Age of Eagles vs General de Brigade

[Dukewilliam]

Men,

I am going to be putting on a Quatre Bras scenario in early 2023 and was planning on using the AoE rules. But lately I have been reading a lot about GdB.

Can anyone give me a qualitative/quantitative comparison between the rules sets? My curiosity is piqued.

Thanks,
Steve

[Jemima Fawr]

Men,

I am going to be putting on a Quatre Bras scenario in early 2023 and was planning on using the AoE rules. But lately I have been reading a lot about GdB.

Can anyone give me a qualitative/quantitative comparison between the rules sets? My curiosity is piqued.

Thanks,
Steve

His Steve,

They are pretty much at opposite ends of the scale spectrum.  General de Brigade is 'tactical' at 1:20 ratio, with every battalion and detached light company represented and a model gun representing two guns.  Age of Eagles is 'grand tactical' at roughly 1:100 ratio (or thereabouts), with the basic unit of manoeuvre being the brigade and batteries being represented by single gun models.

In terms of ground-scale, I've played the Battle of Eggmuhl with both sets of rules; General de Brigade required three parallel 6x16-foot tables, whereas AoE required a singel 6x8-foot table.

[CapnJim]

I have never played GdB.  But I have played AoE (and a lot of F&F, on which it is based).  Given GdB's base tactical units of battalions and companies, though, I would tend to go with AoE for Quatre Bras.  Unless of course, you want a BIG game...

[Littlearmies]

Falling a bit between the two, there's General D'Armee (also by Dave Brown, the author of GdeB). Whilst some players seem to regard GdeA as the "new" version of GdeB, that isn't really true as there's a rather different emphasis. I mention it because Quatre Bras is one of the scenarios in "The Hundred Days" - https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/1815-the-hundred-days-scenario-supplement/ - it's also pretty agnostic about basing and unit size, so as long as both your armies are based in a similar fashion, you can use whatever figures you have.

[VonAkers]

Hi DW
I have played both General De Armee and Brigade , but not AoE .
GDA and GDB  are both really good , all depends on how many figures / time / table size you have , these would all need to be very large .
Also both are battalion games , which I like , I personally dont like  Brigade sized Games.
Cheers

[vtsaogames]

What Jemima Fawr said. With AoE, the French will have 6 infantry brigades (Jerome's pair are rather large, might be broken into two each), 5 or 6 artillery batteries, and 4 cavalry brigades unless you include the Guard Light Cavalry.

With GdB, the French will have well over 24 infantry battalions, some 20 guns, 8+ cavalry regiments.
The Anglo-Allies outumber the French by more than 50% by the end of the battle, unless you only play the first couple hours of the battle. Playing the whole thing gives one respect for the odds Ney faced most of the day.

[IronDuke596]

I totally agree with VonAkers assessment and view point.

[Littlearmies]

The GdA scenario I referenced suggests a minimum of 6' x 5' for 15mm and 8' x 6' for 28mm troops. As to troop numbers, for the Allies you'd need 25 battalions of infantry plus guns and four squadrons of cavalry much of whom arrive in dribs and drabs during the game, whilst the French field 21 infantry battalions, and two each of lancers, chasseurs and cuirassier.

[Frostie]

Excuse the Noob question GdA and GdB both use battalions as the the standard maneuver unit, what about cavalry?
What are the recommended base sizes?

[LazyStudent]

Hi Dukewilliam,

I must admit that I have not played AoE, but I can highly recommend GdB if you would like to have a very granular battle with lots of player choice for what battalions do etc. But it will need a number of players to play the game. When we played QB using GdB, it took the day and was a game for ~8 players. A player who knows the rules can happily run 2 brigades, many more and it can really slow the game down. GdA is similar but different. Also a good game, and we are actually planning to do a GdA QB game this year in 6mm.

So if you have fewer players then AoE might be the easier game.

As for the question be Frostie. The main maneuver element for cavalry for both is the Regiment. But you can break it down to the squadron level.