I have told you before that Napoleonic's are not really my thing. So of course my most recent gaming outing was a remote Napoleonic game run by Jonathan Freitag. This was the Battle of Montebello in 1800 part of the campaign that led to Marengo. It's not that I don't find the period interesting it's more that I don't understand the tactical niceties and can't handle painting the detail of the uniforms to the standard I'd want to achieve. And yet, I have really enjoyed those games I have played, and so it was this time. I suppose what I need is to find a set of rules that hit the spot for scale, tactical feel, rules complexity and required figure count. It's not like I don't have the figures as I inherited some 15mm Minifigs a few years ago (details are here Small but Perfectly Formed: 15mm Napoleonic photos) so all I really need are a set of rules I like. Shako 2 seemed a decent set but they look to be out of print, the set Jonathan used might be worth a look though.
So on to an after action report? Sorry that's a bit tricky as I was having fun and neglected to get any screen grabs so you will have to wait for Mr F's write up or for one of my fellow generals to tell all. The high spots were (in particular order):
- The Austrians overturned the historical result and won quite convincingly
- We poor French players had the most diabolical dice rolling luck
- and, our re-enforcements were delayed until the last possible moment by which time the Austrians were in full control of the objective!
