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Nappie Noobie- Blucher- Along the Danube

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Easy E:
I have been wanting to play a game of Blucher for about two years. I know almost nothing about the Napoleonic Wars and have never really wargamed them before. In truth, it was a bit intimidating with all the foreign unit names, various army structures, and do not even get me started on the uniforms. However, the idea of the “Big Battles” (along with the big hats) was appealing to me.

When I first saw and heard about Blucher, it seemed like a good fit for a newbie to Nappies like me. Most of the square, line, column, stuff was abstracted due to the game scale. Uniforms and army structure were as well. In addition, it was designed to be playable with cards so I did not need to start a big new collection of models. Two years later, I finally got up the scratch to pick it up and the 100 Days supplement.



I gave the basic rules a quick read through and found them easy enough to understand. From there, I went to the Honour Website and downloaded Along the Danube the introductory game. This gives you a basic table lay out, some army cards, and a scenario to get you started. Since my usual wargaming buddy and myself knew almost nothing about the period and the warfare of the time this seemed like a pretty good place to start. Plus, the rules themselves encouraged starting here before moving on. Who was I to argue?

Normally at this point, I lay out the scenario and the forces, but you can find all of that on Sm Mustafa's website at Along the Danube so I am going to skip it this time. Plus, I don't want to embarrass myself too badly by completely screwing up the terminology.

As the attacker, I was the French with 3 infantry corps and a reserve cavalry corp. By opponent was the Austrian defenders with 2 Infantry Corps and a mixed reserve corp including Guards, artillery, and cavalry units.

As the French, I had to get hold of two objectives on the Austrian side, or cause them to break by routing 8 units. The Austrians had to stop me and could defeat me by routing 8 units as well.



You can read the final results and my impressions of the rules here: https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2019/01/battle-report-blucher-along-danube.html

Battle Brush Sigur:
Thanks for sharing your game and thoughts on Blücher!

My own dive into the period happened very similarly. Had one game of the very same scenario as you have so far and that's that thus far. I have painted an army though! :D

Really enjoyed the rules since, as you pointed out, you don't have to faff about with formations and so on. Proper large scale battle game.

vtsaogames:
A very close game!

A minor point on nomenclature: The Austrians were the only major combatant of the wars who didn't have guard units in the field. The Reserve corps was their version of of it, with the grenadier companies from the line regiments supported by the cuirassier (armored) heavy cavalry and lots of artillery. But technically they weren't guards, though they were the elite of the Austrian army.

French, British, Prussians and Russians all had guards.

Please post more about your next game(s).

Andrew_McGuire:
Another point to consider with regard to the basics of terminology is that 'corps' is singular as well as plural.

jon_1066:
Nice write up.  One thing stood out was the range of artillery - 8 times base width.  If you take a unit to be a Brigade with say room to deploy two battalions in line then that puts the artillery range at something close to 5000 yards!  Did I read that right?  Seems crazy.

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