Opening Borodino!

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Introduction

In early December of 1812, a wretched, starving group of soldiers tripped across the Prussian frontier to the relative safety of the "civilized" western world. Survivors of one of the most devastating fighting retreats in history, these few thousand men were all that remained of what was once Napoleon’s proud Grande Armee of several hundred thousand. It is hardly conceivable that only three months prior, they were amassed for open battle against an opposing Russian army at Borodino, supposedly with the fate of Mother Russia hanging in the balance. Victory or defeat would determine if the French would control Moscow, and knock Russia out of the war. At least that is what the French believed…

The battle was planned after a series of long retreats across Russia designed to lure the French deeper into the lion’s den. General Prince Mikhayl Kutuzov picked the nondescript village of Borodino to finally put up a strong defensive fight against the invading French. He picked favorable defensive terrain, and reinforced the area by building a series of redoubts. He was ready to meet Napoleon on his own terms…

On the French side, Napoleon had just crossed the vastness of Russia over hostile terrain – and his army was worn down from the journey (both sides met with roughly equal forces of about 125,000 men, and 5-600 cannons). Yet, as the ever-confident Napoleon sized up the battlefield, he was sure that one blunt frontal attack would destroy the Russian Army for good. Was his plan the correct one? Some suggest he should have heeded a subordinate’s request for a proposed flanking maneuver, but Napoleon didn’t want to weaken his main assault and the terrain was considered poor for such a maneuver (based on French intelligence). This game gives you an interesting option designed to let you explore that proposed maneuver…but otherwise this huge Napoleonic battle is literally a head-on, full-throttle fight to the death.

Views of the map and the counters

The Game

Borodino, Battle of Moskova, 1812 (GMT Games), allows the players to recreate this major clash between Napoleon and the Russians in front of Moscow in 1812. The scenario takes place over the course of one day (September 7), and is broken down into twelve 75-minute turns. Each turn gives ample time for each side to assign orders to the various commands, fire cannons, move units, attack (close range musket volleys), conduct cavalry charges, and attempt to rally broken units. The stacking and ZOC rules are simple and straightforward, as are the Line of Sight rules for artillery units. Almost all relevant information is on a single player aid card which cuts down on the need to constantly refer back to the rule book.

One hallmark of GMT’s Gameplayers’ Series (of which Borodino is a part) is that both sides have their command structure broken down into individual Activation Groups (usually a Corps), which move and fight as smaller groups of sub-units. Each of these formations are activated by the commander in a random sequence during a turn, introducing an element of chance to the movement/firing sequences. The side with initiative gets to choose one Activation Group (AG) which will move first, making the effects of positive and negative initiative for each side quite important. One turn your best troops could be pushing ahead at break-neck pace, only to lose the initiative and suddenly find themselves hung out to dry as the enemy gets first move and unleashes all his cannons in one blaze of fury at your charging infantry. The combination of sub-units and initiative rolls makes this game great for solo play by adding random sequences that can’t be predicted or anticipated even if you are playing both sides at once. This also makes the turns go a bit faster, as you don’t have to tediously keep track of which Russians you’ve moved, followed by keeping track of which French you’ve moved all over the map. You can break it down into smaller chunks and move only small groups of units so you never forget what you are doing, no matter how long it takes you to come back to your game.

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