Maida: An Introductory GdA Scenario

I finally got together with my good friend Mike last evening at the Hobby Bunker to engage in a bit of Wargaming. After some discussion we decided to have a game of Général d'Armée. Mike had yet to play and as a connoisseur of fine rulesets this needed to change. He is putting together a Prussian force and I felt that could also do with some encouragement.

I have placed the OB we used above. As you can see it is a 3 brigade on 4 brigade battle but I gave each force an extra ADC. The minimum recommended in the rulebook is five but I have found that for a teaching game this works. I also placed the 4th British brigade as an on-table reserve representing Ross's regiment's late arrival on scene. 

We essentially set up a very simple table with a few trees, wrote our initial brigade dispositions on  a sheet of paper, then laid out our troops and started the game. We actually got in 8 turns in 3 hours which I felt was quite good. I have found that careful referral to the excellent QRS that comes with the game is all that is needed. I have probably played 5-6 games now so the game flowed well. We tried out several different rule mechanisms in the game and got in everything but Melee but this is not unusual in this game as it seldom happens. The Charge process was a little labourious the first time but after that  it seemed to go well. Still am a little shaky on skirmishers but otherwise the game went without a lot of referral to the rulebook.

We did not come to nay real resolution as I have to say both our dicing for Brigade Initiation was poor and in each turn we each had multiple Hesitant brigades. Mike did take out my RHA battery and we both we able to force a couple of battalions into Retreat, so we had quite a nice introductory game. I believe Mike quite enjoyed it. We both took a few photos which I will display, but I will not bother with a formal AR.

Both sides advancing

The British left falnk

The centre

In Square

French Infantry Assault

The Infantry Assault from the British view

Overall a fun night and a terrific ruleset.