Solo Salamanca, Turn 1

 The scenario for this game can be found: HERE

In accordance with the scenario notes the British get ten free initiative points to resolve their surprise attack on Thomieres' 7th Division. This picture shows the situation before the start of play. 

This is all for the better because I can detail how things move and fight using Sacre Bleu rules. This wasn't a decision I made before turning the cards but after, because they were almost perfect.

So here is the paraphernalia of the game. Bags of dominos, sequence card decks, initiative clocks, dice and measures. 

As per the scenario notes, the compulsory 10 point initiative win to enable Packenham and D'Urban to gain the benefit of surprise has been put on the clock, and a couple of cheeky dominos make an appearance to emphasise the point.

The British ignore their first two cards, each turned card costing one initiative point, then draw Brilliant Leader as their third. 

They want to make the most of their infantry so declare Brilliant Leader as an Infantry March card to advance 3rd Division. The division's units are all within command group distance so all four units (including the artillery) move for just one initiative point. 

The lead unit then gives Thomieres' leading unit a volley (going unloaded), costing 1 initiative point. Consulting the combat table, all firing units start on D8. The British get up 1 for being in line, so D8 Up 1 dice is a D10, one dice type bigger. Fire is always versus a D6 , so D10 Vs D6. The result is 7:1. 

Unit Integrity points are 3 'hits' each so 6 'hits' (the difference in the rolls) causes 2 UI 'casualties'. This in itself doesn't do anything but put the unit closer to having zero UI (it was a weak unit and started on 3 UI) when it will automatically become shaken, or negative UI when it will automatically break. The British are not happy with this so they decide to force the issue by spending a divisional morale point to challenge the French unit's morale. 

2 UI casualties makes their morale challenge dice a D10 (see rules). All units start facing a challenge on D8 but, the French unit started the game disordered (scenario rule for surprised) so they are Down 1 but have skirmishers deployed for an Up 1. D8 Down 1 Up 1 cancels. The result is D10 Vs D8 with a roll of 3:2. The French unit rolled less so it becomes shaken and the French lose a divisional morale point as a consequence - the British are happier.

Joy! The British draw a Cavalry March card. The French infantry is shaken so it can be charged on this card and D'Urban's cavalry started the game at charge reach (6"). 

D'Urban's Portuguese cavalry charge home, costing 1 initiative point. 

All units start a melee on D8. D'Urban's cavalry are Up 1 for charging, Up 2 for charging infantry not in square, so Up 3. So the D8 becomes a D12+1 (no dice can be bigger than D12 so any more ups are added as digits but, it's a D12 being rolled so any result greater than 12 is only 12). The French are Up 2 for facing cavalry in attack column (it was an effective anti-cavalry formation) but this is cancelled by a Down 2 for being shaken, and receive Down 1 for being outnumbered in UI by two to one, the French D8 becomes D6 (one dice smaller). Result D12+1 Vs D6 rolling 10:2. 

The difference in the rolls is 8 'hits' so this causes 2 UI 'casualties' (they are 3 'hits' each, remember) and any melee lost to cavalry by 2 UI or more means automatic elimination: The infantry are destroyed losing two divisional morale points for elimination. 

Cavalry destroying a unit need to make a Command Contingency test for 'pursuit' with D8 Vs D8. The result is 1:2. They have failed by rolling less. They are automatically reduced to zero UI and become shaken (without divisional morale point loss in this case because they won) - most of them have ridden off in pursuit, or are blown, and must be rallied back before the unit can become effective again. The 'unit' chooses to retire, which it can do following a victory, to do so.

Point of note: When a unit charges from charge distance (6") it is not moved until after the melee has been resolved, though it is possibly useful to move one stand to contact when the charge is declared. There are reasons for this but, they only became apparent during extended play testing. Likewise, the 6" distance at which units are at charge reach (you can't move to contact from over 6") was chosen for purely gaming reasons: Primarily it breaks movement to contact into two distinct acts (moving and charging) and possibly gives time for a reaction, secondly because units can always move that far, and thirdly 6" gives enough of a gap to deploy two lots of skirmishers facing off against each other prior to a charge being made - units can face off at charge reach for extended periods (whilst waiting for a card on which you can charge) and it is a defensive morale challenge advantage to have skirmishers deployed. 

The Hussars now move up on the same March card for 1 initiative point. D'Urban moves to be with his Portuguese (not shown in shot).

 

Finally, the infantry draw another Infantry March card and spend their last initiative point to advance further and threaten the second French unit of Thomieres' 7th Division. 

This is how the position looks now. 

