Blucher Playtest - Part 1

I've heard some good things about Blucher and always keen to try Napoleonic rules out, so I've bought a copy and started setting up a test game to play. The rules are at a similar level to the Grand Tactical version of my SLS rules - so manoeuvre units are Brigades or Divisions rather than battalions. Reading through them there are some things that match exactly to the way I'd do them (eg handing of Divisional guns) but others that seem really odd (every artillery round is less effective than the previous one!).

Blucher - Board Set-Up

The image above shows the Along the Danube introductory scenario set up. Needless to say I'm using hexes, and luckily 1BW in Blucher is suggested to be 75mm, which isn't far off a 100mm hexon hex. Figures are 6mm, with 2-3 battalion bases combined to make each Battalion - just as I do with Grand Tactical. All units are originally shown as blinds.

Austrian front line revealed

The scenario starts with the French turn, so on their initially Intelligence phase they can get all Austrian units within 4 hex and in sight to declare. I quite like this use of blinds and think I've finally worked out what to do with them in SLS. I've always wanted to give units not in the activation deck some form of benefit (as having them not in the deck speeds a turn), so what I'll do is say that you put a units card face-down on the table as its blind, so disguising its true nature, and then bring a card into activation (and reveal its units) at the start of any turn, or by spending a command point.

More on the playtest as it unfurls over the next week or so.