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Post by bandit on Feb 16, 2016 1:59:59 GMT
We're very proud to announce ESR Second Edition.
You can get a *lot* more information about it on our website. Please note we're also offering upgrade pricing for owners of ESR Original Edition. A lot of the changes in ESR Second Edition really enhance the game for 6mm and 10mm gamers.
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Post by captainchook on Mar 19, 2016 5:42:05 GMT
Bandit, I have been following your various posts about Et sans résultat on several fora (mainly on The Wargames Website, which I had forgotten about until I wrote this post). I like what I have seen, but still remain uncertain how the game plays, particularly with how reserve areas etc work. Once I would have just bought the rules and read through them, but I now have hundreds of dollars of unplayed rules and currently my disposable income is limited, so I am trying to be more disciplined with my spending. I know there are some game reports, but could you give more detail on how a corps or division operates (with some pictures please!).
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Post by bandit on Mar 21, 2016 3:43:12 GMT
Hi captainchook, Glad we've peaked your interest! If you haven't looked at The Overview please do. It is the Second Edition rulebook with the procedures for the mechanics and the examples stripped. It should give you a pretty good idea of if ESR Second Edition is the type of game you'd be interested in or not. Fair enough. The game is very command and planning focused so the Command Phase at the top of the turn is really the focal point of the game. Reserve areas, i.e. a Formation Reserve where artillery batteries, engineering companies, and rifle companies typically sit, is simply a dynamic spot behind the center of the rear wave of deployed Units. Batteries and specialty units kept in this area are not considered "deployed" or "committed", they just follow along behind the division or brigade as it moves. To bring them into the fold the player attempts a Leader Action during the Command Phase, such as 'Commit an Artillery Battery'. If successful, this allows the battery in question to immediately move from its spot in the Formation reserve up to a full move, at the end of which it may be either limbered or unlimbered. The other rather unique concept in ESR is the Reformation Area. This is a dynamic area, typically 900 yards behind the battle waves, represented by a marker – such as a wagon, caisson, or similar. It represents the rear area of the Formation. The place that artillery goes to re-arm, and routed Units go to rally up. It also provides a clear location to mark the "back" of a brigade or division. If the enemy gets between your battle waves and your Reformation Area… bad things. If the enemy contacts your Reformation Area… very bad things. This drives some practical behavior by players. You don't necessarily need to play linearly, but you can't ignore an enemy who is behind your line simply because you are making excellent progress forward. The enemy simply being behind you will do you harm and likely cause your forward progress to reverse very quickly. We have a walk-through on our website's gallery from ESR's Original Edition and that may give you something to go from. Look for the one labeled "Six Turn Walkthrough". We hope to have an updated one similar to this for Second Edition in the near future. We're just returning from Cold Wars and will be shipping pre-orders for both ESR Second Edition and MoW later this week, so unfortunately I can't promise to put something together in short order until those commitments are met, but hopefully shortly thereafter we can have something up that will help you. In the mean time – possible to note some specifics of what you'd like to see bourn out, what aspects you'd like to see example game play of? Also, I'd encourage you to join our ESR Yahoo! Discussion Group simply because you could get the impressions of people who aren't connected to ESR's design and that might be helpful. Regardless, we'll try to get something put together that will help answer your questions as soon as we're able. Cheers, The Bandit
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Post by captainchook on Mar 22, 2016 23:22:44 GMT
Thanks for that. I haven't been to your ESR site for a long time. It looks like you have added quite a lot (or I missed it the first few times I visited). I will study it better when time allows.
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Post by bandit on Mar 23, 2016 19:23:46 GMT
We revised the site very heavily following the ESR Second Edition announcement. Please do dig around. And definitely download The Overview from our downloads page to get a very good conceptual understanding of how ESR Second Edition works.
Cheers,
The Bandit
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Post by ooiittee on Mar 26, 2016 10:21:11 GMT
Bandit
Just had a read of the overview. This look very interesting and I would encourage you all to take a look.
What would one need to play a battle to start with, Bandit. What would you recommend as a starting point for new players.
