Source: Operational Studies Group News - February 7th, 2008 HABIT OF VICTORY REPLAY From Barrie Pollock The campaign is proceeding slowly (turn 3) but well. It looks like a brew up is coming near the river crossings SW of Poltusk. I'm a bit confused over bridge demo and repair as the sequence of play seems to imply that these things happen at the end of the player movement phase while the discussion on CSW seems to say that it happens during movement. (See Q&A on page 5). Unrelated, but also about bridges - Friant had just repaired one of the bridges when Barclay waltzed in and burnt it again effectively removing himself from a ZOC. The rules seem to allow this, whereas a repair in similar circumstances would not be allowed. Lastly, Osterman put Galitzin with a full cavalry corpsunder his command. I'm sure this is okay, but it just feels odd since Galitzin has a portrait and Osterman doesn't. It's all great fun. The coalition replacements for Turn 10 look odd. It doesn't seem possible for the Prussians to ever use 3 cav pts. With supplies desperately low on both sides, my campaign is at a lull. Things are so bad, Napoleon has gone back to motivate the quartermasters. When the Russians decided to move their supply source from the SW there didn't seem to be any reason not to go all the way to Koenigsburg. There isn't anything to prevent this that I can see. Question re, "hanging around" vp's for the Russians. Paragraph 178 says that Allenstein doesn't become operative until 1807. Does this mean that they can score VPs on Turn One or is Turn Ten (Jan.2) considered to be 1806? A) Coalition can get the points for Allenstein on turn 20 and on, they just miss them on turn 10. Here is something I would like to see you address on CSW or your own site. I understand that a corps can be incorporated onto the track of another leader, in which case the corp's own leader "stands down". What I don't understand is how a cantankerous old republican like Augereau (sub 3) can be transformed into a cooperative subordinate (sub 2) by this process. In NAC we just decided not to allow it, but the many individualized division leaders (which I love, incidentally) make that impossible in HOV. Any insights? Lastly, in my own campaign, the Russians played two Approach Marches in one turn to facilitate the fall back to the Allenstein area. With French supplies already low, switching the S/S to Warsaw and the appearance of the Countess, the French have given them a week's head start. At the Jan. 2 interphase we are entering a new phase indeed. Cavalry probes have revealed Buxhowden and Barclay to be drawn up at Neidenburg. This appears to be a very strong position with woods in front and a swamp to protect the left flank and is a crucial location on the road net. Bennigsen has also been located, off road and behind a river covering the other road north (as the Russian I shuffled Ben, an inf. Div and two vedettes and placed them in four locations the group could have reached but a probe located Ben right away). Not wanting another bloodbath, Napoleon is trying to work his way between the two forces, using secondary roads. To the west, the Prussians couldn't wait for your feedback and marched 2/3 of the dubious cavalry replacements off on foot to replace Lestock's losses after a sanguinary affair beating off Ney's only attempt to force something in that sector. Ney has retreated to Thorn where he has met X Corps units and Bessieres who was sent over from the main force to at least get St.Cyr into action. Napoleon has outflanked the Neidenburg position and is driving on Allenstein in severe weather, using cards to mitigate attrition effects. He has caught the Russian rear gurad - Sacken, I think and is about to launch an attack with I, VII, Gd and a small cavalry corps led by Grouchy. Turn 19 in the snow (historical weather this first playing). Using six cards to gain every advantage possible (one was intercepted), Napoleon attacked Allenstein. On the left wing, using the Guard, IV, VII, Murat and Rivaud (21 sp + 1 a) the Emperor drove Bagration (8 sp+1a) out of the blazing town. Murat failed to pursue. Losses were 3 Ru, 2 Fr, but amazingly, it went over big in Paris. On the eastern side of the large battlefield Bennigsen (11 sp+2a) handily threw back the cross-river attack of Lannes and Bernadotte (9 sp +1a). However, because Bennigsen eschewed pursuit and because the I Corps gunners were superb, losses were 2 Ru, 1 Fr. HABIT OF VICTORY QUESTIONS From Barrie Pollock (1) Now, here's a stunt the wily Corsican has pulled two turns in a row and I want to make sure it's legal. Nap begins the turn stacked with Bernadotte (2x2 inf, 1 art). He makes Bern. unemployed adding his 2 1/2 sub, pts to his own chart for the turn. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to command Bernadotte in the anticipated battle. Bernadotte comes along for free and is available to take over his corps again next turn. A bit gamey, no? A) I am sure that is not legal. (2) It is somewhat related to my earlier query regarding subordinating difficult personalities. I still hope you can address that one too, though it may be more design philosophy than rules. (3) What if a raid falls on an unneeded depot? In my game, the French repaired the bridge at Plock (1547), allowing a unit or two to rejoin the main army. Later, the Cossacks raided Plock. The town did not form part of the LOC chain, nor was anyone depending on it for supply. Can it still be raided? A) Yes. (4) There seems to be discrepancy between card #F30 and the notes sheet. Is it the MG's initiative (card) or span (notes) which is increased? If the former, can the card be given to a MG not in dispatch distance? A) Normally since this is a MC already an increase in Initiative is meaningless... (5) The admin point table has a gap from