David R. Moody  - Jun 25, 2009 6:15 pm (#29477 Total: 29491)  
I grew so rich that I was sent/By a pocket borough into Parliament/
I always voted at my Party's call/And I never thought of thinking 
for myself at all/I thought so little, they rewarded me/By making 
me the Ruler of the Queen's Navy 
	 
An AAR of a scenario from Into the Trenches: Opening Engagements, by
Jeux Grenier Games, posted here by request: 

After our two playtest games of Dresden 20, Joe Oppenheimer and I did a
cavalry vs. cavalry scenario from Jeux Grenier Games Into The Trenches:
Opening Engagements. 

Fun little system--you dice off to see who goes first; winner gets
activations equal to the difference between the die rolls, then the
loser also gets that many activations. If you tie, the turn ends, except
on the first roll of the turn (you are guaranteed at least one impulse
each turn). In that case you reroll until you don't tie. 

I wasn't sure of the scale each piece represented, but they were grouped
into commands of three units or fewer. Thus my at-start force consisted
of 12 Russian cavalry units, grouped into four commands with three units
each; my two groups of reinforcements were organized similarly, as were
Joe's troops. It felt like the units were companies/batteries. We also
each had two artillery units, two machine gun units, and wagons (called
cassions in the game) to tow them. No leaders, or facing, or
formations--no provision for dismounting, for example. Counters
serviceable, with standard symbology for the cavalry and black icons for
the machine guns, artillery, and wagons. 

Most units can be activated twice in a turn, as I understand it. You can
activate a whole command, which can either be stacked in the same hex or
adjacent. For cavalry, it seemed like a good thing to be stacked for
charging, but not for being shot at. After the first activation (you can
move/fire/charge/Close Combat) the unit(s) get an Engaged marker. They
can fire or close combat again (but not move), but then they are Spent
and can't do anything else that turn. 

Certain actions count as two, and thus Spends the unit(s) for the turn,
like artillery and machine guns moving; it also looks like artillery
firing Spends them for the turn, as well as their targets. Units can
also opportunity fire if they are being fired at or charged, but that
counts as an activation and if you're Spent you can't do even that. 

Firing is fairly straightforward--roll 2d6, add in mods for various
things like terrain, how much firepower, what you're shooting at. A 10
or better causes a step loss (units have two steps) to everything in the
hex and Spends the stack. Why stacking isn't a good idea when artillery
and machine guns are about, but you do get a bonus to charging if all
three units in the command are stacked together. Close Combat is
nasty--add up steps, express that as an odds ratio, and roll two dice on
the close combat table, adding/subtracting any mods. Even in high-odds
attacks, a bad roll can hurt the larger side, and even odds attacks can
be disasterous with dice luck like mine. 

Thus the rules, as I understood them (Joe can fill in what I missed/got
wrong, I am sure). On to the battle. Jaroslawice, Poland, 21 August
1914: Russian and Austrian cavalry run into each other in front of the
main armies. The map was nice--computer generated, it looked like, but
pleasant and functional. Mostly flat, with a long low (Level 1) hill on
Joe's side of the field and a couple smaller ones spaced apart on my
side of the field. Most of the righthand side of the map (from my
perspective) was taken up with large grainfields, adjoining the Lipnick
Farm, a one hex cluster of buildings. Victory went to the side who
inflicted the most casualties after six turns. 

Visibilty was limited from the hills, being only Level 1, and the grain
was a hindrance, so we both headed for the grain while the artillery and
guns headed for the heights behind us. A swirling, confused fight
developed in the grain, as both sides charged merrily back and forth,
shooting at each other, hacking with lances and sabres (a lot of the men
on both sides were lancers). I gained the upper hand early on with some
good rolls, and was pushing the kaiserlicks back rather well. 

But there were plenty more where that came from, and soon Joe was
expanding the fight to my left, getting his machine guns and artillery
on the low ridge and getting cavalry in front to cover them. I sent some
of my own troops to counter him, and (probably foolishly) divided my
heavy weapons between the two hills on my side of the field, placing the
machine guns on the hill behind the fields and the guns on the one on my
far left. 

Soon Joe threw forward his troopers at my left, coming forward in a long
line. My machine gunners cut some of them down, but others made it to
the slopes of the hill where my guns were in position. A countercharge
wiped out some of the Austrians, and one of my batteries blasted the
Austrians at point blank range over open sights. Then Joe got his own
guns into action, blasting my guns; an Austrian cavalry unit charged and
overran the other gun unit. 

In the farmer's fields, the tide was turning. Joe was helped here by
some excellent initiative rolls, giving him four and five activations
before I could do anything. The Austrians lapped around my flank. My
lead in losses evaporated as Joe's troopers savaged mine. 

Finally, on Turn 5, with both flanks punched in, over half my guns gone,
Joe ahead on points, and it being after 11, I conceded the field. A
good, hard fought game. I really want to try the other two scenarios
now, especially the one with Japanese and British vs. Germans in China.