I just finished a solo game of the Sandhurst Book of Wargames "Craonne", 
the only game I know that deals with this small battle in early 1814 that 
was the culmination of one of Bluecher's failed attempts to outflank and 
destroy Napoleon. The Russians, blocking the commanding heights of the 
Chemin des Dames, failed to receive their orders until halfway during the 
day, allowing Napoleon to gain a tactical advantage and give Bluecher the 
slip after both sides engaged in some hard pushing along the heights.

This is a simple game with a number of unusual concepts.  Sequence of play 
is move-combat, but units have two combat ratings, "unpinned" (which 
ranges from 4-6 for most infantry units to 9 for the French cuirassiers 
and 12 for the Guard) and "pinned" (which ranges from 1 to 4). There is no 
stacking although units can pass through each other.  There are normal 
locking ZOCs. The CRT is odds-based but has only three results: Melee, 
Defender retreat, and (rarely at high odds) Defender Eliminated. While 
initially this looks like a Perry-Moore-style "hiya, let's attack, nothing 
can happen to us" CRT, the effects are actually different.

The "Melee" result is the most frequent outcome at low odds, it has
both sides marked with a combat marker. From then on, the units just
sit, possibly over multiple turns, until one side or the other brings
in reinforcements to end that stalemate. If reinforcements are brought
in (this can be through free adjacent hexes or by passing through
friendly units already engaged), all units that were originally in the
melee only use their pinned value.

A defender in good terrain simply adds the pinned combat value to the
value he's fighting with, clean and simple.

Defending cavalry checks if it has defeated the stalemate by a
countercharge that would force the attacker to retreat. Artillery can
bombard for up 7 hexes away, using its pinned value for fire beyond 1
hex range. In return, cavalry that alone attacks unpinned infantry,
only uses its pinned combat rating. So, reinforcing first is often
decisive. However, if the reinforced assault again stalls, there is a
chance a friendly unit that a reinforcing unit passed through may be
eliminated due the confusion of the battle.

At the start of their turn, units in ZOCs (whether pinned or unpinned)
can try to disengage but will only succeed on a roll of 5-6.

At higher odds, melee results are less frequent and are replaced by
defender retreats (that automatically require a turn's worth of
rallying) and, from 2:1 up, the occasional outright elimination. Units
unable to retreat due to ZOCs are eliminated.

The net effect of this is that there is not too much pushing and shoving, 
unit losses can happen at lower odds than 3:1, and often reinforcing a 
combat can be quite decisive.

(There are a number of gaps in the rules, e.g., the CRT does not specify 
what happens when a mandatory attack gets below 1:2 odds.  I just decided 
that the attack doesn't happen and played on.)

Finally, the game has "Decision at Kasserine" style variable victory
conditions.  Initially, not all Russian forces can be used, some must
be held in reserve.  On the 13:20 turn, the Russian player rolls a die
and finds out what Bluecher's orders for the day are.  These may
require an all-out attack, a defense of most of the map, or a delay
operation with fewer troops (in which the erstwhile reserves have to
be withdrawn offmap to fight elsewhere).  These all imply different
victory conditions.  The French player, who receives massive
reinforcements over the day and becomes the more active party as the
battle goes on, doesn't know what the outcome is until after the game
and must guess.  Very amusing (and also quite historical).

Commanders just exist as an optional rule - they essentially permit a
unit to always add its pinned value to its combat value. There's also
an optional rule that lets Cossacks (who have an unpinned combat value
of 3 and a pinned one of 0, but project a normal ZOC, therefore being
mostly useful as flank guards), withdraw from combat on a dieroll of
3-6.


Now for the battle...

Turns 1 and 2: The Russians decide to make hay while the sun shines
and engage in a massive assault against Ney's forces which are
forcefully pushed eastwards and down the slope.  It becomes
increasingly difficult to prevent encirclement.

Turn 3: Ney is all but crushed, two of his units are surrounded and
pushed to surrender. Ney is wounded and has to leave the
battlefield. The Guard has been brought up to block the Chemin de
Dames around Hurtebise.

Turn 4 (Noon): French cavalry chases the Cossacks off the southern
plain and repulses the Russians from the plain, but one unit pursues
up to the plateau, is surrounded and eliminated. The Russians take
Ailles, giving Victor a punch on the nose, and with one exception
(still pinned) send Ney's people off the plateau.  The position in
Hurtebise is now solid (it is held by Friant's Division of the Guard,
with Napoleon to the rear) but perhaps prone to flanking.

Turn 5 (12:40): However, cavalry reinforcements enable the French
cavalry to form a line in the south.  Woronzov sends a unit to
reinforce the attack on the remaining unit of Ney's on the slope. This
almost backfires as the reinforcing unit is unsuccessful, leading to
the dreaded Confusion roll. However, the unit manages to pass back
through the lines and at least no immediate harm is done.

Turn 6 (13:20): Ney's and Drouot's artillery arrives in the north.
With massive reinforcements at most an hour or two away, the French
are willing to await Russian moves at this point.  Meanwhile, Sacken
receives Bluecher's orders. They are to keep the French from taking Le
Poteau and Ailles, with Wassilitchikow's help (case 3, resulting from
dieroll 5).  He is not supposed to advance beyond Hurtebise. Sacken
could win immediately by managing to take Hurtebise, but since that is
now held by Friant's men, decides that probably it's not worth trying.
However, another attack on Ney's last outpost is ordered and they are
finally chased into the Trou de la Demoiselle below the ridge.

(I did actually read the victory conditions for Case 3 wrong, since
they are rather oddly phrased, this may have given the Russians an
advantage since I should have started attacking faster with the
French. I may also have let Wassilitchikov off the leash earlier than
permitted - his forces cannot move before 13:20.)