In accordance with the scenario notes, surprise has now been lost. The British must reshuffle their deck in preparation for Turn 1 proper.

A handy little action to start the battle off, and a fairly historically correct one.

Turn One, Phase 1: At this point I have decided to run through the play of turn one in some detail. It might serve to illustrate why I think Piquet style rules are the best set of rules for solo play in existence.

The British draw 2:2 'the domino of death' and the French draw 4:1. The French win the initiative and because one domino is a double get all the points, they get 9 (4+5). The British lose but have the double, they get 4. The French choose to play first.

With Thomieres in trouble the French decided to cycle for an Infantry March card (on which to retreat) or a Command card (on which they could change formation to fight back). The second card is a March card. They bring up Brennier's 6th Division for one initiative point and retreat Thomieres' 4th Division for another.

But, before Thomieres' can retreat his lead unit, which the French want to move double distance using the Heroic Moment card, the British give it an 'opportunity' volley in the flank, which they can do because it has declared an intent to move, for one opportunity chip. 

In retrospect, the French should have prevented the British firing by using their Heroic Moment card to bend the rules in their favour and opted to move just once. 

Note: Heroic Moment cards can be used to bend the rules in your favour if a sound argument can be made to do it - it's possibly the neatest card type in the deck.

The British get Up 1 for being in line and Up 1 for flank fire. Their D8 becomes a D12. Versus fire the opposing dice is always D6. The result is 11:6. The French unit takes 1 UI loss. The British want to stop it moving so pay a divisional morale point (DMP) to challenge it's morale. They would normally roll D8 Vs D8 but, the French choose to use Thomieres' command presence to get an Up 1 to roll a D10. Result 7:4. The French roll less, become shaken (lose 1 DMP, not shown taken in shot) and are halted in place, before they can move. 

The French continue to cycle through their sequence cards. They draw a second Infantry March card but cannot act on it this phase: They have run out of initiative points.

Note the broken wheel marker for shaken. The original strength of the unit is indicated by the black dice showing a 4. UI losses are indicated with the white dice showing 1. The green dice shows DMP, a purple dice (not in use here) would be used to show DMP x 6 (Thus a range of 0 - 42 can be achieved using 2D6: Purple 2 and Green 2 would be 14)

The British have the luck with them. They turn a Charge! card, first up. They charge the hapless French column in the flank. It's should be a slaughter, with a charge, flank attack and both generaland positional supports they are rolling D12+2 versus D4. The result is 7:4. The French unit takes another UI loss, is doubly shaken and breaks, and the Division loses two more DMP. Thomieres has just 3 DMP left - at zero his division will be spent.

The British second card is Command. This can be used to change formation so the 3rd Division's artillery unlimbers for one initiative point. It can also be used to rally using a DMP, so D'Urban attempts to rally his 'blown / pursuing' Portuguese. He will roll a modified D8 Vs D8, which works to D10 Vs D8. He rolls 9 Vs 3. This is more and double, the Portuguese rally back 2 UI and are no longer shaken.

This shows the positions at the end of the first phase of turn 1.

Packenham and D'Urban are running riot and the French are all over the shop.

Turn 1, Phase 2: 

The French win the initiative 10 points to 6 points and decide to go first. They have not used the showing Infantry March card so use two points to move Thomieres' 7th Division and Brennier's 6th Divisions. Then they turn a new card, Command, for a point and use it to deploy both divisions into fighting formations (facing westward and Packenham's threatening advance) for two points more. This presents a strong line of infantry and guns to the British.

Another new card, Cavalry March, and a point to bring up Curto's Division of light cavalry.

Another cavalry move card brings the French cavalry to charge reach of the British infantry, one of which fails to form square. As the cavalry advance the British spend an opportunity chip to give them a taste of canister - which causes a UI loss but the French pass the subsequent morale challenge. Then French cycle to find a card they can charge on but fail to do so before they run out of initiative.

The British have a Command card of their own showing so form square on it - a unit cannot carry out any other action on a Command card if it uses it to change formation so it's disorder (for fighting a melee) cannot be removed. However, the imminent threat of being overrun by the Chasseurs is averted.

Next, they turn a cavalry move card and spend three points to move Cotton and D'Urbans cavalry - D'Urbans cavalry cannot move for one point because his units are too far apart to count as a single command group. 

The British turn Artillery Firepower with their last point. Fortunately, things load for free so Packenhams guns are back in the fight.

Turn 1, Phase 3: The Brits win the next initiative with a big swing - 16 points to 3 (remember that the high domino wins and double dominos mean the winner wins every spot).

