"How do your units perform????" Topic

Do you have some units that perform well, battle after battle, and others that perform poorly, game after game???

I do! I have one Austrian Hussar unit (one of my prettiest units) that loves to rout. Within my Russian army, I have two units that are identical except for their unit name and the color of their flag. The Alexopol Musketeers cover themselves with glory, battle after battle, whereas the Chernigov Musketeers consistently perform poorly, game after game.

Here are some photos to illustrate from my fictional solo battle, "The Battle of Bobr." I'm using the "General de Brigade, Deluxe Edition" rules for this game. The Alexopol Musketeers and the Chernigov Musketeer are both a part of Neverovski's Brigade, Tolstoy's Division. They are charging two units of Wrede's German speaking Brigade; the 2nd Swiss Line and the 9th Bavarian Line. Please watch how the Alexopol and Chernigov perform!! 🙄

The fictional "Battle of Bobr."

The charges of the Alexopol Musketeers and the Chernigov Musketeers of Neverovski's Brigade, Tolstoy's Division.
General Neverovski is located to the left of the bridge, riding the black horse.

The Chernigov Musketeers charge the 2nd Swiss Line.

The 2nd Swiss volley fire into the Chernigov.

The Chernigov falter before the 2nd Swiss.

The Alexopol Musketeers charge the 9th Bavarian Line.

The 9th Bavarian Line volley fire into the Alexopol Musketeers.

The Alexopol Musketeers close with the 9th Bavarian Line.

The 9th Bavarian Line retreats before crossing bayonets with the Alexopol Musketeers.

RETREAT!!!

Again, do you have units that gain a reputation of performing consistently well and others with a reputation of performing not so well, battle after battle?

God bless,
John T.

Yes, my French Old Guard almost always flee away on first contact with enemy.

The only time I got to command the Grenadiers a Cheval of the Imperial Guard I got them routed by Spanish Dragoons

My 1st Westphalian Line kill everything they see. Need a flank watched? Send them. Need a complex stormed? Send them.

My 2nd and 4th French Cuirassiers get blown away in a mild breeze. Unreal.

My Vistula Legion, painted in something like 1984, have only let me down once. My Blankenstein Hussars will win any action they have a mathematical chance at. My Austrian Cuirassiers will fail at any opportunity. So yeah, my units have a clear track record.

For glory and mentioning in dispatches (my blog) most my miniatures charge and see off their enemy. Still there is one item of note. One past warm afternoon they saw the lunch wine bottles behind them on the reinforcement table. We all know what the following movement and action was. Since then, I have kept all liquor out of sight unless forward of their position.

True Old Guard rarely sees action on the tabletop, so I cannot state their reaction for this discussion. But French converged grenadiers lust for the opportunity.

Timbo W wrote:
'The only time I got to command the Grenadiers a Cheval of the Imperial Guard I got them routed by Spanish Dragoons'

Hardly surprising that it was the only time you got to command them then . . .

Cheers,
John

My French 9th Cuirassier once routed when charged
by a hussar unit. As the Cuirassier fled past
the French command group the player who was
Napoleon decided to draw horse pistols and shoot
the Cuirassier commander.

I told him, on the spur of the moment, that he'd
need to toss boxcars to hit.

He did – twice. The 9th Cuirassier have never
lost again.

I also have two infantry units which have never
lost a combat, Fr. 84eme ligne and Prussian 3rd
Infantry.

My Napoleonic ones generally well.
My 5th Foot has taken a colour.
My 45th has taken some punishment and held its ground.
My 14th Light Dragoons have routed Imperial Guard lancers.

However my 74th are infamously fragile and blundersome.

In Bolt Action I have a forward Artillery observer who in some 12 games has hit the enemy once, but has destroyed 2 British tanks, and pinned the hell out of another one. Or to mention several infantrymen. We must invarstigate him for possible Japanophile tendencies.

Like the above, I've a unit of 25mm Greek Hoplites that I painted up in US Marine Corp green – yes, big white stars on the shields – back in the mid 1970's. I think they were Hinchcliffe figures. They have never, ever let me down, no matter what rules, no matter what opponents. All around run away, they stay until casualties demand that they run. Then, at the first chance to rally, they do so.

But my Companion Cavalry from the same period? Wusses and wimps. Rout at the sight of peasant militia.

When I played GASLIGHT, I had a few units that were lead magnets.
The 3rd Pennsylvania Aerial Dragoon Zouaves were nothing but Zouave fugures hanging from Games Workshop Birdmen of Catrazza.
I never saw a game where they lasted more than 3 turns.
Ditto the 2nd Minnesota Dromedary Lancers.
The Rebs shot at them with everything they had as soon as they made an appearance.

I'm in no position to judge their battlefield behavior, since they never lasted long enough to have their mettle tested.

My General Picton figure, whether commanding a brigade or a division, never seems to be successful. He has been shot out of the saddle on several occasion, his units fail their attacks and his units fail to defend their positions. It doesn't matter if he is given an excellent command rating or that his units are all rated veterans or better, they loose when under Picton's command. It is disheartening and does his namesake dishonor.

Too right John E!

In my defence, the dice gods were angry, charge over a level field, no previous casualties, supporting fire or anything, what can possibly go wrong? Spanish roll 12, Grenadiers a Cheval snake eyes. Much disbelief and blaming of imaginary hidden ditches or rabbit warrens on my part, much hilarity on everyone else's.

