"General d'Armee Rules Walkthrough" Topic

As General d'Armee rules near completion here's an opportunity to walk-through the rules as a divisional sized Peninsular War action is played out.

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See the thread over on the General de Brigade forum.

link

The British under the command of Picton, have just four small infantry brigades. The French under the command of Loison, commands four infantry brigades and two small cavalry brigades. The British objective was to hold the French and prevent them advancing any further towards Fuentes de Onoro, as this would reveal Wellington's main position. The French objective was to push the British back as quickly as possible thus allowing the main French army to move rapidly against Wellington's forces.

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DB

So to understand this-these are Den d Brigade with the new command n control mechanic integrated ( ref ACW rules)?

curious
MG

PS – Nice battle!

Great stuff. After thoroughly enjoying Pickett's Charge our group are positively champing at the bit for GdA.

Can't wait.

Kev

Great looking game. What are the standard unit sizes so I can start planning and painting?

Stecal,

The game does not rely on a distinct figure scale; this is flexible and determined by the players. (The unit sizes are either small, standard or large.)

For example you could settle on 1:20 scale, (my prefered scale) where a standard French battalion would be 28; 32 or 36 figures, a British 30 figures or 40 figures if a large battalion.

Or go for 1:33 scale this would bring about 18 to 20 figures for a standard battalion, 28 figures for a large battalion and so on.

Alternatively players can simply agree on a set unit size of their choice.

DB

DB,

Can you quickly touch skirmishers? Is it a brigade screen, or a certain # of bases per unit?

marshal Greg,

General de Brigade they ain't!

General d'Armee is, akin to Pickett's Charge, a new set of rules from Reisswitz Press. There are a few similarities but the vast majority of mechanisms are very different and produce a different Napoleonic game.

DB

Dave,

Fabulous, more, more, more!! I love the way you've explained the core elements of the rules in your walkthrough of the battle and I like the sound of everything mentioned, capturing the command and control problems of the period and the focus on quality of the units and their psychological condition.

When, when, when …. is the next question? How soon before we can buy a copy? Is there a Pre-Order system in place? Who will publish and sell them? (You can take my money now, basically!)

Nick

What he said….

:-)

IDYM,

Skirmishers – each battalion in the brigade generates a skirmish base, these then form the brigade screen. (There are modifiers for troop grading, more LI battalions, etc.)

In addition, light battalions can generally deploy into skirmish order.

If players use the Skirmishers ADC tasking they can also reinforce their brigade skirmish line later in the game, by using brigade battalions to do so. This helps create that skirmish phase in the battle and provides for command choices. So, if your skirmish line is being over-powered you have the option to reinforce, (from any unit type and again with various modifiers for skirmish ability) but you are then reducing your close order strength. Always a tough choice to make.

DB

I can't wait for the release ! I have Picketts Charge and love the concepts….what a great set of ACW rules……since my first love is Napoleonics and already a GdB fan, I am really excited for General d Armee…

Ok, so the starting point – what advantages over your very fine GdeB rules will these give me? They look like they use battalions and regiments, so what are the key USP's to make me change please.

Thanks

Marc

Nick/Kev,

Looking at March/April release.

DB

Any thoughts on USP Dave?

I enjoyed Pickett's Charge and am looking forward to these!

Ok, maybe 2 months, I can handle that :)

Do keep us posted. Very exciting.

Nick

Marc,

They look like they use battalions and regiments, so what are the key USP's to make me change please.

First General d'Armee has no set figure scale as mentioned above, so players will find it easier to field the battalions and regiments required, as they can suit the figure scale to their armies.

Secondly General d'Armee has a command and control system that concentrates on taskings and actions for brigades as well as certain brigade orders. Thus you can order your artillery to "redouble their efforts" in order to overwhelm the enemy line, likewise you can do similar with skirmishers before sending in an infantry or cavalry assault. This has the added bonus it that can create those distinct bombardment/skirmish/assault phases of Napoleonic warfare during the game. Combined with this there is also your dollop of friction, as players cannot guarantee that their brigades will act as desired every turn.

