Lasalle with Big Bases – Introducing Combat Value

Big Base Infantry Attack Column

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.

Read more

How to use Big Bases with Napoleon at War, Lasalle and FoGN

Big Base Infantry Square

I want to try Napoleon at War (NAW) for Liberators and one of the first questions is … what do I do about my Big Bases? Luckily Phil from Wargaming in the Sun has some useful suggestions for using units based for Lasalle / FoGN with Napoleon at War. I can just add to his analysis to cope with my 2 x 80mm x 40mm basing.

Read more

Cavalry in Rough Terrain – Musing on a Lasalle House Rule

Lassale - Musing - Cavalry in Rough - Banner

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.

Read more

How to Discourage Massed Attack Columns in Lasalle

Lassale - Musing - Massed Attack Columns - Banner

Reading the Lasalle Forum it quickly becomes clear that a common game tactic is to mass Attack Columns against defending Lines. That in turn means that defenders abandon Line and commonly deploy in Attack Column themselves.

The problem with all of this is that is completely unhistorical. Historically Attack Columns were expected to deploy into Line when they got to musketry range so left enough room between units to allow this.

Personally I find the unhistorical sight of massed Attack Columns offensive and I want a game mechanism to prevent or discourage it. The Lasalle Forum has a bunch of suggestions which I thought I’d list here.

Read more

Alternative Chacabuco – A Lasalle Scenario

Table for Alternative Chacabuco - Lasalle : Necoechea - Francisco Erize

Francisco of Argentina and Texas has done some thinking about Lasalle for South American War of Independence. He calls the variant Necoechea after a renowned Argentine cavalry commander of the war. One of the first things Francisco tried was a variant of Chacabuco. I have fairly cheekily reproduced it here with minor edits to increase clarity. Note: this is not the same Alternative Chacabuco that John Fletcher published.

Read more