Lasalle - Epic scale Quatre Bras?

 

I think of the excellent Lasalle 2 Napoleonic rules as being ideal for small and medium sized games - a few Brigades per side. Tactically rich and engrossing at this level.

I also associate Warlord Epic scale figures with really large - perhaps unfeasibly large - Corps sized games which call for Valour and Fortitude rules, which excel at focusing on the grand sweep of action across the entire battlefield.

So why on earth did we experiment with an Epic scale game of Lasalle? Well I've been collecting Napoleonic miniatures in a variety of scales since Christ was a Corporal so its all very well for me to associate a particular scale with a specific ruleset... 

A French infantry brigade of 5 battalions

But for younger players, or for those persuaded to enter the world of Napoleonic's owing to the cheapness and ease of painting Epic plastic strips, they want to try several different rulesets, and game sizes, with their new collections.

Hence our game of 'Epic Lasalle', loosely based on Quatre Bras. Despite our Epic models being based on 60mm bases, we kept our traditional 15/18mm Base Width units at 40mm. 

I say loosely based, but Daniel deployed his Brunswick brigade historically, adjacent to the Bois de Bossu:

And I came on with the French in the 'same old style'!

The Brunswicks lost no time in inching towards my flank... Pah! I shall carry on regardless!

I sent the French light cavalry off to explore my right flank...

The Allies countered with a brigade of Netherlands Light Cavalry...after some cut and thrust the Dutchmen seceded the field to allow their artillery a greater say.

At this point our respective reinforcements arrived.

The British heavy cavalry were used to reinforce the allied centre.

My Cuirassier Brigade...

Was sent off to secure the left flank.

Throughout the game I was hampered by a severe lack of Momentum points which slowed my attack to a snails pace...

Which meant that further allied reinforcements...

Were left plenty of time to deploy at leisure...

I had plenty of reinforcements too, but a real, and historical, command paralysis meant they were kept idle!

Eventually, after I conceded the game in the face of a packed and solid defence, we reset to allow a couple of my French infantry brigades to charge the allied line to test that aspect of using 40mm Base Widths.

The mechanics adapted pretty well. Overall we found that the game would have played better by adopting the stipulated base widths of 60mm as the unit of Base Width (Derrr!) Playing on a wider table than is usual for a 15/18mm game of Lasalle would also have helped with the geometry of wheeling and deploying. But no serious obstacles to playing Lasalle in this scale...