IMPERIAL BORDERS - THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA

IMPERIAL BORDERS – THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
by Larry Harris

For the past year, I’ve been regularly playing board games with my near neighbor, John Perkin. This week, his latest purchase—the Kickstarter game Imperial Borders—finally arrived. It’s a strategy game for two to six players, each taking the role of one of the victorious powers of the Napoleonic Wars: Britain, Monarchist France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, or Spain. The players compete for influence and position in the period leading up to the Congress of Vienna.

The game combines elements of Risk and Diplomacy, featuring military and naval units, several types of fortresses and ports, and pre-planned movement orders. It is played over six to nine game turns, emphasizing both strategic planning and diplomatic foresight.

Yesterday, John set up the game, and today we played through the first two turns of an initial learning session. John controlled Britain and Prussia, while I played France and Austria, leaving Spain and Russia neutral for the time being. Given the complexity of the rules, we were pleased with how smoothly the practice game progressed.

I was particularly impressed by the overall quality of the game—the clarity of the rules, the production values, and the components themselves are all excellent. The map is a large square, and a substantial amount of table space is required for it and the troop boxes, counters, dice and medals as well as the clever national combined quick-reference sheets/wipeable order maps.

One practical issue did emerge: many regions on the map are far too small to accommodate the number of force pieces that can be committed to them—even for a single nation. The game would seriously benefit from a mechanism for managing large formations off the board. See the photos below, particularly the third image, where much of my French army in Belgium is actually out of frame, sitting in the Atlantic.

More to follow next week.

IMAGINATIONS: RETURN TO SAWMILL VILLAGE

 

Return to Sawmill Village – A Scaled-Down Variant

My wargaming table is currently out of action, buried beneath the inevitable debris of our house restoration project. As a result, I’ve been playing a lot of board games at John Perkins’ house, and for a change we decided to put on a tabletop wargame.

Space was the main constraint. John’s conservatory table measures just 6ft × 3ft, so I opted to run a reduced version of Return to Sawmill Village from Charles Grant’s Wargames Compendium. The original table layout and opposing forces were retained, but unit sizes were scaled down to suit the available space.

Each player commanded two infantry regiments, each regiment comprising two battalions of 16 figures. One regiment per side was supported by an 8-figure skirmisher detachment, while the other had a single attached artillery piece.

We used Black Powder 2 with my alternative turn sequence. Regiments functioned as Black Powder brigades, each with its own commander, plus an overall Commander-in-Chief. All commanders were rated at 8. Movement and ranges were reduced to 50% to improve playability on the smaller table.

Most of the terrain was provided by John, supplemented by some buildings from my own collection, along with all the figures.

The Lorraine force consisted of the Legion of Lorraine and the Legion of Saarbruck. The VFS fielded the Butyrski Regiment and the Legion des Ardennes. All of these units were originally part of Charles Grant’s collection, with the exception of the Legion of Saarbruck, which is my own creation.

The objective was the capture of Sawmill Village. The game was played as an encounter battle, with both sides marching on from opposite corners of the table (see map below).

John commanded the Lorraine forces, while I led the VFS. John won the initiative, bringing on the Legion of Lorraine with their attached gun, followed by the Saarbruckers and their skirmishers. I led with the Butyrski and their skirmishers, followed by the Legion des Ardennes and their attached gun. John’s troops made good progress through the hills, while my advance was slowed considerably by the woods on my side of the table.

The Lorrainers occupied Sawmill Village, and I engaged them with the Butyrski. Meanwhile, the Saarbruckers formed a regimental line facing the Old Dover House and engaged my Ardennes as they came into action slowly, battalion by battalion. The ensuing firefight went badly for my side until John decided to advance the Saarbruckers to close range. They promptly blundered, rolled a one, and both battalions retired two moves. Two turns later, the Lorraine skirmishers also blundered and retired.

Seizing the opportunity created by this confusion, the Butyrski pushed a battalion into close range of the village, and their fire broke the Legion battalion holding it. Around the same time, the Saarbruckers also lost a battalion to the fire of the Ardennes. The remaining Lorraine battalions formed up for a last stand, but accepted my offer to retire unmolested from the field, as I now controlled the village and outnumbered them two to one.

Overall, it was a good, exciting game that could easily have gone either way.