With Artillery Firepower still showing the British fire their batteries all along their line (4 points) but only succeed in causing a UI loss to Clausel's 2nd Division and a UI loss to Thomieres battery.

The British turn an Army Action card. This moves any routers (Thomieres routing infantry) for free.

The British then turn Elites Reload (which they can't use) followed by a Charge! card. D'Urbans hussars charge into the chasseurs. The dice will be closely matched. The British get Up 1 for charging to give D10 Vs D8. The result isn't close: It's 10:4. The French cavalry is destroyed and the British cavalry test for pursuit. Because they are British they get a Down 1. They roll D6 Vs D8, but pass. They advance to occupy the ground, disordered for being in melee.

Then the British turn another cavalry march card which they use to move Cotton up again, followed by an Infantry March on which they advance Leith and Bradford. Leith's 5th Division costs 3 points to move because two of its units are moving through the village of Los Arapiles.

The French turn Cavalry March and Curto's remaining Chasseurs turn to threaten the British Hussars with a flank charge. The British immediately opportunity counter-charge with their Portuguese which become disordered passing through the defile between the two squares (see movement through defiles and opportunity rules), placing themselves in their turn on the flank of the Chasseurs. 

The French turn a Charge! card but they have used their three points of initiative, the phase ends. If they win the next initiative they charge the Hussars, if the British win they may get a card on which they can intervene with the Portuguese - gotta love these rules for solo play.

Turn 1, Phase 4: The French win! They get 13:3 points of initiative.

For one initiative point the chasseurs immediately charge the hussars with Up 1 for command presence and charging, plus another Up 2 for a charge from befind a flank - D8 Up 4 is a D12+2. The hussars are still disordered so are Down 1 for a D6. The roll is 12:2 and the hussars are destroyed for losing 2+ UI to cavalry in melee. The French add command presence to their pursuit check for a D10 and pass. They occupy the hussars ground.

The French turn a Command card and immediately rally the chasseurs from melee disorder, each costing an initiative point.

On Army Action Thomierres' broken infantry move again.  

Fortuitously, this clears the broken infantry out of the way just in time, because the next card turned is Intrinsic Mobility. This card allows light cavalry to move so they withdraw behind their infantry line - their job done for the moment.

On Artillery Firepower the Frechbatteries open up all along the line for 5 points but only cause 2 UI casualties.

Note: Artillery Firepower is not a fire card. Providing something is 'loaded' it can fire at any time. The card actually allows things to 'reload' and restore firepower potential. 'Reloading' is actually free on the card.

The French end their initiative with Infantry March and have one point left to slightly change the angle of Thomierres' line. 

The British use their 3 points to move Carlos' Spanish Division, Hope's 7th and Cole's 4th on the open Infantry move card the have not previously acted upon.

Turn 1, Phase 5: The French win the initiative 10 to 2.

Brennier's 6th Division moves into the line, shoring up the left flank of the French army.

Out of shot, Bonnier shifts his reserve infantry west of the Greater Arapiles so they able to better prevent the expected advance of Cole and Clinton.

Then the French cycle through their deck until they turn their last sequence card, Artillery Firepower, with two initiative points left. They fire two batteries causing 1 UI loss to Bradford's Brigade.

The British move Clinton's 6th Division forward on the showing Infantry March card, then turn a Command card. They are out of initiative points.

Turn 1, Phase 6: The British win the phase 11 points to five. 

The British use their initiative points to use the command card to come out of square, which allows the Portuguese to pass the defile between them and expand back into line. 

Cotton uses the card to put his cavalry into more wieldy column of squadrons. 

5th Division uses the card to rally troops coming out of Los Arapiles to rally disorder.

The British then turn Infantry March. This they use it to move 3rd, 7th, 6th and Carlos' Spanish Division, and Pack's Brigade. 

The French now use their pips to fire off more batteries, to absolutely no effect. They save one pip to end the turn before the British have chance to turn the last of their cards.

This is the general situation at the end of turn 1.

The British attack is well underway but the French position looks relatively secure. Time will tell.

As you can see, Piquet style rules are very well suited to solo play. 

They break up a turn up into easily manageable small chunks. This means that a game can be dipped into and out of without much need for a long memory. I find this invaluable for solo games which are, by their very nature, always twice the work.

This turn was played over a couple of days, in four short sessions. (BTW: I did keep notes for the write up).

They hold enough back to create invaluable 'fog of war' to the solo player. If you play each side with an overall plan (how you should play Piquet style games in any event) the sequence cards and random initiative division actually make the game quite tense and exciting to play - something often lacking in solo games with a rigid move sequence.

