Our Inaugural Game of General d'Armee 2/The Battle of Mockern

So a while back the Too Fat Lardies release version 2 of General d'Armee. I've been playing version 1 of the game on a monthly basis for a while and I've really enjoyed it so I was very excited to get my hands on it and give it a spin.

The Fremont guys and I finally got a chance to try the game last month at Game Kastle, where we played the Battle of Mockern with a few members of the SBGC. I was glad to have both clubs finally collaborate on a wargame and was pleased to see that everyone meshed well with each other and seemed to have fun.

 

The Battle of Mockern took place on October 16, 1813, as a prelude to the larger Battle of Leipzig. The French and Polish forces, led by Marshal Marmont, successfully repulsed Russian and Prussian troops, led by General Blucher. The battle set the stage for the decisive defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig a few days later.

Unfortunately the game took place about a month ago (between tax season, crunch at work and preparing terrain/miniatures for Kublacon, I haven't had much time to blogpost) so I'm only getting to write a post about it now. I don't remember enough details to write a concise battle report, but I'll try my best to summarize things.

On the Coalition side was Miguel on the left, Mike on the center left, Gil on the center right, and Chris on the right. Opposing them were the French forces, with Matt on the left, Keith on the center left, me on the center right, and Milton on the right.

 

The French objective was to hold the village on the left of the table. We would be outnumbered by the Coalition but had the advantage of being on the defensive. As the only objective was located on the left, Matt's side of the table was critical, the rest of us just had to do our best to hold the flanks and support Matt.

 

Keith and Matt thought it would be a good idea to draw Coalition in and counter attack once they had damaged their morale enough to threaten a collapse on their entire right, all Milton and I would have to do was do our best to hold the flank.

Unfortunately this plan didn't go as we hoped. Despite initial successes due to good dice rolls, fate would eventually turn on Matt and Coalition were able to maul his troops very badly. The same would happen to Keith. They tried to launch a counter attack but they were repulsed.

On my side of the table I delayed Gil as best as I could. The picture below is a funny demonstration of how difficult that would be, as 4 stands of Polish skirmishers attempt to hold a village against an ocean of enemy troops. Suffice to say, despite getting cavalry reinforcements later in the game, I was not able to contain my opponent.

And on Milton's side of the table, despite initial successes, his reinforcements that arrived on the road on the right of the table got boxed in by Chris and found itself in a bad situation.

We did not get to play the game to its conclusion but there's little doubt in my mind Coalition would've eventually won this one. But I had a lot of fun getting to try out GDA2.

I don't remember all the changes, but the ones I remember I liked. Changes to ADC rolls, activation, and initiative reduced the amount of book keeping players had to do and also made gaining the initiative a little bit more even. I also liked the changes to skirmish fire, in GDA1 skirmishers seemed a bit too powerful, with the GDA2 rules they are still dangerous, but much more balanced.

Anyways this post had to be a short one, luckily crunch time at work ends this Saturday so hopefully I'll be back to wargaming/hobby related stuff again soon, which means I'll also be back to blogposting. Hopefully. If I don't get too lazy. Right on time because next week I'll be back at Game Kastle Fremont, where Matt will be running The Battle of Olustee using Regimental Fire and Fury, a set of rules that I know the SBGC guys like a lot and one I've been looking forward to try. Until then, folks!