Although General d'Armee has battalions, etc, as its tactical units, the focus is actually far more on brigades being committed into action with brigade outcomes. Thus you can see brigade attacks of three or four units and defending as a whole brigade, rather than individual units, (although this is also recreated). Therefore entire brigades can be committed and can be successful or defeated.

Firing for all troops types is particularly streamlined and simple to run through, with just negative modifiers thus making it far easier for players to apply. Positive modifiers are achieved by simply adding casualty dice, which hit on a straightforward score of 4, 5, or 6. In addition to this there is no figure removal, the rules represent battlefield attrition and as you move through the casualty levels a units overall battle performance will decline in across the board in firing, charge combat, melee and morale.

Finally there's no morale phase, which I found always slowed and interrupted the gaming process. Morale is either dealt with immediately upon the morale's situation arising, while all recovery and rally aspects are dealt with entirely through the command phase and brigade command rolls. (Players of Pickett's Charge will know exactly how this works.).

All this combines into a very different type of game that moves along quickly, thus is able to cater for quite large games, anything from divisional actions right through to large multi-corps battles for those day long or even weekend long games!

DB

Excellent – thanks for replying Dave. I have long been a fan of GdeB, and have been through the various versions, so wanted a flavour of why this would be worth a peek in an already very crowded rules market. Sounds good to me, so I will go back to the AAR and try and picture what's happening based on your summary

Thanks

Marc

Thanks for sharing, looks like an excellent set.

I am lucky enough to have played a number of games already. I think they feel very natural to someone with GdB experience, but are definitely more streamlined and move along faster. Highly recommended !

I have Pickets charge already and looking forward to these as use as my "standard" ruleset.

All sounds interesting. I hope we will see more details. I know the need is to protect saleable content but it is always good to know more about the design ethos and decisions taken

Marc,

There'll be an intro piece, similar to the Pickett's Charge articles, over on the GdeB/TFL websites in the near future.

This will cover design philosophy, rules musings and other such aspects!

DB

I have always felt that skirmishing is an essential part of the appeal of the napoleonic period to the warhammer, does General D'armee still have a distinct skirmishing element?

This is a great link

link

Definitely seeing skirmish formations on the table in the pics

Callen1,

Yes it does! Probably more than most. General d'Armee permits the use of line, column, square and skirmish for all infantry.

Each brigade will have its own skirmish screen, modified by troop type and skill, so light infantry heavy brigades have more skirmishers, while recruit brigades produce less, (which is as much to do with the effectiveness of the screen rather than just numbers of skirmishers.)

One of the command taskings is "Skirmishers" – this permits you to reinforce the skirmish line from your existing brigade battalions. So you could for example, thrown a battalion of infantry forward to reinforce your brigade skirmish screen if the situation demanded it, however this battalion is then lost as a close order unit, (unless light infantry), so not something to be done lightly.

In games you will often see quite large screens battling it out for supremacy, while their supporting columns wait until the moment is right to attack a hopefully weakened enemy.

DB

Wonderful news. I too subscribe to the view that the maturing of the concept of skirmishing and the development of formal tactics and structure around it are a hallmark of the period.

This sounds great – command & control through the historical method of dispatching an ADC and now a sophisticated treatment of skirmish warfare, all in a divisional and larger scale system. And yet still representing battalions of infantry, regiments of cavalry and batteries of guns – rather than abstracting so much of these flavours of the period – sounds like just what I'm after.

Just take my money :)

That sounds great
I followed the link thanks Marc. You were right some good pics there. I think that there appears to many aspects of this game to master. The command process looks like it will throw some difficult questions at the c in c.
It is good to see a unique process to break the command of the "gods commander". Imperfect control of an imperfect situation with imperfect information is the test of generalship
I look forward to having the chance to play and make some imperfect choices of my own👍

Callen1 – I see you are in Essex. Any chance you could get to Loughton on a Tuesday evening? If so we could lay on a game for you.

Another Essex Naps player. Sadly, although I am in Essex, I am in the wrong part for Loughton. If you guys did weekend games I'd be up for that like a shot, but midweek is a no-chance

Marc,

PM me over on the GdeB website and we'll sort out a game.

