renaud verlaque - Nov 5, 2004 12:44 pm (#396 Total: 400) "The game looks great ... The mechanics are smooth and play quickly, but capture the feel of the period. For anyone looking for a great Napoleonic era game, this is a must have" Mark Herman re Age of Napoleon (Phalanx) A cool AAR from rpg.net 1805 : Napoleon rushes across Germany to crush Mack's Austrian army at Ulm. Following this defeat, Archduke Charles and general Kutusov try to lure Napoleon in a trap near Vienna. Unfortunately, their manoeuvre fail when typical Russian HQ miscalculations prevent Buxhowden from showing up on Napoleon's rear, leaving Charles and Kutusov to be routed by Murat's cavalry. Its army scattered and its capital occupied, Austria capitulates. 1806 : Despite considerable pressure by pro-French and pro-Russian parties, the Prussian government decides to stay neutral in this conflict. While the British army is happily burning down Washington and Russia is mobilizing at an unprecedented speed near Moscow, Marshal Soult conquers Pommerania. Napoleon seems to be enjoying a quiet stay in Vienna. In the worst winter seen in years, thousands of Russian soldiers die due to inappropriate quarters. 1807 : Thanks to William Pitt's personal intervention, Prussia joins the Coalition. Alas for the British, Napoleon reaps the benefit of its efforts in Austria as Vienna enters the French alliance. At everybody's surprise, Portugal also joins the Coalition. A secret report by Fouché pointing to Talleyrand's double-dealings as the reason of the Portugese decision is ignored by the French governement. French reaction is extremely swift : Marshal Soult enters Prussia in the first days of the spring and crushes Braunschweig's army in Ostprussien. Napoleon didn't even bother to deal with the Prussian paper tiger personnaly. Stunned by the Prussian defeat and waiting for British reinforcements, the Russian army stays in Moscow. Meanwhile, Archduke Charles leads a Franco-Austrian army in the conquest of the Napolitan Kingdom, defeating a British-funded Napolitan force in the process. Prussia capitulates as French troops enter Berlin. 1808 : Austrian reforms its army under Radetzky's direction. A Spanish army led by general Blake conquers Portugal despite strong resistance by Beresford's Portugese. Napoleon decides to deal with the Russians once and for all and starts concentrating the Grande Armée in Poland, only to be handed his first defeat by general Winter. Russians are still waiting for British help, but the Royal Navy has'nt managed to get rid of the French fleet yet. 1809 : British diplomacy tries to make up for Nelson's lack of results as Pitt talks Spain out the French alliance and Hannover becomes neutral. Again, Fouché's accusations against Talleyrand are dismissed as personal animosity. Napoleon gathers new troops in Poland to replace last winter's losses and enters Russia. He's at Smolensk by June and Kutusov is waiting for him before Moscow. As Napoleon starts his march to Moscow, a small Russian-funded Swedish army led by Charles XIII leaves Stockholm and manages to reach Westphalen, bypassing all French armies ! In July, Napoleon and Kutusov meet west of Moscow. The battle stays indecise until the afternoon when a timely engagement of the Guard wins the day for the French. Napoleon enters Moscow, Russia is beaten. Meanwhile, undaunted by (or unaware of) Russia's defeat, Charles XIII continues his daring raid and August finds him besieging Paris ! It takes Murat to force him back after an epic and very close battle decided by a last massive charge from the French cavalry. Napoleon and Alexander I sign a peace treaty in october. 1810 : Britain stands alone, all the more since Napoleon has managed to browbeat Prussia in the French alliance in the wake of his Russian victory and Talleyrand has talked Hannover back in the French lap (Fouché is reported to be 'extremely depressed'). In march, the French govenrnement forces the implementation on the Continental System on all his allies/conquests, creating much dissent in the process. At last, in april, Nelson routs the French fleet at Trafalgar. 'About time ! ' is King George's only comment. Napoleon goes back to Paris, Davout conquers Sweden and Danemark while Wellington invades Portugal, soon joined by general Moore. 1811 : Following the Austrian emperor's premature death, Napoleon has his brother Joseph appointed as emperor of Austria. He also has the thrones of various Eurpean minor countries distributed to relatives of his. Despite these outrages, the continental system and the massing of French troops at the border of neutral Spain, continental Europe shows no sign of unrest. Londoners start whispering that Mr Pitt's spymaster, lord Blackadder, may not be up to his task... Galvanized by his diplomatic successes , Napoleon conquers Spain and Portugal in two switf strokes, sweeping aside Anglo-Spanish troops. Only occupied Spain's neutrality prevents a French decisive victory. 