1815 The Hundred Days - Scenarios for General d'Armee

Reissswitz Press, TooFatlardies’ sister publishing company has just released a new publication called “1815, The Hundred Days”, a supplement for General d’Armee and covering the period of Napoleon´s return from Elbe Island to Waterloo.

This 45 pages-long booklet is divided in two parts:

• The historical background of the campaign leading to Napoleon’s defeat on 18th June 1815, intersected with comments from the Dave Brown expressing his views of some the key moments of the campaign (the “blue boxes” in the book).

•  Six scenarios covering some of the key actions in this period: the crossing of the Sambre at Charleroi (Battle at Gilly), Quatre Bras, Ligny (the Battle at St Amand), Waterloo’s Battle for Mount St Jean, Plancenoit and finally the iconic attack of the Old Guard. 

Therefore this is NOT a campaign book á la Pint-Sized format used in Chain of Command, but six independent scenarios that can be played individually.

Each scenario is very well detailed, with precise roster of troops involved, nicely drawn maps and clear special scenario rules. The battles can be played in standard or large formats, and specific instructions are also provided. The scenarios also include suggestions on terms of table sizes to be played in 15mm (I suppose also valid for 20mm – 1/72scale) as well as 28mm.

The publications maintains the a very high quality standards of other Reisswitz Press releases, contents are well structured, the edition is outstanding and include some very nice photos and illustrations.

Generally speaking, all what I could have expected for a supplement for GdA is in the book.

This is the first supplement for General d’Armee since the publication of the rules early last year, but it seems from comments in the Lard Island blog that more are in the pipeline. The book scenarios are also useful as templates to build your own scenarios in other campaigns or standalone battles.

!815 The Hundred Days is sold for 9.68 Pounds only in electronic pdf format, no plans to be released in hard copy. It can be acquired at the TooFatLardies website here.

TFL Christmas Special

A quick post. Just before Christmas day the traditional TFL  Special issue was released, containing over 130 pages of scenarios and ideas for many of the house's rule sets. This year it also includes a scenario I wrote for General d'Armee called "Encounter at Guareña River".

This a small battle or large skirmish (whatever you may want to call ot) that took place on 18th July 1812, two days before the major engagement at Salamanca, between a British-Portuguese and a French force.

It's been extensively tested at the club and was even some time ago adapted to be played as a Sharp Practice scenario (you can see a review in my blog here)

General d'Armee - A player review

As many of you know, General d’Armee (GdA) is a new set of Napoleonic rules published just before summer by Reisswitz Press, the sister company to TooFat ardies. The author, Dave Brown, is a well-known and experienced wargame rules writer so I was expecting a good quality set, as it’s been the case.

Although I bought the book the release day and read thoroughly in my summer holiday break, I decided to refrain from commenting in the blog until after I had tested on a gaming table and could consider myself enough familiar with the system.

For that purpose, I gathered a small group of players in my local club and have been extensively playing since late September. GdA is not simple, on the contrary, the learning curve is fairly steep at the beginning; but now I feel finally fairly confident and familiar with the rules.

What is General d’Armee?

In GdA players seat in the saddle of a commander of an army or division (in Napoleonic terminology): 5 to 8 brigades, each composed of several regiments. The rules however can be stretched and extended to play with a full Army Corps. So at least on paper, GdA is suited to play medium to large battles.

However the basic manoeuvre unit is an infantry battalion (300 to 1000+ men), cavalry squadrons and artillery batteries, representing the building blocks of the regiments; and this is as we’ll see later one of my main objections to the game.

General d’Armee is an old-school wargaming set; the 100 pages manual is basically all rules, with some photos and a good number of examples to illustrate or clarify the different topics. It is not designed for a light reading; it’s full of details and as I said before, it requires a fair investment of time in reading, annotating and playing with the book on the side for consultation.