Solo Salamanca (A game at Christmas): The rules

Over the Christmas season I will play my traditional solo game. This year it will be Salamanca, using the scenario detailed in the previous post.

For this game I'm going to use my home grown ruleset called Sacre Bleu! This is a Piquet-like game but with so many changes they are not actually Piquet. Several things are quite novel but I'm not claiming anything as original thought: Virtually nothing is new under the sun when it comes to wargame rules. These rules are a basically a mish mash of things I like. When it comes to what is written down, except for a sequence deck list, this is all there is: The rules fit onto four sides of A4. They are still work in progress.

Top tip: I'm using a 4 view American diner style plastic menu holders as a binders - these are excellent for this kind of thing.

Anyway, here is Sacre Bleu! for your perusal. 

So these are the rules that you might need to look up during play. What they don't do is explain how the game is played. So, here goes.

The game is played with a bag of dominos and a sequence deck for each side. The dominos randomly assign each player with a number of initiative points to use during his initiative phase to turn sequence cards in his sequence deck and carry out actions. The sequence decks randomly determine the 'turn sequence' for each side, and the chances are both sides will have a radically different turn sequences.

The sequence decks, placed face down, randomly determine the action sequence each side can follow and as the cards could come out in any order you never quite know how quickly things will happen - if the enemy turn three infantry move cards in quick succession they can be on you before you know it, and likewise you might want your own infantry to get somewhere but you don't know when, or if, it will happen. The sequence deck for each side is quite similar. They comprise: 

Infantry March x 3

Cavalry March x 3

Intrinsic Mobility x 1 (Extra move for Light cavalry and extended line; skirmish card for light infantry)

Command x 3 (Rally card; also allows formation changes)

Musketry Firepower x 2 (French) x 3 (British)

Artillery Firepower x 3

Elite Firepower x 1 (Extra 'reload' card for elites and light infantry, the only reload card for cavalry)

Charge x 2

Shock Action x 1 (Extra charge card for heavy or 'shock / elite' cavalry, highlanders, etc.)

Army Action x 2 (Routers, C-in-C action, recover downed command, etc.)

Heroic Moment x 1 (British) x 2 (French)

Dress the Lines x 3

For the Salamanca game the British get a Brilliant Leader (wild) card effecting a division, and the French get an off table reserve (Sarrut's 4th Division) activation card. Both replace one Dress the Lines card. 

Top Tip: When making your own cards (I use MS word, using the table format with a first narrow column to size everything) it is worth investing in plastic collector card sleeves / covers. Home cut cards are not die cut so their edges are always slightly burred and they are, inevitably, slightly different sizes. Precision made plastic card sleeves allow cards to be shuffled much more easily because they make every home cut card exactly the same size with sealed side edges. They also make home made cards look much better.

Then we come to, what I call, domino theory, and this might be original thought because although I knew some people used dominos I didn't know how. In classic piquet you roll d20s off against each other and the winner gets the difference in the rolls as initiative points that he can use to turn cards and carry out actions, then the d20s are rolled again to determine the winner of the next initiative. This sounds fine but it does mean that one side can keep winning and doing whilst the other stands idly by, sometimes for extended periods. Domino theory doesn't allow that to happen and it works like this: Each side draws a domino from his bag. The winner is the player with the higher domino and where the total is the same (5:2 = 7 Vs 4:3 = 7) the winner is the player with the higher sided domino (in this case 5:2). The winner gets the total (in this case 7) as initiative points and the loser gets the high side of his domino (in this case 4); the winner can choose to play first or second (but, usually he will play first). Where one side draws a double domino (4:4, 6:6, etc.) the winner is decided in the standard way but he gets the total of both dominoes (4:4 = 8 Vs 4:3 = 7 gives the winner 8+7 = 15) whilst the loser still gets the high side of his domino (in this case 4) unless he has the double when he gets both sides (so, 4:4 Vs 5:4 gives the winner 17 and the loser gets 8). Where both sides draw the same domino (say, 3:2 Vs 3:2) the turn ends immediately, sequence decks are re-shuffled and dominoes are drawn again to start the next turn. 

As in all games some things gain jocular momentum and the double two domino is a case in point: It is called 'the domino of death' because it almost invariably gives four points of extra initiative to the opposition. Thought I'd pass that on.

Each time a player turns a card he expends one initiative point. What you can do on each card, and how much acting on the card will cost is detailed in the rules above. When one side finishes its sequence deck by turning the last card, and it spends an initiative point to close the turn, the turn ends and both decks are re-shuffled (so one side doesn't get to act on all of its cards!). 

