I wanted to experience a larger game than the usual six unit limitation so increased my force lists to twelve on either side. The game was played with vanilla rules, the only variant being the introduction of some unit quality characteristics. This worked through a random determination of the list and the establishment of thresholds on morale once a certain number of hits had accrued. So for levy, once they were reduced to ten hits or below any further casualties from combat would be doubled. For trained this was five or below and Elite, no impact. I also wanted a representation of army morale so I deemed once one third of units were lost the threshold would increase by five across each class so elite would be five, trained ten and levy fifteen i.e. all casualties received. This mechanic worked very well and increased the speed of the game compensating for the larger number of units involved.
The game pitched a force of French against an experienced Russian side with both contingents incorporating a reasonable mix of unit quality and experience. Movement at the early stage was increased by ruling that troops outwith engagement range were allowed double moves. This proved essential for the Russians as they had to redeploy a large portion of their force from the left flank over to the right where the randomly determined objective of the town had been defined prior to a distribution of the deployment, again using a random method.
The game moved on at a rapid pace and it wasn't long until both forces were hotly engaged on both flanks, with the centre largely empty.
The battle lasted for eight turns and over the course the French hit the third loss barrier first. This started to have a impact on accumulated casualties and with the Russians hitting their morale level soon after it quickly descended into a bloody and exciting affair.
The game ended with a narrow Russian win. All together a very enjoyable experience and still within a reasonable elapsed time of just under two hours. The cat was deployed on the bed so spared me her tactical attention (which helped).
