First Game of Blucher

We started our first game of Blucher one evening last week & finished last night. The scenario was the Battle of Caldiero, one that I adapted from an Age of Eagles scenario and one I used for HFG in January. In my last post, I mentioned that we would dispense with the Blucher cards, however I had second thoughts & made up some for our game. The cards added a little uncertainty and facilitated marking units which weren't yet spotted or had moved.

Moving in Blucher is fairly easy to learn. We used playing cards to determine the momentum points for moving each side, which seemed to work well. Shooting & close combat are also fairly simple. You wear down enemy units by inflicting fatigue on them over multiple turns. It is unlikely that a fresh unit would be broken in a single turn.

We made one mistake during the game by not activating units that tried to rally. However, both sides made the same mistake, so it didn't effect play balance too much.

Overall, the game seemed to flow well & we will definitely try it again.

Below is the game. The Austrians hold Caldiero (center) and the long ridge behind it. The yellow cards are Austrian units that haven't been spotted yet. The orange markers indicate units that are "prepared" (in square, etc.). The small die behind each stand indicates that stand took losses and it's current elan or ammo (in the case of artillery).

Below, a closer look at Caldiero. The Austrians would be driven out of the town and off the ridge behind when we called the game, but casualties on both sides were even. Both armies were 2-3 units away from the army break-point when we stopped.

Marshall Andre Massena urging his men forward below.

Our next game should go faster, as we are now fairly familiar with the game mechanics.

Blucher Rules

I recently purchased a PDF copy of the Blucher Napoleonic rules by Sam Mustafa. I felt that the Scharnhorst campaign system in the rules would be applicable to a variety of historical wargame periods. After reading various reviews of the rules, I also decided there was definitely potential to play them with my Napoleonic miniatures as already based.

Going to the Honour website & downloading the Blucher PDF was fairly simple. Once you pay with your credit card, you click on a button to download the rules. The download file is a compressed zip file, which you un-pack and gain access to the Blucher PDF. I placed all my Blucher files in it's own directory on my computer and transferred a copy of the PDF file to my tablet, which is more convenient for reading. The Honor website also has additional free download files for the game, including a nice QRS (called "Gneisenau," named for Blucher's talented chief of staff).

After reading through the rules, I find that the Blucher rules are compatible with my Napoleonic troops, which are based for Horse, Foot, & Guns (HFG), so I'm planning to try them out. Similarities between Blucher and HFG are: 

• Scale - units in Blucher and HFG are brigades.

• Measurements - Both rules use "base widths," which is very convenient. As long as all your miniature bases are the same width, you are in business.

• Command Control - Both rules use a method of command control for moving units. HFG uses the "pips" method as pioneered in games like DBA, etc. Blucher uses what it calls "Momentum" (or MO), which is actually similar to "pips," except that the phasing player doesn't know how many MO they have to use in any given turn, since your opponent rolls for your MO and lets you know (revealing the die score) when you've run out as you are moving your troops.

• Army break-point - Both rules use a 33% loss threshold for an army breaking. However, in Blucher if you have a CinC who is a "Legend" (Napoleon is one example of a "legend" in the rules), your army break-point goes up to 50%.

There are items in the Blucher rules I will have to work around, since my miniatures are not exactly based on the recommended dimensions, and I don't have any unit cards (which are purchased separately). Here are a few of them:

• Play without cards - The Blucher rules use cards to hide the identity of units until they are spotted. When units are revealed/spotted, you flip the card over to the unit side, which has all the data needed to play for that unit and track unit losses. You can also replace the unit card with miniature troops, or place troops on top of the card. If replacing cards with only troops, the troops should be based on the same frontage as the cards. The Blucher cards, however, are not the same frontage as my figures (Blucher cards are 3 inches wide, my troops are on 60mm bases). I could place one of my troop stands on top of a Blucher card. Conversely, instead of purchasing/using the Blucher cards or going through the trouble of making my own, I am going to use a single-page unit reference sheet that I made in MS-Excel, which will contain all the unit information needed to play for all units of both armies. I can track losses on each unit by using either a roster, or marking the unit with a small D6.

• Hidden Units - I decided that there isn't much realism to be gained by using or making the cards for concealment. You know when playing the game that a card represents a real unit (there are no "dummy" units), you just aren't sure exactly what kind.

• Reserve Units - Blucher allows you to place units that haven't been spotted or moved yet into reserve. Reserve units can be activated at any point in the game and move up to 12 base widths. I feel we can just mark miniature units that are in reserve without using cards.

• Battlefield dimensions - The rules indicate that a playing surface for a standard game is about  6' x 4.' This size is using units/cards that have a 3" frontage. My units will have 80% of that frontage, so it should open up the battlefield on a 6' x 4' board. It means I should have no problem playing games on my dining room table, which is 5' x 3.5.' 

The Blucher rules are supported rather well on the Honor Forums website, where you can ask questions about the rules, and read what others are saying. There is a great website by the Old Meldrum Wargames Group that has 19 historical Napoleonic battle scenarios for Blucher that they have developed. I can also use these scenarios for HFG. They also have an ACW variant for the Blucher rules and 2 scenarios.

I am looking forward to our first game of Blucher.

Links:

Honour Website

Honour Forums

Free Downloads for Blucher

Old Meldrum Wargames Group Scenarios for Blucher

Another HFG Game

We played another HFG (Horse, Foot, & Guns) game last week at Liberty Hobby Center. This time, Bob & Ron played French & Austrians, both sides marching onto the board (about 75pts per side).

Below are some pix of the action - the French entering on the left, the Austrians on the right. I have some new road sections that I cut out of medium sandpaper. Very stiff and realistic looking.

The cavalry is facing off against each other while behind them, both armies are deploying.

Below is a close-up of the Austrian main body, an Avant Garde corps with (from L to R) Jaeger battalions, 3 Grenzer Brigades, the Corps commander, corps artillery, 2 grenadier and 4 Hungarian Brigades.

The French main force has 7 brigades of infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, and a converged grenadier brigade, overseen by the corps commander. Ahussar brigade is to the far right.

Below is an out of focus picture after the cavalry had clashed in the center, both sides losing one brigade each and the remaining French Hussar brigade that was repulsed moving around the cover of the woods.

The front lines of both sides are closing. The French artillery has recoiled a Grenzer brigade (center). The remaining French cavalry brigade is gone...rounded the woods on the lower right & was blasted by Austrian artillery. The sole remaining Austrian cavalry brigade is threatening the French left, but the French commander has deployed infantry to face them. 

Below is after the last move of the game when we stopped due to time constraints. The French were behind 2 elements to 1.

The order of battle for our little game above is shown below:

French:
Bayonets x 7
Elite Bayonets (converged grenadiers) x 1
Field Artillery x 2
Lt Cavalry x 2
Command Party x 1
Total: 13 elements, 15 element equivalents. BP: 5

Austrian:
Bayonets (Hungarians) x 4
Inferior Lt Infantry (Grenz) x 3
Marksmen (Jaegers) x 2
Elite Bayonets (grenadiers) x 2
Field Artillery x 1
Lt Cavalry x 2
Command Party x 1
Total: 15 elements, 18 element equivalents. BP: 6