Feb-Mar for the French and March for the Russians. What should we do? A) French and Russians up through and including April" means, for the Russians, only March and April. For the French it includes Feb., Mar., April. (6) if you activate a MG who then fails his initiative, can he be immediately reabsorbed or doe he become insubordinate? A) You can only "absorb" like that during the Command Phase. Somewhere it says that Consolidation can take place at the end of any phase. However, Consolidation is not as widely interpreted as you are thinking. It refers to taking away stacked leaders onto the Organization Display, but not the other activities of the Command Phase. (7) Am I the only one who has noticed how good the leadership is in this game? Are we to conclude that both armies are at their peak and operating at an optimum size.? A) I'd say near their peak. The French peak must have been 1805-06. Many of these same warriors were still at it in 1812-1813, but they were winding down by then. (8) Because there was no pursuit, the smoldering town is unoccupied. It would seem that the rules would allow Bennigsen, if he passes initiative (he is adjacent to Napoleon), to move in and not have to attack because it is a fortified town. Since the French have just pushed Bagration out it doesn't seem right. A) That is right. From Theodor Bauer After having received my copy of HoV last week I immediately started testing it. Congratulations for the design and the card-system ! Fine as always. Looking into the rules I have a few questions: 1. About the set-up of "Forces Off-map at Start": In Paragraph 161 of the Exclusive rules there is a caption "Off-Map at start" but the rules don't say anything about how to bring forces that are in this condition (like Sedmaratzki in Campaign scenario # 2) into the game (neither whre nor when nor under which conditions). Could You comment this problem ? A) The rules are not well-arranged on this point. You have to read para 161 and then 154. Sedmaratzki was actually east of Johannisberg, in Goniondz. 2. What does "Alt. Reinforcment see PET" concerning "Dumonceau" and "Grandjean" mean ? A) "Friendly Reinforcements" is one of the outcomes on the Pursuit Events Table. If you read this item on the back cover of the Exclusive Rules you will see the answer. 3. What happens to the reinforcements brought later on into the game with Marshall Lannes "Reserve-Counter" if it might happen that his original counter is still in play ? A) There can only be one Marshal Lannes, so you will have to choose which one to keep. Replace the other one with a Replacement Leader or any leader counter that is not in play. A QUESTION OF BRIDGES The bridging rules have NEVER had a complete dusting like this in 30 years. That is because our goal as rules writers is only to get you into play of the game. As always, the best way to understand these questions is to visualize what is going on physically, as a time and motion study. Peter Perla - Jan 2, 2008 Q) Paragraph [155] says that a force "must be moving under the appropriate enabling card to affect a bridge." What does that mean? I assume that it means that the force has been activated by an MC or has succeeded in initiative. Surely there are not special cards that enable you to "affect" a bridge? A) Correct. Q) As I read the table, infantry forces can damage a primary bridge with no cost in MPs, but must end their move adjacent to such a bridge to repair it. [156] says that "a damaged bridge does not exist until it is repaired." This implies that once one force repairs the bridge a force moving later in the movement phase may cross it. Is that what you intend? A) Because of the 3-day turns a force should be able to cross (and then stop) in the same turn as the repair. Q) For pontoons, [158] does not say that you cannot lay a pontoon across a hexside whose other end is occupied by the enemy. Is this what you intend? A) No. That is exactly what the French did at Okunin in December. Q) Also, what does it mean to "damage" a pontoon? the bridging table lists this as an allowable action by infantry forces. But [158] says that a train "cannot be destroyed, damaged, or repaired." I assume the table is simply in error here, correct? A) No. A bridge train is NOT a pontoon. Q) Although [158] says that a train may only move as part of a force containing infantry, it does not say that you must have infantry with it to emplace it. the bridging table does not indicate that all-cav forces are prohibited from deploying the bridge. Does this mean that once you move the bridge train to a hex using an infantry force, you can allow a cavalry force to deploy it? A) No. The assumption is that infantry would have some few sappers and a few tools with them that the cavalry would not have. There were also specialized pontonnier companies but these were not always available. Q) The note in the summary table concerning enemy adjacent does not actually state what the enemy units must be adjacent to in order to prevent repair. I believe that [157] clearly states that the hex must be the one on the other side of the river from the friendly force trying to repair the bridge. But just to be clear, a force may still repair a bridge if adjacent to enemy forces that are not actually across the bridge hexside, correct? A) Yes. Mark Herman - Jan 3, 2008 To repair a secondary river bridge the force needs to cross the secondary River at the non-bridge cost (terrain plus 1 mp if memory serves) and then the bridge is repaired. The logic is the tactic when applied to a secondary river is to slow down the opponent, which this interpretation captures. Peter Perla - Jan 3, 2008 I still am not sure that I understand all the bridging rules. Just out of curiosity, though, why is it that you cannot repair a damaged bridge with enemy forces