BTW. Initiative points must be tracked on a 'clock' of some description: I use a double clock face, each face with 20 graduations, though a simple pair of linear tracks is easier to make (Cribbage board style).

And that is basically it. Except to confuse you all further by saying, that when playing, time should be thought of as elastic time. Only at the end of a turn is time equalised for all units everywhere on the field and only at that point can a solid narrative be arrived at - whilst the turn is going on, everything is in flux.

 

Lastly, my games are completely paperless: There are no roster sheets, etc. All information is out there 'on the table'. Unit and command quality, strengths, casualties and so forth are noted with coloured beads (note the colour bars in the combat tables), dice, or counters. You don't need to look things up or remember anything (you would be surprised how quickly players learn the colour and symbol coding - see Commands and Colours) in my games and this speeds everything up and considerably cuts down on the number of clerical / memory loss errors made - as I'm a bear of little brain this is often a very good thing. 

Next up, Salamanca: Turn 1.

HISTORICAL ORDERS OF BATTLE FOR THE PENINSULAR

 

Firstly, it must be remembered that, unless I’m missing something, Soldiers of Napoleon (SoN) does not really use historical divisional organisation for army composition: If it did most infantry brigades would comprise three battalions without artillery but, they don’t. Most compose 4-6 units with attached artillery. What we are most likely looking at when we talk about SoN brigades are really bath-tubbed infantry divisions - or, at least, that's how I'm looking at it.

Looking at historical divisional organisations, I have decided to work out composition by running two basic mechanisms, side by side, with a piece of fudge wedged in between.

• For each full 1000 infantry (500 cavalry) in the historical division the SoN brigade will get one unit. Generally, there shouldn't be rounding a up of fractions here. If the infantry division has 4999 men it should get four units, not five. Doing it this way will produce four unit SoN brigades more often and it will give the units within a division a more variable stand count. Rounding fractions will nearly always lead to SoN brigades of five or six units all with 4 stands each. Sometimes divisions will comprise fewer very big units and sometimes the number of units may need to be increased but in general, dividing by 1000 (without rounding) will be the rule of thumb.
• To work out the stand count, divide the number of infantry in the division by 250 (125 cavalry), rounding fractions. If the infantry division has 4999 men it gets twenty stands to divide amongst its four units. How the stands are divided between the units is more art than mechanism: It’s generally a fudge, pure and simple.

Looking at some bath-tubbed British and French divisions (SoN Brigades), this is how I’m going to do.

Example 1: 2^nd Division, Houdelet (Fuentes de Onoro, 1811). Comprising 17^th Legere (1224 men); 70^th Ligne (1078 men); 31^st Legere (1583 men); 47^th Ligne (1606 men). This gives a total of 5491 men. This firmly gives a five unit SoN brigade with 22 stands. Now comes the fudge. There are 2807 Legere and 2684 Ligne. This gives three units of Legere (simply because they outnumber the Ligne) with 11.2 stands and two units of Ligne with 10.7 stands. However, applying more art than science, I’m going to call it three units of Legere each with 4 stands, and two units of Ligne each with 5 stands. To this, in Peninsular fashion, I would attach a single two gun battery of 8pdr foot artillery. I would need to look up the division’s history / battle performance to determine unit quality.

Example 2: 7^th Division, Houston (Fuentes de Onoro, 1811). Comprising 51^st Light Infantry (590 men); 85^th Light Infantry (387); Chasseurs Britanniques (839 men); Brunswick Oels (593 men); 7^th Portuguese (713 men); 19^th Portuguese (1024 men); 2^nd Cacadores (442). This gives a total of 4588 men for four units with 18 stands. To give the feel of 7^th Division (Wellington’s intended second Light Division) I would represent this division as follows. There will be a unit of Veteran Light Infantry (Shorncliffe trained) represented by the 4 stands, a unit of trained Light Infantry ( representing Chasseurs Britanniques / Brunswick Oels) with 5 stands, one unit of trained Portuguese Line with 4 stands and one with 3 stands; the remaining two stands will be trained Cacadores fielded as musket armed ‘SoN Detachments’. I would probably attach a single two gun battery of 9pdr Portuguese foot artillery. At least, that would be the way to do it 'properly'. However, I’d probably lose a stand of Cacadores and add a stand of Portuguese Line (increasing the second unit to a 4 stand unit), then I'd split the remaining stand of Cacadores and simply use it to increase the skirmish factor of the two Portuguese units from 2 to 3: I’d do this because its much less faff than detachments, and 3 stand infantry units are brittle.

