This past weekend at Millennium 9 in Austin, TX, my friend Ray Rangel and I put on a series of games using the rules "Le Petit Empereur" by Chipco Games. Ray and I would like to thank the M9 staff and Lone Star Historical Miniatures for a great convention and for all their help.
"Le Petit Empereur" (LPE) is a fast-playing game, with units abstracted to give a Napoleonic flavor. Each stand is one of seven types (elite cavalry, other cavalry, elite infantry, line infantry, light infantry, foot artillery, or horse artillery). There are no formations in the game, with the mechanics giving benefits to foot or cavalry as appropriate based on the situation. The player acts as an overall general.
We based our terrain on the Battle of Quatre Bras, but used the "generic" LPE armies to represent the British and their Brunswick allies against the French. So, there were some anachronisms, in that French elite infantry and British elite cavalry were on the table, but not at the original battle.
LPE has had a long history at our club, always before in 15mm. Ray and I have decided to put together a 28mm project. In order to get a game going quickly, we started with LPE, which uses only around 130 models per side.
Arriving at Millennium on Friday, Ray and I played a practice game in the main ballroom. It was the first time we had the finished troops all together, and the first time we played the game in 28mm. The practice was quite successful, and the game looked great.
On Saturday, our designated table was open a couple hours earlier than our planned 2 pm start, so we went ahead and set the game up. This allowed us plenty of time to get everything laid out, and that attracted a number of people. We explained the game and were able to recruit a few players for later.
The game started around 2. After a short description of the rules, we got straight into playing. We had four players, one completely new to LPE and three that had played once or twice years before. The rules are simple, and everyone was soon able to run their own forces with little help from either the referees or even the reference sheets.
At this point I should mention LPE's most interesting mechanism: the Morale Clock. As the armies take casualties, their Morale Clock goes down. Since the clock determines how many units can be moved, the players soon find themselves unable to control their entire army. They have to prioritize their moves without being able to do all they would like to do. As the clock ticks down toward zero, the choices become more and more critical, until one side's clock reaches zero and the game ends.
The large buildings and figures drew a lot of attention from passers by. When the first game ended around 5, we quickly set it up again, grabbed a bite to eat, answered more questions, and launched another group of five gamers at 7. More rousing good fun was had by all, with several exciting rounds of combat centering around the crossroads at Quatre Bras.
The second game ended around 10:30, and although not scheduled for a third round, we had more than enough interest and did so. By my count, we cycled 15 different players through the games on Saturday. All of these games ended with very definite conclusions, which is one of the benefits of LPE. No one had any doubt who won.
It turned out the French won every time. The power of the French elite troops successfully overcame the prime benefit of the British army, which in LPE receives a bonus on the defense. But I think everyone had a good time, which was the prime reason that Ray and I put on the game.
Cast and Credits:
British: Foundry figures painted by Ray
Brunswick: Perry figures painted by Ray
French: HCH figures from Tinsoldier UK
Bases: Litko Aerosystems (based and terrained by Ed)
Buildings: Renaissance Ink, Miniature Building Authority, and scratch-built by Ed
Mats: Hotz Artwork
Trees: Woodland Scenics
Chipco generously donated 5 copies of LPE to the players. Thanks to Paul at Saber's Edge for providing the copies.
I'm sure I left off something, but hope you enjoyed the write up. For some pictures, visit Ray's website at
link
It works best in Internet Explorer. Additional pictures may show up at the LSHM site at lshm.net
