Second game of 1812 - Retreat from Moscow

Wednesday my friend Michael and I had our second game of 1812 – Retreat from Moscow. This was still very much a test game as we had changed the rules/modifers a bit to ensure the effiency of cavalry.

Since our first game I had purchased a 2’x4’ board to add to the overall gaming table, giving us a 6’x4’ on which to play. With an increase in the playing surface we also thought that we would increase the amount of point with which to create our army lists for. We decided on 500 pts – I don’t really have figures to field for more points.

Armies

Russian army

Gen. Platov - Cossack Cavalry Officer
- Guard (Elite)
Cossack Cavalry unit (10)
- Guard (Elite)
Jaeger Officer
- Elite
Jaeger  unit(6)
- Elite
Jaeger unit (6)
- Elite
Cossack Infantry unit (10)

French army

Marshall Ney – Regular Officer

Grande Armée regular unit (7)

Grande Armée regular unit (7)

Grenadier unit (8)

Chasseur Officer

Chasseur unit (6)

Chasseur unit (6)

Light Cavalry unit (6)
- Elite

Objectives

For this game we also decided to roll for objectives instead of just a normal “go kill the enemy” that we had played in our first game. Michael got “Defend” meaning that he had to defend the large hut at one end of the table and make sure that I did not get any of my units within 4” of it. I rolled “Scouting Mission”, which meant that I had to scout each 2’x2’ section of the board – effectively have a unit in a section by the end of the round meant that the section had been scouted.

Side Plots

In order to add another dimension to the game we rolled for officer Side Plots. Michael got “Capture”, where his officer had to free a prisoner that I had placed on the table. The officer he selected for this was the unpainted Gen. Platov and I therefore placed a Cossack Cavalry man in my end of the board.
I rolled “Authority” for my Marshal Ney officer, which meant that in order to succeed all my Regular Troops could not Flee or Rout – impossible I thought.

The Game

Michael’s Cossack Infantry started the game in reserve and actually ended up never getting on the table. It was a fun game, and proved that the rules changes in regards to the efficiency of cavalry worked. I made a mistake of getting my Light Cavalry into melee with Michael Cossack Cavalry and lost the entire unit in the first round. He then proceeded to kill off my Grenadier unit and made Marshall Ney rout. My Chasseur units and one of my Regular Infantry units lunged forward in order to scout the table areas, but were in the end shot down by the Jaeger units and failed their Reaction roll tests. Michael had at this point freed the prisoner and his Jaeger units had prevented me from getting close to the building he had to defend. The game was over in little more than an hour, but it had been fun. 

The Cavalry charge with a lance was devastating, and we decided that the +2 bonus to attack roll was +1 too much. Otherwise the rules seemed to flow rather well, but of course we forgot a few things but definitely remember more than the first time.

Here are some pictures of the game (they turned out darker than intended, which is a shame):