28MM NAPOLEONIC PENINSULAR WAR LASALLE TEST GAME

This weeks game at the SESWC was something new for us. A 28mm Peninsular war game using the Lasalle rules by Sam Mustapha. Dave Paterson who is an inveterate buyer of new rules has had a copy of Lasalle for over a year and had never tried a game so we decided to give the rules a test outing.



Dragoons charge home on Lt Dragoons - RHA prepare canister

 I put together a scenario using the army builder section of the rules to give a French Division attacking a British Division with each side supported by a cavalry brigade of 2 regiments and a HA battery. I gave the attacking French a Dragoon regiment and a Hussar regiment which are superior to the British Light Dragoons.

The objective for the French was to take an enclosure in the British deployment area. The French deployed with cavalry on their left the Swiss veteran infantry in the centre and the French conscripts on their right. The British who deployed second faced the French cavalry with their own, the centre of their line being held by the elite battalion and the HA battery supported by a line battalion in reserve, while 3 line units held the enclosure and extended their left flank. We diced as per the rules for the vigour of the subcommanders. The British cavalry subcommander was poor and the infantry subcommander was good. The French veterans had a good subcommander and the conscripts a poor one.

Here is a link to the Flickr set with all the photos and descriptions.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157628954118129/

On the French left the Dragoons charged the British light dragoons who met them supported by the fire of the RHA battery. They drove back the dragoons and in their next turn followed up with a charge which the Dragoons in turn drove back. The French HA battery peppered the 2nd British Light Dragoons and steadily disrupted them. The poor British cavalry commander supported by the CinC completely failed to remove any of the disruptions on the Light Dragoons. The French Dragoons charged their opposing Light dragoons a 2nd time and were driven back by a drawn melee. The French Hussars stayed near their HA and took no real part in the action. At the end of the battle the other 3 cavalry units were all exhausted and could no longer charge - they all had 3 disruptions.

British CinC calmly watches Swiss close on his elites

In the centre two of the Swiss veteran columns closed and charged the elite British unit - they had already taken disruptions from musketry as they advanced and they both bounced of the British line with one of the columns breaking and fleeing. The British followed up by charging the recoiled Swiss unit which managed to drive back the large British unit! The 3rd Swiss battalion moving up to support was broken by the fire of the HA battery.

Swiss meet cold British steel and falter

The French conscripts attacked the British line holding the enclosure with 2 battalion columns whilst their other 2 battalions supported by the divisional battery engaged the 2 flank British Battalions. The battalion holding the enclosure drove back both its attackers and their comrades on the flank shot up the other conscripts. The superior quality of the British units, their better skirmish ratings and their subcommander meant that they out shot the French and recovered their few disruptions whilst the poor conscripts led by a poor subcommander just became more and more disrupted and unable to continue the attack.

Battered conscripts in front of the enclosure

One notable feature of the game was that no attacker ever won a close combat. They were all won either by the defender or were draws which also count as defender wins. This meant the hand to hand combats were relatively indecisive as only an attacker winning decisively automatically breaks an opponent.

The rules worked well - we both enjoyed the game. The game mechanisms are relatively simple and very well explained in the rules. Every section of the 4 page QRS refers to the relevant page number in the rules. The command mechanisms are every simple. The quality of the troops and their ability to recover from disruption is the key to the game. One of my next projects it to write a review of Lasalle and try to compare it with Black powder which I use a lot.

Here is the OB for the game
PENINSULA 1810
BRITISH ARMY DEFENDING

COMMANDER directly commanding
1 ELITE INFANTRY BATTALION a LARGE UNIT
1 INFANTRY BATTALION
1 RA BTY

SUB COM +1
3 INFANTRY BATTALIONS
2 SKIRMISH BASES these were added to 2 of the line units skirmish screen

SUB COM -1
2 LT DRAGOON REGTS
1 RHA BTY

BRITISH UNIT RATINGS
INFANTRY - REL/EXP/SK2
ELITE INFANTRY - VAL/EXP/SK 3
LT DRG - REL/EXP/PURSUIT

FRENCH ARMY ATTACKING

COMMANDER

SUB COM +1
3 VETERAN BATTALIONS

SUB COM -1
4 CONSCRIPT INFANTRY BATTALIONS
1 DIV BTY

SUB COM 0
DRAGOON REGT
HUSSAR REGT
HA BTY

FRENCH UNIT RATINGS
VET INFANTRY - REL/EXP/SK2
CONS INFANTRY - REL/AM/SK 1
DRAGOONS - REL/EXP/PURSUIT/SHOCK
HUSSARS - VAL/EXP/PURSUIT