The French Imperial Guard

[Le Tondu]

I certainly understand the scale at which we will play. The units are Corps sized units and the Imperial Guard definitely was a Corps sized unit.

Historically speaking, the Imperial Guard was at times present upon the battlefield but did not participate in the battle. (Much to their dislike and hence, grumbling.)

My questions are:

Will we have the French player have the same level of control? Will the tactical AI use them up "willy nilly" in an ahistorical manner? Or will we be able to hold them "back?"

Will the game use the Imperial Guard like any other unit?

How did the board game handle them?

Thanks.
Rick

[EricLarsen]

Le Tondu,
I like the way the board game handled the guards in battle. Since combat was done in rounds you had to actually commit the guard to some round of battle. If the enemy broke then all was well and fine. If the enemy didn't break then there was a harsh penalty like losing the battle (breaking morale) for the side committing their guard prematurely. It was an excellent way to preclude players from committing the guard to every battle. It would be tough to emulate this round-system of combat for PBEM play but I hope it's there for solitaire play.
Eric Larsen

[Chiteng]

Except of course all English infantry are almost guards.

[Reknoy]

A "guard" factor has a morale of "5.0".

The Prussian guard (7 guard factors max. and 1 cavalry factor max.) and the two Austrian guard (5 guard factors max. and 2 cavalry factors max.) could each "commit" in a round of combat (as previously noted) and would thereby effect a "shift" of a +1 to the combat effect chart for their side.

If the enemy does not break, then by "committing the guard", the side which did so breaks (and this can be both sides if each commits and neither breaks as a result of the combat die rolls for that round of combat).

The French (gotta love those 20 guard and 3 cavalry!) and Russian (is it 12 guard and 2 cav?) can each commit for a +1 OR a +2 (ouch!) shift.

The greater the "+" shift, the greater the chance that guard factors perished in the process of "committing" (there is a separate chart for this). If a guard corps "commits" and all guard factors die from the process, then that's an automatic break against the side that did so.

Britain and Spain each have 2 guard factors in their "I" corps (basically just higher morale infantry). They cannot commit the guard. Poor thin red line.

Guard factors otherwise take part in each round of combat (they are counted for morale and combat chart purposes just like infantry, cavalry and artillery). Though they make expensive casualties!!

What is so powerful about the French guard is that you have a very large corps (20 3) with an extreme morale. You even throw in one more corps (like the French "I" corps with 25 4.0 morale infantry and 3 cavalry) and you have (by all other power standards) a large army -- and the morale is in the neighborhood of 4.5. Like a 5 corps British army with the added bonus of being able to commit a +2 shift.

Cheers!

Reknoy