Has anyone ever actually played this?
Seems so natural to us. Think of any battle which began with an advance guard seizing an objective before the main army brigade or division comes up.
Being more au fait with the Peninsula, I'm thinking Oporto where a handful of lights jumped on a small boat, crossed the River Douro, seized a seminary, controlled the crossing and thus instigated a more general battle. In fact there are plenty of battles which began or found a focus around a small objective, like the Encounter on the Coa, Rolica, Bussaco or many of the Pyrenean battles. Perhaps even Slavkov (Austerlitz) or Vitoria could be imagined this way.
So you begin with a small objective using skirmish rules. The players fight it out and as soon as one side seizes the objective, you automatically reinforce the men involved; platoons become battalions, cannon become batteries, troops become regiments etc. The main forces enter the table and you switch to division-rules with battalion-sized units.
There's something very magical about the change of perspective this gives to the play.