opposite, but you can lay a pontoon bridge in those circumstances? I'm not disputing this, you understand, just trying to follow your rationale. My query about repairs of primary bridges elicited this response As to question 1, because of the 3-day turns a force should be able to cross (and then stop) in the same turn as the repair. I had interpreted the table to indicate that Stop meant that you had to stop in the hex before you crossed the damaged bridge. Apparently what it meant was that you could repair the bridge and cross it, but then must stop. I wonder how many other players grasped this. It makes a lot of sense, and is consistent with the restriction that if the enemy is in the opposite hex you cannot repair. Q) If a force meets all the conditions for repairing a bridge, may it do so without receiving a command (or obtaining Initiative)? Can a force repair a bridge and move over it during the same (Movement) phase? Can another force move over a bridge repaired (earlier) in the same movement phase? A) I think that the rules text makes it clear that a force must be moving under a legitimate command to make such a repair. Q) If I move a force into a hex with a damaged primary bridge but with no enemy force on the opposite bank, I can repair the bridge at no cost in MPs and then cross it (assuming I have sufficient MPs to do so), but must stop immediately after crossing. A) Right! Q) Friendly forces moving later in the phase may cross the newly repaired bridge with no penalty (though I must admit that this does not seem right). A) This is NOT right. The stopped force is in the way. Q)You may lay a pontoon bridge across a hexside into in an enemy occupied hex by expending a MP and may then attack across the bridge. A) Yes! Q) Once a pontoon bridge is laid, other moving forces may cross the bridge in the same movement phase with no penalty. A) No! Only one force may cross a Pontoon on the turn it is built. Q) For secondary bridges, it appears that simply moving adjacent is enough to damage or repair them, with no MPs expended, and no prohibition on cavalry-only forces. This sounds to me like there is essentially no effect for damaging secondary bridges at all, so one can simply ignore it. What am I missing? I suppose that you cannot repair them if the opposite bank is occupied by an enemy force-is that it? But in that case, you can't march across the bridge anyway. Thus, it seems that there is no occasion when using a bridge damaged marker on a secondary bridge is actually necessary. Based on my reading of the bridging table, cavalry is not prohibited from repairing secondary bridges and there is no MP cost either to damage or repair them. If that reading is correct, then secondary bridges have no effect on play and there is no need to mark them as damaged because any moving force can repair them without cost as they move. I cannot beleive that this is the case, so I must be missing something. Can you tell me what it is? A) The reason that you have more flexibility with pontoons is that the pontoons can actually be used as assault boats. Although there could never be any question of a directly-opposed landing, like D-Day, but at our operational level the assumption is that the boats could find a bit of shoreline that wasn't actually occupied. At Okunin, the French made a demonstration upstream by burning some straw and that distracted the Russians from the actual landing point. Mark Herman - Jan 3, 2008 To repair a secondary river bridge the force needs to cross the secondary River at the non-bridge cost (terrain plus 0.5 MP) and then the bridge is repaired. Applying 'intelligent design' as a useful concept...what is intended, a force needs a bridge to cross a primary river and is advantaged in crossing a secondary river at a bridge. A useful and historical tactic to delay the enemy is to wreck bridges. Historically you cannot easily fix a bridge if someone is shooting at you (remember, infantry SPs include artillery [cavalry include horse artillery], artillery SPs are more akin to Grand Batteries). Pontoon Bridges require expertise and tools to deploy (and capture, as you need expertise to take them apart) and due to their design in a pinch were used as assault boats. With this as background, the way I have been playing and interpreting the rules are: A Primary River Bridge cannot be repaired if the far end of the bridge is occupied by an enemy force (those would be the guys shooting at you, see above). Only Infantry SPs can fix a primary bridge as it is assumed that the specialized sappers (plus tools, read anything on Berezina) are not resident in the cavalry SPs and a primary river bridge is a significant structure. A primary river can be crossed by deploying a pontoon bridge (1mp) and then attacking across (attacking across a primary or secondary river is affecting terrain, Excl. para 38). To damage a primary river bridge a force (with some infantry) must be at one end of the bridge (presumably the player will remember which end of the bridge to be on when they do this) and declare they are damaging the bridge (0 mp impact) place damaged marker and continue movement. To repair a primary river bridge a force must end its movement at the damaged bridge (only one side is relevant as you cannot cross until the bridge is repaired) with no enemy force on the other end (see the shooting thing above). To damage a secondary river bridge any force (all cav included) must be adjacent to the bridge, declare the bridge is damaged (0mp) and then continue movement. To repair a secondary bridge, any force (all cav included) must cross the damaged bridge paying the cost of the terrain on the far side of the bridge plus .5mp for the secondary river and declare the bridge repaired, continue moving. I think that covers all of the basic situations.