DB

Once I can get Yuku to sign me up I'll see what I can do.

My email is marc dot flack at sayervincent dot co dot uk

I need to get GdB/GdA working again for me to move me on from BP – I have been playing with my group using BP as an introduction, but I am making so many "period" mods I would rather transfer them over to GdB etc

That sounds familiar. I had a strong initial liking for BP when it first came out, then I realised I'd end up making so many adjustments I may as well have written my own rules!

That is where I am currently at. I need to make some amendments to reflect 2nd class line and conscripts for the GdeB 1813 scenarios, and it is difficult to know how far to take them without unbalancing the scneario

definitely struggling to get YUKU to accept a new registration. Sorry Dave, I'll keep trying, as I like the sound of a game.

Thanks

I'll contact you.

DB

I hope David that you will give us all the heads up for when these rules become available .

I'm another GdeB fan with these rules being my favourite.

I've played a few games of GdeA with an early playtest version of the rules and have no doubts that these will allow you to play larger battles more easily. There are some clever and eloquent changes that speed game play and give you the feel as in Pickett's charge that you are controlling brigades rather than battalions

as Dave says they are not GdeB but they are another superb set of rules

hi there

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
First General d'Armee has no set figure scale as mentioned above, so players will find it easier to field the battalions and regiments required, as they can suit the figure scale to their armies.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Some interesting stuff in the info provided here and on the webpage.

Do you have a _recommended_ scale/basing? It might pay to give three or four suggested scales as a guide to players.

Without seeing the whole scope of the rules it's hard to see how the smaller and larger than average units balance up with others.

I've seen this as an Achilles heel in other sets (not necessarily just Napoleonic) where oversize units drive about like invincible Tiger tanks or smaller-size are so flimsy as to be useless. Conversely some rules have undersize units that are so similar to average that players gravitate to them because they are cheaper in army points.

Regards

DB

Hi
Pickett's Charge (PC) are a BRILLIANT set of rules IMHO so consequently I can't wait to get these.
It would appear finally we have a set of realistic yet simple to play set of Napoleonic rules.
I'm feeling hopeful.
I loved FOG: Napoleonics but they really are quite complex and require a rather large amount of time to be invested to really get a good handle on them.
If GdA is as good as PC then you're on a winner

So can it handle units on opposing sides being of different sizes?

DB,

The game system concentrates less on numbers of men and more on the quality or morale of units; hence a small but fresh battalion is likely to overcome a large battalion that is battle worn and fatigued.

Large units have slightly higher battlefield staying power and have a small advantage in firing and combat. While small units have less staying power and are slightly less effective in firing and combat. But a fresh small battalion should have very good chance to overcome battered large battalion.

DB

4th Cuirassier,

It doesn't really matter…. as there's no figure counting, overlaps, etc, all combat is unit based.

Obviously players will need to make a few allowances when necessary, such as when lining up several columns or defining terrain gaps, etc.

DB

Hi there

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Large units have slightly higher battlefield staying power and have a small advantage in firing and combat. While small units have less staying power and are slightly less effective in firing and combat. But a fresh small battalion should have very good chance to overcome battered large battalion.
….

It doesn't really matter…. as there's no figure counting, overlaps, etc, all combat is unit based.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thanks for the feedback, that all sounds encouraging.

DB

(I figured signing off as David F Brown might be confusing on this string)

These rules are now up for pre-order: toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=6637

I've placed my order.

One question for anyone though; everything seems to show 28mm but I am assuming that it can be modified for 6mm. Is this correct?

The lancers / uhlans look TERRIFIC !!!!!

Pte M,

Yes they can.

Throughout the rules all distances, movement rates and ranges are shown in centimetres for 15mm and in inches for 28mm figures.

When using 10mm or 6mm figures a suggestion is to use the 28mm distances and ranges but convert these directly from inches into centimetres, e.g. The 10mm/6mm column move distance simply converts from 9" into 9cm.

Hope that helps,(and makes sense!).

DB