On the plus side my Russian Mariupol Hussars have done well, seeing off French dragoons on several occasions, so I awarded them silver trumpets repainting from the original brass.

I have a British Guard brigade that will beat anything EXCEPT French Marie Louises, the sight of ragged, poorly trained French troops invariably puts them to flight.

Sigh.

Cant think of any units that stand out in my French army, but in my coalition force the Loyal Lusitanian Legion and the Gardia Royale tend to perform rather well. The Spanish Guards battalion in particular; I cant think of an occasion where they havn't stood their ground against all comers, usually taking on and beating whole French brigades in the process.

I have a Prussian Reserve battalion that on it's First outing after being painted destroyed two battalions of French infantry and one of light cavalry. They were finally destroyed by Cuirassiers. They've not lost a battle since.

Whereas I have a painting award winning unit of Austrian Lancers that loose every melee.

Yep. My SYW Austrians are like that. My infantry is like a stonewall: steady and dependable. Alas, my horse is brittle as Venetian glass. They will rout even if confronted by an angry Prussian cantinniere!

Yeah, my 17th U.S. Infantry (War of 1812) was a hard luck unit historically, and that has carried over into my miniatures unit. If anything can go wrong, it does. Now my 1st Rifle Regiment is another story. It has pulled off some ferocious ambushes, and shot a few opposing generals out of their saddles.

Not Napoleonic but I have a unit of generic early medieval lancers (originally Rohan riders from an old Lord of the Rings set) who pretty much win all the time regardless of whose army are assigned to

Interestingly true to form my ACW Louisiana Tigers are very hard to beat as well

My Aracheev Grenadiers run like little girls at the spark of a flintlock pan.

For the French it is the 18th legere. Always seem to do well and have gotten out of some tight spots.

For my Austrians it is the Schwarzenberg Uhlans. As long as there is a chance to win, they come out on top.

I sometimes try to mention this phenomenon to (non-wargaming) people and they give me a pitying look.
My 25mm Spanish (Walloon) Guards, painted in 1978, have fought to the end a couple of times (like their historical counterparts) and, like Mike Target's, never lost a combat – except in a refight of Mesas de Ibor when I tried an experiment of them opening up at long range (instead of holding fire as the disciplined veterans they are). Bad idea – but to recover their honour they saw off a flank attack followed by rear attack in the next game.

On the other hand my 43rd Foot are nothing but disappointing (whilst the 52nd cover themselves in glory). This is serious because I am in this hobby because of the book 'Captain of Foot' about Captain Christopher Carey (fictional) of the 43rd in Spain when I was 9.

But my best example is from my childhood 54mm collection – rationalised in my early teens into two imagi-nations, incorporating the childhood collection (metal 1920s Britains) of our neighbour's brother who hadn't made it through the War. He (and then I) had a splendid and deadly battalion of Prussian 1900 guards whom I unfortunately gave a new uniform for the imagination – yellow with light blue trousers with red stripe. What indignity. At their first outing afterwards, when they came into combat they threw a 1 and surrendered (Wargamers' Newsletter Featherstone rules) and acquired a lousy reputation ever after.

Nowadays three of my Spanish dragoon regiments are in yellow too – and they are not a lot better. One – Olivenza, 1813 uniform – has, I think, baulked at all but one combat in their entire career. Funny that.

This all explains why I do not throw dice……….

I paint figures and they sit on a shelf thence.

Unless what you are saying is that the rules you play do follow chaos theorem and, basically, chance takes over.

Sounds like fun actually. I really must try it!

Alas, my horse is brittle as Venetian glass. They will rout even if confronted by an angry Prussian cantinniere!

You'd run, too if a German was cursing at you for interrupting the cooking for lunch!

I have a couple Infinity models that never fail to counter-snipe. Model needs a 1 or 2 on a d20 to-hit, opponent needs 12s or 15s on either of two d20. My HMG gunner rolls a 2 (critical), opponent does not, so I win the firefight. 5 or 6 different games, multiple times per game.

I really need to get back to painting my Napoleonic minis.

my imperial guard always dies before surrendering

I had one unit that when I first painted it feel in love with it, truly a great looking unit. On its first time out it failed to make its first moral roll and ran off the table. It have made a role after that. It was so bad I sold the unit to one of the other gamers in our group. Never made a roll for him either. BTW the historical unit was noted for its poor performance on the field.

Perhaps the fault lies not in your stars but in your dice?

Have you seen that gamescience video where the man relates intrinsic production imbalances in most commercial dice that leads to predictable rolls?

YouTube link

Aside from that, we all know that witchcraft or voodoo are alive and well and influencing your units.

Well, the light cavalry brigade in Gérard's Corps, 1815 in my armies has made a name for itself, quite a few times, though it hasn't been played in recent times. It's last encounter saw its run of destroying enemy forces broken by an unwise assault on Prussian line infantry, not prepared in squares due to racing to form a battle-line with others before other French outflanked them. Rules I played had changed. That I think was the major cause of the crisis of not using them much in epic encounters. It'll change soon, I assure you.

Why don't you have the Chernigov Musketeers listed on evil-Bay?