Good news is that I won!
As it was a solo game, I also lost but we’ll gloss over that.
I set things up last night & just finished – no photos as you’ve seen it all before.
It was an set-piece, encounter battle set in 1760 (ie no Prussian “supermen”) between the Austrians & the Prussians with a couple of simple terrain-based objectives (take the bridge over the uncrossable river, hold the pass etc).
As a game it was unremarkable……TRICORNE doesn’t really suit solo (though I have a few ideas to make it play well as a solo game) but that wasn’t the point. The new rules.
The new rules worked very well again. Indeed, even with me having to do both sides – orders and all – it came to a conclusion in 10 Turns, taking about 4 and a bit hours.
Some POIs:
1. With the slight tweaking after the first game, Close Combat was perhaps a little less frequent. However, after a few turns of volleyfire, units dissolved quickly. Which is what you want.
If you survived musketry or CC, it was advisable for you to get that unit out of there (passage of lines etc) as a regular battalion, carrying 2-3 Kills, did not need much further combat to Rout.
2. Breakthrough attacks. Both infantry & cavalry were given the opportunity. They tended to create big holes in the enemy’s battle line , though at the cost of the attacking infantry (see above)
& cavalry would suffer as well. But these holes meant one side or another had to frantically plug them or lose (which is what eventually happened). Both sides had brigades on Reserve orders & without them, the game would have ended very quickly indeed.
3. Unequal sized units, I again ignored & it seemed to cause no problems.
I *did* allow all units in Line to put one base behind the line (with no ramifications) to fit into line of battle, go past obstacles etc. This helped with the bigger units in particular.
4. Skirmishers. I gave both sides 2 units. One set slugged it with each other (0+0=0). One was killed pretty quickly (charged from <9” by cavalry= instant Rout). One caused a fairly major annoyance for one enemy battalion
(1kill + 1 Kill = 2 Kills for a unit with MR4/2). So , not game winners.
5. ADCs are the delight of the game. An important one was killed, stopping the Prussians exploiting a gap in a timely manner. I started sending a “spare” for important orders in case the first did not get through.
I’m wondering if we should change their movement from 18” to 24” for big battles that go across the length of the table (ie most games)?
6. Artillery had an impact. It was set up in front of attacking troops & got in 2-4 salvos before being obscured. These damaged a number of units, some fatally. Moving the guns subsequently is largely a waste of effort.
7. Finally, orders. As I was playing both sides, the mechanism didn't have the impact of the first game. I tried to keep them secret but the blabber mouth on the other side always told me what they were. Conditional orders worked well, as did timed orders (“On Turn 3, ….)
Looking forward to another game some time with real people..
donald