Back to Lasalle: an 1815 scenario for the 210th anniversary

Getting to grips with rules

There is an understandable wish at our club to cater for all tastes and offer a varied menu of gaming options. We therefore tend to flit between periods and rule sets. The drawback of this approach is that games can be slowed down mightily by unfamiliarity with the rules., so we do try to play one rules set several times in succession, to help bed them down. We find that when we do this, games really speed up as the focus shifts from checking the index to playing the period, as someone or other says. Paul has done this in the past with several great WW2 games using Battlegroup, while recently Alistair has been running a very successful linked AWI campaign using Sharp Practice. The result of sticking with the same rules for several sessions is certainly rewarding.

We don’t have a favourite Napoleonics set at the club. The contenders for games above skirmish level are Black Powder, Blucher, Soldiers of Napoleon, General d’Armée 2 and Lasalle. We have played them all in recent months, but rarely more than a couple of times apiece. Each has its fans. Blucher stands apart for Corps and Army level games, though there has been talk of trying Napoleon’s Battles again. My own top candidates for ‘divisional’ rules are Soldiers of Napoleon and Lasalle. So far, I have honestly been unable to choose between them, partly because we have not yet played enough games with the same rules to really get used to them. Until recently, that is.

Outside the club, we have a smaller gaming group that occasionally meets on a weekday evening. We tend to lean heavily on Napoleonics and for the past four meetings, we have played Lasalle. I am very glad we did as the ease of play has improved noticeably with each game.

Markkleeberg 1813

Our first Lasalle game was at the club, where we played the combat at Markkleeberg (Leipzig, 16/10/1813), using 15mm figures and a Base Width of 40mm. This and the other scenarios described below are on the Scenarios for Lasalle page. The aim of the scenario for the Allies (Russians and Prussians) is to dislodge Poniatowski’s Poles from the village of Markkleeberg and so help their Austrian Allies to cross the river Pleisse into the French right rear. In this first game, the Allies assaulted the village several times without success, having elected not to soften it up first with musketry or artillery fire. We repeated the scenario a few days later but trying to apply the lessons of the first game. The result this time was much more satisfactory for the Allies, who pummelled the village with fire before taking it by assault. I am certain that the challenge in the first game was unfamiliarity with the interplay between firing, movement and close combat in the rules. Every rules system has its nuances that it is important to grasp if you are going to make the best of things.

Jakubowo 1812

The third game was Jakubowo, an action between Oudinot’s Corps and Wittgenstein on the northern flank of the invasion of Russia. For this one we used 6mm figures and a 30mm Base Width. Harry and my Russians emerged from the forest to find Dan and Ian’s French deployed around the settlement of Jakubowo. We tried and failed to dislodge the French in the 8 turns allowed in the scenario. I think on reflection the game should have been 12 turns to reflect the greater distances we had to cover on the table with our 30mm BW, but I think we would still have been bottled up by a very effective French defence. I do enjoy the mass visual effect of playing in 6mm and am so impressed by the MDF figures that now make up most of our 6mm armies. They are as cheap as chips and look stunning on the table. (If you are interested, look for Commission Figurines, who makes Napoleonic and ACW figures in 6mm as well as some lovely buildings and ruins in various scales). All players were comfortable with the rules by now and the game flowed well.

The Duke of Ligny: Girard at St Amand La Haye

We played our fourth game on 18 June so thought it fitting to play something from the Waterloo campaign. I only have French and Prussians in 6mm and we have not long ago played the first Prussian assault at Plancenoit, so we jumped back two days to the battle of Ligny. I had written the scenario for both Soldiers of Napoleon and Lasalle and we had played the SoN version twice before, but this was the first time with Lasalle. Will led the Prussian counterattack against Dan’s 7th Division holding Saint Amand la Haye, while I champed at the bit in the wings, hoping to bring French reinforcements onto the table in time to make a difference.

This fourth game was the most tense and entertaining I can remember for a long time. Dan had an option to cover the whole front but chose to anchor his left in St Amand la Haye, more or less at the mid-point of his baseline, thereby leaving Will free to send 5th Brigade deep into the French left table half, for much of the way in march column. Dan therefore found himself with Prussians both in front of the village and on the high ground to its left flank. This was a bold and risky deployment by Dan and initially, he seemed at risk of being chewed up from front and flank as a lot of Prussian firepower converged on the northernmost sector of St Amand la Haye. Indeed, Will damaged and then evicted the garrison from this sector. Meanwhile, however, Dan’s right swept away the Fusilier battalions on Will’s left, and his compact division was then well placed to support the remaining two sectors of the village. Then Will inflicted an upset by capturing Dan’s baggage, - the first time this has happened in one of our games. The French camp was decidedly gloomy at this point but at the end of the turn, the French reinforcements finally arrived.

The French reinforcements appeared to the left of St Amand la Haye, to find Will’s flanking force on the high ground. Will turned his troops to face them and it looked as if they could contain the new arrivals, at least long enough for the village to fall. However, the French then had one of those turns when nothing can go wrong and the reinforcements charged and immediately broke two previously unscathed Prussian battalions and an artillery battery. Not only did this effectively snuff out the Prussian threat to Dan’s flank, but it brought the Prussians to within one unit of sudden death. The struggle continued to the final turn when Will’s Hussars, having survived all sorts of scrapes thus far, were finally destroyed by canister fire. And that was that.

I am really glad we have had a run of Lasalle games in a shortish space of time. There is nothing like being punished for your mistakes in one game to teach you to do differently next time around. The best example of this for me is Dan’s tactics for defending a village. In Markkleeberg, he had all battalions in garrison and no reserves close by. They held out well until they didn’t and at that point, there was no way to recapture the village. At St Amand la Haye, the two sectors nearest the enemy were garrisoned but the third had a battalion in mass formation, ready to counterattack if needed. He also had friends outside the village, near enough to support the garrison. The result was far better!

Gamers like variety, especially on club night, so I won’t push my luck with Lasalle. But we ought to play another game before long, so we keep on top of the rules. It would be a shame to have to go through the learning process all over again!