A first run through...

...for Soldiers of Napoleon, using figures from my Wars of the French Revolution collection. Phil and I bought these rules earlier in the year when they were on offer from Gripping Beast: Phil to see if they might suit his forthcoming Peninsular War project and yours truly with a view to using them for the Crimean War project. This first trial run then here in GHQ sees Austrians v French set about 1799-1800 in a fictional encounter against the background of the Second Coalition. Of course the Army Lists within the rule book are for a later period than this, so some creative jiggery-pokery with points and such ensued in creating our forces for this game. In the following annotated photomontage I hope you will be able to follow some aspects of our stumbling progress through the game. In all we played 5 game turns in a session of about 2 3/4 hours either side of lunch. The first tranche of photos represent our opening moves in Turn 1 merely to show the cards in play ~

Having the Initiative the French first Dance their Light Cavalry brigade on their right flank to protect the anticipated infantry attack in the centre.

The Austrians open by advancing their First Brigade of infantry shielded by O'Donnell's Freicorps. {Note the Division command stand has only gained one action, as had his French counterpart.}

The French advance their Second Brigade in the centre but progress is slower than anticipated as the Legeré in Line move at a lesser rate than the Columns of March.

In the centre the Austrian Second Brigade advanced with the Grenz shielding the advance in Extended Line.

The First French Brigade advanced on the left supported by a battery of 12lb guns.

The Austrian Light Cavalry brigade advanced with élan in response to the French threat. Their more numerous stands were to prove a problem for the French in early exchanges.

The French Light Cavalry gets a second card and advances on the Austrians who have reached the road earlier.

Similarly the First Austrian Infantry Brigade gets a second card and moves forward to seize the cross roads, the objective of the French attack.

In response the First French Brigade gets a second card allowing the artillery battery and one supporting battalion to advance to counter the Austrian threat.

Finally the Austrian Second infantry Brigade gets a second card and moves to consolidate the Austrian defensive line.

It's the end of Turn 1 and the Austrians have achieved their initial objective and claim one Victory Point, only another 12 to go!

Turn 2 opens with a rather rash charge by the French Hussars. They take a beating from the Chevaux Legeré and withdraw giving the Austrians their second Victory Point.

Not deterred in the slightest the remaining regiments of the French Light Cavalry continue rashly to charge the Austrian Hussars. They enjoy greater success sending their opponents reeling back and gaining the French's first Victory Point.

The French take advantage of the first Special Event with an off table artillery bombardment of the Austrian Hussars. Disruption is building rapidly for the Austrian Light Cavalry brigade!

By the end of Turn 2 the French have the better of the cavalry exchanges on their right flank while the Austrians have consolidated their position around the crossroads with their 12lb battery deployed to threaten the flank of any French assault.

Moving forward into Turn 3 the second French Infantry Brigade manoeuvres into Ordre Mixte screened by the advancing Legeré. The main business is about to commence!

Things continue to go well for the French on their right with the Austrians having to sacrifice Stands to remove Disruption and hand more Victory Points to the French. 

Now, if you've got this far you deserve a biscuit with your cup of tea! We certainly did! The final photo shows the table at the conclusion of Turn 5 when we called "Time!" Although the French are on the attack along the front a final tally of Victory Points showed 11 to the Austrians against a French Break Point of only 13 to the French's 13 against an Austrian Break Point of 19. We awarded the Austrian commander a winning draw as they also held the objective of the crossroads. Well done Phil!

Some closing remarks are probably appropriate, though I'm not one for 'reviews' after one play through, so with that in mind, here are our main conclusions. 

As you'd expect we estimate we spent about 1/4 of the playing time looking things up in the rules, though we did get noticeably quicker towards the end of the session. 

We both enjoyed the game, feeling that as it unfolded it became both more demanding and more rewarding in making tactical decisions. This was especially true with respect of rallying off Disruption to avoid the loss of units with more casualty markers than stands.

The cards become increasingly important as the game evolved when hard choices need to be made to keep the momentum of the attack going while avoiding units being lost to Disruption. This certainly hampered both the Austrian Light Cavalry brigade and both French Infantry brigades as the game developed.

The rules themselves are intuitive we felt, though the layout of the interleafing aspects might be better served by a clearer Index. Mostly we found what we wanted in the end and of course if you played these regularly the aspect of consulting the Rule Book would diminish in importance. No doubt of course we got things wrong in places, but experience teaches that generally that evens out over the game. So, overall I'd give Soldiers of Napoleon a solid 8/10 on this first play through. With that in mind I'm confident that we will revisit the game later in the Autumn.