WRG 1685-1845

I recently picked up a bunch of Hat Industrie's 28mm hard plastic napoleonic figures. I really like painting the figures and they're very easy to assemble, most coming in just two pieces. And they're very cheap! I've also painted up a few Perry napoleonics, and now I have enough french, bavarians and prussians for small games. I decided to try wrg's rules for the period, because they're free, and also because it's a system where each figure counts. Each figure stands for 50 infantry, so you know how many guys are getting killed with each volley. I was initially disappointed that unlike most older wrg games there's no individual tracking of causalties, but you can't have everything. I still prefer this system to more abstract rules where everything is done by base with no real troop scale at all.

France
2 Battalions, each of 1000 Light Infantry Voltigeurs.
1 allied bavarian battalion of 600 line infantry

Bavarians on the left, then two French battalions. General Pierre in back.

Prussia
3 battalions of 800 line infantry each
2 six-pounder cannons

General Heinz in the back, cannons on the right. One unit of prussians was left
in reserve.

I used random deployment, an idea I got from The Solowargaming Guide, a great book by William Sylvester.

The lines advance. There's not enough room for everyone to deploy into line.

The shooting starts. The bavarians in the left foreground get hit by canister.

The french charge and break a prussian battalion, while the prussians in reserve arrive and march to the sound of
the guns.

A mixed up melee at the end, game called due to time. At the far end the french
and prussian reserves are firing into each other. The cannons have turned to face the
french. The bavarians have all been slain by a prussian charge.

Final score was French 318 Prussia 281. This set has a clever rule where you can surrender troops at any time, and still get more points for them than if you let them all die. Prussia preserved some points from surrendering their broken battalion, rather than letting it get destroyed in rout.

I had fun with both my new figures and my new game. Thanks for reading!