The Combat of Hasenpfeffer, 1813 (Shadow of the Eagles)

Last night Carl came over to try his hand at Napoleonic combat with the new Shadow of the Eagles rules. I have been involved with some game testing of these rules although my last game was in February 2020, just before the plague hit. The rules have evolved since then. Carl hasn’t played the rules before or the period, having mostly played DBA back in 2019, to the best of my recollection. As a result we played very slowly. The dinner conversation was lively and prolonged as we and my wife swapped quarantine tales. We haven’t seen him in person for quite some time. While I do like a good game, good conversation with friends is even better.

 

The objectives in the scenario don’t have names. I dubbed the town Hasenpfeffer and Carl named the bridge Fahrshnügen. I put down some fields and assorted terrain pieces just to dress up the table, more since the first picture was taken. Since this was Carl’s maiden voyage with the Napoleonic period and the rules, I gave him the French (+1 for initiative) and one of his 3 brigadiers could be inspirational (1/3 chance of making double moves in a turn). To keep this first game simple all troops were rated regular, no superior or inferior types present. All commanders save the one inspirational Frenchman were capable.

Slightly outnumbered (10 units to 9), I decided to sit on the defensive. Carl advanced towards the town with his left flank light infantry brigade. His other infantry brigade moved to cover its flank. His light cavalry brigade initially faced my light cavalry brigade but shortly headed for the bridge.

French Chasseurs a Cheval charged the Prussian Fusiliers but were stopped in their tracks by a hail of musket and canister balls. I advanced with my 1^st and 2^nd battalions of the 25^th Regiment to test the water.

They did well at first but Carl got another one of his battalions into the firefight and his dice improved. The short advance made for enough confusion that the weakened French Chasseurs didn’t fall back. They were routed on the next turn by a blast of fire.

Edit: this was a rules error on my part. When the Chasseurs' charge was stopped by fire, they should have fallen back immediately a distance determined by dice rolls. They would have been badly shot up and incapable of offensive action any time soon but would not have been routed.

French light infantry advanced from the town. Prussian Dragoons charged and drove a column into the woods. Fortunately the cavalry didn’t pursue into the woods. My infantry advance was getting battered by musket fire. We broke for dinner.

An unheralded storm broke. Our windows were whited out by rain, the first time I’ve seen that in over 20 years. The worst soon passed and we sat down to dinner. This morning the widely heralded tropical storm Elsa visited and was not nearly as impressive.  The unnamed “minor” storm last night flooded roads and subway stations in uptown Manhattan.

 

We returned to the table for a last turn. My 2^nd Hussars charged the French horse artillery battery, taking a hit on the way in. The gunners fled to the nearby French Hussars while the Prussian cavalry pursued on towards the unsupported French foot artillery battery. On my right, the Dragoons fell back from their short charge and the 25^th Regiment decided to drop back out of range. Their brigadier came forward and rallied one hit off the most banged up battalion, barely removing the weakened marker. I avoided trying to recapture the bridge with the Fusiliers, preferring to wait until the chance of keeping it was better.

We called it a day since it was getting late. The named storm was approaching. I did suggest we roll for initiative for the next turn that we wouldn’t play. I won it again. That meant in the next turn my 3^rd Hussars could charge the French Hussars and keep them from interfering against my 2^nd Hussars deep in the French rear. I figured the 2^nd could go on to ride down the unsupported foot battery. Later I noticed the 2^nd was out of command control, as was the foot battery. The 2^nd could indeed ride down the guns if they passed an ability test, 50% for regulars. If they failed, then the artillery had a 50% chance of pivoting to gun down the cavalry with canister while they milled around, possibly over some looted goodies the horse artillerymen dropped while running away. That would not be a pretty picture.

 

Carl’s combat dice started out lukewarm and improved to decent. Mine were about the odds most of the time. But my initiative dice were hot. Even though the French had a +1, I got the initiative 3 of 4 times. That’s a big advantage.

 

We played 4 turns in just under 3 hours. but the first turn was very long. It required a lot of explaining, not just of the rules but of stuff grognards take for granted, like limbers, canister, column, line, square, skirmishers, etc. I’m sure we’ll get the playing time down a lot more next time.

 

All in all, it was an entertaining evening. Carl liked the rules and so did I. Not bad, keeping the attention of a relative newbie and a grizzled grognard. I’ll see if I can get another game of this together in a couple weeks.