Example 3: Cavalry Division, Cotton (Fuentes de Onoro, 1811) Comprising 1^st Dragoons (388 men); 14^th and 16^th Light Dragoons (378/362 men); 1^st Hussars KGL (414 men); 4^th and 10^th Portuguese Cavalry (312 men). Total 1854 troopers for (dividing by 500 for cavalry) three units with (dividing by 125) 15 stands. However, because this division didn’t operate as a single entity I’d ignore the mechanism for unit numbers and increase the number of units to four and split it into two brigades – possibly only fielding one. The first would be a ‘brigade’ comprising a unit of Dragoons with 4 stands and a unit of Light dragoons with 3 stands. The second would be a unit of Light dragoons with 4 stands and a unit of Hussars with 4 stands. There might be a temptation to convert one of the Light Dragoons to Portuguese cavalry, or even increase the number of units still further and have a lot of little units but, the Portuguese cavalry didn’t contribute very much to the battle and lots of little light cavalry units can still still Harass and thus make them slightly OP for their size; consequently, as the smallest contingent, I would choose to ignore their representation on the table. I’d probably attach two 6pdr guns (horse artillery) to the entire division, possibly one gun to each ‘brigade’.

So that’s it, that’s how I would represent historical formations on the table-top in a Soldiers of Napoleon game. I hope it is useful to someone – or, at least food for thought.

Next up, for SoN, generic brigade lists for British and French. Followed by troop types.

Soldiers of Napoleon - For 'MY' Peninsular Battles

The associated pics show our current SoN battle. It's being played on a 12'x6' table, has about 70 units in 16 command groups, and two players a side. It's one-side-go-other-side-go and Events only effect one end of the table depending on which player plays it (each player has an end of table). There is no limit to where players can move or fight after initial deployment. We didn't find it necessary to declare arrival point of reserves other than they had to arrive behind the owning player's initial deployment area. One thing we are trying in this game (the Lads came up with it) is a new way of playing 'How Goes the Day?': Instead of getting victory points you get Event cards. These are dealt blind (not chosen from a hand) and played as the very first cards of the turn and before normal play begins (one card = random end of table, two cards = one at each end). It seems to work nicely, probably because it's so simple.

I've captioned the pictures with details showing just how easy it is to play a game of SoN, this size, without a single roster sheet. One thing not photographed are the trays with each side's VPs (poker chips) in.

Looking up the table. Note the commander in the foreground. A white dice displaying 'At Risk' chance
and a day glow orange pawn indicating that this command was the last to receive orders. 
The Lancers are a four stand unit (black dice) with two disruptions (white dice) and they have
used their lances up (barrel); they are professionals (purple bead) of command group
3 (square bead) and their unit leader is La Beau Sabre (orange bead marked LBS). 

The more I play this game the more I like it but, because of the way I play my Peninsular games - big battles; two players a side; on a big table - things don't move far enough for my liking and I felt a tweak here and there, for my personal taste, was necessary. This isn't a criticism of SoN: I just can't help tweaking things! So, just how many tweaks did I need for my SoN games run as I want them to? Answer, not many and to SoN's credit it was a matter of tinkering rather than re-writing whole swathes of the rules. The changes I've made all fit nicely onto my QRS and are simple enough not to require much explanation. 

Movement: This is where the biggest house amendments have been made. They have been made to compensate for the table size. Shooting ranges have not altered that much in response and the balance of play has undoubtedly been altered here to a small degree. Before deciding to make the change we did try altering a 'pace' to 1.5" but, we all found the shooting ranges to be preposterously long, especially for skirmish fire (30" with no line of sight restrictions!). Changing movement wasn't as simple as it sounds and what I have come up with is quite different in a lot of ways but, the rules covering basic 'Orders' remain the same and the new movement rules follow most of SoN's basic movement principles. All movement rates (for my 28mm games) are in inches.

	Infantry			Cavalry
	Open	Diff.	Obst.	Open	Diff.	Obst.
Line	6	3+D3	-D3	10	3+D6	-2D6
Col. Att.	8	3+D3	-D3	15	3+D6	-2D6
March Col.	12	3+D6	-D3	20	6+2D6	-2D6
Square	3	D3	-D3	-	-	-
Ext. Line	8	3+D6	NC	-	-	-
F.A.	12	3+D6	-	Note: Where 2D6, use the highest.
H.A.	18	3+D6	-

Road Bonus: +3
Withdraw / Wheel 45ᵒ / Cautious Advance (can skirmish): -50%
At the Quick: (1 Disruption): +50%
Charge bonus: Infantry D6, Cavalry 2D6 (use highest).
6pdr H.A. limber and move / move and unlimber: -50%

Light Cavalry: Because I believe that the battlefield speed of light and heavy cavalry was basically the same I only have one move rate for both types. It is also my view that light cavalry, in the Peninsular at least, was often called upon to fulfil the role of heavy cavalry in set piece battles and it generally did so quite successfully. To emphasise this dual role, and to compensate for the loss of move rate, I have added the following line (in parenthesis) to the Intimidate rule:

• Intimidate: Heavy Cavalry & Lancers: 2 discipline tests Vs 2 units (Optional: Light Cavalry: 1 discipline test Vs 2 units that are not Heavy Cavalry or in Square) up to 20” away: Each failed test causes 1 disruption.

