"Drums and Shakos Large Battles at the club!" Topic

Tonight we played three games of DSLB, on standard 4x6 tables, with standard divisions for pickup games. French vs Austrians, French vs Spanish, and British vs Americans (war of 1812). We used our armies based for Lasalle, but used two bases per battalion instead of four. This we did to stretch our collections to make 12-15 battalions plus cavalry and artillery.

There is no data for Americans in the rules, so we made them equivalent to British (assuming Scott's brigade in 1814). We also kept the special rules to a minimum, and made all leaders quality 3+.

Each game had one complete newbie, and one person who had played at least once before. The gent playing Americans broke my division after a tough fight, and is sold on the rules; so I still won.

I really like these rules, although they don't seem as "tight" as Lasalle. However, as much as I like Lasalle, I prefer the way these rules handle multiple attacks: each battalion must approach the enemy on its own, before the next attack is made, assuming the defender is still there. There is an incentive to go into line formation which just isn't there in Lasalle. And best of all, I like the way activation failures give the opponent the chance to react in the active player's turn. This keeps both players constantly engaged.

Lastly, the way that bombardment and approach/contact are resolved is like no other game I've ever played. Modifiers add or subtract dice, and you roll all your dice together. Then you compare your top three dice scores, in order to see what happens. The variety of outcomes made sense, and are resolved quickly once you have the results memorized. much easier than Empire or VTW. I can't wait to play again!

Sounds interesting. What's the playing time like?

Sounds interesting! Is there a more detailed review of the rules anywhere?

Playing time in my game was just under three hours. The other two games were a little over three hours. When I can get to my desktop computer (after church) I'll post some links to Dale's war games, where he gives a detailed review and battle report.

link

Ok, I can copy and paste on this iPod. Check out Dale's review.

Just to give you some idea how approach and contact work, you send one of your battalions into "short" range of an enemy battalion. Columns get 3 dice, lines get 4. Extra dice are added for having better skirmishes, better combat("C"), and for disruptions ("hits") on the enemy unit, terrain, etc. Roll all the dice together. Compare the top dice on both sides. Whoever rolls higher inflicts one disruption on the enemy unit. Ties mean both units take a hit. The second and third dice determine who gets an extra action; break ties with extra dice. The extra actions are used to close to contact, or withdraw, or change formation, etc.

So assume the attacker or defender close to contact. Count dice again, but skirmishes don't count any longer. Roll all dice together. The top dice determines who wins the combat. Ties are broken by considering disruptions, combat ratings, or whomever has cuirass rating, and maybe extra dice. The second die determines losses (with the loser of the combat suffering 2 DISR if he is doubled). The third highest die determines if the loser suffers an additional DISR from pursuit.

Very simple game mechanic to implement, but gives a lot of period flavor.

Doh! "skirmishes" should be "skirmishers". That's the auto-type on the iPod talking.

This game is a lot of fun though, you should check it out.

DSLB is a great Nappy Game System! We have played it a lot. I have linked to my blog about 3 battles if anyone is interested in more examples of play.

Last Stand Dan

link

Timotheous,
Forgive me asking so long after your post but how did two bases work per unit?
Cheers,
Geoff

There's a nice video play-through on YouTube for those interested.

youtu.be/qa4WnaUVMdk

@ Shipka- using 2 bases, while not ideal, worked fine. Line, attack column, and square were all easy to represent, and looked good. The bases we used were 1.5" x 1", two ranks of four (for infantry). March column was the only awkward formation, which we represented with the bases touching on the short sides, with the bases facing opposing directions.

Since moving to the east coast of the U.S., I have based my napoleonics on four base battalions of 12 figures each, as shown in the rules.

@ tshryock- that's me in the video you linked to. I'm the one on the left, showing my new friend Charles how to play. It's still my favorite system for playing Napoleonic battles! There is a second video, also recorded by Charles, for the same rules. I hope I made sense!