All my Peninsular War infantry/cavalry units are on Big Bases with two big stands per unit. Also I don’t want to combine small units in the South American Wars of Liberation because there are already only a few units on table and I want to represent them all. So I need some way to represent the number of men, and hence number of stands, in a different way to standard Lasalle.
Unit Sizes in Standard Lasalle
There are two infantry/cavalry unit sizes in Lasalle:
- Most units are “Small” with four bases representing 500-700 infantrymen or 300-500 cavalrymen.
- Some units are “Large” with six bases representing 800-1000 infantrymen or 500-700 cavalrymen.
Essentially each Lasalle infantry stand represents 150 men and each cavalry stand represents 100 men.
The rules recommend combining smaller historical units into one of the two standard Lasalle sizes.
The numbers of bases is significant when fighting:
- Shooting: 1 die for each Base in front rank
- Combat: 2 dice per base
Combat Value (CV) = Virtual Number of Bases
So I intend to give each unit a combat value (CV) representing the virtual number of bases from the standard game. Actually I will give each unit two CV: a Big Base CV and a Unit CV. The number of men determines the CV of the Big Base. Because I’ve got only two Big Bases per unit the Unit CV is twice the Big Base CV.
- Infantry Big Base CV = men in unit / 300 (rounded)
- Cavalry Big Base CV = men in unit / 200 (rounded)
- Unit CV = 2 x Big Base CV
For example the two big bases of a battalion of 600 men would each be CV 2 (600 / 300) making CV 4 for the whole unit. A battalion of 450 men would also be Big Base CV 2 and Unit CV 4 because of rounding (450 / 300 = 1.5 rounded up to 2). A large battalion of 1,000 men would be Big Base CV 4 and Unit CV 8. The smallest viable battalion is 150 men; this would be Big Base CV 1 and Unit CV 2.
A cavalry unit of 400 men would be Big Base CV 2 and Unit CV 4. The smallest viable cavalry unit is 100 men; this would be Big Base CV 1 and Unit CV 2. A unit with 699 men wold be Big Base CV 3 and Unit CV 6 but adding one cavalryman, to 700 men, would make the unit Big Base CV 4 and Unit CV 8. Probably should split cavalry units of 700 men and above into two smaller units.
The numbers of Big Bases is significant when fighting:
- Shooting: Number of dice equal to Big Base CV for each Base in front rank
- Combat: Number of dice equal to 2 x Unit CV
For example a battalion with Big Base CV 2 and Unit CV 4 the diced roll are exactly the same as a Small unit in standard Lasalle:
- 4 dice when shooting in line
- 2 dice when shooting in column
- 8 dice when in combat