The Battle at Dolan Bay

The Albionic army landed on the Flanders shore with their German allies. The Glambrian royal court has sent a force to prevent them marching further inland.

This was a four-player game and the rules we used were my Easy tricorne homebrew with a modified card activation sequence I'm going to include in the following Napoleonic supplement.

The OOBs were entirely symmetrical, each player had:

an elite infantry unit (FP3 FI4 for the Brits and FP2 FI4 for the Glambrians),

three trained infantry units (FP2 FI2),

a regimental support gun,

one elite cavalry unit (FP0 FI4),

two trained cavalry units (FP1/0 FI3).

The Glambrians divided their artillery train in two units commanded by each player. The Brits could both activate their ship of the line and use it as an artillery unit of three cannon.

The advance on the Albionic left, where their commander-in-chief watched over his troops, was evenly paced and the infantry could engage the enemy the way His Grace the Duke of Cambridgeshire wished to. The Glambrian cavalry was lagging behind, but the artillery was brought forward and caused much worry when it took the advancing cavalry under canister fire.

On the right flank, the German allies fared much worse. Although the ship's fire was directed mostly at the Glambrian Maison du Roi facing them, the German cavalry was too hasty to move forward, and the combined strength of the Glambrian heavy battery, the elite infantry and the charge of the cavalry on the extreme left broke it. The regimental commanders could not rally the troops and two of three cavalry units disintegrated.

The elite infantry and one other regiment on the right broke on the Glambrian side as the Brits pressed forward, and a stalemate ensued. However, this was enough for the redcoats to establish a foothold on the shore, so the tactical victory goes to them.

This battle included multiple new elements. On the tabletop, the bright green cloth, a new, large hill, new buildings and the Heller model ship; brand new flags for most infantry units; and the first playtest of the card activation system I devised. 

This is a friction mechanism that can be used both with German and French cards. At the beginning of each turn, players draw a hand of 4-5 cards which tell how many units they can activate. The problem is, with individual units acting on their own at each activation, the game itself becomes fragmented. There is another bunch of problems which arise when playing with a larger amount of troops. I think I will introduce a 'brigade' activation: one card could issue a command to multiple units instead of a maximum of 2.