General de Brigade

[captain chook]

Just played a wargame against a team from a nearby city. We used a set of rules based on In the Grand Manner. Only two out of the six of us knew the rules which slowed the game to some degree. But overall the rules were complicated, needed constant dice rolling (almost on the same level as Warhammer rules), and the quick reference charts ran to 7 pages. Movement had to be done in very specific turns so that only one player could move at a time, with the other five having to fill in the time with small-talk.
Overall the game had an authentic feel, but it took almost 3 1/2 hours to make 4 moves. In this time we had only 2 combats and mainly artillery and skirmish firing. There were only 2 infantry volleysin this time.

Our group will not be changing from GdB any time soon!!

The one interesting rule was how cavalry were handles. They allowed squadrons to manoeuvre and charge independantly, while still being a part and in support of the rest of their regiment. Squadrons can be fed into a combat gradually as needed. This certainly gives a more authentic feel to cavalry combat. Cavalry regiments are more flexible and there is the added feeling that the cavalry are as interesting and tactically complex as the infantry. This was the one aspect of these rules that didn't appreciably slow down play.

Is this handling of cavalry something that would interest other GdB players, and is this something that could be looked at for future editions of the rules?

Looking forward to GdB3.

Ants

[colinjallen]

Being true heretics, we have already incorporated much of that approach into our cavalry combats. At the time, I argued that it was not necessary as GdB represented a macro view of cavalry combat and working with squadrons on a more micro scale would slow the game down. I am happy to say that I was utterly wrong; the game is not slowed down and the cavalry combats are far more interesting affairs that feel right.

Colin