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Post by bandit on Mar 26, 2016 14:16:22 GMT
Bandit Just had a read of the overview. This look very interesting and I would encourage you all to take a look. What would one need to play a battle to start with, Bandit. What would you recommend as a starting point for new players. Honestly, as mundane as it sounds, if you wanted to focus specifically on learning the mechanics… you could just cut a bunch of 3x5" index cards into quarters, each quarter being one battalion, squadron group, or battery. Write the unit type with some Combat Ratings [CR] on them along with some characteristics (shock [S1,2,3], lights [L], etc…) and play on a dining room table without any terrain. Just to see if the mechanics made sense to you. Maybe use blue ones for French and yellow for Austrian, or green for Russian, etc… Now doing it that way, the Introduction and your own knowledge/opinions about armies in the period should give you enough information to mock up some tabletop markers to use. Be very fast to setup, none of the mechanics would break, and then you have a near-zero-overhead introduction. Now, if you want to setup some terrain and play out a beginner scenario, there is one included in The Complete Player's Guide. It is purposefully pretty bare bones. One corps vs one corps. each entering the tabletop from a road on a corner, small amount of terrain. Not many Formations (divisions, etc) on the tabletop, not a large number of Units in each Formation. This was all purposeful so that events would happen pretty quickly allowing new players to see the connections between the different mechanics at play. So just what you'd need to play out that sample scenario, or one similar to it as a learning game… let's say: 6-12 French infantry battalions 2-4 French cavalry squadron groups 2-4 French artillery batteries And similar numbers of Units for the Allies. Table size depends on your ground scale chosen as ESR let's you play in essentially any ground scale you like. That makes a nice, fast, introduction for two players who are looking to get familiar with the game before introducing it to their group. The other benefit of The Complete Player's Guide is that it includes a large section covering the organization of the major armies throughout the entire period, with extensive sample/recommended ratings for Commanders and Units. So you could say, "What will an Austrian corps from 1809 look like in ESR? How about in 1805? How about in 1813?" and you'll be able to see. Oddly, no one has yet asked what the difference is between the two Player's Guides, i.e. Essential and Complete. The thinking is that if you were to purchase a Campaign Guide and wanted to build and play from that, then The Essential Player's Guide has everything you need in it in combination. Similarly, if you're group already plays the game and you aren't someone who is going to host games or organize armies, The Essential Player's Guide probably has you covered. If you're the guy looking to test out ESR for your group, introduce it to your group, organize armies and plan scenarios? Then The Complete Player's Guide was aimed at you. Also, if you're a new player to the period and don't yet have all the legacy knowledge [cough] baggage [cough] from playing various rule sets for decades, The Complete Player's Guide is probably the best way to go. Cheers, The Bandit
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Post by captainchook on Mar 30, 2016 6:59:07 GMT
Bandit, I have my 6mm figures based and organised for March Attack (although initially the plan was to use Le Feu Sacre years ago). A battalion, at present, is 24 figures on two bases of 8 figures (in a single rank) and 2 bases of 4 (this allowed line, square and column). To enable me to have enough battalions for a grand tactical game I am thinking of making a battalion 8 figures, so that one March Attack battalion will now make 3 for ESR. I am a gamer, not a painter, and I really don't want to paint more figures just to allow me to play lots of large figure units, so small units will be better for me. My frontage for a unit in line would then be 4cm. I presume I would then use the 150 yard scale game.
My preferred campaigns are the 1809 Danube campaign, and the campaign against the Russians in Poland, 1807 (although I am taken with the 1813 campaign, but need Prussians). I will likely be playing solo as my regular gaming opponents prefer General de Brigade in 15mm. A couple of corps with either a third in reserve or the Guard (per side) is about the size of game I want to play. For Davout's Corps in 1809 this requires 45 to 60 battalions alone. Is this do-able playing solo? I accept it may be slow, but I have a dedicated room where I can leave a battle set up for weeks, if needed.
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Post by bandit on Apr 11, 2016 14:21:36 GMT
Bandit, I have my 6mm figures based and organised for March Attack (although initially the plan was to use Le Feu Sacre years ago). A battalion, at present, is 24 figures on two bases of 8 figures (in a single rank) and 2 bases of 4 (this allowed line, square and column). To enable me to have enough battalions for a grand tactical game I am thinking of making a battalion 8 figures, so that one March Attack battalion will now make 3 for ESR. I am a gamer, not a painter, and I really don't want to paint more figures just to allow me to play lots of large figure units, so small units will be better for me. My frontage for a unit in line would then be 4cm. I presume I would then use the 150 yard scale game. My preferred campaigns are the 1809 Danube campaign, and the campaign against the Russians in Poland, 1807 (although I am taken with the 1813 campaign, but need Prussians). I will likely be playing solo as my regular gaming opponents prefer General de Brigade in 15mm. A couple of corps with either a third in reserve or the Guard (per side) is about the size of game I want to play. For Davout's Corps in 1809 this requires 45 to 60 battalions alone. Is this do-able playing solo? I accept it may be slow, but I have a dedicated room where I can leave a battle set up for weeks, if needed. captainchook, I am sorry I did not catch your reply sooner and am responding so delayed. For the ground scale, yes, I would guess you'd want the 150 yards per inch, or the 60 yards per cm scale, whichever you prefer, standard or metric. I don't see any reason it wouldn't be playable solo. It isn't incredibly slow, obviously much faster with multiple people resolving actions but still playable with a single player. We do have plans for 1809 Campaign Guides but haven't announced timelines for them yet. 1805 has been announced to be released this summer and the first of 1812 is available now. Cheers, The Bandit
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