Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Tuesday Night Boardgame: Battle of Ligny, 15:00hrs

I thought it was time to pull the dustcover off a game I’ve had sitting in a cat proof room for many months.  It’s Lighy from GMT’s now OOP quad game, Battles of Waterloo, a 1995 Richard Berg design.  I’m embarrassed that this game has been sitting still since August.  Life happened, and I had to force myself to sit down and figure out the rules, which seemed a little opaque to me at first, but I think I understand the major mechanics now.  

Now, in the middle of Turn 5, Thielman’s III Corps is now engaged to the east, while Zeiten’s 1 Corps has yet to be challenged for Ligny.  The fighting is on the outskirts so far.  This turn Pajol’s division of the Cavalry Reserve has been bumping heads with. Hobe’s III Corps Cavalry, while Milhaud’s cuirassiers have been battering the Prussians to the west.  Elements of Pirch’s II Corps are coming to the rescue.  Because the activation of units is random, the Prussian I and II Corps and the Imperial Guard, Gerard’s IV and Vandamme’s III Corps have yet to move.

This pious fellow is helping me keep track of the turns.  He’s my lovely Santa Clause 2014 gift from Stefan of Monty’s Caravan fame.

 

 

Here’s a close up look at the Pajol vs Hobe punch up on the French right.   Each of the units is a cavalry brigade and most have been in action this turn, hence the counters marked D1, showing disruption.  Disruption can be as a result of combat, but it also happens automatically to all cavalry at the end of the turn in which they Charge and Shock an enemy, so cavalry formations can quickly be used up.  As you can see here, Hobe’s cavalry are pretty much battered, but the fresh division of Exelmans is behind Pajol and could make life difficult for the Prussians on Turn 6 if Exelmans and the Cav Res activates before III Corps. If you’re curious about the size of the stacks, mostly the height is because of bookkeeping markers and leaders.   The rule is only one cavalry or infantry unit per hex, though a battery can stack with each or with another battery.  There are limits (9 I think) to the number of strength points that can fire out of a hex.

Meanwhile the Imperial Guard, with the fearsome Guard artillery to the fore facing five brigades of III Corps at the top right as they move to link up with I Corps at Ligny, and Gerard’s Corps at the bottom right, still have not moved this turn.  Ligny Chateau is probably safe for now, but the threat is building.

We’ll see how far I can get with this before next Tuesday.  I’d best get a move on because my stack of games to be played got bigger after these fellows arrived just before Christmas.  I blame Jon Freitag for putting me on to a sae by Multi-Man Publishing.  I elected to get four of their Brigade Series ACW games, including two different treatments of the Battle of Shilo, a battle I’ve always felt was under-treated by boardgame publishers.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Speaking of games, only three seats left in the Diplomacy Game starting soon.

 

7 comments:

  1. Michael, I see you are a counter clipper. Takes time to accomplish but well worth the investment in my opinion. I get blame for filling the game shelf with four great games at rock bottom prices? I should instead be rewarded!

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    1. I am indeed a counter clipper. I keep a pair of clippers on my boardgame table at all times.
      Would one of those MMP games make a good VASSAL choice, do you think?

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    2. Also, I was blaming you in a good way. Like thanking, really.

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    3. When will this madness of affirmative blaming end? There will be gratitude running amok in the streets if we don't a handle on ourselves.

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  2. Having not tried the RSS yet, a good test of VASSAL might be either Antietam or Shiloh. I have both of those and VASSAL modules are available too. Been a long, long time I am up for a game. Just checked the VASSAL modules; Antietam seems to have map errors but Shiloh looks good.

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  3. Marvellous looking game. Best of luck getting all those games played!

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  4. Good show all round, Padre! Agree whole-heartedly on the under-representation of the West in the ACW, as well as Indian Territory and other 'peripharel' theatres.

    I've mentioned on these posts before how much this takes me back to my childhood. From glancing over the rules as you explain them, the feature I most like is the 'Disruption' counter. I like games where that mechanic is represented. Most just keep track of casualties, and after a point they'll flee like cowards. More sophisticated games like this track casualties, order and morale separately - and treat each as a sliding scale rather than black and white.

    Looking forward to seeing how these all pan out!

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