Here are Chris Perleberg's changes to TSR's La Grande Armee from his article "The Corsican Ogre Rides Again" in the Wargamer #18, Jan-Feb 1990, pp23-24. See the full article for the rationale behind the changes and their probable impact on the game... Hank hcmeyer@uci.edu "Can It Be Fixed?" (Kirk to Scotty, once a week) I offer here a new CRT and rules on rout that seem to take care of my major objections to the game. These have not been extensively playtested, so feel free to tinker with them. A few of these changes get awfully close to fooling with design decisions, but I offer them anyway. **New CRT for La Grande Armee** ############################### DIE RESULT ATTACKER DEFENDER 0 3, R, L2 1 1 3, R1, L1 2 2 2, R1, L1 2 3 2, R2 1 4 1, R2 1 5 1, R3 1 6 1, R3 1 7 2 2 8 1 1, R3 9 1 1, R3 10 1 1, R2 11 1 2, R2 12 2 2, R1, L1 13 2 3, R1, L1 14 1 3, R, L2 Explanation: # - Loss number. R - Possible rout. Force must make a morale check. If it fails the check, the front line routs. If R is followed by a number, that number is subtracted from the morale check. Add 1 to the morale check for each previous rout roll made. All modifiers are cumulative. L# - Leader loss as per (12.55) and(12.56). BATTLE DURATION - A battle continues until one side or the other withdraws or routs. Advance points are only awarded after the battle is over. ADVANCE POINTS - If the opposing player routs or withdraws, the victorious player (attacker or defender) rolls a die to see how many advance points he receives. Add the initiative of the victorious leader and subtract the current combat round from the die roll. Halve the result (round down). The victorious player gets this number of advance points. For example, if Napoleon routs his opponent on the third round he would add two to a single die roll. If he rolled a four, he would get three advance points. These advance points are used like movement points except that if the advancing force moves adjacent to the force it just attacked, it must stop movement and can move no further (it could not attack that force, either). Note that if using the Concentration rule change below, all these units would be considered concentrated, and would not pay any extra cost to leave the hex. RESERVES, MORALE, AND FLANKING - A force can also get the flanking benefit by releasing a reserve. If one side releases a reserve, and the other side cannot release a reserve that is at least 75% (rounded up) of that reserve, the first side gets a +4 modification to the die roll on the current round and on every subsequent round the reserve is not met. A leader entering the battle as a battle reinforcement counts as a reserve on the turn after he enters the hex. Optional: A player receiving an "R" result can commit a reserve to lessen his chances of a rout. For every group of SPs equal to the current minimum loss value committed, the player can subtract one from the morale check die roll. For example, if the minimum loss is eight, the player can commit 16 SPs from the reserve and subtract two from the morale check die roll. This reserve is committed immediately before the die roll is made, and does not count for the case above (that is, it does not have to be matched). One-half (round up) of this reserve is immediately lost. WITHDRAWAL BATTLES - A force does not have to make a morale check after retreating one hex in a Withdrawal battle (the CRT now contains its own morale checks, so another is not needed). It still has to check morale if forced to by the CRT. EFFECTS OF ROUT - If a force routs in combat, it must retreat five hexes and make another morale check (this check is not modified for previous rout rolls - the morale of the force is not yet zero for this purpose). If the force fails the check, it loses 50% of its strength in addition to any losses from combat and pursuit. If it passes the check, it suffers only combat and pursuit losses. The unit is marked with a Rout 1 marker regardless of the morale check, and is now routed. A routed force is considered doubled in size for march attrition purposes.. It has a morale of zero and can be attacked normally (at minimum odds of at least 1:2). It can not attack. It moves normally (using commands and so on). The Rout 1 marker is flipped over at the end of the next friendly movement phase, after which the unit can attempt to rally normally. A routed force that is routed again suffers 50% losses. It does not make a post-retreat morale check to determine whether or not these additional losses occur. A routed force never gets advance points. BATTLE REINFORCEMENTS - A leader can attempt battle reinforcement each round. A leader can attempt reinforcement no matter how far away he is from the battle. However, he can move only three movement point per turn, and must roll each turn to see if he can move. Note that units adjacent to attacking units but unable to attack must make battle reinforcement rolls to be brought into the combat. This is an exception to (12.72). In addition, drop rule (12.79) as unneeded complexity. The attacker merely rolls again and the defender gains a +4 modifier. Since the new CRT is more balanced, the defender can still benefit substantially without having to become the attacker. BATTLES AND CONCENTRATION - All units in a hex that is either attacking or defending are considered to have the same concentrate order, even if they were not issued a concentrate order in the Command phase. That includes units that reinforced the hex. In the second player phase, the player may combine that concentrate order with one other concentrate order (if he issued any). SUPPLY - An inactive depot in a fortress does not provide supply, but units that do not move do not have to make an attrition die roll if they can trace to the depot. A single supply train can supply all cavalry brigades within three hexes without being expended. (As an aside, there are no supply trains given in the 1806 Prussian set up. The Prussians must start the scenario out of supply, something the Prussian army of the time never would have done. I add one train to every corps leader and two trains to every army leader.)