Artillery: I have chosen to reclassify artillery by type: Horse Artillery H.A. and Foot Artillery. I will allow 6pdr H.A. to limber move / move unlimber but, I will not allow heavier pieces to do so; 12pdr horse artillery does not exist. I have removed the right of any artillery to be manhandled forwards (prolong) because gun batteries, with all the accompanying caissons and other paraphernalia of the train were so very rarely moved this way; repositioning on a Manoeuvre order is still allowed, with the gun stand pivoting on its front centre. Artillery rarely fired at targets much beyond 800 meters, gunners thinking such fire a waste of powder, so not increasing maximum artillery ranges seemed logical to me. Consequently, artillery range changes are very moderate: 6pdrs shoot cannister to 12", shot to 32". 8/9pdrs 12" and 40". 12pdrs 16" and 48". 5.5" Howitzers 8" and 40". 

Graham's French. His main command stand with a green dice showing his remaining Command Points.
Note the artillery to the left: 2 guns (black dice -replaced by purple here because I don't have
enough black dice to go round), Seasoned (blue bead) with with full caissons (pink bead).

Small Arms Shooting Ranges: Muskets 12", Carbines 8", Rifles 18". Skirmish fire, which is very powerful (over-powerful?) in the rules, remains the same at 20".  

Linear Tactics: Unlike some, I find no specific coverage of the Peninsular War in SoN to be a blessing because I can go off on my own tangent and do as I please. In reality, this doesn't mean very much because so little had to be done. Except for Light Cavalry (see above) the only essential rule change is to not allow Anglo-Portuguese or Spanish infantry to form Column of Attack. To compensate, trained or better British and Portuguese units will now be able to re-roll a miss when conducting volley fire whilst in line formation to represent their superior, very steady, fire drill - the Spanish get no compensation, LOL. It's probably worth noting that I had originally thought to increase the number of dice by one: This was tried and would have been fine except that certain Event Cards made this a devastating, over powered, adjustment (see Event: Withering Volley) - rerolling a miss is probably better as the maximums are not effected. 

The Centre. Big table and lots of units.

No Stand Removal: As said in a previous post: 

• ".... one thing we stopped playing after the first game is stand removal. I don't like it because after spending all that time painting I want to see my figures on the table for as long as possible and, as I don't own any 5 or 6 stand infantry units, not doing stand removal also allows a four stand unit to represent anything between 3-5 stands easily, 6 stands at a pinch..... However, in consequence of units having a constant frontage when in line (okay, that's the fudge - I love fudge), we now need to measure all ranges middle to nearest, and one whole enemy stand must be in unit weapon arc to qualify it as a target to all; split fire is done by halving the number of dice, with any odd dice to majority side or player's choice if about equal." 

This has moved on a step as I now have dice cell bases for displaying stands (black dice) and disruptions (white dice). Things are much clearer and easier now.

Unit Classification: These have, pretty much, been lifted straight out of the lists for 1813-15 except for one major change. Most Trained or better Line Infantry are now skirmish factor 2 (there are one or two exceptions with skirmish factor 1). Only Seasoned Light Infantry or better are skirmish factor 3. I also downgraded Riflemen to skirmish factor 2 for the reasons given below. It's worth noting that I denote the skirmish factor of units by using the appropriate number of skirmish stands, E.g. Skirmish 2 = two round skirmish stands.

Town occupation: This module represents two buildings. The one on the left has an occupancy
value of two stands and the one on the right three stands indicated by the orange dice. The town has
been occupied by a Legere unit of command group 1 (square bead). The green dice show how
many stands are actually in each section whilst the black dice [showing 5] is the unit's
total formed strength dice. Note that their command group commander will be rolling
1 die for 'At Risk' in the end phase (white dice). The unit's quality beads are just out of sight
(next to the unit's square white command group ID bead)
- they are yellow over blue, Seasoned Light Infantry.

