13 November 2014

Cyrano and PanzerDE face off in the age of muskets and sabers, and find themselves on opposite sides of an Eastern German battlefield, in the first of a series of AARs that give you both sides of the action.

I first met Doug (panzerde) at Origins in June.  Despite finding him an all-around fine fellow, I am now tasked with driving him from the field of honor in this scenario from John Tiller Software’s Campaign: Leipzig.  I picked the battle (all my fault) because I’d never played it and thought it struck a reasonable balance between variety of forces and size.  Leipzig can, after all, become ridiculous at the farthest end of things.

I’ve been playing the Tiller Napoleonic games for well over a decade.  I’ve been involved with the Napoleonic Wargame Club for just about as long and am therefore aware of all the theology concerning its alternative rulesets, homerules, optional rules, &c.  I offer only that I generally try to play the game as given in the hope of being able to play with the widest range of opponents.  I do, however, typically play with a standard set of optional rules given to me long, long ago by my most regular opponent (who thrashes me with unnerving regularity).  The rules are these:

I’d be happy to take questions and hold forth at length about why I prefer these rules, but it seems unnecessary here. I’ll only observe that deciding whether to play with “No Melee Eliminations” on or off is a choice that fundamentally alters the flow of the game and its outcomes.  With it off, units required to retreat that have no ZOC-free hexes to which they can retreat are eliminated.  This can lead to casualty rates far closer to those of the first day of the Somme rather than 1813.  I will admit, though, as someone who long lobbied for this rule to be included in the series, that, when this rule is on, the system’s lack of morale collapse above the level of the individual battalions, can result in the very best units hanging about far longer than they ought.

To the battle itself, then.  Lowenberg is one of those “extra” scenarios typical of a type Dr. Tiller’s developers have worked to improve their offerings.  It’s an early fight in the Leipzig campaign and the scenario description is a simple one:

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