After a rather too long interruption John and I were back in Vae
Victis territory again, playing Reichshoffen from #73 a couple of
weeks ago.

The components are Vae Victis as usual, since they almost never vary
their style.  Although the Magenta map in particular, with its nice
field patterns, harkens back to the days of Marignano when that style
was still new.  Anyway, it works but we had a bad surprise that given
the uniformity of VV components we would not expect: the map hexes are
too small, and not even equal-sized between the two games (Magenta is
9% smaller than the 2004 Solferino, and Reichshoffen 11%).  This led
to some difficulty in the end game as the counters simply didn't fit
on there, although the low number of units meant we could still sort
of keep track of who had been squeezed off-position. I'll enlarge the
maps to play Magenta.

Anyway, the system I really like.  Sequence is chitpull, combat is by 
fire, none of the sclerotic son of grandson of Napoleon at War Battles 
stuff that keep bedeveling grand tactical games.  Units have facing which 
is a bit fiddly (and perhaps a bit out of scale with hourly turns for 
brigade units).  But the fact that units only have ZOCs to the rear 
counteracts the strong ZOCs, so the facing actually serves a purpose to 
keep things fluid. Most CRT results are disruptions but multiple 
disruptions also cause step losses. Defenders fire first and can 
distribute their fire strength among attackers (and if you have used it, 
then you fire against remaining stacks with strength 0 which can still 
have effects!).  That makes sense though it does make for more dierolling. 
There are a number of special rules on coordinating attacks. Losses are 
indicated by numeric loss markers (although this is not laborious since no 
unit has more than 3 steps) and disruption is indicated by flipping the 
unit over.

An interesting touch is that (unless I misread the French original)
artillery can't shoot ranged fire on flat ground, it or the target has
to be placed on a higher elevation to do that. The French get a bonus
for the Chassepot rifles (but only on defense), and the Prussian
artillery is more dangerous. There is a cavalry charge rule that we
haven't really used yet, guess it must wait for Magenta. Command is of
the "trace down from the leader, and formations out of range must test
initiative to move full distance and enter ZOCs" kind, one of the
weaker bits but if I accept it with Eagles of the Empire I guess I'll
accept it here.

The Reichshoffen map is interesting insofar as it is very deep and
narrow, but victory is purely in terms of five villages in the center,
so that the "wings" don't see much action.  The Bavarians come from
the left and the Prussians from the front.

When we played, the II Bavarian Corps was initially repulsed on the
left wing, and the French decided to better protect the victory
villages by advancing the 3rd Division to the river line in the
center.  That was quickly proven to be a bad choice as they were
beaten up the Prussian V Corps that proceeded to take Morsbronn
(whereupon Pelle's II Division moved to protect the right flank).  The
French wings were successively pushed back and at the end all but two
French divisions had been demoralised (one of which was Lestrat's 5th
which only comes in 2 turns before the end) and the French position
was encircled.  The 3rd Division had been eliminated and the 2nd was
down to a single step in Elsassbach. However, the French managed to
keep the Prussians out of Froeschwiller to the end, so it ended as a
(slightly weird due to the real-world hopelessness of the position
which would have seen all the French army bagged) French game victory.

French losses at the end were four infantry and 3 artillery units (14
steps total including three of non-dead units) versus two Bavarian
units killed (3 steps total) and about 1/3 the Prussian army disrupted.

Markus

Last 3 games played: Reichshoffen, Craonne, Wellington vs Massena
--------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ ---------------
"Bakayaro! Bakayaro!"  ("Stupid Bastards!  Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral 
Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942

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