General de Brigade

[David Murvihill]

Hi:
I just got a copy of General de Brigade, and have been playtesting it using figures mounted for Column, Line and Square. I charged a 60 figure Austrian Line battalion with a 40 figure French Chassuer a Cheval regiment, took six casualties from fire (firing the battalion as two 30 figure units) and because of the -6 from "Each casualty suffered during a charge", the unit is now retreating. I realized that if I had used the Reg't as two 20 figure divisions I would have had one at -4 and one at -2, much more likely to pass.

Does firing the 60 figure battalion as half-batallions gain any advantage, or would it be better to create an additional line on the musketry casualty table for 50+? Also, how do you resolve the morale issue listed above? I suspect that hitting the 10% morale check requirement will be harder as well with 60 figure bns. Please don't suggest rebasing figures; my army is too large to even consider that. I'd rather make provisions for my current units.

That said, the only other thing that strikes me odd in the rules is how slow it is to inflict casualties from fire. I suspect that impression will go away once we stop shooting at long range...

[captain chook]

For a similar problem, but with fewer figures see:

http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=3619

Essentially, the solution is the same, use a roster sheet with the "actual" unit strength rather than figure strength. Your units are about 25% bigger than those for conventional basing. Reduce your figure strength by 1/5 (ie your 60 strong unit is on paper only 48).

Ants

[Craig]

That`s a large Chasseur á cheval Regt, @ 1:20 ratio,
Regards,

[DCRBrown]

D,

This is an issue that has been addressed in GdeB 3.

First the maximum firing line of the Musketry Chart is now at 35+

(To avoid the howls in shock and horror – some rational. This is based on the fact the majority of very large battalions suffered disproportionately in command and control and tended to have far fewer officers and NCO's. Thus to expect a 1000 man battalion to deliver volleys with the same fire discipline and control as a 500 man battalion is unrealistic. The exception is obviously the British but they tended to operate in wings and are also compensated by their increased fire modifier.)

Secondly all units will now be required to test morale if they received 10% casualties or 3 or more casualties in one turn.
(Simply represents the shock of receiving a significant number of casualties in a short period. Even large battalions are not going to feel too happy about losing significant casualties. This also prevents situations where 48 figure battalions stroll around the tabletop virtually immune to morale checks by fire.)

Finally any battalion over 40 figs that is not Elite or Guard will require an extra half turn of movement to carry out all formation changes.
(Again moving 1000 men takes proportionally far longer than moving 500.)

DB

[David Murvihill]

[Skaran]

Wow, my largest Chasseur unit has 28 figures in it and the smallest 12.

[Belisarius]

I've been raising similar questions in the British Grenadier subforum. In our few games we've found that 30-40 fig units can dominate smaller ones to a possibly unreasonable degree as the way the chart is set a poorly rolling 40-fig units will wreak havoc compared to 2 equally rolling 20 fig units. Even looked at some mods to the table (in my blog). I like some of the ideas suggested in GdeB3.

However my issues are more to do with my using 1:10 as my figure ratio which lets me field the smaller AWI units but makes the big units too powerful.

Similarly have looked at working in wings and making sure terrain affects big units to the full.

Andy
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