Cavalry in Rough Terrain – Musing on a Lasalle House Rule

I’m interested in using Lasalle for the South American Wars of Liberation. In that theatre infantry, when faced by superior cavalry, would often head for rough terrain. But the standard Lasalle rules don’t encourage this – the cavalry will just charge into the rough after the infantry. So I’m exploring a house rule to rectify the problem.

Standard Lasalle on CAV vs INF in Rough Terrain

The existing rule for Cavalry versus infantry is:

  • Defender Halves Combat Dice if: INF not in Square, attacked by CAV

Regular units in, or attacking, rough terrain take a -2 dice penalty if:

  • INF vs INF
  • CAV vs CAV
  • CAV vs INF

Note: this penalty does not apply for INV vs CAV.

If the defender’s cover protects the unit from all attacking units they get +2 dice for cover if:

  • INF vs CAV
  • INF vs INF

And finally, the infantry can’t form square in rough terrain.

So when a small cavalry unit charges an small infantry unit in line in rough terrain these modifiers apply:

  • Infantry halves combat dice for defending against cavalry (8d6 to 4d6)
  • Cavalry take -2 dice for fighting in, or attacking, rough terrain (8d6 to 6d6)

So, cover excluded, the Cavalry will have an advantage (6d6 to 4d6). It only gets marginally better if the infantry are protected by cover e.g. woods. They then get +2 dice which evens up the score.

Possible House Rule 1

Here’s the proposal from Big Ideas for Small Soldiers: Lasalle House Rules:

Cavalry halves dice when attacking infantry in bad terrain (this is in addition to the existing loss of two dice).

Possible House Rule 2

Alternatively make the infantry gruntier by changing the existing rule for Cavalry versus infantry. Something like:

  • Defender Halves Combat Dice if: INF not in Square or in rough terrain, attacked by CAV

Admittedly this is a bit ugly but hopefully the intent is clear.

2 thoughts on “Cavalry in Rough Terrain – Musing on a Lasalle House Rule”

  1. I think that second possible house rule needs an extra “n”:
    Defender Halves Combat Dice if: INF not in Square nor in rough terrain, attacked by CAV

    It’s been 2 years since you posted this. Did you ever try out any of the above rules? Or something else? What worked best?

    Reply
    • Good point about “nor”.

      Unfortunately I’m been concentrating elsewhere so I didn’t try this out.

      Reply

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