admit though, that I miss rolling the dice….