British Riflemen: I've changed the rules for riflemen simply because of the way mine are based up (two figures per base rather than six), and a general belief that they very rarely fought as formed bodies in the Peninsular (and even then, if they ever had to, units were generally four or five companies strong rather than whole ten company battalions - look up Light Division OOB). I fear that allowing otherwise will only encourage players to use large formed units of Riflemen like Gatling guns! My rules for them are as follows:

• Rifle units always count as 2-3 stand maximum units. Rifle units can only use Extended Line (base to base contact in line for these units), Square or Column formation; Rifles may re-roll 1 missed shooting hit. Rifle units are only skirmish factor 2 (due to unit size).

Special Units - Detachments: I have tried the proper rule (Detachments are covered in SoN) and, although it works well enough as written, it's not as elegant as most of the other rules, far too expensive in points, and it doesn't fit well with how I've organised my existing figure collection. Consequently, personal taste and a desire for simplicity will lead me to use my own version of 'Detachments': The Anglo-Portuguese Army can have 'stands' of skirmish screen Riflemen or Cacadores (at half the usual stand points cost) to use as Detachments. A single skirmish stand (Detachment) can be added to the skirmish screen of an Infantry unit, adding 1 to the unit's skirmish factor when its skirmishers are deployed. If the detachment is Riflemen the skirmish screen is allowed to re-roll 1 missed hit; otherwise they operate as per unit skirmishers as standard, using the parent unit's to hit and discipline factors. I think this will represent the generally heavy nature of Anglo-Portuguese skirmish screens far better than the standard rules and bring another counter-balance to their rule enforced linear tactics. Note: Because of the way I organised my Line Infantry Divisions (see below), a unit of Cacadores in a Line Division will only ever be represented as Detachments (up to one per Line unit therein); for each Rifle company attached to a division one Rifle Detachment can be fielded.

My French, being mercilessly peppered by British skirmishers. Black die indicate
formed strength, white die indicate disruption. Note, the two militia units (red beads).

Command Groups (SoN Brigades): I will be using my usual Peninsular organisations to fulfil the requirements of 'SoN Brigades'. That is to say, I'll be using 'bath-tubbed' divisions (1 unit represents around 1000 men - a 5000 man division is five units) as the basic command group and I'll detail my Army Lists as soon as they are done.

Using bath-tubbed divisions means that my 'SoN Brigade Commanders' will be termed 'Division Commanders' and my 'SoN Division Commander' will be termed a 'Corps or Column Commander'. This requires only a semantic change to the rules regarding the arrival of a Corps commander on an Event card - the rules regarding what a SoN Corps Commander actually does remain unchanged: When a Corps commander turns up as an Event the table-top commander will gain 'Corps Command Clarity'. If he disappears in an End Phase the table-top commander loses 'Clarity'. If he is killed the table-top commander loses 'Clarity' permanently. If the Division commander is dead, 'Corps Command Clarity' is passed to his second in command (a chosen SoN Brigade commander) until it disappears as a result of the End Phase (leaves) or Event (death). Army Commander rules are completely unchanged. Note: I do not use actual command stands for Corps or Army command arrivals - I use yellow and green pawns instead. Note: I use large day glow orange pawns to note 'Last Order' given.

French Light Infantry of command group number 1 - how can you tell?
Easy: White square bead indicates command group, yellow over blue bead indicating
seasoned light troops. They also have a Drillmaster - green bead marked DM.
They have four formed stands (black dice) without disruption (no white dice)
and skirmish factor 3 (3 stands) out in front.

Beads: I've now formalised my plastic pony bead colours, to display unit information, in the usual 'Olicanalad's fashion', to do away with roster sheets. My army lists no longer use descriptive unit names like "Veteran Line Infantry", which to be honest only confused the Hell out of everyone because the term 'veteran' means absolutely nothing in the rules, and now units are simply listed by 'game quality': E.g. Trained Line Infantry, Professional Riles, Seasoned Light Dragoons, etc. My bead colours, following the usual progression and meanings, are: 

• Square number bead: Command I.D.
• Red: Militia Quality.
• Green: Trained Quality.
• Blue: Seasoned Quality.
• Purple: Professional Quality.
• Black: Elite Quality.
• Extra Yellow (above quality): Light Infantry.
• Extra White (above quality): Trained or better unit with Skirmish Factor 1.
• Extra Pink (above quality): Full Caissons for artillery, Fine Horses for cavalry.

I've done some round wooden beads (with initial letters painted on). These are placed above a unit's Command Group I.D. bead if the unit commander has a special ability (E.g. Red bead marked 'HC' = Heroic Commander). I've also done some similar beads for 'table-top commander' special ability.  

Apart from needing more dice cells and dice, that's about it, job done and ready to rock.