The Last Days of the Grande Armée

Comments by Kevin Zucker-extracts of interview of 22 October 1998.
(For full text of the interview go to www.Consimworld.com)

Last Days of the Grande Armée is really the 1806 design, 6 Days of Glory design, and I have simplified it in its basic version even from 1806, although we will provide Vedettes and Hidden movement as options in this game, so if you use all the available options, it will be a game that will be very, very similar to 1806. There are rules on Leaders, Reorganization, Command, Initiative, March Orders, Road March, Repulse, and Pontoon Bridges. There are artillery units in the game and we've devised some new rules for bombardments.

I have taken a new approach to Initiative and Command. I've sort of combined the two ideas of Movement Commands and Initiative into one short little rule, called 'Initiative.' But it combines concepts, in order to get away from the all-or-nothing nature of Initiative in the Napoleon at Bay series. In the battle scenarios in those games-where you don't have Administrative Points and you don't have to buy Movement Commands-you have an assigned number of Movement Commands every turn. Well, in Last Days of the Grande Armee you have an assigned number of Movement Points, which is determined by a chit draw. A chit will have, for instance, the numbers "4/6" which means your infantry, when you draw that chit, all of them, are going to move up to four, and your cavalry are going to move up to six Movement Points. You start out with a couple of chits in your hand, and each turn you have to draw a chit from the cup, and play that. Then if you want to 'Force March,' you can play a chit from your hand. But you can Force March only every-other turn.

The French Army had some problems with traffic jams at the outset of the campaign, simply because of the limited number of routes north leading to just a few bridges. The Army's new chief of staff, Marshal Soult, wasn't up to the challenges this operation posed, and some formations were delayed. One cannot tell whether these delays might have made the difference in the battles on the 16th. The French Player will have to cope with these delays. To make matters worse, the French Player may not draw the regular Chit on the First Turn, (Morning of June 15th) but may only Force March. The perfect solution to the starting French deployment has yet to be uncovered in playtesting!

An Optional Rule on Exhaustion (Attack Effectiveness) shows the ability of some elite units to continue attacking turn after turn, while others could sustain only one attack per day. (The Exhaustion Rating is the middle value on the unit counters.) After resolving combat, attacking players must cross-reference the unit quality with the odds and then roll the die. For Example, a unit with a quality of "2" attacking at 1-2 odds must roll a "five" or less to be able to attack again that day. If it attacks at 2-1, it must roll a "four" or less; at 4-1, "three", at 6-1 "two" or less.

There are three Scenarios - Ligny/Quatre Bras (6 Turns), Waterloo (3 Turns), and the full campaign (18 Turns).

Components:
ï Rules Folder containing 18 pages of rules plus Historical Notes (available on this website).
ï 280 Counters printed on 2 sides, including Artillery, Vedettes and Hidden Forces
ï One 22 x 34" game map
ï Standard 1" Box
ï Complete Graphic Design by Masahiro Yamazaki

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