Casting his eye over his position, Sacken decides that the double line
on the plateau is about as secure as can be.  HHowever, Ailles is on
the front line and could fall to a determined attack.  It seems
advisable to deepen the position and drive the French from the open
plain in front of it before they become too strong.  As he does not
want to move his infantry from the plateau, Sacken places some
batteries of artillery on the plateau to force the retreat of Boyer de
Redeval's artillery batteries, which they do in short order. He also
directs Wassilitchikov to send his cavalry to chase some of BdR's
infantry out of the woods northwest of Ailles so that troops can be
sent into the plain. If effective, the Frenchmen would be driven into
the Ailette and drowned.  This attack does not work well though, and the
cavalry ends up pinned.

Turn 7 (14:00): Finally, the French are receiving some infantry units,
coming in from the road to Corberry.  Since he is holding the plateau
at the narrowest point, Napoleon sees no sense in bringing them up and
orders to let them continue on the road towards Ailles. Victor in the
meantime orders some of BdR's men to counterattack the milling cavalry
in the valley.  This could be dangerous but they maintain order and
some of the cavalry is sent to retreat (which would at least open a
retreat route for the men in the woods NW of Ailles who are now back
in contact with the rest of the French).

Sacken now is rather concerned, and attacks again, finally sending
some infantry down from the plateau to attack the French in the
flank. The attack barely succeeds (DR 2 at 14:4 odds), obtaining a
clear front in the valley at the last second before reinforcements
arrive. To push further east is out of the question.

Turn 8 (14:40). Friant moves to the attack, and manages in eliminating
the cavalry in front of the Russian lines that cannot pass easily back
in front of the friendly infantry and guns.  In the north, Victor goes
over to the attack, and while BdR's infantry manages to get some of
the cavalry to retire, on one flank Ney's guns cause the infantry in
the woods to hold still, and on the other chase some of Chowanski's
infantry out of Ailles.  That does not bode well for the Russian
defense.

In the south, Nansouty launches a sizeable assault on the Russian
cavalry and permanently chases it back onto the ridge.  One unit
pursues however, and is again eliminated in return. In the north,
Wassilitchikov brings artillery in position in Ailles and a cavalry
attack finally forces BdR's last unit to retire into the woods. The
situation on the flanks is stabilised for the moment.  In the centre,
the troops are engaged with Friant's troops which bodes ill for the
next turn when Friant will likely reinforce the attack.

Turn 9 (15:20): Christiani's troops are now arriving from Craonne, so
there will be a followup push if Friant's men weaken.  With that in
mind, Napoleon pushes the attack in the center forward, and the
foremost Russian infantry and gun line is simply trampled under the
attack ('R' result), although the engagement continues on the southern
slope where the Russians still hold the eastern edge of the Bois de
Quatre Heures.  Another advance like this may even enable an attack on
Le Poteau before nightfall. Sacken's greater worry is in the north
though. Drouot's artillery again forces some of the cavalry to retired
from the plain, and Ney's men lunge forward and manage to occupy the
eastern half of Ailles.

Sacken's position now appears perilous again, but he throws the
cavalry forward again to prevent Ney's men in the village from being
supported, and with Wassiltchikow's aid (and a 5 rolled), the village
is overrun, Ney's men being eliminated, thus removing the strongest
French unit on the northern flank. Likewise, Woronzov throws himself
into the fray in the centre to achieve a 1:1 against Friant's
spearhead and (with another 5) the Guard is thrown back and the line
restored for the moment.  Most importantly, the French have not gained
any ground which with the limited time till nightfall may cost them
the game.  The Russian artillery firing at another Guard unit does not
achieve much, nor does any other Russian artillery unit.

Turn 10 (16:00): The French offensive rolls on, two Russian units are
lost on the Chemin de Dames as Christiani's troops reinforce the Bois
the Quatre Heures and for good measure outflank it through the Trou
d'Enfer as well. In the north, Victor now decides on a general assault
that again sees Russian cavalry retreating before French guns, Ney's
men retaking the east end of Ailles, and now Victor's men reaching the
plateau on Friant's flank, forcing a retreat of the Russian guns.
This probably should have been tried at least one, not two turns
earlier.

Turn 11 (16:40): A massive reinforcing assault into the big melee
around Ailles sweeps the Russians out of the village and the French
advance partways up the slope.  Victor climbs onto the plateau with
more units, but the big Guard assault does not provide the hoped-for
outcome at this point. Napoleon, already fearing that Le Poteau will
remain beyond his grasp for the night, has taken command of a unit
himself and chases off a battery south of the big melee, reaching a
point less than five hexes from Le Poteau. Nansouty also now attacks
the plateau and gains a foothold - again something that should have
been tried sooner.

The Russians, still with many units rallying from the previous turn's
setbacks, counterattack but do not really make any headway, resulting
in a high number of melees going on.

Turn 12 (17:20): The French burst out onto the plateau, eliminating
four more Russian units, and creating a number of ongoing engagements.
The Russians are now happy to just try and disengage and generally
manage to do so, creating only two more engaged situations on the map
that will separate after nightfall when both sides draw apart.

Outcome: Russian victory since the French hold Ailles, but do not hold
Le Poteau.

Total French losses: 6 units, 54 SP (36Inf, 18Cav)
Total Russian losses: 13 units, 66SP (42Inf, 12Cav, 12Art)


Markus

Last 3 games played: Command & Conquer:Ancients, Craonne, The Legend Begins
--------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ ---------------
"Bakayaro! Bakayaro!"  ("Stupid Bastards!  Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral 
Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942

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