Test game, General d'Armee rules

As stated previously I/we have been awaiting these Napoleonic General d'Armee rules by Dave Brown with some anticipation for quite some time. I liked his General de Brigade rules which I found to be very accurate and loved his Picketts Charge ACW rules which slimmed things down and sped the game up without detracting from the accuracy and feel of the period.
I will state right away that I do (on one play through) like these rules. I'm not a good rules reader, I find it tedious and rather boring because at heart I'm a lazy sod! It did help that I am familiar with the GdB rules as there are some echoes of these within General d'Armee but mainly that I have played Picketts Charge quite a bit and the play sequences within the rules are very similar but with the added components of Napoleonic warfare covered within them.

Be warned there are lots of pretty pictures here all 28mm by the way, I will put a note of what went on below each set but I will not dissect the rules as I did with my Pickett's Charge post Here as some kind people said that they were very helpful but most didn't seem to give a damn so there you go!

The British set up, one brigade of infantry (inc artillery) and one of cavalry.

The French, again one brigade of cavalry and one of veteran infantry with artillery support.

 The infantry brigade comprised of three line infantry battalions with a brigade skirmish screen, an artillery battery and an attached screen of 95th rifles.

The cavalry, one unit comprising of three squadrons of heavy dragoons. I quickly realised that a minimum of two units comprised a brigade so added a unit of hussars.

British cavalry being what it was decided immediately to charge their French counterparts.

Just in case things went tits up two British battalions decided to form square.

After closing to melee (which is not always guaranteed) six hits to the British cavalry to four for the French curiassiers saw the French retire behind their supports leaving the British dragoons somewhat vulnerable as they were now unformed.

In subsequent turns the French Chasseurs charged and routed the unformed British dragoons following on with elan to rout the remaining hussars, not good for the Brits though the French were unformed and would take a while to get back into some form of order.

Meanwhile the curiassiers were pretty much shot with eleven casualties.

French veteran infantry can be seen advancing through the woods preceded by their brigade skirmish screen.

The remaining French line infantry battalion of the brigade somewhat foolishly decides to attempt to charge a formed British battalion.

The French failed to close, gave off a desultory volley then scarpered back towards their nearest supports in rout. This could have been bad for the rest of the French brigade as a 'Faltering' brigade as it now was must pass it's subsequent brigade morale roll (anything other than a 1 or 2). Fortune favoured the French in this instance.

Meanwhile in the centre the French veteran battalion charged into the British line after taking some casualties, with some very good dice it passed and closed to melee throwing the British line back in retreat.
With infantry attacks you can support a charge with nearby friendly battalions but must have committed two ADC's at the beginning of the turn to allow you to do this on brigade assault orders. I never did get sufficient ADC's to see this happen so battalions had to go in on their own.

Just to give it a go the French Chasseurs charged the British square with the predictable result of being thrown back, both sides having suffered one measly casualty. This replicates cavalry milling round the square and the infantry hardly needing to actually fight. They could have caused casualties in the firing phase but threw crap dice!

One last thing to happen before a halt to proceedings was called. The fresh veteran French infantry battalion having received two ADC's was given a 'Forwards' order. This allows the battalion to add one D6 roll to it's charge distance. Given that it had a choice of halving it's movement going over the hedge in front OR taking one casualty and moving it's full move it chose the latter, got to withing 3 inches of the British line (which had suffered quite heavy casualties). The 3 inches is close enough to attempt to charge but of course the French must first take all of the fire coming to them.
The fire from the British line was pretty poor resulting in no casualties from it and a 'loss of fire disapline', but the square and the 95th hammered five casualties into the French making them Retire unformed.
I called it a day at this point, Hopefully I will get over my bout of 'Man Flue' by the weekend when our club is staging a much larger encounter using these excellent rules.
Dave.