1812 starts with another telling blow for the British : thanks to Napoleon's diplomatic talents, Spain signs an alliance treaty with the Empire. England has to get a foothold on the continent if they want to avoid a disastrous peace. In August, Wellington lands in Pommerania in a effort to draw French attention. After an heroic march across Europe where he managed to bypass three French Armies, he's caught in december by Napoleon himself somewhere in Dalmatia and defeated after a very close battle (Napoleon having lost half his army to march attrition before the fight). But his sacrifice hadn't been vain : focused on getting him, the French didn't react in time to Moore's invasion of Danemark . This one precious ally on the continent allows the British to deny supremacy to the French. At 2 a.m. the game stops with a French marginal victory. Comments It was my opponent's first game. As shown by this report, he had no trouble putting up a very good performance even with a superficial reading of the rules. The ease with wich newbies can get into the system is one of its greatest quality. We tried the optional rules designed to reduce card luck. They came in extremely handy since every rule applying to the Coalition was invoked. They didn't prevent the French player from keeping his advantage but effectively avoid my being beaten for not having drawn/being denied essential cards (Britannia for instance). Likewise, the rule forbidding diplomatic actions against more than one major contry per phase prenvented the French player from having the tables turned on him by my lucky draws (diplomatic cards tended to crop up by pairs in my hand). The rule I have some reservations about is the automatic Continental System rule : its conditions seem a little too easily met to me. renaud verlaque - Nov 5, 2004 12:46 pm (#397 Total: 400) "The game looks great ... The mechanics are smooth and play quickly, but capture the feel of the period. For anyone looking for a great Napoleonic era game, this is a must have" Mark Herman re Age of Napoleon (Phalanx) And another... 1805, Austria is crushed in the field and our guys sit in Vienna unopposed. But do the men in white surrender? No. What's more, Nelson sends our fleet at the bottom of the sea and winter in Vienna is particularly harsh. 1806 begins with Spain turning neutral and Austrians learning from their mistakes and reforming their army. Things look quite bad from the french side, and Nappy starts a strategic withdrawal (heh!) towards the homeland, in order to thwart the english expeditionary corps under Hill. Meanwhile Russians have been busy taking Denmark and threatening northern Germany. Napoleon finds himself facing the Coalition army at the Franco-German border. He beats them soundly, disperses the remnant, occupies Vienna and this time forces the surrender of Austria. Of course, at this time, the Prussians enter the dance and summon whatever overrated forces they have. So, of course, the Ogre has to beat them as well and send them back, but this time again the enemy decides to offer no surrender. Things become a bit blurry at this point, but Spain turns to the Coalition side, Napoleon comes back to France just in time to trash an Ibero-British invasion (the cowardly Brits of course sacrifice the regiments of their allies). Meanwhile, the Prusso-Russian army is busy turning over small countries and threatening France itself. Ney, dispatched to the spot in haste , gets a brilliant, but costly victory. Things start turning the french way, as Russia, then Prussia become neutral again, and England faces alone the might of the Emperor (it must be 1810 or so by now). Unfortunately at this point, between the many battles and attrition, the best troops of the french army are now history. So, at one point, the former french minor allies have turned to the Coalition, but Napoleon faces a numerically inferior army in Spain. Instead of rallying the minors, our hero decides to squash the annoying redcoats once and for all (and who would have done different?), but it was a trap and the whole country rises in a treacherous insurrection just after offering an hypocritical surrender. Of course at this point, Prussia rebuilds a semblance of army and Austria becomes active again. Once again, Napoleon has to rush off in another direction and save the day, while the Brits prosper in the South. A few diplomatic turn-arounds later, the bloddied french army roams France in 1814, defeating each Coalition army but not making any real progress, despite a last-ditch effort at retaking minor allies. The game ends in the fall 1815, with a last french battle near Paris that finally turns in a defeat (almost the first one for Napoleon). At this point, there was no way to avoid a defeat anyway, the french army was bled white, with no more reinforcements available, and the Coalition was only marginally better. A very hard-fought game, where superior card play by the Coalition was balanced by his atrocious luck in battle (as it should). Each offensive of the Coalition was repulsed with heavy losses until the french army was reduced to a core of veterans unable to spread out to protect anything beyond Paris. Very appropriate and very dramatic.